Early retirement or lying low: How Chinese officials cope with Xi's fearsome anti-graft drive
Crackdown has also prompted officials to stall expensive projects, fearing that action would call attention to themselves
President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption has sown so much fear that many Chinese officials are doing anything to stay out of trouble – from dithering over approving big-ticket projects to seeking early retirement.
A small number of top executives under investigation at state-owned enterprises have even committed suicide.
While the campaign has been a hit with a public usually sceptical about such crackdowns, it is having an unintended consequence, said bureaucratic sources and officials at state enterprises: Those supposed to implement much-needed economic reforms and run the machinery of government are dragging their feet because they are scared of attracting unwanted attention.
One reason for the fear is that Xi’s 18-month-old campaign shows no sign of faltering.
It claimed its biggest scalp so far last week when the government said it would court-martial a former top army general, Xu Caihou, for taking bribes – the most senior officer ever felled in a Chinese graft probe.
Another is that with corruption so endemic in China – especially in government procurement, the energy and construction sectors and the awarding of land-use and mining rights – many officials know they could be next.
