The stunning wealth of Chinese government officials

[BurnoutBinLaden]

The premier Wen Jiabao, and the members of the National People's Congress, are ridiculously wealthy. In contrast, the average income in China is still less than $3500 per year. Many CCP members and officials park their cash abroad, in Australia, Singapore, the US, Europe...even in Vancouver. Here are two articles that give a snapshot of how rich they really are...

The mother of China’s prime minister was a schoolteacher in northern China. His father was ordered to tend pigs in one of Mao’s political campaigns. And during childhood, “my family was extremely poor,” the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, said in a speech last year.

But now 90, the prime minister’s mother, Yang Zhiyun, not only left poverty behind, she became outright rich, at least on paper, according to corporate and regulatory records. Just one investment in her name, in a large Chinese financial services company, had a value of $120 million five years ago, the records show.

The details of how Ms. Yang, a widow, accumulated such wealth are not known, or even if she was aware of the holdings in her name. But it happened after her son was elevated to China’s ruling elite, first in 1998 as vice prime minister and then five years later as prime minister.

Many relatives of Wen Jiabao, including his son, daughter, younger brother and brother-in-law, have become extraordinarily wealthy during his leadership, an investigation by The New York Times shows. A review of corporate and regulatory records indicates that the prime minister’s relatives — some of whom, including his wife, have a knack for aggressive deal making — have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion.

In many cases, the names of the relatives have been hidden behind layers of partnerships and investment vehicles involving friends, work colleagues and business partners. Untangling their financial holdings provides an unusually detailed look at how politically connected people have profited from being at the intersection of government and business as state influence and private wealth converge in China’s fast-growing economy.

Unlike most new businesses in China, the family’s ventures sometimes received financial backing from state-owned companies, including China Mobile, one of the country’s biggest phone operators, the documents show. At other times, the ventures won support from some of Asia’s richest tycoons. The Times found that Mr. Wen’s relatives accumulated shares in banks, jewelers, tourist resorts, telecommunications companies and infrastructure projects, sometimes by using offshore entities.

The holdings include a villa development project in Beijing; a tire factory in northern China; a company that helped build some of Beijing’s Olympic stadiums, including the well-known “Bird’s Nest”; and Ping An Insurance, one of the world’s biggest financial services companies.

As prime minister in an economy that remains heavily state-driven, Mr. Wen, who is best known for his simple ways and common touch, more importantly has broad authority over the major industries where his relatives have made their fortunes. Chinese companies cannot list their shares on a stock exchange without approval from agencies overseen by Mr. Wen, for example. He also has the power to influence investments in strategic sectors like energy and telecommunications.

Because the Chinese government rarely makes its deliberations public, it is not known what role — if any — Mr. Wen, who is 70, has played in most policy or regulatory decisions. But in some cases, his relatives have sought to profit from opportunities made possible by those decisions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/bu...anted=all&_r=0

The richest 70 members of China’s legislature added more to their wealth last year than the combined net worth of all 535 members of the U.S. Congress, the president and his Cabinet, and the nine Supreme Court justices.

The net worth of the 70 richest delegates in China’s National People’s Congress, which opens its annual session on March 5, rose to 565.8 billion yuan ($89.8 billion) in 2011, a gain of $11.5 billion from 2010, according to figures from the Hurun Report, which tracks the country’s wealthy. That compares to the $7.5 billion net worth of all 660 top officials in the three

The income gain by NPC members reflects the imbalances in economic growth in China, where per capita annual income in 2010 was $2,425, less than in Belarus and a fraction of the $37,527 in the U.S. The disparity points to the challenges that China’s new generation of leaders, to be named this year, faces in countering a rise in social unrest fueled by illegal land grabs and corruption.

"It is extraordinary to see this degree of a marriage of wealth and politics,” said Kenneth Lieberthal, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at Washington’s Brookings Institution. “It certainly lends vivid texture to the widespread complaints in China about an extreme inequality of wealth in the country now.”

Most Powerful

The National People’s Congress, whose annual meeting will run for a week and a half, is legally the highest governmental body in China. While the legislature, with about 3,000 members, is often derided as a rubberstamp parliament, its members are some of China’s most powerful politicians and executives, wielding power in their home provinces and weighing in on proposals such as whether to impose a nationwide property tax.

“The NPC is not exactly what you would call a center of power, but being on it certainly gets you deeply engaged in the political system,” Lieberthal said.

Hurun, a Shanghai-based publisher of magazines targeted at the Chinese luxury consumer, uses publicly available information such as corporate filings to compile its annual list of the richest people in China. It then cross-checks that data with the government’s list of NPC members.

