China tourists have taken the world by storm

[ChinaSux]

Where and how they got the money from?

Stay tune for updates. Oh the video is irrelevant and just for entertainment


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[sochi2014]

Yao Siu Kia!

 

[Sinkie]

The Chinese will face the biggest test of its civilization and that is the identity crisis.....like who're they, where do they come from, what do they believe in, are they Han or Tang or Song or Mao or Deng or Sun or Li or Jeremy Lin?

 

[ChinaSux]

Starting with corruption... Lavish spending by Chinese tourists will take it's toll under Xi Jinping's massive crackdown on corruption. $$$ accumulated and stashed away over the years can be use for clean business ventures. If i were to include prostitution services and cheating cases, scams then postings is going to increase.


Revealed: Decade-long worldwide hunt for officials accused of embezzling 150m yuan

The two men, former bosses of a state-owned construction company, finally turned themselves in to Chinese officers in Cambodia as "fox hunt campaign" is stepped up

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 13 November, 2014, 4:11pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 13 November, 2014, 4:40pm

Stephen Chen [email protected]

Apec Secretariat Alan Bollard speaks about an initiative to set up an anti-corruption network between Apec members earlier this month. China’s graft busters want foreign help in their “fox hunt” for corrupt officials. Photo: AP

The decade-long worldwide hunt for two corrupt state officials who have now been returned to China has been revealed by mainland media.

The two men, the former president and general manager of a state-owned construction materials company in Taiyuan, Shanxi, finally turned themselves in to Chinese law enforcement in Cambodia.

The saga ended a convoluted “hide-and-seek” operation which had tracked down the men, according to Shanxi Evening News.

In July Beijing launched a massive campaign, dubbed the “fox hunt”, to go after former officials on the run overseas suspected of corruption.

The campaign unnverved the two Shanxi men who agreed to talk to provincial police on the phone in August.

The pair had initially fled the mainland for Hong Kong in 2004 after embezzling 150 million yuan.

At first things were smooth. The men smuggled nine million yuan and for two years travelled extensively around the world to throw police off their trail.

In 2006 they settled down in South Africa, buying a luxurious house with US$1 million and even established their own construction company.

But their luck eventually ran out when an armed gang burgled them, seizing most of their money and possessions.

The men, both over 50, moved to Singapore where they were contacted by Chinese police.

Shanxi officers said they negotiated with the men over what their likely punishment would be and how much money they would have to pay back.

However, because Singapore had no extradition agreement with China, the suspects travelled to Cambodia where they turned themselves into Chinese officers.

Shanxi police said 13 out of 25 suspected former corrupt officials from the province who had fled overseas have not been returned.

Huang Feng, international criminal law professor with Beijing Normal University, told Beijing News that if the officials agreed to return voluntarily it avoided diplomatic headaches, legal complications and financial cost.

While the US has extradition agreement with more than 100 countries, China has treaties with fewer than 40 – mostly developing countries, Huang said.

Some countries refused to deport corrupt suspects to China over concerns they will be executed.

Police said most senior former corrupt officials fled to developed countries such as the US, Canada and Australia for legal protection. Those with less money chose Latin America, Africa or Eastern Europe.

 

[ChinaSux]

New Frugality Puts Strain on Chinese Firms

Anticorruption Campaign Dashes Peak Holiday Sales

By James T. Areddy
Updated Jan. 22, 2014 7:59 p.m. ET

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In a campaign to stem wasteful spending and corruption by officials, China has banned government-run companies from spending public money to get calendars printed. The WSJ's James Areddy reports.

SHANGHAI—As China prepares for the Year of the Horse, a crackdown on wasteful spending and corruption is weighing on calendar maker Li Zhen.

A growing list of new rules requires government officials to downshift their lifestyles by reducing public money spent on cigarettes, banquets, cars and travel, and fully eliminating perks like fireworks and private-jet travel. Tallying up edicts from the Communist Party's internal corruption watchdog, more than a dozen broad categories of behavior, from entertainment to funerals, are being monitored for profligate spending.

The policy shift, announced in November, throttled the printing agency Mr. Li and his wife own, Shanghai Magnificent Star Calendar and Gift Ltd., by summarily forbidding thousands of government-owned banks and other companies from sending customers free calendars.

