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Octafish

(55,745 posts)
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 02:58 PM Jun 2014

Chinese Communist Leadership Gets It

Something our government should institute here, before the whole thing percolates to hell.



In China, Xi's Anticorruption Drive Totes Up Big Numbers

By Dexter Roberts
Business Week, April 10, 2014

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anticorruption campaign has lasted longer, gone deeper, and struck higher than many analysts and academics had expected. Xi has been so zealous that since late last year retired Communist Party leaders including ex-President Jiang Zemin have cautioned him to take a more measured pace and not be too harsh, say Ding Xueliang, a professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, and Willy Lam, an expert on elite politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Xi is cracking down on the army and the police at the same time, something no leader has done before, says Ding. Gu Junshan, a lieutenant general in charge of logistics for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), has been charged with bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of power, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on March 31. He will be tried in military court.

China’s former top cop and security czar Zhou Yongkang is under investigation for corruption, say Ding and Lam. When asked at a March 2 press conference whether Zhou was under suspicion, a government spokesman avoided a direct answer, saying, “Anyone who violates the party’s discipline and the state law will be seriously investigated and punished, no matter who he is or how high ranking he is.” He added what seems to be a veiled confirmation: “I can only say so much so far. You know what I’m saying.”

SNIP...

Petty corruption has become common, while some higher-level officials have acquired fortunes through questionable means. Gu, the general who faces trial, had dozens of apartments in Beijing and a villa resembling the Forbidden City in his hometown of Puyang. He stocked the villa with pricey maotai liquor, a solid gold wash basin, and a gold statue of Mao Zedong, the finance magazine Caixin reported. “The trust of the people toward the elite is at one of its lowest levels in history,” says Fred Hu, chairman of Beijing-based Primavera Capital Group and former China head of Goldman Sachs (GS).

Xi has turned to old methods, including Mao-era practices of self-criticism, to stop the rot. [font color="blue"]“Xi has an acute consciousness that whether it was the Qing dynasty or the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), the end of these reigns came with huge servings of corruption,” [/font color]says Orville Schell, director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society.

CONTINUED...

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-10/in-china-xis-anticorruption-drive-nabs-elite-low-ranks-alike


31 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Chinese Communist Leadership Gets It (Original Post) Octafish Jun 2014 OP
Hmmm... greytdemocrat Jun 2014 #1
Great time to get rid of enemies of the state. Octafish Jun 2014 #2
Yeah, but purges come in different flavors. Igel Jun 2014 #3
BushInc saw Nixon as a weak link, and tapped Woodward (Naval Intel) to break 'Watergate' blm Jun 2014 #4
Has he perp walked his kids yet? MFrohike Jun 2014 #5
Important question and points. One thing's for sure: Xi is going after Big Oil... Octafish Jun 2014 #6
Yeah MFrohike Jun 2014 #8
Guy's got to walk a tight rope in front of the All Seeing Eye... Octafish Jun 2014 #10
Too true. And the 'elite' always seem to have gold Mao statues leftstreet Jun 2014 #7
It is kind of funny MFrohike Jun 2014 #9
Interesting. Thanks for the post and the follow ups. JEB Jun 2014 #11
Very much in common: Chinese and American Ruling Elites In Bed Together for Fun and Profit Octafish Jun 2014 #14
China and Anticorruption in the same breath is a joke n/t ProdigalJunkMail Jun 2014 #12
It's like the BFEE started the US-China Chamber of Commerce Octafish Jun 2014 #17
Jackson Stephens, too - Poppy had him in China in 70s making deals with Chinese industrialists to blm Jun 2014 #28
An Acquaintance from Shanghai explained it to me Wolf Frankula Jun 2014 #13
Every time China (quickly) executes someone whose company was selling tainted products... JHB Jun 2014 #16
Censored in China: Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader Octafish Jun 2014 #19
Imagine the 100s of billions the Bushes have stashed thru their China deals since the 70s. blm Jun 2014 #29
Hip Hip Hurrah and Tallyho, but never forget... JHB Jun 2014 #15
It's fascinating to watch unfold... Octafish Jun 2014 #18
Global fascism? JEB Jun 2014 #21
The 'options' represent existential problems the elites (and their money and power) ignore. Octafish Jun 2014 #23
We are living in a charmed time nolabels Jun 2014 #22
Thank you for the kind reminder! It's not just ''Global Labor'' -- it is HUMANITY that is enslaved. Octafish Jun 2014 #25
Maybe we shouldn't exactly be cheering on China. NuclearDem Jun 2014 #20
China's leaders are prosecuting corrupt officials. Octafish Jun 2014 #26
In the PRC it's called "purging." NuclearDem Jun 2014 #30
the Chinese government is one of the most corrupt in the world bigtree Jun 2014 #24
Thanks for pointing that out, bigtree! Octafish Jun 2014 #27
Oh, but to be so contraire nolabels Jun 2014 #31

Igel

(35,191 posts)
3. Yeah, but purges come in different flavors.
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 03:24 PM
Jun 2014

This is likely a mix.

