China is now requiring its officials to report changes in their marital status, whether their families have moved abroad (and where), their personal incomes and family investments. If they don't, they could face punishment, including removing their "official" rank. While the move is the latest to crack down on corruption, some doubt its efficacy. Yang Yang, a professor at China Politics and Law University, argued that "Many officials have children, spouses or relatives who invest in companies or are involved in business projects. This happens all the time. What can you accomplish by requiring people to report it? Even if they report it, it's still legal under current laws." more ›

"Leading cadres at all levels should always maintain a spirit of moral character and be aware of the temptations of power, money and beautiful women" more ›

Chinese Minister of Supervision Ma Wen was recently quoted as saying that public servants will soon be required to disclose "detailed information about income, property owned and investments, and jobs held by their spouses and children." Li Fei, who holds an equally important -sounding position in the NPC Standing Commitee, has refused to comment on precisely when, where and how this might be implemented, stating that measures "[will] proceed only after conditions are ripe." Typical. more ›

We already know that there's a pretty great amount of resentment towards the rich - not to mention, a wide perception of corruption - here in China, so it's probably not surprising that a People's Daily poll recently discovered that over 90% of people think the neo-rich got their wealth by networking with government officials. more ›

• Okay, so this woman’s experience ends up sounding a bit silly, but if you can get past the melodramatic writing there is a lesson to be learned: if you’re uncomfortable eating sharks fin, don’t. Even if you fear you’re being rude to your Chinese hosts about ignoring the delicacy, chances are if you politely explain your qualms about it, they’ll understand and it’ll even make for some interesting dinner conversation. [BBC]
• A Chinese teen has become a folk hero for assassinating a corrupt official everyone in the area hated. [Washington Post]
• Looks like the U.S. isn’t the only one worried about what this Google mess will do to relations. China is also trying to “contain tensions.” [Reuters]

• Says James Fallows, even if Google decides to remain in China, they are not "vacillating cowards" - there's a chance for a win-win-win outcome here and the ongoing talks seem like maybe, just maybe it'll actually happen. [The Atlantic]
• Richard Burger agrees, and adds this poignant quote from people who've left China long enough to know how much the government doesn't trust them: "I love my country, but my country doesn't love me." [Peking Duck]
• The U.S. has had multiple meetings with Chinese authorities over internet freedom, which it views as an "universal right that should be available to all people." [Reuters]

• The best way to show how hot the earth will be (thanks to global warming)? Strip off your pants in public. 20 people did just that in Guangdong. [Treehugger]
• Xinjiang is continuing to lift communications restrictions, including on international calls and *gasp* the internet? [Xinhua]
• Exactly how much have officials swindled out of China? It's hard to say, but a 2004 study places it at $50 billion USD. And this is before the stimulus. No wonder Beijing keeps on holding corruption conferences. [China Media Project]

• Corrupt officials are illegally holding $1.5 billion in Chinese public money hostage... and that's just the cash anti-corruption officials have been able to find. [Huffington Post]
• A man with a hunting rifle went on rampage in Hunan, killing 12 people, seriously wounding two others and setting fire to six homes. [AFP]
• Zhang Yimou, the most successful director in China and the man responsible for both the Olympics and National Day spectacles, talks about his fame and his integrity as an artist. [Financial Times]

We were alerted to this interesting, if somewhat off-kilter opinion piece in China Daily that lists corrupt officials now in jail and their common hobby: writing books. It seems like a lot of officials, now that they have not much else to do, devote it to the pursuit - or at least recording - of knowledge. The list of previously politico scribes now in jail include: more ›

• A car in Shuijing was pasted with the slogan "The head of the Public Security Bureau is my father, I can commit murder and arson without fear!" in an attempt to attract attention to a murder case in the driver's hometown. [ChinaSmack]
• One columnist discusses the differences between Russia and China in terms of business and corporate governance... and China comes out on top. That makes us feel bad for Russia. [The Moscow Times]
• Speaking of regulatory policy, here's a couple of signs of things to come... kind of, since it's really hard to figure out what's to come even when you're listening to everything the government's saying. [WSJ]

Communist officials are being warned to just say "No" to escort girls after recent scores of corruption and criminal cases involving officials and ladies of the night (including, we suppose, the ongoing charges against Chongqing's highest judicial official, Wen Qiang, who regularly sought out underaged girls and starlets). According to Li Yuanchao, a top member in the CPC Central Committee, "Party officials ought to stay away from vulgar venues and are not allowed to visit 'sanpei xiaojie' (female escorts) for entertainment." Good luck enforcing that one, guys. more ›

• Magazine's business chiefs resign [SCMP] "Top business executives at Caijing magazine, the mainland's most influential business publication, have resigned en masse, heightening speculation its ownership may change hands soon or that its managing editor and founder, Hu Shuli, may leave and start her own publication... Caijing general manager Daphne Wu Chuanhui and eight of her nine business directors have resigned, according to reporters briefed about the resignations."
• Can the Future of Western Newspapers be Saved by China? [Sino Tech Blog] "When looking at the Western and Chinese online newspaper landscape, many obvious differences are evident. There has been much written recently about the demise of the newspapers in the West as their circulation plummets and their online revenue models struggle to counter these losses in revenues. But what about the situation in China? Is the outlook as bleak? Is their similar trends and examples as there are in the US?… This is what I wanted to explore and understand more."
• Upgrade rather than cancellation for CCTV's concert series [Danwei] "The cancellation of CCTV's popular touring concert series, The Same Song (同一首歌), reported by the mainland media late last week and covered in this post, now seems to be little more than a rumor. The Beijing Times spoke to CCTV management and published a brief article on Saturday: 'Rumors have been flying saying that CCTV's flagship program The Same Song would be canceled after the National Day holiday. Yesterday, CCTV arts and entertainment center director Zhang Xiaohai said in an interview that no such cancellation would occur.'"