Mr. Li's longtime business customers abruptly canceled orders. His warehouse now bulges with hundreds of thousands of increasingly unmarketable 2014 calendars worth over $170,000, including many embossed with corporate logos for companies that won't pay.

"The impact is really huge," says 42-year-old Mr. Li.

An unexpected peak-season rut for China's calendar business illustrates how broadly a corruption crackdown has challenged business as usual. Private clubs are shutting down following official criticism they are extravagant; officials attend meetings without watches and belts to avoid suspicion they have ill-gotten wealth; military officers, once able to ride high in imported SUVs, were recently told to drive only domestically made vehicles.

The campaign may be beginning to drag on China's economy by reducing demand, economists said after a report this week showed last year's gross domestic product growth held steady at 7.7%.

President Xi Jinping sharpened anticorruption rhetoric that had become obligatory in speeches by Chinese leaders when he vowed a year ago to pursue "tigers" and "flies"—high-ranking officials and lowly bureaucrats—to restore trust in the Communist Party.

To reinforce new regulations reflecting his call for "honor to frugality and shame to extravagance," government authorities stepped up enforcement, firing and detentions of bureaucrats. The party last year punished a record 182,000 officials nationwide, more than 13% above the rate a year earlier, according to its internal investigation agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Chilling officialdom and winning cheers from the public, the party punished cadres at various levels: public shaming for a county health official in Zhejiang province who allegedly accepted donations to cover his son's wedding, and incarceration for Jiang Jiemin, the former head of oil giant China National Petroleum Corp., on unspecified corruption allegations.

President Xi earlier this month said the campaign has just begun.

"Every official should keep in mind that all dirty hands will be caught," Mr. Xi said. Speaking with his back to a Communist hammer-and-sickle emblem as state television panned toward top cadres and uniformed military officials, Mr. Xi said: "Senior officials should hold party disciplines in awe and stop taking chances."

Even critics of the campaign's sometimes heavy-handed tactics credit Mr. Xi's administration for effectively targeting ostentation and eliminating spending on dispensable items like calendars. Yet, there is less to suggest Mr. Xi is upending patronage structures that have repeatedly given rise to spectacular corruption cases, including in the railway, food and charity businesses.

"You need transparency. You need division of power," said Thorsten Pattberg, a former researcher specializing in ethics at Peking University. "It looks they are punishing the black sheep. It's not like they are reforming the system," he said.

The man criticized about the wedding had to return the money but kept his job. He couldn't be reached to comment.

Analysts say the former oil chief, who also couldn't be reached, owes his fall mostly to his political links.

Bureaucrats are competing to dial back spending. Seven provinces targeted for extra scrutiny reduced 3.373 billion yuan, about $560 million, in spending for receptions, travel and vehicles during the latter half of 2013 compared with the year-earlier period, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Of the 30,000 caught violating regulations, Xinhua said, about a quarter got punished. "The regulations, publicity and all the punishment for all the officials who violated the rules" suggest the policy adjustment is permanent, said an official in the eastern city Wuxi.

Highlighting how compliance is fast replacing gross domestic product growth as a measure of success, the official said his government managed to cut the number of officials traveling overseas by 44% in 2013—twice the cut announced by his province, Jiangsu. The official, who traveled on city business three times in 2013, added that stipends were far lower than previous years, and "the hotels were not so flashy as before."

New frugality extends beyond government budgets. China's rich, according to Shanghai wealth-tracking service Hurun Report, cut gift-giving 25% last year, a rough indication they felt less pressure to funnel benefits toward officials responsible for granting contracts, business licenses and tax breaks.

Some unapproved activity is simply moving underground. While Hurun research found flashy watches are out, it said China's wealthy are increasingly gifting discreet items like travel vouchers and health-care products. The kind of parties officials once hosted in gilded restaurants are sometimes now being catered clandestinely in suburban villas and behind simple doorways, according to people who have attended such events.

When a group of foreign bankers visited western China late last year, one of them said they inadvertently put local country officials in a bind: How to make the out-of-town guests feel welcome without appearing profligate? The officials decided on karaoke, according to the banker, though instead of partying in a club, the group retired to a government office where a disco ball was strung from the ceiling and hostesses served beer. "It was fairly awkward," said the banker. "But they were just trying to be nice. You'd be surprised how sensitive they have become about perceptions."

In announcing the free-calendar ban, Chinese authorities acknowledged that giving holiday greeting cards and calendars is a long-established and often innocent practice. Yet, explained Xinhua, "The printing is more and more luxurious and the waste is more and more severe."