Corruption weakens the power of the state. It weakens the authority of those higher up and the prestige/command they have over the population. So some is anti-corruption. Being anti-corruption is a good thing, but the whole "strengthening state power" is usually a bad thing beyond a certain point.

It's also easy to pin the charge of corruption on somebody who's politically unreliable or not a "proper" team player. That's probably a bad thing at all points unless you like a totalitarian or authoritarian state.

Mixed bag.

blm

(112,919 posts)
4. BushInc saw Nixon as a weak link, and tapped Woodward (Naval Intel) to break 'Watergate'
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 03:43 PM
Jun 2014

I remember Woodward on TV (iirc LarryKingLive) also claiming he didn't see a scandal in IranContra stories that were piling up.

MFrohike

(1,980 posts)
5. Has he perp walked his kids yet?
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 05:02 PM
Jun 2014

If not, then I have to wonder. Additionally, I note one of the targets was an associate of Bo Xilai and his gold statue of Mao was prominently mentioned. This all has the air of one last campaign against Mao being disguised as an anti-corruption drive. I don't really know what it means or why it's being done, but every time I see an article about anti-corruption in China, Mao's name comes up.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
6. Important question and points. One thing's for sure: Xi is going after Big Oil...
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 05:21 PM
Jun 2014

...which is where big bucks flow.



Why Xi Jinping may soon call a halt to his latest corruption crackdown

By Steve LeVine
qz.com, April 4, 2014

Beijing has purged some 300 officials and their relatives who made up China’s powerful “petroleum faction,” not to mention seized some $14.5 billion of their assets. The question is whether the unprecedented corruption investigation will expand further into China’s oil industry, which has produced much of the country’s riches and many of its most powerful leaders, or even into other parts of the elite.

But the betting is that president Xi Jinping will wind down the crackdown before long given the threat that it poses to the entire regime.

SNIP...

One aspect that hasn’t been clear is whether Xi is cracking down specifically on the petroleum faction, halting the Chinese elite’s wealth engorgement, or simply cutting Zhou himself down to size. Many analysts believe it is the latter—that Xi is punishing Zhou for protecting and championing Bo Xilai, the discredited senior official imprisoned for life in 2012. “As a princeling, Bo was a rival for top leader with Xi. Zhou protected him and wanted Bo to replace him as security chief,” Chow told Quartz.

Andrew Wedeman, a professor at Georgia State University who studies Chinese corruption, said he foresees no broader attack on the oil industry. To the degree it goes on, the inquiry could threaten party rule given that it has long accepted the elite’s accumulation of wealth.

“Xi has to start to figure out a way to wrap the campaign up and has to figure out how to do that in a way that makes it appear that the main purpose of the campaign was to attack corruption not to pursue a political vendetta against Zhou,” Wedeman told Quartz.

CONTINUED...

http://qz.com/201487/china-xi-jinping-may-soon-call-a-halt-to-his-latest-corruption-crackdown/



I'm no expert, but it seems that he's held up on investigating his predecessors' families, as well. Must be they're looking forward in China, too.

MFrohike

(1,980 posts)
8. Yeah
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 05:26 PM
Jun 2014

It looks like he's trying to make a virtue out of his own self-interest. It's almost like a low-intensity version of the warlord period of the early 20th century.*

*That's just a guess. I'm no expert on Chinese politics, either.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
10. Guy's got to walk a tight rope in front of the All Seeing Eye...
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 05:56 PM
Jun 2014
China's All-Seeing Eye

With the help of U.S. defense contractors, China is building the prototype for a high-tech police state. It is ready for export.

