A sandalwood dining table on display at an international top lifestyle brand expo
The hidden corruption of expensive specialties
On March 31, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision website issued an article revealing that in the first two months of this year, a total of 15,620 cases of violation of the spirit of the eight central provisions were investigated and handled nationwide. Among them, the illegal receipt of expensive specialties and gifts and gifts, ranked first in the investigation of the total number of hedonism, extravagant wind problems. “The old problems, new manifestations intertwined and coexist, if a little slack, ‘four winds’ may rebound back to the tide, the resurgence.
The so-called “precious specialties, special resources” refers to a particular place unique or particularly famous products, usually including high-grade tobacco and wine, rare herbs, expensive tea, valuable wood, jewelry and jade, porcelain and paintings. They are often sought after by the market because of their scarcity and high quality, and some of them are even targeted for official consumption from enterprise research and development to market sales; some of them need to be obtained through special channels, so they also have certain space for speculation or special uses such as gift exchange and bribery. The famous specialty products should be a beautiful business card to promote the image of the place, but many of them are used as “tools” in the gray interest chain of politics and business.
The company’s main business is to promote the image of the local community, but many of these products have been used as “tools” in the grey chain of political and business interests. According to the report, Li Wei believed that he was superior in every way, different from others, and had to have special arrangements. In accepting the boss’s banquet to eat and drink, he deliberately divided people into three classes at the table, corresponding to the wine is also divided into three grades – their own drink 15 years of “Maotai”, the boss drink “Shuijingfang”, subordinates drink This real estate “three dams”. He said, “I am the deputy mayor, how can I drink the same wine with them, there must be a difference, only I can drink 15 years of Maotai wine.”
A former media person in Gansu Province said that in order to offer bribes in a targeted manner, the personal preferences of officials would become a topic of concern for some subordinates and bosses, and the preferences of officials had become almost an open secret. He cited the Gansu officialdom as an example: Wang Sanyun, the former secretary of the provincial party committee, only recognizes Maotai for drinking, and Huoronggui, the former secretary of the Wuwei municipal party committee, likes 50ml bottles of “small Maotai”.
He told China Newsweek, citing a source in Gansu Province, that one day in 2015, Fire Ronggui went to inspect Minqin County in Wuwei City, and local officials prepared a banquet at noon with baby fish and some famous wine, but Fire Ronggui found no “small Maotai” and became furious. The local panicked officials apologized to Huo Ronggui while immediately contacting him to transfer the goods from Lanzhou, which was delivered in about 3 hours. In this way, to ensure that the fire Ronggui at dinner on the “small Maotai”. And the normal speed, from Lanzhou to Minqin County drive to close to 5 hours.
The company’s main goal is to provide a comprehensive range of products and services to the public. The same month, “China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News” published an article analyzing the case of Zhan Shunzhou. The article said, Zhan Shunzhou has two major hobbies. A good jade, after years of “playing”, Zhan Shunzhou boasts that he is a connoisseur of jade, businessmen bosses and cadres sent to the jade he first identified himself, think good to receive, bad to return on the spot, let the other party to re-buy, or express to his designated store to buy, of course, the end result is that the money to buy jade tumbled into his pocket. The second good to play mahjong, which the bosses naturally “understand”, vying to accompany the game, disguised as a transfer of benefits, Zhan Shunzhou is “only win, not lose”, gladly accepted. In order to improve efficiency, he will sometimes arrange two or even several mahjong fields a night, the money on this table to sweep up, rushed to another field then “gold”.
Zhan Shunzhou once said: “I began to be no hobby, are the boss to cultivate up, at first people play with you, send you something small, play and become addicted, and business owners have become friends, and finally the deeper the set, like ‘boiling frogs in warm water’. “
A department-level official in Guangdong Province told “China Newsweek” that some officials’ preferences are grasped by some people, many bribe-givers will be targeted to bribery, and even lead to bribe-takers home “excess of expensive specialties. He said, for example, that Zhong Shijian, former deputy secretary of the Guangdong Discipline Inspection Commission and former director of the provincial supervision department, was particularly fond of cordyceps, and had a cabinet full of cordyceps at home.
Vacuum-packed Cordyceps
On April 1, 2015, Zhong Shijian was investigated and was sentenced to fifteen months in prison in 2016. In the CCTV broadcast of the feature film “iron needs to be hard”, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and supervision of cadres staff told the scene at home Zhong Shijian: “Others sent thousands of bottles of wine, on their own home. There is also wormwood, when we checked from his home, the wormwood alone weighs more than 200 pounds. A good deal of cash is in bundles, never opened, just from the collection is placed there, a zigzag, the seal has the 90s.”
