There are two reasons China’s global primacy is inevitable. First, China remains China, not a subverted, invaded, demoralized shell of a nation. Second, the government refuses to let the financial sector run amok and pillage the rest of its economy:
The former head of a top Chinese bank has received a suspended death sentence for corruption, Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday. The verdict comes as part of a widespread anti-corruption crackdown by the authorities in Beijing.
Liu Liange, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes worth an equivalent of nearly $17 million and illegally issuing loans, according to Xinhua. Liu served as chairman of the Bank of China for four years until his resignation in March 2023, several weeks before the authorities revealed that he was facing corruption charges. He was arrested in October of last year. According to Tuesday’s ruling, all of Liu’s personal property will be confiscated, and all his illegal gains must be recovered and turned over to the state treasury.
The two-year reprieve, awarded because the accused had cooperated with authorities and shown remorse, means that the sentence will only be carried out if Liu commits further crimes during the period, Reuters has reported. If reprieved, the 63-year-old will serve a life sentence.
Liu is the latest high-profile figure to be sentenced to death as part of widespread anti-corruption efforts ordered by President Xi Jinping targeting the country’s $60 trillion financial sector. Former deputy central bank governor Fan Yifei was sentenced to death for bribery in October, also with a two-year reprieve. In May, Bai Tianhui, a former executive at one of the country’s largest state-controlled asset management firms, was sentenced to death for accepting bribes worth nearly $152 million.
Can you imagine comparable anti-corruption efforts being carried out in the USA? This is the equivalent of Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke being arrested and sentenced to death. But the problem in the USA is so out of hand that it would probably be far more efficient to ask the Russians to drop a few Oreshnik’s on Wall Street.