NAOMI KLEIN
Rolling Stone
Posted May 29, 2008 3:24 PM

Thirty years ago, the city of Shenzhen didn't exist. Back in those days, it was a string of small fishing villages and collectively run rice paddies, a place of rutted dirt roads and traditional temples. That was before the Communist Party chose it — thanks to its location close to Hong Kong's port — to be China's first "special economic zone," one of only four areas where capitalism would be permitted on a trial basis. The theory behind the experiment was that the "real" China would keep its socialist soul intact while profiting from the private-sector jobs and industrial development created in Shenzhen. The result was a city of pure commerce, undiluted by history or rooted culture — the crack cocaine of capitalism. It was a force so addictive to investors that the Shenzhen experiment quickly expanded, swallowing not just the surrounding Pearl River Delta, which now houses roughly 100,000 factories, but much of the rest of the country as well. Today, Shenzhen is a city of 12.4 million people, and there is a good chance that at least half of everything you own was made here: iPods, laptops, sneakers, flatscreen TVs, cellphones, jeans, maybe your desk chair, possibly your car and almost certainly your printer. Hundreds of luxury condominiums tower over the city; many are more than 40 stories high, topped with three-story penthouses. Newer neighborhoods like Keji Yuan are packed with ostentatiously modern corporate campuses and decadent shopping malls. Rem Koolhaas, Prada's favorite architect, is building a stock exchange in Shenzhen that looks like it floats — a design intended, he says, to "suggest and illustrate the process of the market." A still-under-construction superlight subway will soon connect it all at high speed; every car has multiple TV screens broadcasting over a Wi-Fi network. At night, the entire city lights up like a pimped-out Hummer, with each five-star hotel and office tower competing over who can put on the best light show.

Many of the big American players have set up shop in Shenzhen, but they look singularly unimpressive next to their Chinese competitors. The research complex for China's telecom giant Huawei, for instance, is so large that it has its own highway exit, while its workers ride home on their own bus line. Pressed up against Shenzhen's disco shopping centers, Wal-Mart superstores — of which there are nine in the city — look like dreary corner stores. (China almost seems to be mocking us: "You call that a superstore?&quot McDonald's and KFC appear every few blocks, but they seem almost retro next to the Real Kung Fu fast-food chain, whose mascot is a stylized Bruce Lee.

American commentators like CNN's Jack Cafferty dismiss the Chinese as "the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years." But nobody told the people of Shenzhen, who are busily putting on a 24-hour-a-day show called "America" — a pirated version of the original, only with flashier design, higher profits and less complaining. This has not happened by accident. China today, epitomized by Shenzhen's transition from mud to megacity in 30 years, represents a new way to organize society. Sometimes called "market Stalinism," it is a potent hybrid of the most powerful political tools of authoritarian communism — central planning, merciless repression, constant surveillance — harnessed to advance the goals of global capitalism.

Now, as China prepares to showcase its economic advances during the upcoming Olympics in Beijing, Shenzhen is once again serving as a laboratory, a testing ground for the next phase of this vast social experiment. Over the past two years, some 200,000 surveillance cameras have been installed throughout the city. Many are in public spaces, disguised as lampposts. The closed-circuit TV cameras will soon be connected to a single, nationwide network, an all-seeing system that will be capable of tracking and identifying anyone who comes within its range — a project driven in part by U.S. technology and investment. Over the next three years, Chinese security executives predict they will install as many as 2 million CCTVs in Shenzhen, which would make it the most watched city in the world. (Security-crazy London boasts only half a million surveillance cameras.)

The security cameras are just one part of a much broader high-tech surveillance and censorship program known in China as "Golden Shield." The end goal is to use the latest people-tracking technology — thoughtfully supplied by American giants like IBM, Honeywell and General Electric — to create an airtight consumer cocoon: a place where Visa cards, Adidas sneakers, China Mobile cellphones, McDonald's Happy Meals, Tsingtao beer and UPS delivery (to name just a few of the official sponsors of the Beijing Olympics) can be enjoyed under the unblinking eye of the state, without the threat of democracy breaking out. With political unrest on the rise across China, the government hopes to use the surveillance shield to identify and counteract dissent before it explodes into a mass movement like the one that grabbed the world's attention at Tiananmen Square.

Remember how we've always been told that free markets and free people go hand in hand? That was a lie. It turns out that the most efficient delivery system for capitalism is actually a communist-style police state, fortressed with American "homeland security" technologies, pumped up with "war on terror" rhetoric. And the global corporations currently earning superprofits from this social experiment are unlikely to be content if the lucrative new market remains confined to cities such as Shenzhen. Like everything else assembled in China with American parts, Police State 2.0 is ready for export to a neighborhood near you.

SNIP...

