New CCS Commentary: China’s Anti-Corruption Drive and China Family Inc. Last week the International Consortium on Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) released a cache of documents listing over 20 000 Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese with off-shore holdings. Relatives of at least five former and current members of the Chinese leadership, including Xi Jinping and Wen Jiabao are implicated in the list. For the average Chinese citizen, the fact that high level leaders families are stashing fortunes in tax havens abroad will come as no surprise. The present expose, however, is explosive as the revelations are not only about illegal finances but also about the morally questionable (and legally ‘grey’) issue of stashing cash abroad. China’s CPC builds its legitimacy to govern China on the moral right to serve the masses and to improve their fate. While many Chinese are better off nowadays than two, three decades ago: How much can party officials or their families use connections to amass personal wealth? How much do the so-called ‘princelings’ use their positions for the pursuit of personal interests?
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 07:54:02 +0000