Posts tagged ‘Shaanxi’

02/02/2013

* Corrupt Shaanxi banker disappears with US$160 million

This disappearance will probably be the first of many.

China Daily Mail: “Posted by chankaiyee2 ⋅ February 2, 2013

Chaoyang District

In my post “Police uncover Shaanxi fraudster’s 41 Beijing properties; arrest 4 ‘accomplices’”, I told SCMP’s story of Gong Aiai, a small potato who was for some time deputy chief of a county bank. However such a small potato was found by police to have assets worth more than 1 billion yuan ($160.2 million).

Singtao Daily reports today police investigation of her started due to a post on the internet informing against her in early December.

Singtao says that Gong denied that she had such properties in an interview with chinanews.com, but later disappeared. There is rumour that she has fled abroad using her passport with fake identity.

Chinese media have made investigation and found that Gong had valuable properties in Xian and her hometown Shenmu County and owns two large hotels in Shenmu.

However, with all such wealth, Gong was not happy and tried a failed suicide last October due to pressure from her business. Her daughter who studied in Beijing was in poor health due to excessive dieting for weight reduction.

SCMP reports: “Police have uncovered the false documents of a business partner of Gong Aia. Gao Yiner – who owned properties with Gong in Chaoyang district – had two Beijing household registration papers, called hukou, and at least two identification cards listing different birthdays.

Gong, dubbed the ‘elder sister of property’ by mainland media, reportedly had four IDs and four hukou, three of which were from her hometown of Shenmu county, Shaanxi province.”

Ming Pao says, according to Chinese web newspaper yicai.com, the household registries in many areas are somewhat in a mess. They have not only become the places for police officers to make extra money by providing people with fake identities but also shelters for corrupt officials to hide their assets.

Some police officers have revealed that some party and government officials have two household registrations to keep two identities. They use their fake identities to own their ill-gotten assets, while there are no illegal assets under their true identities. In that way, they are not afraid of declaration of their property.

From this, we see Xi Jinping’s wisdom. As soon as he took over the reigns, he said he wanted to reform the letters and calls, reeducation through labour and household registration systems.

He has conducted a swift reform of the letters and calls system to prevent local officials from intercepting and persecuting petitioners and informers so that people dare to inform against corrupt officials.

He said that he would abolish the reeducation through labour system. If that system is really abolished by the National People’s Congress, local government and police will not be able to imprison people in labour camps without proper legal procedures.

As for the household registration system, I thought that he meant allowing migrant workers to have household registration in the cities they work. That will take a long time and no priority should be given to that reform.

However, reform of the system to prevent corrupt officials from having fake identities, and discovering such fake identities, will be vital to the success of Xi’s anti-corruption drive. Xi seems to have his own source of information, so that he decided to give priority to that reform.

Sources: chinanews.com, yicai.com, Singtao Daily, Ming Pao, SCMP”

via China: Corrupt Shaanxi banker disappears with US$160 million « China Daily Mail.

21/09/2012

* Shaanxi bus crash: China sacks ‘smiling official’

BBCNews: “A safety official in China who sparked a public outcry after images showed him grinning at the scene of a fatal bus crash has been sacked, officials say.

Police officers and rescuers inspect the wreckage of a bus and tanker in Yanan, 26 Aug 2012

Yang Dacai has been stripped of all his official duties for “serious wrongdoing”, Shaanxi province officials said in a statement.

Pictures of Mr Yang smiling while visiting the site where 36 people died on 26 August were posted online.

Outrage grew when netizens found images of him wearing luxury watches.

An investigation into Mr Yang’s “inappropriate behaviour of ‘grinning’ as well as wearing luxurious watches” found him guilty of “serious wrongdoing”, the Communist Party’s discipline commission in Shaanxi said.

Officials are still further investigating “trails of [Mr Yang’s] other wrongdoing”, according to the online statement.

Mr Yang, head of Shaanxi’s Provincial Bureau of Work Safety, fielded questions on his Twitter-like weibo microblog after netizens posted images of him wearing expensive watches on various occasions.

Responding to criticism that he grinned at the scene of the crash he said: “My heart was heavy when I reached the scene… Junior officials appeared nervous when they were updating me on the situation.

“I was trying to get them to relax a little, so maybe, in an unguarded moment, I got a little too relaxed myself.”

He also explained that he “used legal income” to buy a number of watches, saying that the most expensive one he owned was worth 35,000 yuan ($5,550, £3,420).”

via BBC News – Shaanxi bus crash: China sacks ‘smiling official’.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/08/31/beleaguered-official-faces-netizens-online/

31/08/2012

* Beleaguered official faces netizens online

China Daily: “A senior work safety official’s grin at the site of a deadly traffic accident in Shaanxi province has become a nightmare haunting him.

Yang Dacai, 55, head of the Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Work Safety, was seen to be grinning in a photo taken after he arrived at the scene of a deadly traffic accident on Sunday in Yan’an, Shaanxi. Thirty-six people were killed when a sleeper bus rammed into a truck carrying a tank of methanol and caught fire.

The photo triggered an online wave of criticism among netizens.

The criticism grew louder when photos of Yang wearing five different watches, including Rolex, Mont Blanc and Radar, were posted online.

Many bloggers questioned how he could afford the costly timepieces and called for a corruption investigation.

On Wednesday night, Yang went online and apologized for the “relaxed” grin, saying that he was just trying to cheer people up after a long trudge to the accident site.

And he defended his innocence regarding the watches, saying he had “used legal income” to buy them over the past 10 years and he had reported the situation to the Party’s disciplinary organization.

Despite this, the Party Discipline Inspection Commission of Shaanxi has started an investigation on Yang, who would be punished if he is found to have violated disciplines or committed corruption, cnwest.com, an online news portal of Shaanxi, reported on Thursday.”

via Beleaguered official faces netizens online |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.

The Internet is continuing to ‘liberate’ Chinese citizens and cede power from (minor) officials.

See also: * How China’s 300m microbloggers are shaking the system (chindia-alert.org)

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