Shenyang, China
An audit of officials in China’s fifth-largest city caught more than 200 people embezzling or taking bribes—including Shenyang’s top leaders. The mayor had squirreled away Rolex watches and gold bricks; the deputy mayor had gambled away $4 million in public money. Both were sentenced to death. But the crackdown has had a mixed effect. Now that they can’t steal or take bribes, bureaucrats have no incentive to work. “It used to be that if money was given, you got service,” the new mayor, Chen Zhenggao, told The Boston Globe. “Now that money is not accepted, nothing is getting done.”
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