What is most disconcerting about China's surveillance state is how familiar it all feels. When I check into the Sheraton in Shenzhen, for instance, it looks like any other high-end hotel chain — only the lobby is a little more modern and the cheerful clerk doesn't just check my passport but takes a scan of it.

"Are you making a copy?" I ask.

"No, no," he responds helpfully. "We're just sending a copy to the police."

CONTINUED...

https://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/15/8970

Where will policemen find work, once everything is automated?

MFrohike

(1,980 posts)
9. It is kind of funny
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 05:28 PM
Jun 2014

It's kind of fitting too, I guess. After all, Mao did adopt a quasi-imperial lifestyle, especially in the last decade or so of his life.

 

JEB

(4,748 posts)
11. Interesting. Thanks for the post and the follow ups.
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 06:03 PM
Jun 2014

Corruption is one of things we have in common.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
14. Very much in common: Chinese and American Ruling Elites In Bed Together for Fun and Profit
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 07:09 PM
Jun 2014

Ever wonder what happened to our standard of living? You, know, the Middle Class?

Well, it's been off-shored -- both in terms of money to Switzerland and manufacturing jobs to China.

Of course, I mean, don't worry! -- at a profit.



Guess who made a killing? If you said, "The ruling elite" you'd be correct.

What may be surprising to some is how the "ruling elite" crosses political, ideological, and philosophical lines when it comes to money. Case in point: China.

Currently, the people of China are largely unaware at how their ruling Communist elite got rich while the people slaved their asses off.

Here in the good old U.S. of A., the people are largely unaware that their ruling Capitalist elite got rich setting the policies that offshored their money and jobs.

Oh, well. Live and learn.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
17. It's like the BFEE started the US-China Chamber of Commerce
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 07:22 PM
Jun 2014

A short time after Richard Nixon sent his brother George Herbert Walker Bush to serve as head of the U.S. ligation in Beijing, the late Prescott S. Bush, Jr. founded the US-China Chamber of Commerce.

Middle Kingdom Rainmakers, some call the operation. Oh So Social, that making money for the Right People.

Waybac archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040603004005/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FE21Ad01.html|

blm

(112,919 posts)
28. Jackson Stephens, too - Poppy had him in China in 70s making deals with Chinese industrialists to
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 11:54 AM
Jun 2014

move US manufacturing base to China and Stephens sweetened the deal by laying Walmart on the table for them.

Stephens also helped Poppy Bush bring BCCI bank to the US in the late 70s.

Wolf Frankula

(3,595 posts)
13. An Acquaintance from Shanghai explained it to me
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 06:55 PM
Jun 2014

If you can be corrupt, pay bribes, collect bribes( better than paying), get the rules bent in your favor, you are highly respected and people envy you, so long as you get away with it. But if you get caught, you get NO sympathy. You deserve whatever sentence you get and if you get shot, or spend the rest of your short life shoveling pig shit in Inner Mongolia, that's your hard luck.

Wolf

JHB

(37,128 posts)
16. Every time China (quickly) executes someone whose company was selling tainted products...
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 07:20 PM
Jun 2014

...there are people who cheer "China knows what to do with these people!"

They need to hear what you're saying. It's all damage control. The swift executions are theater to keep the shit from splashing upward, and avoid questions of who the guy was paying bribes to.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
19. Censored in China: Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 09:34 PM
Jun 2014

By DAVID BARBOZA
The New York Times, October 25, 2012

EXCERPT...

Many relatives of Wen Jiabao, including his son, daughter, younger brother and brother-in-law, have become extraordinarily wealthy during his leadership, an investigation by The New York Times shows. A review of corporate and regulatory records indicates that the prime minister’s relatives — some of whom, including his wife, have a knack for aggressive deal making — have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion.

In many cases, the names of the relatives have been hidden behind layers of partnerships and investment vehicles involving friends, work colleagues and business partners. Untangling their financial holdings provides an unusually detailed look at how politically connected people have profited from being at the intersection of government and business as state influence and private wealth converge in China’s fast-growing economy.

Unlike most new businesses in China, the family’s ventures sometimes received financial backing from state-owned companies, including China Mobile, one of the country’s biggest phone operators, the documents show. At other times, the ventures won support from some of Asia’s richest tycoons. The Times found that Mr. Wen’s relatives accumulated shares in banks, jewelers, tourist resorts, telecommunications companies and infrastructure projects, sometimes by using offshore entities.

The holdings include a villa development project in Beijing; a tire factory in northern China; a company that helped build some of Beijing’s Olympic stadiums, including the well-known “Bird’s Nest”; and Ping An Insurance, one of the world’s biggest financial services companies.