Calendar seller Mr. Li pointed to his stock and expressed frustration that he might only be able to salvage cardboard for recycling. But, he said he can't completely disagree with the new policy: "In the long run, this is good because it's a waste of money."

—Fanfan Wang in Shanghai contributed to this article.

 

[ChinaSux]

Corrupt cadre caught with 100m yuan in cash named as Ma Chaoqun

Ma, the former general manager of a state-owned water supply company, also held a portfolio of 68 properties and 37kg of gold when graft investigators finally caught him

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 13 November, 2014, 4:37pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 13 November, 2014, 4:39pm

Nectar Gan [email protected]

Ma Chaoqun is a former general manager of a state-owned water supply company in Qinhuangdao, above. Photo: Xinhua

The corrupt Hebei official who stashed more than 100 million yuan (HK126 million) in cash and 37kg of gold in his flat has been revealed as Ma Chaoqun, the former general manager of a state-owned water supply company in Qinhuangdao.

Ma was also a former deputy researcher at the city’s urban management bureau, according to Xinhua.

In addition to the vast amounts of cash and gold he had amassed, Ma also held a portfolio of 68 properties when graft investigators finally caught up with him.

A source at the Hebei Procuratorate told the Southern Metropolis Daily the investigation in Ma was launched in February and several hundred people had taken part.

Ma is currently under investigation on suspicion of taking bribes and embezzlement.

According to the newspaper, the Beidaihe water supply company was founded in 2011, with Ma as general manager. The publicly-owned company was a subsidiary of the Qinhuangdao urban management bureau.

Ma was appointed deputy researcher at the bureau in 2012, the report said.

The head of the company told the Southern Metropolis Daily on Wednesday that Ma was taken away by local anti-corruption officers on February 13 – to the surprise of the whole urban management bureau.

On February 18, Ma was officially sacked from his post at the company, the report said.

It was reported that Ma’s younger brother, Ma Chongqun, was also under investigaton for graft. The two brothers had worked in the city’s water supply industry for years, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily.

The company, which has almost 200 employees, supplies water to the city’s Beidaihe district, the Nandaihe resort and the Beidaihe new district.

Hebei has stepped up its campaign against corruption this year. The provincial discipline inspection authorities announced on Wednesday that from January to October, a total of 14,808 graft cases were investigated, targeting 238 officials ranked above the county level, Xinhua said.

 

[Tuayapeh]

Starting with corruption... Lavish spending by Chinese tourists will take it's toll under Xi Jinping's massive crackdown on corruption. $$$ accumulated and stashed away over the years can be use for clean business ventures. If i were to include prostitution services and cheating cases, scams then postings is going to increase.


Revealed: Decade-long worldwide hunt for officials accused of embezzling 150m yuan

The two men, former bosses of a state-owned construction company, finally turned themselves in to Chinese officers in Cambodia as "fox hunt campaign" is stepped up

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 13 November, 2014, 4:11pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 13 November, 2014, 4:40pm

Stephen Chen [email protected]

Apec Secretariat Alan Bollard speaks about an initiative to set up an anti-corruption network between Apec members earlier this month. China’s graft busters want foreign help in their “fox hunt” for corrupt officials. Photo: AP

The decade-long worldwide hunt for two corrupt state officials who have now been returned to China has been revealed by mainland media.

The two men, the former president and general manager of a state-owned construction materials company in Taiyuan, Shanxi, finally turned themselves in to Chinese law enforcement in Cambodia.

The saga ended a convoluted “hide-and-seek” operation which had tracked down the men, according to Shanxi Evening News.

In July Beijing launched a massive campaign, dubbed the “fox hunt”, to go after former officials on the run overseas suspected of corruption.

The campaign unnverved the two Shanxi men who agreed to talk to provincial police on the phone in August.

The pair had initially fled the mainland for Hong Kong in 2004 after embezzling 150 million yuan.

At first things were smooth. The men smuggled nine million yuan and for two years travelled extensively around the world to throw police off their trail.

In 2006 they settled down in South Africa, buying a luxurious house with US$1 million and even established their own construction company.

But their luck eventually ran out when an armed gang burgled them, seizing most of their money and possessions.

The men, both over 50, moved to Singapore where they were contacted by Chinese police.