Zong Qinghou, chairman of beverage-maker Hangzhou Wahaha Group (HWGZ) and China’s second-richest person, with a family fortune of 68 billion yuan, is a member. So is Wu Yajun, chairwoman of Beijing-based Longfor Properties (LHREZ) Co. She has family wealth of 42 billion yuan, according to the Hurun Report.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...e-paupers.html

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

it's not that surprising as the nation ties power with money. you only climb any ladder for more money. and having the role of a government official revolves around money and power.

the culture is realistic.


about wealth in general:

Everything is fair if you look at the time frame beyond just one life time.

a decision your great grandfather made, could have the benefits reaped a generation or two later.

most people don't realise, that to build anything great, takes more than one life time. and even if they did realise it, they're too greedy to accept it.

if you're born into wealth, it's fair game. someone in your family line before made a decision that was a good one. sounds fair to me.

so all the poor people should start working on something now, so that perhaps their grandchildren or great grandchildren can have a better life than they do. they have to accept it.

[ae101]

man this was like old news bro

[Nlkko]

Did you expect to get a reaction? Pretty much the entire Southeast Asia or the whole Asia even have been like this.... For decades.....

Mind you it aint that pretty in the West either...
Posted via RS Mobile

[Gridlock]

i love how they call themselves "communist".

I don't even really know what to call their system of government anymore. Dictatorship for sure, but beyond that...I think its more capitalist than the US is.

[bing]

^It's called State capitalism.

The use of the name 'communist' is paradoxical but it reflects what the party began as and what ideals they represented. It's only been a few decades since Deng Xiaoping declared that they would try the market approach.

Back to the article. This is probably the reason everyone wants to get into the government in China.

[Graeme S]

Originally Posted by Gridlock

i love how they call themselves "communist".

I don't even really know what to call their system of government anymore. Dictatorship for sure, but beyond that...I think its more capitalist than the US is.

I was watching the daily show, and they were interviewing someone who had retired from the administration and had done a book. He was asked about China and about the system there. He said he asked the same thing

"You guys have a mixed-market semi-capitalist system, what do you do about that?"
the reply?
"We do what we do, and we call it communism."


Just like America does what it does and calls it Capitalism. And that we do what we do and call it Socialism. Names are just words to make us more comfortable with the systems we inhabit--regardless of their accuracy.

[drunkrussian]

lol people cortisized bush for giving himself a raise to a million a year. This mofucker is worth a few billion... Dayum

Gonna wait for a long comment from uliq on this one :-p

Edit:woops hes way ahead of me
Posted via RS Mobile

[boss_clad]

We shouldn't be naive,

It's so convoluted once you're that powerful, they are much wealthier than whatever number they "allow" us to know.

My girlfriend only knew about 40% of my true net worth

[Gridlock]

Originally Posted by Graeme S

I was watching the daily show, and they were interviewing someone who had retired from the administration and had done a book. He was asked about China and about the system there. He said he asked the same thing

"You guys have a mixed-market semi-capitalist system, what do you do about that?"
the reply?
"We do what we do, and we call it communism."


Just like America does what it does and calls it Capitalism. And that we do what we do and call it Socialism. Names are just words to make us more comfortable with the systems we inhabit--regardless of their accuracy.

Oh, true enough. I get it.

I just find it "humorous" for a country that is typically identified as communist(most likely as a way of using that very bad word to describe them) has stories of the rich and powerful making bucket loads of money while the peasants feed on scraps. The very, singular thing that Karl Marx was speaking against, and Lenin put into action to solve.

[m4k4v4li]

Originally Posted by boss_clad

We shouldn't be naive,

It's so convoluted once you're that powerful, they are much wealthier than whatever number they "allow" us to know.

My girlfriend only knew about 40% of my true net worth

hahahahhahah some ppl never change

[$_$]

Originally Posted by Gridlock

Oh, true enough. I get it.

I just find it "humorous" for a country that is typically identified as communist(most likely as a way of using that very bad word to describe them) has stories of the rich and powerful making bucket loads of money while the peasants feed on scraps. The very, singular thing that Karl Marx was speaking against, and Lenin put into action to solve.

Haha, they don't have this story in China. None of this information is public enough in that anybody even knows remotely anything about it. The average Chinese would never go looking for it. Censorship is still extremely strong.

In fact, this specific story is what got Bloomberg got completely banned in China altogether. The ban for Bloomberg is so strong that if you even try to download the Bloomberg APP from the Google Play store, it gets stopped before the download even starts. They got completely blacked out from the internet for running and pursuing this story.

It's really sad just how degenerated the current form of communism is. In reality communism as an ideal would never work in real life. At the end, that's what really communism is - it's a non-realistic ideal because once you give power people become corrupted.

