Mark Baker October 29, 2012
The venal actions of the party elite belie all the talk of modernisation. On the cusp of next month's 18th congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the carefully crafted theme song trumpeting reform and modernisation has been suddenly replaced by the old anthem of corruption and venality.
A startling report by The New York Times has revealed that the family of outgoing premier Wen Jiabao has stacked up a fortune in excess of $US2.7 billion in the decade since he joined the Politburo. According to the Times, Wen's wife, mother, children and assorted relatives have traded the family's revolutionary rags for the riches of an investment empire of banks, jewelers, tourist resorts, telecommunications companies and control of Ping An Insurance, one of the world's biggest financial companies…..The survival of the regime will again be threatened if it can no longer sustain growth and deliver further improvement to living standards - or if an increasingly affluent and well-informed population demands a more democratic system of government and comes to regard as intolerable the corruption and excess in the ruling elite. To Read More…..
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