Collusion between business and the state is nothing new. It has underpinned the rise of capitalism from Europe to America where the term “robber barons” came to refer to the 19th-century tycoons who amassed tremendous wealth through such unscrupulous means as monopolising natural resources and exploiting political influences.
Advertisement
Those robber barons once ruled America and their legacies are still felt today through their names: Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie.
Some of China’s political and business elites have lifted the anarchic robber baron ways to another shocking level however, as evidenced by the intensifying public fight between Guo Wengui, an exiled tycoon, and the Chinese government.
Official media reports and a video confession from Ma Jian, a former spy chief, have shown how Ma, formerly a deputy minister at the Ministry of State Security, the Chinese equivalent of the CIA, and another top security official from Hebei ( 河北 ) province, used their formidable power to help Guo usurp wealth from his business rivals and take down his opponents. According to Ma’s confession, he employed the extensive resources of his ministry, which were normally reserved for anti-espionage activities, to help Guo. These included wiretapping, freezing assets, intimidating journalists, and using police and the court to have one of his opponents arrested and jailed. In return, Ma received bribes totalling about 60 million yuan (HK$67.7 million).
The revelations have provided more damning evidence that the robber baron dynamic in its worst form has taken root in China, where state power is being so bluntly and brazenly abused for wealth grabs.
Shocking as those revelations are, they are merely the latest in a slew of similar cases throughout the rise of China’s economy over the past three decades.
Advertisement
Chinese fugitive Lai Changxing listens to questions from reporters in Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 5, 2007. Photo: Reuters
The first major case to hit the country occurred in Fujian ( 福建 ) in the late 1990s – perhaps China’s biggest smuggling case in modern history. It involved Lai Changxing and more than 50 billion yuan worth of goods. The ensuing investigation, personally supervised by the incorruptible then-premier Zhu Rongji ( 朱鎔基 ), revealed Lai had built a closely-knit network of official protection. This included the country’s former spy chief from the military, a deputy minister of public security in charge of the country’s anti-smuggling operations, and top provincial and city officials in charge of law enforcement and customs. All together, several hundred officials from the central government to the local authorities were implicated and most were jailed. Lai was tipped off and fled to Canada in 1999. He was exiled there until 2011 when he was extradited to China, where he was jailed for life after a court trial the following year.
Since then, shocking cases of collusion between unscrupulous businessmen and top national security officials involved in brazen wealth grabs have popped up in dismaying regularity. Here are a few more examples.
