Corruption Pays In China

Corruption In China Isn’t Just a Local Story -- Max Boot, Commentary

Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, must have felt like he was hit by a political hurricane last week when the New York Times published a front-page story claiming that he and his family control a fortune of at least $2.7 billion.

While it has been generally known that the Communist Party elite were acquiring considerable wealth, that is still an eye-popping amount. All the more so because it is hardly an aberration. As my Council on Foreign Relations colleague Elizabeth Economy notes in a trenchant blog post on the Wen scandal, “the annual 2011 Hurun report on the wealthiest Chinese reveals that the top seventy members of the National People’s Congress are worth a combined total of $89.8 billion; in contrast, the net worth of the top 660 U.S. officials is only $7.5 billion.”

Read more ....

Update: China's People's Daily launches attack on The New York Times -- The Telegraph

My Comment: Everyone who is familiar with China knows that the country is essentially ruled by about 800 - 1,000 families .... and that much of the "real wealth" is controlled by this group. By publicizing this news, The New York Times went into an area that is never broached in China and rarely abroad .... and naturally .... the Chinese leadership (who are all culpable with this greed) .... are reacting in the only manner that they can .... condemn and threaten.