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The antifreeze toothpaste people didn’t get away with it, nor did the 3000 pigs in the river people, and nor did that one group of executives who were in charge of a fertilizer/chemical plant that was one of the largest industrial catastrophes in the world let alone China.

If you get caught in China, Vietnam, or Singapore the penalties for white collar criminals is zero tolerance. You can’t buy your way out if you do something so spectacular that you cause the government to lose face.

You might as well go jump off a building or a bridge cause you’re done for.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/china-executes-ex...

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/uvm7oy/i...

> nor did the 3000 pigs in the river people, and nor did that one group of executives who were in charge of a fertilizer/chemical plant

What about the bridge falling down people, or the overpromised scam apartment people, or the tunnel that flooded people, or the police officers that blocked view of the flowers left for the folks who died in the tunnel that flooded people, or the opened the dam to flood the farmers during the rainy season people, or the fake drains people, or the fake fire hydrants people, or the lead paint in the kids school food people, or the covered up the lead paint in the kids school food doctors, or the barricaded an apartment that was burning during covid people, or the apartments with styrofoam instead of concrete that collapsed in venezuela earthquake people...?

? Everyone in the party is incolved in similar crimes. The only thing they are guilty off in addition is a lack of loyalty to emperor xi. Incompetence and criminal corruption, that you can edit out of history, but intrigue is unforgivable.
China is as corrupt or more corrupt as anywhere else. You can absolutely buy your way out, or otherwise wrangle something. Zero tolerance death penalty for this sort of thing is a sign of extreme desperation - the fact that there are any such scandals despite the penalty is telling.
"If you get caught". Do the math on how many get caught per capita. Its like worrying about a random coconut falling on your head. Fighting corruption in unequal societies is not possible because ambitious people born without wealth and status, and constantly bombarded with signals from birth that wealth and status is a sign of success, will do whatever it takea to get it. The Law doesnt reduce corruption. Its just a story like Religion that allows people to cope with a reality they dont control.
The smart ones quit while they are ahead and procure citizenship somewhere else (like Canada).
"You can’t buy your way out"

Absolutely you can. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire thing is fabricated to just execute political opponents that don't align with Xi.

In the 90s and 00s when I was a kid, being a crook had real consequences here too. Not the death penalty per second, but the die in prison penalty left and right.

When John Meriweather and the rest of LTCM nearly blew up the market they didn't get a bailout, and the taxpayer didn't fund the hole in the balance sheet. The New York Fed organized private money and leaned on all their counterparties to get it done, but they didn't backstop it. Meriweather and the Sheik and Scholes and the rest were wiped out, they worked it off for a couple of years for salary and then skunk away in shame (we had shame back then). Took it like men near as I can tell. I admire John Meriweather a great deal in spite of the scandal.

President Clinton was impeached and very nearly removed from office for (ultimately) consenting but untoward involvement with a young woman (they got him on lying about it technically, but the political will was there because the country was furious about the skirt chasing.

Enron. Accounting that went from aggressive to sketchy to fraudulent (most of it would pass with flying colors today). Hard time. Skilling, Fastow I think just got out like five years ago (don't take my word for the date). Ken Lay IIRC died before they locked him up which saved him dying inside.

Madoff, died in prison. Ebbers, I think he died in prison too.

When Microsoft was gearing up to strangle the web in its crib the Justice Department pulled guys off of terrorists and human traffickers to go take a pipe to Gates until he backed off, he was allowed to keep Microsoft intact by letting the web happen, the Feds weren't asking, he decided to not fuck around and find out.

Consequences for serious fucking bad shit for people who are our leaders work. A people gets exactly what it demands from it's leaders and that's exactly what a people deserves.

Right now we're choosing to settle for a lot less, China is demanding more. Which is why we're getting our asses kicked.

> You can’t buy your way out if you do something

Not with money.

> penalties for white collar criminals is zero tolerance

I think this is more about punishing political grafting than white-collar crime.

I sometimes see people "celebrate" this, with the rationale that China is cracking down on white-collar crimes and handing out sentences unheard of in the west.

