[The Communist Party is promoting the series
to set the mood for a leaders’ meeting starting on Monday that will lay down more
stringent rules for members and officials. In many areas, they have been
ordered to watch the show. And its hero is undoubtedly Mr. Xi, the only
nondisgraced leader to be featured. He is described as spartan, humble and
happy with a simple diet.]
By Chris Buckley
 |
|
Bai
Enpei, a former Communist Party secretary of Yunnan Province, received a death
sentence
this month with a two-year reprieve on corruption charges.
Credit
Imaginechina, via Associated Press
|
BEIJING
— Feasts of crocodile tail.
Pricey liquor by the bucketful. A nanny employed just to take care of pets.
Bundles of jade bracelets worth millions. A free trip to the World Cup in
Brazil.
Titillating scenes from “Lifestyles of the
Rich and Famous”? Not quite. They are highlights from a new Chinese television
series about official corruption and loose living that is best described as
“Lifestyles of the Venal and Disgraced.”
The documentary series, actually titled
“Always on the Road,” has been shown on state television this week to emphasize
that President Xi Jinping is serious about wiping out graft. Some of China’s
most notorious fallen officials are shown repenting on camera, warning of the
misery that comes from dirty wealth and imprisonment.
“I became possessed and lost my head,” says
Bai Enpei, a former Communist Party secretary of Yunnan Province, in southwest
China, who was given a death sentence with a reprieve for taking bribes of
nearly $38 million. “I lost my ideals and had no higher aspirations, and I
violated a bottom line of humanity.”
“I’m remorseful,” Mr. Bai says, looking
haggard. “How did a provincial party secretary nurtured by the party for so
many years change into this?”
But along with remorse, viewers get
lip-smacking glimpses of how dozens of disgraced officials were once serious
about having a wild time, paid for by abuses of power and bribes from crooked
investors.
One admits that he felt flattered to be
treated to crocodile meat by a businessman.
“He arranged for a crocodile tail, and it was
a big one,” more than three feet long, recalls Zhang Jianjin, a former party
secretary of a pharmaceutical company whose high living was paid for by
businessmen seeking favors.
“It was laid out in a crescent shape and
looked real nice. But I thought it was probably very expensive and had to be
ordered in advance,” Mr. Zhang says. “Anyway, it showed that he was friendly.”
The Communist Party is promoting the series
to set the mood for a leaders’ meeting starting on Monday that will lay down more
stringent rules for members and officials. In many areas, they have been
ordered to watch the show. And its hero is undoubtedly Mr. Xi, the only
nondisgraced leader to be featured. He is described as spartan, humble and
happy with a simple diet.
“Hold high a sharp saber against corruption,”
Mr. Xi intones on the show. “Corrupt elements will be investigated and dealt
with as they’re uncovered. Corruption must be punished. Graft must be purged.”
But viewers of Chinese television already get
to see plenty of Mr. Xi in each news broadcast. For them, the main interest in
the series has been the sight of once-mighty officials humbled and imprisoned.
It is an established part of China’s
political stagecraft to parade disgraced officials on the state news media. But
this series shows more than usual. The dyed jet-black hair the leaders had
while in office — the customary sign of vigor for the cadre — has often turned
gray and straggly in prison.
Some seem truly anguished.
“The wrong lies with me,” Li Chuncheng, the
former party secretary of the southwestern city of Chengdu, confesses in sobs.
“What was I doing all this time? You know, based on the usual retirement age, I
was close to the end of my career. But because of my own mistakes, I’ve ended
up like this. What a tragedy.”
Before the tragedy, though, there was plenty
of indulgence. The documentary serves, inadvertently, as a guide to how
Communist cadres got away with playboy millionaires’ lifestyles while preaching
clean living and probity.
Zhou Benshun, the former party secretary of
Hebei Province, in northern China, would publicly inveigh against corruption
and then return to the 16-room, 8,600-square-foot house he had commandeered
inside a military compound. His staff there included two cooks from his native
Hunan Province, who knew how to please his spicy palate, and two nannies, one
of whom took care of his pets.
Zhang Huiqing, the wife of Mr. Bai, the
imprisoned official, pressed businessmen seeking favors to add to her
staggering collection of jade jewelry, including a bracelet that cost $2.2
million. By the time the investigators searched the home of the couple, they
had amassed rooms of expensive jewelry and rare redwood.
“It took us about two weeks just to clear up
everything,” says one of the investigators in the case. “The jade bracelets had
to be tied together with rope so that there was a whole chain of bracelets.”
Nie Chunyu, a fallen official from Shanxi
Province — where abundant coal fueled flagrant corruption — explains that coal
mine owners seeking favors would drop off bundles of $20,000 to $30,000.
“He wouldn’t force it on you, no,” Mr. Nie
says. “He’d look in your office and if, say, your briefcase was on the desk,
he’d open it up, put the cash inside and leave. Everyone understood.”
There are limits to candor in the series. The
graft has been sanitized.
So far the most senior leaders toppled for
corruption, called “tigers,” have made only brief appearances, and it is
unclear whether viewers will get more of their stories. The rampant trade in
military promotions has so far gone untouched.
And the great lubricant of corruption, sex,
has also gone unmentioned.
But there is a lot about fancy food and
drink. Mr. Zhang, the former pharmaceutical official, shares his experience on
how to enjoy Moutai, an expensive and fierce clear Chinese liquor, without
getting caught on smartphone cameras.
“Pour the Moutai into spring water bottles,
and use the spring water bottles when everyone is sharing drinks,” Mr. Zhang
explains. “Share them around and take a swig.”
Follow Chris Buckley on Twitter @ChuBailiang.