As prime minister in an economy that remains heavily state-driven, Mr. Wen, who is best known for his simple ways and common touch, more importantly has broad authority over the major industries where his relatives have made their fortunes. Chinese companies cannot list their shares on a stock exchange without approval from agencies overseen by Mr. Wen, for example. He also has the power to influence investments in strategic sectors like energy and telecommunications.

SNIP...

In 2007, the last year the stock holdings were disclosed in public documents, those partnerships held as much as $2.2 billion worth of Ping An stock, according to an accounting of the investments by The Times that was verified by outside auditors. Ping An’s overall market value is now nearly $60 billion.

CONTINUED...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-in-china.html?_r=0

PS: Thanks for relating your friend's experience, Wolf! Those who get away, are getting away with the store.

blm

(112,919 posts)
29. Imagine the 100s of billions the Bushes have stashed thru their China deals since the 70s.
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 11:57 AM
Jun 2014

Probably in the trillions by now. That money will NEVER be tracked.

JHB

(37,128 posts)
15. Hip Hip Hurrah and Tallyho, but never forget...
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 07:11 PM
Jun 2014

...it's really a tool of factional infighting. Someone lost a powerplay within the ruling Communist Party, and the "anti-corruption drive" is the public face of rooting out that faction, its supporters, and anyone else backing that particular pony.

Also, it doesn't matter whether Xi is honestly on an anti-corruption kick or not -- that can change as soon as he's gone, and China is still fundamentally a police state. Either it undergoes major reforms, or one day there will be a factional conflict that isn't nipped in the bud.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
18. It's fascinating to watch unfold...
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 09:12 PM
Jun 2014

Now, instead of political ideology or factionalism, it's industries and the booty accumulated through forced economic servitude. In Russia, the only sure thing for an oligarch to do is to kick a percentage to Putin's people.

For an example of what happens to those who may be behind in their payments, take Neil Bush's late chum, Boris Berezovsky. Poor old billionaire committed suicide.

Global Labor has been enslaved by the neo-liberal Russians, the Chinese communist regime, and the capitalists in the West. The elites will do all in their power to hold their positions. It is my hope it wont require revolution, economic or environmental collapse, or world war to get them out of power.

 

JEB

(4,748 posts)
21. Global fascism?
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 09:47 PM
Jun 2014

One of your options (revolution, economic or environmental collapse, or world war) seems to be an inevitability. Their (the ruling elites) greed is incredibly short sighted yet remains their one and only priority. The situation is extremely disheartening. I am already 62, but I became a grandfather this year.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
23. The 'options' represent existential problems the elites (and their money and power) ignore.
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 09:38 AM
Jun 2014

It is disheartening that those with the means -- and their satraps in Washington and Wall Street -- won't even consider applying the powers of democracy to solve the problems of the day. Instead they choose plunder and war, just like the empires of old. Why? It's cheaper and there's more profit and power than doing it the democratic way, where they'd have to share.

Only by pooling our talents and resources and can-do spirit can we tackle pollution, inequality, centuries and millennia-old hatreds... Only DEMOCRACY can solve them. It's why JFK knew we could get people to the moon before the Soviets. It's why he put the effort under civilian leadership -- he wanted to show the world that humanity could do great things in peace.

Perhaps if we win the Lotto we may be able to afford a spot on Frank "Lumumba 2 Carlyle" Carlucci's lifeboat. Like you, JEB, I'd give up my seat in the lifeboat for my grandkids. Too bad it'll likely be like the Titanic, with the richest men dressing up in drag and yelling "Women and children first!" while ordering the pursers to lock the passengers in steerage below decks.

Still, like you, JEB, I'll do all I can to prevent that from happening. It's what makes us Democrats.

nolabels

(13,133 posts)
22. We are living in a charmed time
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 09:51 PM
Jun 2014

You are probably my most favorite poster here at DU but be aware you might have somewhere partly acquiesced to the thinking of those you disagree with (like most of us).

'Global Labor' is a euphemism used to commodify what is known in the commons as 'people'

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
25. Thank you for the kind reminder! It's not just ''Global Labor'' -- it is HUMANITY that is enslaved.
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 10:01 AM
Jun 2014

Using the proper words and phrases is essential, not only to convey precise meaning, but to effect the correct outcomes. In my example above, I wanted to express the ways Global Capital had managed to enslave Global Labor, no matter the economic system in which they exist: "Free Market Capitalism," "Communist Command Economy," "Putin's Oligarchy." Please, always correct me and help me understand better, my Friend.

