China
Augustine Tan
Asia Times
An odd sound can be heard coming from China these days, said Augustine Tan in Hong Kong's Asia Times: the sound of silence. For six years Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian has been a thorn in China's side, his threats to declare Taiwan independent provoking outbursts of rage from Beijing. Yet now that Chen is under investigation for helping himself to half a million dollars of taxpayers' money, and furious protestors are demanding he resign, Beijing stays mum. Far from gloating, Communist officials have all but blacked out the news, sniffily insisting they won't comment on a "domestic" matter. We know why, of course: Their own corruption problems put Taiwan's in the shade. In Shanghai, a staggering $1.6 billion has recently gone missing. Local party chief Chen Liangyu apparently grabbed the lion's share, while Qiu Xiaohua, the government's chief statistician, siphoned $6.3 million for his mistress. Meanwhile, the mayor of Shenyang has been caught hiding $6 million worth of gold bars in the walls of his house. If Taiwan's voters force Chen out of office for his relatively trivial thievery, then China's citizens might get ideas of what to do with their own corrupt lot. Or so China's leaders seem to think. Having been desperate to see the back of Chen, they must now be hoping and praying he manages to hang on.
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