While Vladimir Putin wages his holy war against the West, Russian officials and their families are often seeking better lives there. Will these double lives be the downfall of the aging dictator’s fixation?
Tag: officials
Why was German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier disinvited to the Ukrainian capital? The case is being used by the German elite for their own benefit, or rather, for Russia, whose economic and political treasures in Europe are guarded by the same Steinmeier.
Times are tough for corrupt officials who have long counted on cashing in when the Chinese New Year festival arrives.
BEIJING- Not long ago, I raised the question of why 35 years after China began to open up its political and economic system, the task of reform seems harder than ever. Why, in other words, is it so difficult to change a system? Wouldn’t it be better to just proclaim that China has built a […]
XINHUA NEWS, CHINA BUSINESS TIMES (China) Worldcrunch SHANGHAI – Not so long ago, the world’s luxury brands were enjoying the rapid development of the Chinese market, but since the end of 2012, this trend has taken a sharp downwards turn. As Xinhua News pointed out, even though in 2011 the GDP per capita in China […]
Excessive feasting by public officials has a long and wide history in China. The fundamental source of its prevalence is actually not even the hearty appetites of the officials in question. These people are sacrificing a lot themselves in this banquet culture. On the lighter side, people may just lose a previously slim figure. In […]
ZHEJIANG DAILY, ECONOMIC OBSERVER, HUBEI DAILY (China), CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) Worldcrunch BEIJING – Is Feng Shui a superstition or a true form of wisdom? A confessional article by a Chinese official published by the Zhejiang Daily recently sparked enthusiastic discussions among the Chinese public and press. “Put a screen at the entrance to block the […]
China’s incoming President has promised to tackle bribery and abuse of power. The country’s digital citizen-reporters will hold him to his word.
BEIJING – After it was recently revealed that the entire family of a top housing administration official in the northern Chinese city of Zhengzhou had two sets of identity papers (or hukou), people have taken to joking online that China doesn’t really have 1.3 billion people, as many people have a “dual hukou.” The hukou […]
Putting the right spin on your words is a science. Obviously, the civil servants who owe a fiduciary duty to the public have an urgent need to master this subject. And it helps to shift the blame on someone else, a child, a spouse, or a convenient foreigner will do. Two weeks ago Yang Dacai, […]