As a journalist by training, I have a superficial understanding of many things (knowledge the size of a square-mile lake that's one-inch deep). I try to shine light on the undemocratic traitors and crooks, whether fascist, authoritarian, libertarian, anarchist, tyrannical, etc. etc. etc.

One example that many of my colleagues in the press missed -- or their editors and publishers ignored -- shows exactly how capital controls the lives of all, the LIBOR international bank loan rate rigging scandal, the unseen bullwhip of the new slavemasters.

Instead, like almost all the banking scandals, LIBOR sank below the waves with a few fines that were paid and forgotten, its place in the public consciousness occupied by ever-new and pressing scandals of colossal proportion. What's always left unsaid in the corporate press: The Elite get the gold mine and the People get the golden shaft.

PS: Thanks also for the kind words. Please know they mean the world to me. And I feel the same way about you, nolabels. You and the good people of DU make it possible to exist and progress in an insane nation and world.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
26. China's leaders are prosecuting corrupt officials.
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 10:04 AM
Jun 2014

The United States should do the same, starting with those who lied the nation into war, followed immediately by the Banksters.

 

NuclearDem

(16,184 posts)
30. In the PRC it's called "purging."
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 01:40 PM
Jun 2014

I don't buy the any port in a storm nonsense. Prosecute the corrupt bankers, fine, but don't expect me to cheer on one of the most prolific human rights violators in the developed world.

bigtree

(85,915 posts)
24. the Chinese government is one of the most corrupt in the world
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 09:44 AM
Jun 2014

. . . and I wouldn't be trusting of their courts, either.

I'd guess that any government 'crackdown' on corruption has to be directed primarily to its political opponents and to the advantage of the ruling class, the Chinese National government, which harbors the majority of China's wealth.

I can't get over that title of yours (and I don't mean to be confrontational or rude). The Chinese government does not 'get it'.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
27. Thanks for pointing that out, bigtree!
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 10:11 AM
Jun 2014
Sometimes I do a lousy job of making my intentions clear.



Neil Bush Communist Photo Makes A Scene On Chinese Social Media Site Weibo

The Huffington Post | By Nick Wing
Posted: 08/28/2012 11:50 am Updated: 08/29/2012 8:29 am

Neil Bush, younger brother of former President George W. Bush, raised some eyebrows on Monday after posting a picture showing him decked out in gear traditionally associated with members of the Chinese Communist Party.

“I’m thinking of joining the CCP. What do you think of my accessories?” read a message posted to Bush's account on Chinese social media site Weibo, alongside a Chinese translation of the caption.

The attached picture shows a smiling Bush holding a mug with a graphic of Chairman Mao Zedong. He's also wearing an archetypal green communist officer's field cap and has a similarly colored messenger bag with Mao imagery slung around his shoulder.

The Wall Street Journal, which flagged Bush's bizarre picture, notes that reaction in the Chinese community has been mixed, ranging in the Weibo community from confusion to outrage. Though many took it as a joke, one person likened it to dressing up in Nazi gear and posting a photo on Twitter, the Wall Street Journal reports.

CONTINUED w LINKS...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/neil-bush-communist-photo-weibo_n_1836322.html

Like you, bigtree, I want the USA to fight corruption, especially where those with their hands on the levers of government operate in conjunction with the interests of those with the truly deep pockets. From where I sit, as a Democrat in Detroit, I've worked to encourage those in the US government to do all in their power to make life better for ALL citizens. Unlike fascists, communists and tyrants, Democrats know how to do that.

nolabels

(13,133 posts)
31. Oh, but to be so contraire
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 11:33 PM
Jun 2014

Perhaps they do get it, and perhaps they are starting figure out what is taking place now is what many of us figured out what was going to happen. Many had also figured this out over a decade ago. That advent of the cell phone and every other kind of similar gadget has exploded on them. The advent of social media and micro-media which many are participating in now does and will change things forever. No matter how many outlets and channels of these people who have declared themselves in control actually have, there will still be information that comes out they cannot control. It's a quaint or archaic definition, it's called the internet or the web, it's as potent as the inventions of fire and the wheel and travels a million times faster and seems to change almost as fast. It can be as small as three or four humans or number in the billions and there is no putting the genie back in the bottle.

If there was that idea of Chinese oligarchs needing to do something to get the focus off of them then two fold idea of bagging some of the competition and quelling public fears of corruption is fertile ground for bringing out a red herring.

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