Shanxi officers said they negotiated with the men over what their likely punishment would be and how much money they would have to pay back.

However, because Singapore had no extradition agreement with China, the suspects travelled to Cambodia where they turned themselves into Chinese officers.

Shanxi police said 13 out of 25 suspected former corrupt officials from the province who had fled overseas have not been returned.

Huang Feng, international criminal law professor with Beijing Normal University, told Beijing News that if the officials agreed to return voluntarily it avoided diplomatic headaches, legal complications and financial cost.

While the US has extradition agreement with more than 100 countries, China has treaties with fewer than 40 – mostly developing countries, Huang said.

Some countries refused to deport corrupt suspects to China over concerns they will be executed.

Police said most senior former corrupt officials fled to developed countries such as the US, Canada and Australia for legal protection. Those with less money chose Latin America, Africa or Eastern Europe.

Moved to stinkapore?

But did they move their money here?


Or quietly went to surrender but act blur about their funds which were apparently robbed from them....a likely story indeed........

 

[ChinaSux]

Singapore is a money laundering hub.

The men, both over 50, moved to Singapore where they were contacted by Chinese police.

Shanxi officers said they negotiated with the men over what their likely punishment would be and how much money they would have to pay back.

However, because Singapore had no extradition agreement with China, the suspects travelled to Cambodia where they turned themselves into Chinese officers.

 

[ChinaSux]

Shanxi graft-busters reveal details of hunt for fugitives

Hong Kong, Macau popular with corrupt cadres as cities have no mainland extradition treaty

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 13 November, 2014, 4:11pm
UPDATED : Friday, 14 November, 2014, 9:06am

Keira Lu Huang [email protected]

In July, Beijing launched a massive campaign, dubbed the “fox hunt”, to go after former officials on the run overseas suspected of corruption. Photo: AFP

Police in coal-rich Shanxi yesterday revealed details of their efforts to hunt down fugitive officials, including convincing two corrupt cadres holed up in countries with no extradition treaty with China to turn themselves in.

The Shanxi Evening News also reported that Hong Kong and Macau were popular destinations for corrupt officials fleeing the mainland. This was confirmed separately by the Post. Sources said graft investigators were hampered by the absence of an extradition treaty between Hong Kong and the mainland and red tape preventing provincial law-enforcement authorities from working directly with Hong Kong police.

Shanxi has been a target of an extensive anti-corruption drive and many suspected corrupt officials and businesspeople from the area have fled. Tracking down these fugitives and bringing them back to China is a top priority for the Ministry of Public Security as President Xi Jinping continues efforts to weed out graft.

The extradition operation, called Operation Fox Hunt, is in its fourth month and has so far netted 180 fugitives involved in various "economic crimes", according to mainland media.

In one case, two top managers of a Shanxi state-owned enterprise fled the country after they were found to have embezzled about 150 million yuan (HK$190 million). The duo escaped via Hong Kong in 2004 to an unnamed country without extradition arrangements with China.

The police spent a decade trying to catch up with them but it was not until Fox Hunt began and its global intelligence network was unleashed that investigators managed to contact the fugitives.

After tracking them down in July, police convinced the duo to turn themselves in. The pair then travelled to Cambodia - which has an extradition treaty with Beijing - and surrendered to the authorities in August. They later became police witnesses and aided in other corruption investigations - the first reported case of this happening.

Although the duo are lower down on the national graft scale, their case highlights the obstacles graft-fighters face in bringing fugitives back from countries that do not have an extradition treaty with China.

Like Hong Kong, Macau also does not have an extradition arrangement with the mainland. Among the 13 fugitive Shanxi officials caught through Fox Hunt this year, one was arrested in Hong Kong and two in Macau, according to Shanxi police.

Several sources, including journalist-turned-whistle-blower Li Jianjun, told the Post that many corrupt officials were widely known to have taken up temporary residence in luxury hotels in Hong Kong.

But while investigators might know where they are, they often felt their hands were tied under the "one country, two systems" policy. Under the policy, only central government departments are allowed to directly contact and cooperate with Hong Kong law-enforcement agencies. Provincial-level authorities have to work through layers of bureaucracy to get Hong Kong's help.

One source said Shanxi police and officers from the provincial capital Taiyuan had sent staff to "work in Hong Kong" but they had not made contact with police in the city.