Some officials themselves are also buyers and consumers of expensive specialties. in December 2017, Liang Jianxin, the former director of Dongguan’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, was sentenced to five years in prison for taking bribes. The verdict shows that from 2007 to 2010, Liang Jianxin took 4.1 million Hong Kong dollars in bribes, all of which he used to buy wormwood and other high-grade medicinal materials. He said that every time he went to Hong Kong, he brought some money for shopping, mainly for the purchase of wormwood and other high-grade herbs, which continued to spend seven or eight years, and slowly spent it all. His wife suffers from a variety of diseases, so she needs to take some high-grade herbs for a long time to treat her illness. His own health is also bad due to drinking and socializing, and since 2006 he has been found to have high blood pressure and diabetes, and usually uses wormwood to make water.
Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Center for Public Policy Research and Integrity Construction Research Center at Peking University, told China Newsweek that in most cases, businessmen or subordinates and others buy such high-priced items often not for their own use, but as special resources to bribe officials. “In the eyes of the bribe-giver, the power in the official’s hands is more valuable than valuable resources. Officials who take bribes often have a privileged mindset that exists, and they also have the perverse psychology of manifesting their special power through these valuable specialty items.”
He believes that now, with the increase in anti-corruption efforts, corrupt practices are also being updated. In order to avoid investigation and supervision, the bribe giver dare not blatantly send some money, gold and silver jewelry, etc., with a certain degree of concealment, such as expensive specialties are more favored by the bribe giver and bribery, which also led to the phenomenon of corruption of expensive specialties intensified, expensive specialties have become a tool for bribe givers to get through.
More covert than traditional bribery methods
Some seemingly insignificant tea and other local specialties, but also hidden certain secrets. Wuyi rock tea in Fujian Province has a long history, as early as the Tang Dynasty that became a tribute to the court. The Xinhua Daily Telegraph reported that local discipline inspection and supervision cadres pointed out that some officials to support the tea industry, the reason for the frank acceptance and consumption of “overpriced tea”.
Wuyishan City, Tianxin Village, known as the “Chinese rock tea village”, the village of a number of tea business owners told “China Newsweek”, in previous years, many tea enterprises to government officials to send “gift tea” and other very common, some government departments will also cooperate with some tea enterprises, customizing a “gift tea”. This tea is not which tea enterprises can do, but also depends on whether the fame of the tea enterprises, the tea itself is a good tea with a certain degree of popularity, etc.. In the procurement process, it is easy to appear kickbacks. “For example, the procurement of 1000 yuan / kg of tea, can be written into 2000 yuan / kg, etc.. Disturbing the market order, honest and trustworthy enterprises are hit instead. Now after the anti-corruption efforts have increased, this behavior has only been restrained.”
Some officials to the leadership of the tea, in the number of even to “tons” as a unit, can be described as generous. The first instance criminal verdict of the case of Li Xiaoping, former secretary of the Lincang Municipal Committee, published on the website of Chinese Judicial Instruments, shows that from 2011 to 2013, Li Xiaoping gave Bai Enpei, then secretary of the CPC Yunnan Provincial Committee and deputy director of the Environment and Resources Protection Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, 4,000 yuan worth of pu-er tea to the couple in order to thank them for their care and help in the process of his promotion and hope that they would continue to receive care in the future. The company’s bribes are worth more than RMB 600,000 yuan, including 4 tons of Pu’er tea and 1 ton of Lincang tea worth RMB 160,000 yuan.
It is worth noting that the bribes were not paid out of Li Xiaoping’s own pocket. The verdict shows that the then secretary-general of the Pu’er municipal government, Wang Mou, confirmed that between 2011 and 2012, Li Xiaoping had arranged for him to purchase 3 tons of tea in the name of government reception tea made into tea cakes and sent to Bai Enpei’s house. Bai Enpei said in his testimony that during his tenure as secretary of the CPC Yunnan Provincial Committee, Li Xiaoping served as his secretary in May 2003, so the two were familiar with each other. “Li Xiaoping sent me tea to thank me for my support during his promotion to the post, and also expected to continue to receive my support in this way.”
An anti-corruption scholar told China Newsweek that not only tea, but also many seemingly insignificant agricultural products and local specialties, can become a tool for giving gifts to leaders. He cited the example of Shandong onions, which are highly known. In the past, this agricultural product would be shipped from the district to the city, from the city to the province, and then from the province by the truckload to Beijing, to some state ministries. “This kind of local specialties, the price per pound is not high, but the accumulation of a small amount into a large number, after a large amount, also deviated from the intent of the courtesy”.
