Beijing, October 24, 2009<\/p>\n
As he sits in a prison cell in North Carolina, Bernie Madoff may not think he has much to be grateful for, aside from the memories he accumulated enjoying his larcenous life of luxury, but for sure he should be thanking whatever lucky star still shines above him that he is not Chinese. Not that his brazen thievery might not have flourished in China, too. There\u2019s a kind of earnestness in the quest for riches here that combines with endemic corruption in a way that would let someone with Madoff\u2019s propensities thrive. The difference comes when they get caught.
\nThree dairy company executives were sentenced to death earlier this year after milk laced with melamine sold by their companies killed at least six children and sickened hundreds of thousands.
\nIn July, 2007, the former head of China’s State Food and Drug Administration was executed for corruption, following an international scandal involving medicines contaminated with dangerous ingredients. He was convicted of taking bribes totaling just under a million bucks\u2014a trifling sum in Madoff\u2019s world.
\nAnd in August of this year, Li Pieyang, who ran the Beijing airport authority, was convicted of taking $4 million in bribes and embezzling about $12 million more in public funds over the past 14 years, and summarily executed.
\nHad Madoff been Chinese, two more fortunate comrades would be off dialysis.<\/p>\n
Speaking of corruption, the headline story in the China Daily over the last couple of days has been about a new scam in Shanghai that\u2019s came to light because one of its victims, a 19 year old man named Sun who\u2019d just arrived in the big city from Henan province, made a very public declaration of his innocence. Here\u2019s what Sun fell for:
\nA man who appears to be injured flags Sun down as he\u2019s driving to Pudong to pick someone up on instructions of his boss at the construction company where he\u2019s just landed a job. Sun, being a good person, stops and offers the guy a ride. Two blocks later the cops pull him over, the passenger tosses a 10 RMB note at Sun and jumps out, miraculously recovered. Sun\u2019s accused of operating an illegal taxi and his car is confiscated. If he\u2019s convicted he\u2019ll have to pay 10,000 RMB \u2013$1,500\u2014to get the car back. This is just under half of the average annual income of an urban worker in China. Rural workers make much less, and Sun has just arrived from the countryside.
\nHe was put in a police van with another man accused of the same \u201ccrime,\u201d so naturally they compared notes. Same “passenger” in both instances, it turns out,\u00a0a man the police refuse to identify. Two weeks later, brooding over his fate, Sun \u201ccuts off his finger to prove his innocence.\u201d There was a picture of a weeping Sun with a huge bandage around his hand on the front page of the China Daily on Thursday.
\nThis story may seem trivial in the face of the world\u2019s more intractable problems, but the fact the the official press is covering it, and that 96% of the 14,000 people who took the time to respond to an internet poll about Sun believe him and not the cops, is a hopeful sign for China\u2019s future. Rooting out corruption is a tremendous challenge in many countries. Our closest neighbor is rife with narco-corruption, and its people pay a huge price.<\/p>\n
The Shanghai cops running their illegal taxi con may, too, end up donating organs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"