Down of the Former Party Boss

via the New York Times

The former Communist Party boss of Shanghai, Chen Liangyu, was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison for taking bribes and abusing power.

The guy in the center is Mr. Chen Liangyu, who is one of the criminals in Shanghai pension scandal. The pension scandal involved billions of money which must be used for welfare, healthcare, etc. for the people living in Shanghai. Down of Mr. Chen is the result of inner party struggle, i.e. group of current president Mr. Hu Jintao and former president Mr. Jiang Zemin. Actually, after Mr. Jiang quitted from the high post in the army and party, the officials of Shanghai were fully stroked by the anti-corruption storm initiated by Beijing.

China is quite an interesting country that an powerful corrupt high official who eroded the fund for thousands of million was only sentenced for 18 years in prison, but a guy called Xu Ting , the "ATM thief" pocketing 175,000 Yuan (24,400 U.S. dollars) from a faulty ATM was sentenced life imprisonment in first instance. The law likes flexible scale depending on the status of the objectives, and the "justice of law" only applied to the ordinary people who have no power.

We never forget the white-headed Mr. Chen standing on the dock. Good bye, Mr. Chen, party is over and see you in 18 years.