I feel like the Chinese (as a people) are not oblivious to this though. In a sense they felt like it was necessary in order to get China reunited again. The State Communism is effective when you need to effect changes on a geographic scale such as China, and to get things in order in a new government and country. There aren't as many hoops to jump through to just get things done. I think an example of this would be just how divided the State Laws/Federal laws are in the US, and how ineffective congress (or even our parliament) might be to pass certain laws that are probably no-brainers.

I feel like there are still hope though. Since all the children of the government officials are sent out overseas to Europe and North America I'm really hoping that they will start bringing the democratic theology back. They might be stupid, douchebaggy, spoiled, guan-er-dai (rich second generation government officials). But at least they would have gotten their education in a western environment.

Even domestically in China you can start feeling the changes under the surface, despite all the censorship they might have. People that have gone to university and have a bit of education will start to ... realize things are not as they seem, especially when compared to other countries. I find that the west is no longer demonized so there is actually an admiration for their way of living, especially since everything has commercialized. And the internet has definitely played a catalyst in all of this. Change is happening, albiet slowly.

[BurnoutBinLaden]

Originally Posted by $_$

They might be stupid, douchebaggy, spoiled, fu-er-guan (rich second generation government officials).

Are you thinking of 官二代 aka Princelings? They make the 富二代 look like paupers. It's fuckin ridiculous, they say they're upholding Mao's glorious socialist vision, all while driving around in a ¥6MM ($980,000) RR Phantom, sometimes in villages where the average person makes $2 a day. Or they drop ¥200k in Macao in 15 minutes.

The saddest thing is that many of the villagers or famers might have been intellectuals or professors before 1965...but that's a different matter.

[murd0c]

I'm not surprised what so ever, its been like that across the world and will always be the same..

[$_$]

Originally Posted by BurnoutBinLaden

Are you thinking of 官二代 aka Princelings? They make the 富二代 look like paupers. It's fuckin ridiculous, they say they're upholding Mao's glorious socialist vision, all while driving around in a ¥6MM ($980,000) RR Phantom, sometimes in villages where the average person makes $2 a day. Or they drop ¥200k in Macao in 15 minutes.

The saddest thing is that many of the villagers or famers might have been intellectuals or professors before 1965...but that's a different matter.

My mistake. Changed.

Yeah, I think it's pretty ridiculous too, but there's not much you can do. It's part of reality, just like how there are super rich in any other country. Like you, I use to get super riled up, and super angry at this type of stories. Out of jealousy? Out of actual anger? Who knows. But like Ulic pointed out:

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma

a decision your great grandfather made, could have the benefits reaped a generation or two later.

most people don't realise, that to build anything great, takes more than one life time. and even if they did realise it, they're too greedy to accept it.

if you're born into wealth, it's fair game. someone in your family line before made a decision that was a good one. sounds fair to me.

so all the poor people should start working on something now, so that perhaps their grandchildren or great grandchildren can have a better life than they do. they have to accept it.

You can't blame them for being born into wealth. They know nothing else. And you can't say they don't deserve it, because their the father, grandfather, or great grandfather either happened to be at the right place at the right time, or made some good decisions. And they are direct genetic seed of that person. It's sad, but it's realistic.

It takes generations to build actual wealth... Being wealthy is different from being Rich. If they aren't smart about it, they or their children might piss away all that in a couple generations too.

The only thing that you can do is to start a build a basis for a foundation so that maybe your children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren can get to that next level.

[BurnoutBinLaden]

On a different note...I wonder how many of the cars in the "Sick Cars in Vancouver" thread belong to the rich second gen kids and princelings

[boss_clad]

Originally Posted by 6chr0nic4

hahahahhahah some ppl never change

Including you being a little bitch, "sunshine"

[m4k4v4li]

care to elaborate? ^ or are you much more "boss" than you allow others to know

[achiam]

Actually those numbers don't tell the entire story.
I read on Bloomberg last month that Communist China was essentially designed/built by 6 "Immortals" -Chairman Mao, Bo Xilai's dad, and 4 others.
The extended families today of just 3 of those 6 are worth a collective $1.6 TRILLION USD ($1,600,000,000,000).

[BurnoutBinLaden]

Originally Posted by achiam

Actually those numbers don't tell the entire story.
I read on Bloomberg last month that Communist China was essentially designed/built by 6 "Immortals" -Chairman Mao, Bo Xilai's dad, and 4 others.
The extended families today of just 3 of those 6 are worth a collective $1.6 TRILLION USD ($1,600,000,000,000).

And the Party's leaders say they uphold Mao's egalitarian vision.

No wonder Bloomberg is blocked in China.