 

[VPutin]

Must be the Tuberculosis tainted milk power that cause them to do this.

 

[KimJongUn]

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[KimJongUn]

There is a storm brewing over here.

 

[KimJongUn]

‘I had four accomplices’, says engineer accused of taking HK$240,000 bribes

PUBLISHED : Friday, 21 November, 2014, 5:35pm
UPDATED : Friday, 21 November, 2014, 5:35pm

Mimi Lau [email protected]

The Qianhai Shenzhen-Hongkong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone was set up three years ago. Photo: Edward Wong

A Qianhai authority engineer accused of taking bribes worth HK$240,000 in return for granting construction contracts, says he had four accomplices.

In the first corruption case heard in court in the cross-border cooperation zone, Weng Yunhui, 33, is accused of taking bribes of 130,000 yuan (HK$160,000) and HK$80,000 from contractors.

Weng, said to have accepted the bribes in 2012, reported his four accomplices on Thursday as part of a plea for leniency, the Southern Metropolis News reported.

Weng was working for Qianhai Development Investment Limited Company at the time. The company, which comes under the Qianhai authority, handled five land sales in the area amounting to 27.3 billion yuan (HK$24 billion).

The Authority of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone was set up three years ago.

 

[Yazoo]

US reluctant to extradite corrupt officials, Chinese foreign ministry claims

Operation to track down corrupt officials overseas hampered by lack of extradition treaties with nations like the US and Canada

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 26 November, 2014, 3:05pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 27 November, 2014, 4:22pm

Teddy Ng [email protected]

Yu Zhendong (right) voluntarily returned to China. Photo: AP

Investigators’ efforts to catch corrupt officials who have fled overseas are being hampered by Western countries’ reluctance to sign extradition treaties with China, a foreign ministry official said on Wednesday.

Xu Hong, director general of the ministry’s Department of Treaty and Law, said many corrupt officials had fled to countries such as the United States and Canada, but few had been returned to face trial because of the lack of extradition agreements.

The legal authorities had been forced to consider alternatives, such as using immigration laws in foreign countries to have fugitives deported as illegal immigrants.

They have also looked at whether civil legal action could be taken to sue former officials living overseas, or pressing courts abroad to start criminal proceedings, he said.

“We have actually talked to the United States, saying that in view of the increasing exchanges and cooperation between China and the US, should we consider signing an extradition treaty?” Xu said. “However, it looks as though the US is not ready to do that yet.”

The mainland has been intensifying its efforts to bring to justice corrupt former officials who have fled abroad as part of Beijing’s massive anti-corruption campaign. Mainland media has criticised Western countries, saying they are providing safe havens for corrupt cadres.

Nations including the US and some countries in the European Union have not signed extradition treaties with China, citing concerns about the death penalty and fears that suspects will not get a fair trial.

“Fox Hunt”, an operation launched in July to track down fugitives overseas, has so far caught 180 suspects for various “economic crimes”.

Xu said that only two fugitives had been extradited from the US back to China over the past two decades.

“Overseas countries must strengthen their political willingness and discard their prejudices,” he said.

One fugitive, Yu Zhendong, a former manager at the Bank of China’s branch in Kaiping, was accused of involvement in a scam that embezzled US$485 million and laundered it in the US.

Yu pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 12 years in jail by a US court in 2004 before he voluntarily returned to China on condition that he would not face the death penalty.

Zhuang Deshui, an anti-corruption expert at Peking University, said getting corrupt officials to stand trial overseas was difficult because huge amounts of evidence had to be gathered to prove wrongdoing.

Suspects convicted overseas might not be returned to China and there were no guarantees that stolen or illegal assets would be recovered, he said.

China has so far signed 39 extradition treaties with various nations, with 29 in force, plus 52 criminal judicial assistance treaties, with 46 in force.

Fugitives could also appeal to local courts to try to get extradition decisions overturned, he said.

“Some foreign judges end up handing down a decision of no extradition or repatriation because of a lack of understanding of China’s laws and judicial practice,” he said.

Xu said some fugitives were “encouraged” to return to China.

Fugitives who surrendered might receive a reduced sentence, he added.

 

[ChinaSux]

First woman general targeted by Xi's corruption crackdown

Gao Xiaoyan becomes the first high-ranking female officer to be detained in President Xi Jinping's crackdown, Caixin report says

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 04 December, 2014, 12:51pm
UPDATED : Friday, 05 December, 2014, 2:29am

Adrian Wan [email protected]

Major General Gao Xiaoyan has been accused of taking bribes linked to construction projects. Photo: SCMP

The first female general to be targeted by President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crackdown has been detained by authorities.

