From Southern Metropolitan Daily, translated by CDT (photo: Du Xin the text message spammer, via Southern Metro Daily):
Eight years into the job of Xinhua District (Êñ∞ÂçéÂå∫) party secretary, Du Xin (Êùúʨ£)’s next goal in life was to be promoted to b vice mayor or something of that rank in Pingdingshan City (Âπ≥È°∂±±Â∏Ç). Unlike President Bush, it pains Du if he couldn’t get higher on his political career ladder.
He did try to submit his candidacy to city officials, but his aspirations were crushed. And he developed angst and anger toward the city’s party secretary Deng Yongjian (ÈÇìÊ∞∏‰ø≠), whom he suspected of shooting him down.
Less than two months before last year’s city officials’ reshuffle, one of many believed to be the greatest shakeup in China’s modern history, Du asked his chauffeur to buy a SIM card and spam out a text message libeling Deng to Henan provincial officials, and later to city and county cadres. He didn’t succeed in ruining Deng’s “re-election” of his secretary-ship, but he did spur an investigation into himself that exposed his web of corruption and mistress-keeping.
It was a jaw-dropper to many that Du resorted to this mean technique to retaliate on his boss. It was also interesting that provincial bosses sniffed the unusual scent immediately upon receiving Du’s self-written message. His driver powered off his cell phone and ditched the SIM card, but when he swung back into action again, to spam city and county officials, he was soon tracked down and busted.
Grilled by investigators from the city, Du refused to confess. After three days of interrogation, he backed off and threw up everything, admitting not only to orchestrating the messaging libel, but also to keeping 6-7 mistresses and taking bribes worth a total 12 million yuan.
Even in the middle of his dreams, he would spring up from bed and confess another wrongdoing to investigators if he recalled anything new. His memory was amazing that he coughed up names of more than 100 officials in his district, many of whom have bribed him to get an office or the like. Investigators found hundreds of thousands of yuan in cash and checks for six cars.
The game during Du’s rule was that 40,000 yuan could buy a deputy section rank office (ÂâØÁßëÁ∫ß) and 60,000 for a section rank office (Ê≠£ÁßëÁ∫ß). It was found that 48 officials sent in checks of 50,000 yuan or more.
The number of involved officials was so large that the city decided to cut some slack for many, handing out a “warning” mark to not-so-corrupted to avoid a political earthquake in the district, which is one of the three most prosperous towns in the city.
During a city discipline committee meeting last month, the libeled city secretary, Deng, gave a lecture on anti-corruption, of course citing a handy example: the text message spammer.[Full Text in Chinese]
