Survey of Chinese Wealthy

Author: Xiao Chuan (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This book presents the sins and punishments of China's wealthy, as well as their mentality and living environment. First, they rely on "cultural capital," i.e., winning wealth through intellectual factors such as cultural knowledge and technical skills. Next, they use "economic capital," i.e., accumulating wealth through the continuous expansion and original accumulation of capital. What people cannot accept and detest is the use of "power capital," i.e., the method of getting rich by joining the upper class through improper gray transactions.
Excerpt: Most fugitive tycoons come from the financial system and state-owned enterprises. "Make a quick buck and run, run and be done with it." In recent years, under the thunderous crackdown, officials and state-owned enterprises who committed corruption crimes have often fled overseas with huge sums of money to avoid punishment. According to incomplete statistics, more than 4,000 suspected embezzlers and bribe-takers have fled with over 5 billion yuan in public funds, causing a massive loss of state assets and extremely severe social harm.
Yan Xudong, the deputy director of the Financial Department of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region's Transportation Bureau, colluded with others to embezzle more than 50 million yuan in road construction funds and fled abroad. Fang Jiaxiang, a corrupt official from Ningbo, escaped to Canada with nearly 1 million yuan in stolen money. Ai Haimaiti, an employee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps' Urumqi branch of the Agricultural Bank, fled Russia with 2.3 million yuan in stolen funds. Chen Guoqiang and Lin Jincai, employees of the Construction Bank in Dongguan, Guangdong, fled to Thailand, transferring hundreds of millions of yuan in stolen money. In the Bank of China Nanhai branch case, the suspect fled overseas with 40 million yuan. In the Kaiping case, billions of yuan in funds were laundered into cash through casinos in Macau and Las Vegas and deposited into the overseas accounts of the involved parties. According to estimates by experts from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the total scale of capital flight from 1997 to 1999 alone was as high as 52 billion U.S. dollars. These are shocking figures! However, the amount of money carried by corrupt officials fleeing overseas has been steadily increasing, and the value of the cases involved has greatly increased compared to before 1995. Cases of embezzlement and misappropriation of hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan have become common. "Among the fugitives, many hold positions in the financial system, as well as managers, directors of state-owned companies and enterprises, and financial and sales personnel who directly handle and manage money." The cases show that some financial departments in China are the first major hotspots for corrupt officials fleeing overseas.
Xu Guojun, Yu Zhen Dong, and Xu Chao Fan, the three former heads of the Bank of China Kaiping Branch, embezzled 483 million yuan and fled overseas respectively. State-owned enterprises are another major hotspot for corrupt officials fleeing. Among the more than 120 fugitive suspects prosecuted by the Beijing Procuratorial Office in 2001, 70% were general managers, deputy general managers, and accounting personnel of state-owned enterprises. Zhou Changqing, the general manager and head of the automotive department of the Xi'an Municipal Electromechanical Equipment Co., Ltd. under state control, went to Macau 16 times to gamble and lost 48 million yuan in public funds. He then used a passport under the false name of "Li Zhiming" to leave Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, passing through Hong Kong to France, and finally escaping to Ecuador in South America. Due to his lack of language skills and inability to support himself, he was arrested nearly penniless. On January 10, 2003, this former entrepreneur, who had once made significant contributions, was legally executed in Xi'an for gambling away his life. In recent years, cases of state-owned enterprise executives fleeing to unknown destinations have been reported across the country. Taking Yunnan Province as an example, Chen Chuanbai, the former director of Kunming Cigarette Factory, embezzled 160 million yuan and fled overseas. A few years ago, after the corruption case of Chu Shijian, the former chairman of Yunnan Hongta Group, was exposed, he attempted to flee to Vietnam but was intercepted by the border inspection station.
"Among the 36 stratagems, flight is the best," but fleeing overseas without a substantial amount of money is no easy feat. The concentration of corrupt officials fleeing in the financial system and state-owned enterprises dealing with money and state assets is not accidental.
### The Four Destinations of Fugitive Tycoons
According to statistical analysis, the destinations of China's fugitive tycoons can be roughly divided into four categories:
1. Those with relatively small amounts of money involved and lower ranks mostly flee to neighboring countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Mongolia, and Russia.
2. Those with large amounts of money and higher ranks mostly flee to developed Western countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands.
3. Some officials who cannot obtain visas to Western countries choose to hide in obscure, less legally regulated small countries in Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe as temporary bases, waiting for the right opportunity to transition.
4. A considerable number of fugitives transit through Hong Kong, taking advantage of Hong Kong's status as a global aviation hub and the convenience of visa-free entry to former British Commonwealth countries, before fleeing to other countries.
Some corrupt officials, after fleeing overseas, spend their huge sums of money extravagantly and live a luxurious, paradise-like life. According to the U.S. Chinese-language newspaper World Daily, some American accountants were stunned by the wealth of certain former Chinese officials who settled in the U.S. Many of them could afford to buy houses worth millions of dollars in full payment. Now, it is common to see many Chinese people in Los Angeles driving ultra-luxurious cars, adorned with jewelry, and spending freely. Much of their wealth comes from ill-gotten gains.
Chen Manxiong and Chen Qiuyuan, a couple who served as the manager and legal representative of Zhongshan City Industrial Development Corporation, respectively, transferred 420 million yuan in overdrafts to the company's account through a colleague in the bank's transfer department, constituting the largest embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds case in China in 1995. Just as the procuratorial organs were investigating them, the couple fled with the money to Chiang Mai, Thailand, bought Thai identities, and changed their names to Su