Major General Gao Xiaoyan, the deputy commissar of the PLA Information Engineering University, has been accused of taking bribes linked to construction projects, Beijing media group Caixin reported on its website.

Gao, a secretary of the university's Commission for Discipline Inspection, is the first female general detained in Xi's mainland’s aggressive anti-corruption drive to target the military, the report said.

She was detained by the army’s prosecutors during the day on November 27. Later that night investigators visited her home at the 309th Hospital of the PLA in Beijing, Caixin said.

Several people at the hospital had been investigated for corruption before Gao’s detention, including the head of its management department, the report said, citing unnamed sources.

Gao, 57, a native of Shanxi province, joined the army when she was 17, public information shows.

President Xi Jinping has carried out an aggressive anti-corruption drive in China since he came to power. Photo: AP

She then worked in the political departments at a Shanxi university and a PLA scientific research centre before becoming the party secretary at the 309th Hospital in Beijing.

The report also cited an article on magazine PLA Art, which said Gao had been responsible for many major construction projects at the hospital during her seven-year stint, which began in 2005. The projects included building 15 dormitories and a garage, which could accommodate 1,000 vehicles.

In the PLA the rank of major general is below that of both lieutenant general and general and corresponds with the same ranks in the US army.

Political commissars are in charge of ideological matters and education in the branches of the PLA.

The government has cracked down on official corruption and extravagance since Xi was appointed last year. He has said that widespread graft threatens the party’s survival.

 

[Hypocrisy]

​

 

[Hypocrisy]

PLA officer gave away cars filled with gold bars as bribes in 30 billion yuan scam

Senior PLA figure said to be obsessed with gold suspected of part in scam worth 30 billion yuan

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 09 December, 2014, 2:12am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 09 December, 2014, 9:09am

Reuters in Beijing

An unfinished home of disgraced PLA General Gu Junshan in Puyang, Henan. Photo: Reuters

Luxury cars filled with gold bars were given away as bribes by a former senior military officer implicated in a graft case investigators say involves 30 billion yuan (HK$37.8 billion).

Lieutenant General Gu Junshan, the former deputy director of the logistics department of the People's Liberation Army, is suspected of selling hundreds of military positions.

Sources close to the top of the logistics department said Gu took bribes worth about 600 million yuan in return for his part in a scam involving a total of 30 billion yuan.

The claims were reported yesterday by Phoenix Weekly, a magazine run by broadcaster Phoenix Television, which has close ties to the central government.

In March the government charged Gu with corruption.

Gu was obsessed with gold, especially gold statues of Buddha, though he preferred gold dust to gold bars, the magazine reported.

When offering gifts, he would load up a Mercedes with gold bars and then simply hand over the car keys to the recipient, the report said. In all, 100kg of gold was given away.

A Hong Kong businessman implicated in a military graft probe in 2011 is reported to have informed investigators of Gu's crimes.

Gu's case is connected to Xu Caihou , who retired as deputy head of the powerful Central Military Commission last year and from the ruling Communist Party's decision-making Politburo in 2012.

A graft probe into Xu was announced in June.

The magazine said Gu had powerful patrons, but did not name Xu directly, referring only to a person called "X".

President Xi Jinping has pursued a sweeping campaign against corruption since becoming party chief in late 2012 and president last year. Weeding out corruption in the military is a top goal of the campaign.

The latest generals under investigation include Major General Dai Weimin , a vice-president of the PLA Nanjing Institute of Politics, the mainland news outlet Caixin reported yesterday.

Citing multiple anonymous sources, Caixin said Dai was detained around mid-November for allegations linked to land and infrastructure projects at the institute's Shanghai campus.

Dai, 52, an Anhui native, joined the air force's politics college in Shanghai in the 1990s.

The college later merged into the Nanjing Institute of Politics. Dai became a major general in 2010 and was promoted to vice-president of the institute last year.

Military prosecutors recently said housing and infrastructure works were among the most common areas where graft took place in the PLA.

