China Digital Times (CDT) » Tag: naked officials

Party Officials Launch Property Fire Sale

Samuel Wade — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:38:08 +0000

While Xi Jinping’s increasingly strong anti-corruption rhetoric has met with some skepticism, it seems that some of its targets are taking it seriously. The Telegraph’s Malcolm Moore describes a Central Commission for Discipline Inspection report on officials’ frenzied efforts to ditch ill-gotten properties and find homes abroad to which they might escape.

“They never register the houses in their own names and they use a string of agents to do the deals,” said Mr Fu. He said one company had bribed an official by buying him a property at the Mountain Water International Complex. “The property was put in the name of the official’s relative. After six months, it was sold for two million yuan (£200,000), around the same amount it cost. Then the official could cash out.

[…] Marco Pearman-Parish at Corporation China, a company in Beijing that helps clients find properties abroad, said there had been a strong rise in clients looking for homes in the Cayman Islands.

“In Beijing, half our clients are government officials,” he said. “Nine out of ten claim to be businessmen, but it emerges over the course of the deal that they have government jobs. What they are looking for is resident permits abroad so that if anything happens they can escape easily.”

Neither the anti-corruption speeches nor the escape artistry began with Xi’s appointment in November. According to the Commission report, Moore writes, as much as U.S. $1 trillion was smuggled out of China last year—though this figure is disputed—while 714 officials made successful getaways during the October National Day holidays alone.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-corruption, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, corrupt officials, corruption, naked officials, property market, real estate, smuggling, Xi Jinping
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Naked Officials 2.0

Sophie Beach — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:32:29 +0000

After the new Party leadership was sworn in during the 18th Party Congress, the Chinese government has been actively cultivating an image that is warmer and friendlier than generations past, including distributing images of leaders with their families and personal profiles of Xi Jinping and others. As China Media Project points out, this effort mirrors that fairy tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes in reverse:

In China, Andersen’s story (long familiar to Chinese) is now being re-enacted inside out. The emperors, the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, are party to the swindle. And the audacious act of deception is to convince the townsfolk that despite all outward appearances, Party leaders are not mantled with wealth and privilege — they are, in fact, naked.

Since he became General Secretary in November, Xi Jinping has made an extreme public relations makeover the centerpiece of his game plan. He wants to convince Chinese that the CCP’s fifth generation of leaders is down-to-earth, spurns ostentation, that it is engaged with the pocketbook concerns of the general population — but most of all that it is clean.

Corruption is a major, life-and-death issue for China’s ruling Party, and this is not the time for the Party be seen, like the emperor in Anderson’s story, wearing “the finest silk and the purest gold thread.”

Of course, the term “naked officials” has another meaning which brings to mind exactly the wealth and privilege that the leaders are trying to publicly disown.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, high-level corruption, naked officials, propaganda, Xi Jinping
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Orgies, Tiananmen & Bo Guagua: Top Posts of 2012

Sophie Beach — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 21:57:51 +0000

The year 2012 was like no other for China watchers: breaking stories full of political intrigue, sex scandals, natural disasters, murder, and a transition to a new generation of leaders. Which stories were most popular on CDT? The answers may surprise you. Below we list the top ten most viewed stories for all of 2012 on both CDT English and CDT Chinese:

Top Ten Most Viewed Stories in 2012 – CDT English:

10. Bo Guagua: Son of a Fallen Princeling, April 14, 2012

9. Wang Lijun: Tip of the Iceberg?, February 13, 2012

8. Sichuan Earthquake Likely Manmade, December 13, 2012

7. Behind the Scenes: Tank Man of Tiananmen, June 3, 2009

6. Directives from the Ministry of Truth: Naked Officials, August 13, 2012

5. China Begins to Turn Against Iran, January 19, 2012

4. Orgy Photos Making Awkward Waves on Web, August 16, 2012

3. Sensitive Words: The Tiananmen Edition (Update), June 3, 2012

2. Zhang Ziyi Denies Bo Rumours, May 30, 2012

1. Photos: Bo Xilai (薄熙来)’s Red Text Campaign and Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜)’s Award in Britain, May 23, 2009
(Moved up from #5 in 2011)

Top Ten Most Viewed Stories in 2012 – CDT Chinese

(Headlines translated by Anne Henochowicz)

10. Inconsistencies in Refutation of Naked Photos of Lujiang Officials; Netizens Pick Them Apart (Photos)
庐江官员裸照辟谣前后矛盾网民吐槽分析各施其才（图), August 9, 2012

