China's corruption crackdown sifts out select targets A wide-ranging trial and execution of a top official stop short of bona fide cleanup ALL Edition

• Published in: The Christian Science monitor (1983)
• Main Author: Noah J. Smith, Special to The Christian Science Monitor
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, Mass The Christian Science Publishing Society (d/b/a "The Christian Science Monitor"), trusteeship under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 18.09.2000
• Subjects: Capital punishment; Cheng Kejie; China; Corruption in government; Official misconduct; Trials; China; BEIJING
• ISSN: 0882-7729

Few doubt that the Chinese leadership is serious about attacking corruption. As Tsao King Kwun, professor of government at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, puts it, "No political regime can tolerate that level of corruption, so they have to be serious." A case in point are the trials that began this past Wednesday. They will mete out punishment in what is widely said to be the biggest corruption scandal since the founding of the People's Republic. Being held secretly in several cities in coastal Fujian Province, the trials illustrate limitations of the anticorruption campaign. The Yuanhua Group, a conglomerate based in Xiamen, smuggled an estimated $9.5 billion worth of goods into the country with the help of political connections that are suspected to reach right up to Jia Qinglin, Politburo member and best man at President Jiang's wedding. Mr. Jia's wife was reportedly under investigation for being involved in the smuggling, but the couple seems to have escaped relatively unscathed. The mainland media, meanwhile, are prohibited from discussing the Xiamen case at all.