China’s corruption crackdown nets 8 finance sector official, Prada handbags – so why is it being ridiculed online?
- China’s top disciplinary agency has detailed charges against eight financial officials as part of an accelerating anti-graft campaign
- Beijing announced a sweeping corruption crackdown targeting the finance sector last year and has since arrested dozens of officials
Four phones made by Huawei Technologies Co., three iPhones and three sets of Apple noise cancelling earphones were among items seized from an official in China’s latest anti-corruption drive. But the haul has been mocked by social media users as its value is only 100,000 yuan (US$15,000).
China’s top disciplinary watchdog announced charges against eight officials in the finance sector this week as part of an accelerating anti-graft campaign.
In addition to the electronics, Wang Yonghong, a former director of the technology department at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), has been accused of accepting 10 cartons of Chunghwa cigarettes, caterpillar fungus and ginseng between 2015-20, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said.
The CCDI, the highest anti-corruption agency of the Communist Party, said earlier this week it had confiscated the items and expelled Wang from the Communist Party and public office in May.
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The amount confiscated is just a fraction of the alleged 463 million yuan in bribes accepted by former CCDI deputy leader Dong Hong or the 450 million yuan taken by the former deputy party chief of Guizhou province, Wang Fuyu – both of whom were handed suspended death sentences in January.