9. CDT Photo Gallery: Ningbo PX Protests (Photos Deleted from Sina Weibo) 1
数字时代图集：宁波px示威（新浪微博被删图片）1, October 27, 2012

8. Xi Jinping’s Daughter Attends Seminar on Bo Xilai Affair
习近平女儿现身薄熙来风暴研讨会, May 19, 2012

7. Bei Keqin: Complete Written Record of “Documents Transmitted by the CCP General Office” on Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun
倍可亲：“中央办公厅传达文件”
关于薄熙来、王立军部分的文字实录, March 17, 2012

6. Apply Daily: Government Tacitly Allows Protest; “Anti-Japan” Becomes “Anti-Government”
苹果日报｜官方默许示威反日变反政府, September 16, 2012

5. The Riddle of Hu Jintao’s Rise
胡锦涛的崛起之谜, January 27, 2012

4. British Media: Zhou Yongkang Has Wandering Eye; Murdered His First Wife, Second Is 28 Years His Junior
英媒：周永康非常好色，谋杀前妻，第二任妻子小28, April 22, 2012

3. Video: Real Footage of Qidong Police Attacking Unarmed Citizens
视频：实拍启东警察群殴手无寸铁市民, July 28, 2012

2. Deutsche Welle: China’s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao complete mp3 audiobook
德国之声：《中国影帝温家宝》mp3音频全集, October 30, 2010

1. The Inside Story between Wen Jiabao and Bo Xilai: Meeting with a Witness (1)
温家宝、薄熙来恩怨内幕：一个亲历者的会议1, May 8, 2012

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bo Guagua, Bo Xilai, June 4th, naked officials
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Hexie Farm (蟹农场): Grandpa Wen’s Nightmare

Sophie Beach — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 17:31:37 +0000

For his latest installment of the Hexie Farm CDT series, cartoonist Crazy Crab illustrates an imagined nightmare of outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao. At the upcoming 18th Party Congress, during which Wen is expected to cede his position to Li Keqiang, Wen is delivering a work report. However, in this nightmare, he instead finds in his hands a copy of the New York Times exposé of his family’s vast wealth, and he is naked. In the background, the other representatives are laughing at Wen, but they are also naked. “Naked officials,” a term that denotes cadres whose ill-gotten wealth (and family) has been shipped overseas, appear frequently in Crazy Crab’s cartoons.

Grandpa Wen’s Nightmare, by Crazy Crab of Hexie Farm for CDT:

Read more about Hexie Farm’s CDT series, including a Q&A with the anonymous cartoonist, and see all cartoons so far in the series.

[CDT owns the copyright for all cartoons in the Hexie Farm CDT series. Please do not reproduce without receiving prior permission from CDT.]

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, corruption, hexie farm, naked officials, political cartoons, Wen Jiabao
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Hexie Farm (蟹农场): The China Models

Sophie Beach — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 05:16:07 +0000

For his latest installment of the Hexie Farm CDT series, cartoonist Crazy Crab plays on the term “China Model,” which refers to China’s unique political and economic system of authoritarian capitalism, by depicting the country’s leaders as models in a naked fashion show. These models are showing off their accessories, which allude to their wealth and power, such as luxury watches and an axe. The models’ state of undress makes them “naked officials,” or those who have funneled illicitly obtained wealth overseas along with their families.

The China Models, by Crazy Crab of Hexie Farm for CDT:

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: China model, corruption, hexie farm, naked officials
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Hexie Farm (蟹农场)：The Note of Harmony

Sophie Beach — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 07:17:33 +0000

For the latest instalment in his CDT series, cartoonist Crazy Crab of Hexie Farm depicts a naked king performing the “Song of Harmony,” yet at end of the big note is the scythe of the grim reaper. The image of the king alludes to The Emperor’s New Clothes (while also bringing to mind “naked officials,” or corrupt officials whose family and wealth reside overseas). “Harmony,” or “harmonious,” is a key propaganda term employed by the current administration of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao to describe their governing philosophy. However, for many in China, the term has come to mean “censored” or “suppressed.”

Read more about Hexie Farm’s CDT series, including a Q&A with the anonymous cartoonist, and see all cartoons so far in the series.

[CDT owns the copyright for all cartoons in the Hexie Farm CDT series. Please do not reproduce without receiving prior permission from CDT.]

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: harmony, hexie farm, naked officials
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall