Chinese Officials Fleeing Country with Billions in Public Funds: Paper

Nov 3rd, 2008 • Posted in: News

The Communist Party, usually reluctant to air its dirty laundry, publicizes recent case, leading observers to believe it’s viewed as a significant problem

BEIJING
China is facing an epidemic of officials slipping away from the country with billions of dollars in public funds in tow, according to a report from the Christian Science Monitor.

Staff writer Peter Ford, filing from Beijing, profiled one midlevel Communist Party official who allegedly slipped away from a government trip to Paris three weeks ago with cash in hand. “If true, he joins as many as 10,000 corrupt Chinese officials who have fled the country over the past decade, taking as much as $100 billion of public funds with them, according to an estimate by Li Chengyan, head of Peking University’s Anticorruption Research Institute,” Ford writes.

But Ford points out that the most recent case is gaining some unexpected play in the Chinese media, which is controlled by a government generally reluctant to air its dirty laundry.

The suddenly forthcoming coverage apparently sends a signal that the government regards the trend as a significant problem, according to one expert quoted in the Monitor.

Corruption, Ford writes, is “pervasive at almost every level of the government, and it is a major factor eroding faith in the ruling Communist Party.”

“Chinese President Hu Jintao has repeatedly declared that the fight against fraud is a top government priority and courts have handed down heavy sentences against prominent offenders,” Ford adds.

Source: Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 31.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Oct. 27 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 20 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 14 — Related Newsline story, Sep. 8 — Related Newsline story, June 30.

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