Additional reporting by Laura Zhou

 

[Hypocrisy]

Whistleblowers asked to provide clues to help China's 'fox hunt' against fugitive officials

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 09 December, 2014, 1:05pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 10 December, 2014, 2:56am

Zhuang Pinghui [email protected]

Fugitive suspect Yu Zhendong (right), suspected of stealing millions of yuan from a Chinese state-owned bank, is detained by Chinese police after being returned by United States authorities in 2004. Photo: AP

Whistleblowers are being asked to leave tip-offs on an official website to help Chinese authorities carrying out their “fox hunt” crackdown on fugitive officials.

The Central Committee for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) hopes people both at home and abroad to leave useful clues on its new website to improve its efforts in catching the fugitives and recovering their stolen funds.

The page was launched as the Chinese authorities prepare to wrap up the massive campaign to track down fugitive officials and economic criminals hiding overseas – known as “Operation Fox Hunt” – by the end of this year.

With the operation about to end, some local police chiefs will be summoned to Beijing to explain to their bosses why they have not been so successful during the operation.

Liu Jinguo, vice-minister of public security, told the China Disciplinary Inspection and Supervision News, that officials in charge of provincial public security departments would be held responsible for catching fugitives from their own areas.

Those security officials that did not meet the crackdown’s targets would have to explain themselves to the ministry.

The CCDI, the party graft watchdog, said on its website that it hopes people will leave information about the whereabouts of the officials and their stolen assets, plus details about their alleged crime.

Huang Shuxian, deputy director of the CCDI, said China had established an international cooperation network to hunt down fugitives and their stolen funds after joining two United Nations conventions on anti-corruption and cracking down on international organised crimes. China has signed extradition treaties with 38 countries and also agreements to offer help in criminal investigations with 93 nations, the website reported.

Huang said the department’s next step would be establish a database recording details of all known fugitive officials.

International corporation would be strengthened by preventing “key countries” from acting as a “haven” for the corrupt officials, he said.

China has reportedly provided a list of more than 100 Chinese people living in the United States who were wanted in connection with alleged crimes.

A similar list of more than 100 Chinese people who have fled to Australia has also been given to the Australian government.

Beijing launched its “Operation Fox Hunt” crackdown on fugitive officials in July.

So far more than 420 people accused of fraud and other crimes have been returned to China after being found living in 60 different countries and regions around the world, the website said. The operation will finish at the end of the year.

Of the people that have been caught, 141 had allegedly been involved in economic crimes involving more than 10 million yuan (about HK$11 million), with 32 of them known to have been living abroad for more than 10 years.

More than half the fugitives had turned themselves in after a public appeal was made in October by the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

“The operation has employed modern technology devices and helped to strengthen international police cooperation … and achieved twice the reward by spending half the efforts, the CCDI said in a statement on its website.

“New breakthroughs have been used in [catching fugitives in] Africa, the South Pacific region and western Europe,” the statement said.

 

[Hypocrisy]

Liu Tienan, former top Chinese energy official, sentenced to life in jail for corruption

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 10 December, 2014, 10:11am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 10 December, 2014, 8:49pm

Mandy Zuo [email protected]

Liu Tienan, former head of the National Energy Administration, has received a life sentence for taking over 35 million yuan in bribes. Photo: Reuters

Former top energy official and economic policymaker Liu Tienan has been sentenced to life in prison by a Hebei court for bribery and abuse of power.

The sentence was passed in the Intermediate People’s Court in Langfang city, Hebei, on Wednesday morning.

Liu, former deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission, was earlier been found guilty of taking more than 35 million yuan (HK$44.2 million) in bribes from five companies, including petrochemical producers and carmakers, from 2002 to 2012. Part of the bribes was collected via his son Liu Decheng, the court heard.

Liu Tienan’s case was heard in late September, when he pleaded guilty and broke down in tears expressing remorse as he gave his statement in court.

Despite the large amount of money involved in the corruption case, prosecutors pleaded for leniency for Liu, citing his cooperative attitude while under investigation. They said the former official had volunteered a lot of information on bribes he had taken that the investigators had not previously known about.

Liu said he had been living in repentance and that he had not only hurt his family but also brought shame to the Communist Party.

Liu was an official of vice-ministerial rank at the NDRC, the powerful planning agency charged with steering the world’s second-largest economy. He was at the same time director of the National Energy Administration under the NDRC.

