In India corruption, fraud, etc. almost everyday news. The corruption case of West Bengal political leader and former minister Partha Chatterjee is now great news. Anyway, corruption has penetrated China also. Generally, we think because of one-party communist rule corruption is less in China. Sometimes we read about leaders of China’s rude behaviour towards Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang. But while going through the two editions of South China Morning Post, 21 and 29 July 2022, also Bloomberg newspaper of New York, I have astonished to know about the level of corruption in China. Let me highlight the facts based on secondary sources. In the Henan branch of the Bank of China, (BoC) around 1000 people gathered and protested in July 2022 as April 2022 onwards their deposits have been frozen because of corruption. They raised the slogan ‘give my money back’. But unfortunately in white dresses some people came and beat the protestors awfully. It is pertinent to mention that a sum of 6 million US dollars in Chinese money amounts to 40 billion Chinese Yuan had been swindled by the local gangs. The newspaper itself has questioned how such a huge amount of money was stolen. The people are now scared if such a level of corruption takes place in other local banks then what will happen to the economy? Another problem recently faced by the Government of China is protests by common citizens. According to the newspaper Bloomberg, New York (July 19, 2022, Updated on July 20, 2022), President Xi Jinping faces “a surprise challenge from middle-class homeowners who are watching their family wealth slip away with a sustained slide in the property market, which makes up a fifth of China’s economic activity. Some 70% of household wealth in China is tied up in property”. Further it is evident from Bloomberg news that “now ordinary Chinese people are publicly revolting, with rapidly escalating boycotts on mortgage payments spread across at least 301 projects in about 91 cities. These homeowners accuse developers of failing to deliver apartments they’ve already paid for: the value of mortgages that could be affected has swelled to an estimated 2 trillion Yuan ($297 billion)”.
The third news regarding corruption is done by a former Chinese Police boss Fu Zhenghua. According to South China Morning Post (29/7/22) “once one of China’s most powerful police chiefs, stood trial on Thursday (28/7/22) for taking bribes worth over 100 million Yuan (US$14.9 million) and hiding his brother’s alleged crimes. Fu, 67, who appeared before the Changchun Intermediate People’s Court in the north-eastern province of Jilin on Thursday (28/7/22), admitted all charges”.
All these evince that corruption has penetrated even in China that too in a massive way. I was in China and observed in general people were scared of talking about Government policy. I politely raised the Tiananmen Square protests to a few people but all avoided the question. From Wikipedia, we know in the Tiananmen Square protests started on 15 April and were forcibly suppressed on 4 June 1989 when the Government declared martial law and sent the People’s Liberation Army. Troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators (mostly students) as result many were killed and many injured.
