Corruption

[winston]

China's corruption crackdown takes shine off luxury boom By Farah Master

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Luxury brands banking on a China rebound to boost sales, may be in for an unpleasant surprise: weak demand in the world's second largest luxury market may last longer than the economic slowdown as Beijing cracks down on conspicuous consumption.

China is sensitive to anything that raises suspicions of corruption, especially after the scandal involving Bo Xilai and his emerald-wearing wife Gu Kailai marred this year's once-a-decade leadership transition.

The government imposed a "frugal working style" rule on its civil servants, which goes into effect on October 1, barring them from spending public money on lavish banquets or fancy cars, and from accepting expensive gifts. Gift giving is considered a sign of respect in Chinese culture, and has been a reliable source of demand for the world's top luxury brands.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/ ... F020120923

[winston]

China bloggers expose more corruption: reports

Chinese officials have launched a probe after microbloggers said they had uncovered another allegedly corrupt leader, who owns millions of dollars worth of property, state press said on Thursday.

Southern Guangzhou city will investigate urban management official Cai Bin, 56, who has 21 homes valued at 40 million yuan ($6.4 million), Xinhua news agency reported.

Cai, who earns about 10,000 yuan a month, failed to report all his holdings as required by the state, the report said.

The scandal emerged after web users began posting pictures of Cai's properties, some of which are luxury homes, onto the Sina Weibo social networking site, it said.

"It is basically true that Cai has 21 houses according to our preliminary investigations," Xinhua quoted a government official responsible for the investigation as saying.

Chinese government officials are widely considered to be corrupt among Chinese, who have recently been raising pressure on them by posting accusations on popular social networking websites.

One official in southeastern Fujian province created an online furore this week after users on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog, accused him of censoring a newspaper report alleging he owned a luxury watch and belt.

And Yang Dacai, an official in the central province of Shaanxi, was sacked last month after Weibo users posted photographs showing him wearing expensive watches -- five of which were said to be worth a total of more than 300,000 yuan.

China's leaders have repeatedly declared official corruption and abuse of power as a major threat to the legitimacy of their rule, but the problem remains deeply entrenched despite numerous crackdowns.

The ruling Communist Party has sought to draw attention to its efforts to combat corruption ahead of a party congress next month, when a once-a-decade leadership transition will be announced.

While China's 538 million Internet users are able to use microblogs to accuse local officials of corruption, posts making reference to China's most powerful politicians are regularly deleted by online censors.

While he was not uncovered by bloggers, the country's most high-profile corruption case in years saw the former chief of Chongqing city, Bo Xilai, expelled from the ruling Communist Party last month for a series of alleged crimes and corrupt activities.

His wife was given a suspended death sentence in August for murdering a British businessman.


Source: AFP Global Edition

[winston]

Report: Dirty money cost China US$3.8 trillion 2000-2011

WASHINGTON: China has lost US$3.79 trillion over the past decade in money smuggled out of the country, a massive amount that could weaken its economy and create instability, according to a new report.

And the outflow - much of it from corruption, crime or tax evasion - is accelerating.

China lost $472 billion in 2011, equivalent to 8.3 percent of its gross domestic product, up from $204.7 billion in 2000, Global Financial Integrity, a research and advocacy group that campaigns to limit illegal flows, said in a report on Thursday.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.as ... c=business

[winston]

China 'top source' of world's tainted money

China tops a list of 150 developing countries that have been the source of flows of illicit money gained from tax evasion, crime and corruption totalling US$5.9 trillion over the last decade.


Source: SCMP

[winston]

China

160,000 party officials punished for corruption, according to graft watchdog

More than 160,000 Communist Party officials were punished last year - a 12.5 per cent increase from the year before, the party's graft watchdog said yesterday.

Source: SCMP

[winston]

Flies to tigers in graft crosshairs

President-in-waiting Xi Jinping has taken his campaign against corruption to the petty bureaucracy and minor infractions of lowly officials who are the bane of everyday life for many.

In comments carried by Xinhua News Agency, Xi said that in the battle against graft, it is just as important to go after the "flies," or lowly lawbreakers, as it is to tackle the "tigers," or top officials.

"We must uphold the fighting of tigers and flies at the same time, resolutely investigating law-breaking by leading officials and also earnestly resolving the unhealthy tendencies and corruption problems all around," he said.

Bureaucrats must not be allowed to get away with skirting rules and orders from above or with selective following of policies, he said.

"The style in which you work is no small matter, and if we don't redress unhealthy tendencies and allow them to develop, it will be like putting up a wall between our party and the people, and we will lose our roots, our lifeblood and our strength," Xi told a meeting of the Communist Party's top anti-graft body.

He called for "a disciplinary, prevention and guarantee mechanism" to prevent corruption but provided no details.

Mainland bureaucrats have long had a poor reputation, fueled by their laziness, love of excessive paperwork and minor acts of corruption that infuriate the man on the street and add to growing mistrust of the party.

Since taking over as party head in November from Hu Jintao, and due to replace him as president in March, Xi has vowed to root out corruption no matter how high it is, and warned that the party's survival is at risk if it does not take the problem seriously.

But he has also made more populist moves, banning officials from making long, boring speeches or being given red carpet welcomes, and ordering a stop to alcohol-fueled banquets and luxury hotel stays for the military.

However, without an independent judiciary, efforts to fight graft will almost certainly falter, and the party has shown no sign of embarking on this reform.

Some mainland web users were skeptical of Xi's latest call to weed out corruption. One microblogger wrote: "Give us a ballot and let the people supervise all of you."

Source: REUTERS

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... 30123&fc=4

[winston]

PLA at 'high risk' for graft

China's armed forces are battling a serious corruption problem, with little political oversight and no whistleblower mechanism to counter graft, watchdog Transparency International said.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... 30130&fc=4

[winston]

Win or Lose, he has been destroyed already...

Ng Boon Gay acquitted of all corruption charges By Grace Leong

Former Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) chief Ng Boon Gay was acquitted of all four charges of corruptly obtaining oral sex from IT executive Cecilia Sue in Singapore's biggest government corruption probe to date.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Ken Hwee maintained that he was guilty of corruption on the four occasions he obtained oral sex from Cecilia Sue in 2011, allegedly in exchange for furthering the business interests of her former employers, Hitachi Data Systems Pte Ltd (HDS) and Oracle Corp (Singapore) Pte Ltd.

But Ng's lawyer, Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng of WongPartnership LLP, said hard evidence was lacking and that prosecutors had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt; they asked whether an innocent man should be convicted to drive home the message that corruption was wrong.

He also pointed out that there is no corrupt element where the oral sex is between a couple in an intimate relationship.

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/breakin ... s-20130214

[winston]

“Bribes are a phenomenon that exists and it’s useless to deny the existence of these necessary situations when you are negotiating with third world countries and regimes,”

- Berlusconi

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has defended the need for bribery in winning contracts for Italy’s multinationals, as politicians campaigning in general elections have been forced to respond to a welter of corruption scandals revolving around the nexus of politics and business.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/be7b2b5c-76bb-1 ... gon.com%2F

[behappyalways]

Hhmmm should I put this under Singapore-politics......


“Unmonitored power will inevitably lead to corruption,” he argues, stating that because he helped oversee personnel matters as a chief adviser to the county party chief and could weigh in on the promotion of officials, he was vulnerable to cadres bent on promotion.


An Uncommon Story of Common Corruption
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014 ... orruption/