Shanghai's thinking of putting a stop to revolving doors, debating new regulations for officials after their retirement or resignation in order to check "future corruption." The regulation draft stipulates that high-level officials should not work in profit-making organizations that had a direct link to their government jobs for three years after retiring or resigning. They would also be forbidden from things that might be in conflict with the public interest. Personnel departments are now being asked to keep records of ex-officials' jobs. Source: Xinhua more ›

“I cannot remember the people who bribed me with money, but I do remember the ones that didn’t.” — Xu Guoyuan (徐国元), ex-mayor and vice Party chief of Chifeng City in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region more ›

So it seems like people who are douchebags in one way are highly likely to be douchebags in another way as well. AsiaTimes Online reports that an anti-graft official recently acknowledged in public that 95% of corrupt officials had a woman on the side. In fact, keeping mistresses has become so fashionable that its seems like "concubinism is back." These mistresses are often given houses, money to play with and sometimes contracts for profitable projects. One banker in Shenzhen was reported to have spent 18.4 million RMB (of his bank's money) on his fifth mistress in almost three years. Another man in charge of infrastructure projects in Eastern China, had more than 140 women at his beck and call. Gross. The anti-graft official warned that mistresses were an easy way for an official to become corrupt. But we're inclined to believe that if an official's interested in keeping mistresses, he probably wasn't pure and true to begin with. more ›

• E-waste 'recycling' in Guiyu, China [Alex Hofford] "So today I decided to upload more photos from a recent trip to Guiyu, the 'e-waste processing capital of China', that I made as part of a field project for my MJ course at the University of Hong Kong's JMSC. I have put these photos at the back of the album, behind the photos from Guangxi Province and Hong Kong that I took in 2007 and 2008."
• 9,000 officials guilty of graft: SPP [China Daily] "The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) revealed yesterday that more than 9,000 officials were found guilty of corruption in the first six months of the year and said it had investigated 6,277 industrial bribery cases. Qiu Xueqiang, SPP deputy procurator general, told a conference of procuratorate chiefs that the industrial bribery cases involved 6,842 people."
• China snubs World Games opening [BBC] "China has boycotted the opening ceremony of the World Games in Taiwan, an official with the games has said. A spokesman for the games, Hermann Kewitz, said China had not given an explanation but said that Chinese athletes would compete in the events. Beijing's decision came after organisers allowed Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou to open the games."

• Why China might turn on North Korea [CSMonitor] "China has long seen its national interests served by the status quo on the Korean Peninsula. According to a cold-war perspective about strategic balance and a post-cold-war emphasis on internal development, Beijing prioritized maintaining a buffer state and preventing North Korea's problems from spilling over China's border. While Beijing retains these priorities, the chances of it getting tough with Pyongyang are low. However, the China of today is not the China that came to Pyongyang's aid during the Korean War - its national identity has evolved over decades of rapid development and international integration. The ideas of communist solidarity and laying low to focus on modernization are becoming obsolete."
• Beijing Always Wins [NYTimes] "THE riots in the Xinjiang region, the home of China’s Muslim Uighur minority, will affirm to many analysts outside the country that social unrest is a direct threat to the continued rule of the Communist Party. If officials don’t take a long, hard look at how to avoid such uprisings, this argument will run, the government could eventually fall. If only Chinese officials saw things that way."
• Shenzhen Mayor Under Investigation [eChinacities] "Xu Zongheng(许宗衡), 54, was removed from his post as mayor of Shenzhen and is under investigation into allegations of corruption and graft that have stretched to include a former Olympic gymnast and several actresses. Xu became mayor of Shenzhen in 2005, advocating changes in the city’s bureaucracy. Many view Xu as partially responsible for the subsequent collapse of Shenzhen’s real estate market. The allegations revolve around bribes received for awarding government posts and bids."

A website set up specifically to help the populace report corruption has allegedly crashed after it was inundated with more visitors than it could handle, according to the BBC. www.12309.gov.cn was launced on Monday with an accompanying hotline number to inform central government officials about local corruption complaints, but the website was designed to cope with a maximum of 1,000 people making complaints at a time. The interesting thing about this story (besides it giving us a laugh at that whole "Officials, they're so corrupt, man" thing) is that it's strikingly similar to a Xinhua story from 2007. We guess the programmers didn't bother learning from their mistakes two years ago? more ›

Deng Yujiao, the waitress who killed an official after he allegedly sexually assaulted her and promptly became a Chinese folk hero, has now been released following a two hour trial. The dead official, head of a trade promo department in Deng's town, is said to have demanded "special services" from Deng, thrown money in her face and pushed her to the sofa several times before she stabbed him with a fruit knife. The internet soon took special interest in her case, rallying several times against perceived "injustices" during the investigation and pre-trial phases of her ordeal. The Hubei province court ruled that Deng was guilty of intentional injury and had acted with "excessive defence," but freed her without punishment. She was diagnosed with a "mental imbalance." Source: BBC more ›

Though Deng Yujiao, the 21-year-old waitress accused of killing a government official, may have been saved by the flurry of internet postings in her support, the same netizen fervor may be making it dangerous for reporters to get the full story. more ›