But despite his important role in Chinese policymaking, Liu’s judgment and sentencing has not attracted much attention from the online community. The Langfang court’s Weibo account, which carried the pronouncement of the sentence in real time, had just a few thousand followers, and its post about Liu’s verdict saw only a few dozen shares.

Professor Zhang Ming, who specialises in political science at Renmin University, said the online community was more interested in the fate of higher-ranking official Ling Jihua, who used to be top aide to former president Hu Jintao.

“There are just so many big tigers [high-ranking officials] that people have become numb to the news on Liu,” Zhang said.

Public interest might have also been muted by a presumption about the outcome. “There was an unspoken consensus that no death sentence would be given”, unlike in the corruption trials of other officials.

The party’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, announced in May last year that Liu was under investigation. He was the first ministerial-level central government official to be suspended from his position and expelled from the party after President Xi Jinping took over party leadership in late 2012 and launched the anti-graft campaign.

 

[GarvenDreis]

Founder of China dating app Momo accused of graft, theft ahead of Nasdaq IPO

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 10 December, 2014, 12:55pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 10 December, 2014, 6:07pm

Chris Luo [email protected]

Tang Yan is accused by his former employer, NetEase, of stealing information and technology during his time at the firm between 2003 and 2011.

A Chinese internet giant fired stunning accusations of misconduct and corruption against Tang Yan, CEO and founder of mobile-based dating app Momo, less than two days before his company’s planned Nasdaq listing on Thursday.

Tang was accused by his former employer, NetEase, of stealing information and technology during his time at the firm between 2003 and 2011, “in severe violation” of the Labour Contract Law.

The statement, released by Netease in the early hours of Wednesday, alleged Tang had used those “stolen” resources to build his rapidly growing dating app, which now boasts 180 million registered users.

“During his employment, Tang took advantage of his post to acquire various informational and technological resources to help establish Momo,” read the NetEase statement.

NetEase also claimed Tang awarded lucrative contracts to a company founded by his wife during that period. “[He] delivered commercial benefits that are worth over a million yuan (HK$1.26 million) to a Beijing advertisement company founded by his wife, Zhang Sichuan, a conduct that give rise to suspicion of non-governmental corruption,” the firm said.

Tang had held various editorial management roles at NetEase's flagship news portal, www.netease.com, before he become the website's editor in chief in April 2011.

Tang registered Momo the company in July 2011 and launched the application in August. He officially left NetEase in September in the same year.

Momo, backed by both e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba and classified ads website 58.com, plans to raise US$216 million (HK$1.67 billion) in its American IPO, with a share price ranging between US$12.5 and US$14.5.

Momo is known for its location-based instant messaging feature, allowing its users to locate and contact potential dates who are close by. Photo: Simon Song

“NetEase will reserve the rights to take legal action over Tang’s misconduct during his employment at NetEase,” the statement said. It also added that Tang was once detained by the police for 10 days in 2007 for "personal misconduct," but did not give further details.

Responding to an inquiry by the Post on Wednesday, Momo said it was unable to comment on the allegations as it was in middle of a "quiet period" required by US securities laws, which limit the information a company can release to the public ahead of its IPO.

The bombshell allegations quickly became one of the hottest online and social media topics in China on Wednesday, amid rife speculation over whether they could affect Momo's upcoming IPO, hurt its stock prices, or lead to further lawsuits. Some former NetEase employees have come to Tang's defence, criticising NetEase for what they call a "character assassination" against the former editor and an attempt to wreck Momo's stock sale.

Among them was Li Yong, a former president of NetEase’s news portal division and an investor in Momo, who issued a statement on his Weibo social media account rebuking the accusations hours after NetEase's accusations.

Li, who was Tang’s ex-supervisor, said he gave Tang permission to devote off-work time in launching his personal business. Li left NetEase in 2012.

According to Li, the Momo founder had said he wanted to leave NetEase months ahead of the app’s launch, but chose to stay longer and help with the transition to a replacement at Li’s insistence.

Li slammed the graft accusation as unfounded, saying the advertising company founded by Tang’s wife was awarded NetEase contracts through fair competition and provided satisfactory service.

Momo is known for its location-based instant messaging feature, allowing its users to locate and contact potential dates who are close by.

Momo, along with smartphone apps like Tinder and Grindr in the US, help users find loving relationships or casual encounters at the click of a button.

However, Momo's success has also attracted controversy, often criticised by some in China for potentially enabling meetings between sex workers and clients.