China’s Bureaucrats Have Their Own Crackdown Under Way
For officials, to get rich is inglorious. The country’s corruption watchdog is out with severe force to find and punish violators.
Xi Jinping at a training session for young and middle-aged Communist party officials
Photographer: Xinhua News Agency/Xinhua News AgencyIn the U.S., central bankers trade stocks and federal judges hear cases of companies in which they hold financial interests. The first is legal (but controversial); the second is illegal but not uncommon. In China, however, the official position on such issues is: No. As President Xi Jinping reins in business tycoons and tightens regulations, his own bureaucrats aren’t spared scrutiny. The message is clear: Don’t mix business and government.
The high-profile corruption cases that dominated the news earlier this year were just the beginning of the campaign. Lai Xiaomin, former boss at China Huarong Asset Management Co., majority-owned by the Ministry of Finance, was executed in January for receiving 1.8 billion yuan ($278 million) in bribes. In September, Yuan Renguo, former chair of state-owned liquor giant Kweichow Moutai Co., got life in prison for taking bribes of 112.9 million yuan. In August, China said it was investigating Hangzhou’s top government official for serious disciplinary violations, sending shockwaves at the tech hub, home to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its affiliate Ant Group Co.