One of the least attractive things about China from Britain is its ready
use of the death penalty. Presumably that is not the main obstacle to
friendship with China in the USA.
These repeated accounts are sometimes taken as proof that China is just
going capitalist, or if not, is a most unattractive version of socialism. I
am sure that is not Charles's purpose in reproducing this item.
These reports are often recycled from Chinese sources but are re-edited in
the West to pick up only the scandal.
I suggest they are best viewed in perspective as a society in the course of
major social change dictated by the change in the means of production.
The millenia old culture of China relied on a professional system and a
culture of what was acceptable and what was not, in order to influence that
system. Yet that system was able more or less to run half a continent.
In retrospect some of the most radical features of China's socialism had
elements of the old feudal system in it. The overthrow of rotten imperial
officials for example. The peasant uprising overthrowing a dynasty before
the old system re-asserted itself.
The new emphasis in China on a social and a market economy puts tremendous
pressure on this system which cannot be controlled by more sophisticated
methods such as accountants. Hence the reversion to public shame and
exemplary punishment.
Chris Burford
London
At 12:14 26/04/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Monday, April 24, 2000
>
>China executes deputy mayor for graft
>ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
>BEIJING, APRIL 23: Chinese authorities executed a deputy mayor on Sunday for
>massive bribery, the latest official punished in a year-long campaign
>against rampant corruption.
>After a case review by China's Supreme Court, Li Chenglong (48) was put to
>death in the impoverished southern region of Guangxi, where he worked as a
>deputy mayor of Guigang city, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said.
>On Thursday, the head of Guangxi's government from 1990-1998, Cheng Kejie,
>was expelled from the ruling Communist Party ahead of his prosecution for
>alleged bribery.
>Cheng, a deputy chairman of China's national legislature, was one of the
>most senior officials caught in the recently renewed campaign against the
>graft that is undermining public support for Communist rule.
>Li was convicted of bribery and having unexplained sources of income, Xinhua
>said. It said that in exchange for approving promotions, loans, land and
>construction contracts, Li took Dollars 478,500 worth of bribes in Chinese,
>Hong Kong and US currencies between 1991 and 1996, when he was Communist
>Party secretary of Yulin city in Guangxi, Xinhua said.
>Li also couldn't explain where he got currencies worth more than Dollars
>685,000 that were found in his home, along with jewellery, Xinhua said.
>Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
>
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