But, are these sort of things just examples of selective prosecution? Would the inner circle members of CCP leadership realistically face the same prosecution and sentencing, if they were to be caught doing the same?

Doesn't hold a candle to the scale of Heshen's crimes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heshen
I wish India did something like this. A crackdown on corruption and enforcement of existing laws would fix 90% of India’s problems. Obviously I don’t think folks should get the death penalty but something harsh like long jail sentences and tearing down of whatever kingdoms they have built.
It's a shame we relabelled corruption as lobbying. The damage it has done is untold.

One thing that China does should be adopted in the West.

Main difference between death penalty in US and China, is in US police officers easily sentence subjects to death and the courts do it with great difficulty. In China the inverse.

For instance, high level executive Bryan Malinowski was executed by the ATF and barely anyone noticed, but if the courts had sentenced him in such way, there would be great outrage.

Other details for the official (Yang Youlin) in this news.

---

Whistleblower Yang Hai already reported Yang Youlin for his economic misconduct in July 2008. The whistleblower was detained because of the report at Nov 21st, 2008.

---

People's comment on this matter around March, 2009:

哇塞！终于有人敢动杨友林啦，杨海好样的。杨友林此人早该除无奈碍于他的势力。除掉杨友林大快人心。Wow! Finally, someone dares to take action against Yang Youlin. Good job, Yang Hai. That guy should have been dealt with long ago, but we were stuck with his influence. Getting rid of him is incredibly satisfying.

不杀此贪官，难平民愤。If you don't execute this corrupt official, you won't appease the public's anger.

江宁有一个传说，谁也动不了杨永林！There's a legend in Jiangning: nobody can touch Yang Youlin!

他的保护伞是谁？Who is protecting him?

希望引起中央的重视！I hope this gets the attention of the central government!

现在社会怎么啦？好多天了根本没人关注这件事？是上层没有看到？还是视而不见？还是怕牵连自己？What's going on with society lately? It's been days and no one is paying attention to this! Did the higher-ups miss it? Are they turning a blind eye? Or are they just afraid of getting dragged into it?

---

Since the report, there were several pieces of news about "the investigation about Yang Youlin is ongoing", but no real progress until 2023.

In the West, $325M in bribes is called Monday!
Autocracies tolerate corruption because if everyone is corrupt, anyone can be "legitimately" prosecuted for corruption. (At least I think that's how it works in Russia, but I don't know much about China.)
I'm generally against the death penalty but this kind of malfeasance truly deserves it. Sad to see similar corruption at the top levels of the US.
I feel like crimes over a certain threshold should include accessories in the punishment, like the Death Penalty here in Indiana does.

It certainly helps motivate them to testify in court.

Strong minority opinion: If someone steals more than the average total lifetime earnings of 10 people, I think the death penalty should apply. That's about 25 million USD

A state should never have the power to kill people --even though I think some just deserve death (like those raping then killing a child)-- because the state one day shall abuse that power to get rid of those who they don't like.

But I gotta say something: if the EU or the US were to kill politicians taking in bribes, there wouldn't be many politicians left.

Good for China.

Society cannot work with too many corrupt civil servants. Yes, "autocrats", "civil liberties", and yet - the guy slurped up $325M to put his finger on the scale, not to change the model of governance.

I wish we in the west took corruption more seriously, but I suppose we're more interested in cage fights on the lawn these days.

