“Gray” Money

August 24, 2010

The Bloomberg News reports that China’s wealthiest people are hiding 80% of $1.4 trillion. That leaves about 280 billion for the rest of China’s people to hide.

Bloomberg calls this “gray” income and lists all the possible “illegal or quasi-illegal” ways it may have been earned.

When the piece mentions that the wealth gap between China’s rich and poor may lead to social unrest threatening the rule of the Communist Party, this may be true, since the real cause of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 was due to corrupt government officials lining their pockets at the expense of the worker.

In fact, it should come as no surprise that reducing this income disparity is a top goal of China’s current president and prime minister.

However, the same problem is happening in the United States. “Millionaires in the U.S. and Canada saw their wealth increase 15 percent in 2009, to a total of 4.6 trillion dollars.” Source: 7Bends

Then there is the fact that the gap between the rich and poor grows in the US too.

“Since the 1990s, 40 percent of the increased wealth went into the pockets of the rich minority, while only 1 percent went to the poor majority.” Source: China’s Report on US Human Rights Record in 2000 Information Office of China’s State Council

Also in the US, the FBI estimates that that white-collar crime costs the US more than $300 billion annually.

The grim facts about income disparity between the wealthy and the working people means both the US and China have similar challenges—to create jobs for the worker that pay adequate wages.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Corruption in China may often stem from Cultural Pressure

August 12, 2010

I’m thinking about what motivated the CEO of Enron and others to steal from their employees and stockholders so they could party, live in mansions and travel as if they were members of the jet set.

In America, there is a history of insider trading, securities and commodities fraud, corporate fraud, health care fraud, antitrust violations, bribery, embezzlement and organized crime.

In fact, the FBI estimates that white-collar crime costs the US more than $300 billion annually.

In China that would be more than 2 trillion yuan.

Western civilization is based on individualism so the primary motivation of those white-collar criminals would probably be individual greed.

However, in Chinese culture, the motivation to become corrupt may not be just from greed.  The American media appears obsessed over corruption in China without addressing how culture plays a role.

In rural China, the peasant, who works the fields, probably is only motivated to grow enough food so his family will not starve while selling enough to keep a roof over their heads.

Most peasants live according to the concept of Taoism, which roughly interpreted means go with the natural order of things or do as little as possible to survive while living in a passive state.

Confucianism teaches the opposite and has more influence in urban China where most of China’s middle class lives and works. Here, loss of face is enough to motivate the individual to become corrupt so he will not look like a loser in the minds of his family, associates or friends. The other choice is suicide.

Since Jesus Christ supposedly said, “Let he who has no guilt cast the first stone”, I want to mention that I read about representatives in both houses of Congress in Washington DC costing the US taxpayer about a million annually for moral corruption. Why—to settle with abused congressional employees, who have been harassed (I’m thinking sexual) or treated badly by their political bosses over the past 14 years. Source: Politico

Back to corruption in Taiwan and China.

The Economist reportedthat corruption flourishes in Taiwan in the judicial system.  The same piece also says that Chen Shui-bian, the former president of Taiwan from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), is serving a 20 year sentence for corruption.  On the next page of the July 24th issue is another piece about academic fraud in (mainland) China.

Although greed may play a role in Chinese corruption, another factor may be a more powerful force and that is maintaining, “face” or increasing it since upwardly mobile Chinese are expected to constantly gain face.

To do this, one has to gain in wealth, stature or reputation. This puts a lot of pressure on a Chinese man, which reminds me of the Taiwanese architect our daughter found hanging dead in a tree a few years back during a family hike in Southern California.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.

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5 Comments | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, crime, cultural differences | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Real Police State (4/4)

August 11, 2010

America locks up more than twice the people that China does, and it isn’t cheap to keep someone in a US prison.  The cost is as high as $50,000 a year x 2.4 million.  You do the math.

This American mess has come about over the last 40 years because of an unholy alliance of big-business-hating liberals and tough-on-crime conservatives.

Common sense says to execute the most dangerous criminals. 

If the US eliminated the 200,000 over 50 serving life sentences, that would reduce the Federal deficit by as much as 10 billion annually or 100 billion in a decade. In fact, the US should execute everyone who is serving a life sentence without a chance for parole.

I find it interesting that America wages wars in countries like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan where millions have been killed and sometimes women and children die as collateral damage but balks at executing dangerous criminals in the US who are locked up for life without a chance for parole.

The solution could be to send these criminals to China and let the Chinese do the job for America.

See An Update about China’s Criminal Justice System or return to The Real Police State – Part 3

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Executing the Sour Stink of Corruption

July 28, 2010

The BBC reports that Bo Xilai, the man in charge of Chongqing, China, is prosecuting corrupt government officials in his province. Recently, a top justice official in the city was executed for corruption and many in his family went to jail.

In 2012 – Changing the Guard, I wrote about Bo Xilai and his crusade against crime and corruption, which has made him popular with the people.

To understand why Bo Xilai is popular, focus on the real reason workers started the Tiananmen Square protests. The workers who started the protest were concerned about crime and corruption.

The students, who have been given credit for a democracy movement, did not start the protest—they hijacked it.

The BBC said, “This (crime and corruption) worries China’s leaders, who are seriously concerned that public anger at levels of corruption is undermining support for the Communist Party.” 

Considering the size of China, its population and the complexity of its multi-ethnic culture, this is a large challenge for China’s leaders.

Corruption also brought down the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911).  In fact, the major cause of the collapse of most of China’s Dynasties is linked to corruption and moral decay.

Also, when the Ming Dynasty (1368-1643) collapsed, the last emperor hung himself because he had not done his job properly.

Why can’t we send the Bernie Madoffs of America to China?

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Sexual Revolution – Part 5/5

July 17, 2010

Most prostitutes are village girls and have no idea about safe sex. This is causing an increase in HIV. Many of the men refuse to wear condoms. Sometimes, when the girl says no, the paying customer will rape her.

The sexual revolution in China is a fragile one. While the new China supports it, the old China is afraid of these changes. Adultery and divorce are on the rise. Kids are leaving home. There is a growing generation gap.

One older Chinese man says that China is not used to this. Under pressure from the older generation, the police must crack down, raid bordellos and arrest prostitutes.

However, now that China’s sexual revolution is in the open, it will be hard to stop. At first, the government tried to stop what was going on but soon backed off. And many parents, who grew up in Mao’s puritanical era, don’t want their children to experience the same repression.

These changes are talking place while women are gaining power and many families now value having female children. Few want to return to the way things were.

Return to Part 4 of China’s Sexual Revolution or start with Part 1 of China’s Sexual Revolution.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

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