Zhuang Deshui said, compared with other ways, this kind of problem of corruption nature, but the manifestation of the form more concealed. He pointed out that there are various forms of concealment, for example, some look very ordinary, but may be expensive, it is difficult for the layman to see its value; some merchants give it a “tasting” “not for sale” and so on, not directly marked price, but also the price and The intention is to hide the price and intent in the specialty products, giving cover to the expensive price. Many people give gifts by suggesting that “officials personally tasting” and other forms, suggesting the price of officials, officials will also understand.
Wang Minggao, chief expert of the Hunan Provincial Integrity Think Tank, said in an interview with China Newsweek that after the 18th National Congress, as anti-corruption efforts continue to increase, the way bribes are offered and accepted is also changing. “This way of bribery is a deformation of the traditional way of bribery, the price of many souvenirs is not obvious, and even some of the surface looks very earthy, but in fact the price is amazing. This concealment is quite popular with both the bribe-giver and the bribe-taker, and the bribe-giver does this for his own consideration, as well as for the bribe-taker’s consideration.”
Expensive specialty products “business”
China News Weekly” combed through the relevant cases and found that some valuable specialties entered the hands of officials in three cases: some of them kept or appreciated themselves; some of them treated the bribed items as bribe-giving items again, thus lengthening the chain of interests; others did a “business “, will be such items for resale.
Some tea business owners told “China Newsweek”, tea business circle “tea money laundering” means of corruption operation is not uncommon. In this operation, some tea business owners or dealers, will become bribe-givers and bribe-taking officials “intermediaries”. An informed person said, for example, a briber wants to find an official, will ask the leader what tea he likes to drink. The official said a tea store is good, and then the bribe-giver will understand, and the official to a tea store to drink tea, and then buy tea. “At this point the bribe-giver does not care how much the price, the tea store said how much is how much. Officials get this part of the tea, and then discounted after the return of the tea store.”
There are also tea business owners said, “For example, in the context of increased anti-corruption, I went to visit an important official, directly give money or gold and silver jewelry, etc. and he did not dare to accept, I gave him very expensive tea, and implied that he price, he can collect himself or put on the market to trade.”
A department-level official in Guangdong Province told “China Newsweek”, in the chain of corruption of expensive specialties, some high-grade gift recycling stores are also an important part of the corruption chain. Some officials take bribes, they can not consume the items, some transfer to other officials, some will also be sold to some gift recycling stores at a discount, in a way, the owner of such stores act as a broker for officials to launder money. “Such stores are also more trusting of the gifts coming from some official channels, and some will even establish long-term relationships with certain officials.”
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. The feature film introduced that the right to approve scarce special resources has become an important source of “Maotai chaos”. Yuan Renguo in Maotai Group for more than 40 years, from a brewery workers step by step to become a hand, with the promotion of the position, he began to use the power in his hands to irregularly approved stores, approved “backdoor wine”, for huge private profits.
The production workshop of Maotai distillery in October 2020
The staff of the Guizhou Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision task force introduced Yuan Renguo set aside a certain amount of wine every year, is the unplanned batch of wine, in the institutional arrangements caused by the power of rent-seeking space. Yuan Renguo used Maotai business rights as a tool to engage in political climbing and make political capital, illegally handling Maotai wine business rights and increasing quota targets for Wang Sanyun, former secretary of the Gansu Provincial Party Committee, Wang Xiaoguang, former vice governor of Guizhou Province, and their relatives. Over the past seven years, the four stores have received a total of 131.48 tons of Maotai wine quota, making a profit of more than 40 million yuan. Since 2004, Yuan Renguo’s wife and children alone have made more than 230 million yuan in profits from the illegal operation of Maotai wine.
Yuan Renguo said during his appearance, “At that time there were many people who wanted to desperately approach me, and there were at least 40 or 50 people who approached me in a day.” A large number of dealers, suppliers and Yuan Renguo by all means to pull the relationship, make contacts, and engage in the transfer of benefits, Yuan Renguo’s office outside the corridor, once a daily doorstep.
Some officials even became the boss of expensive specialties and sold the products to their own work units and so on. The official website of the Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision has informed 10 typical problems of illegal public money to buy tea and other personal gains, which mentioned the former director of the Forestry Bureau of Shuangjiang County, Lincang City, Yang Minghua irregular purchase of tea and selling tea and other personal gains. from June 2011 to February 2015, Yang Minghua, during his tenure as director of the Forestry Bureau of Shuangjiang County, partnered with his classmates to do tea business, develop gift tea, and use the convenience of his position to sell tea to County Forestry Bureau a total of 1,679,700 yuan, sold to the owner of forest-related enterprises related to the exercise of its powers a total of 950,000 yuan. in September 2017, Yang Minghua was sentenced to six years in prison.
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