How does one steal $300m? If someone is supposed to be on a clerk's salary, even if generous, I would think their explicable net worth should not go beyond a couple million. Being a hundred times richer than that means you have to keep a low profile, in which case being that rich isn't worth the risk.
I wonder if he could have lived if it was just one $325M bribe and not 30 years of bribery.
Does Xi Jinping (or any of his Politburo colleagues) publish their income and/or tax records? Otherwise, this "we are so anti-corruption" stance is basically just political theater as the Courts themselves are CCP-bound.
The US is very good if you're very rich. It's bad for everyone else. China appears to be somewhat bad or critical of the superrich, which is why they want to come to the US, but good if you're middle class or poor.
Will it happen here to the most corrupt a-hole? I don't think so. He'd chant - they hate me, or i'm part of a witch hunt, or 'i'm politically prosecuted.
I would like such justice to be applied to a few European and French officials... Democracy could be a lot different if corruption and selling his votes was not a career goal for our officials.
Too bad China doesn't have a president fit for pardoning thugs.
I mean, many people in many states of the US are clearly fine with the death penalty dispensed for violent criminals. I think that white collar crimes of this nature are way worse than an isolated case of violence since it creates lots of indirect systemic misery & suffering for the people & taxpayers that need those resources (that by the way is also the perfect recipe for violent crimes).
What happens to the money in these cases? I could imagine the official taking solace knowing the money he amassed over the years would eventually go his family.
In the US that’s republican representative behavior! With a pardon to boot
I don't really understand the mentality of people who do this sort of criminal activity. If he'd stopped after, say, $5m and just retired he'd probably have managed to get away with it. Continuing to such a ridiculous degree through sheer greed led him to a death sentence. That's just plain stupid.
So many comments here by western people clinging to the only thing that they have left. The idea that somewhere in the world there is 'injustice' and a 'lack of freedom' and 'dictatorship' makes their absolute dystopian hellscape seem somewhat barely tolerable in their addled minds because they can at least imagine that elsewhere there is some big bad dictator and therefore they are comparatively free. No matter that they are poor and getting poorer or that their governments and companies are all sold out to billionaires and wrecked by private equity. No matter that their freedom begins and ends at consumerism and the vague idea that the police won't arrest them for posting something online. Apparently freedom to have a strong government that actually funds things for the public and doesn't suck billionaire cocks is not as important as having the opportunity to get into debt and spaff shite on the internet. If these people actually went to China and saw it with their own eyes then they would realise that they have been lied to. It's extremely sad to see.
Someone like Trump probably couldn't even be a CCP party member. I've heard it's a relatively meritocratic organization, at least compared to pur political system. Though maybe someone from China can correct me.
does punishing corruption with a death sentence - look excessive ? Yes!

is it prone to abuse by those who yield power - Yes!

however - the alternative - where corruption goes unchecked is even worse!! if you come from a poor country e.g in Africa - you would've experienced the effects of corruption.

American are now experiencing it now - & the country is already worse off. though before corruption in American was used as an incentive mechanism - now it's just pure grift.

so yeah sentencing one or two people to death explicitly is the humane outcome vs sentencing thousands to death implicitly.

Serious countries don't still use the death penalty. It's barbaric. Even if the crimes are barbaric.
赵瑞龙：哪来那么多腐败分子啊，说白了不就是你们内斗吗？
Why is this on Hacker News? I thought the site is for tech posts, as named 'Hacker'
We need more of that here
We should do this in USA
A relatively low level official can't take this much bribes. More like a scapegoat.
China doesn't sentence official to death for genocide against Uyghurs
While Xi Jinping is heavily criticized in private within China, he truly attaches great importance to punishing corruption. The fundamental reason is that as China underwent reform and opening up, it abandoned the Maoist emphasis on equality for the people. As a result, interest groups have continuously expanded and begun to severely impact economic development. In the past, it was still possible to encourage officials to serve the people through rationality and grand socialist ideals. Now, with the fading of the former, severe punishment must be used to correct the course.

Additionally, there are two noteworthy aspects regarding the unique characteristics of Chinese law:

(1) The characteristic of "politics over law" in China has gained increasing approval online. Previously, many people admired and envied Western judicial independence, but more and more people are realizing the drawbacks of this system.

(2) China has always been very cautious regarding the execution of the death penalty. Even during the feudal dynasties, official executions remained rare and typically required imperial review. In essence, China still operates under a model of governance by Confucian elites.

China being a communist country, I'm sure they want to show the people the harsh consequences for corruption.

In North Korea, you get a death sentence for even something a lot smaller.

Fascinating development in Chinese politics.
Keep in mind, the official may have done nothing wrong but not kissed the wrong Communist behind so he got framed.
I wonder how often Trump would have to die for his acts of high treason and making the USG lose face over and over again.