Wealth and vice: pitfalls for Chinese richest in 2007

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-07 21:11

Li Yichao, former boss of Luoyang Zhongtai Group of Henan Province, was detained for suspected tax evasion in February. He was also expelled from the NPC. In 2006, he was ranked No. 342 by Forbes with an estimated 880 million yuan.

Reputed to be the richest person in Henan Province, native son Sun Shuhua, the former head of the Hualin Group, was put under investigation for suspected loan fraud in May. He ranked No. 138 on the Forbes list in 2004 and was also a delegate to the local committee of the NPC and vice-chairman of the CPPCC committee of Huiyang County.

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Zhou Group Chairman Zhou Xiaodi was arrested for mayhem last December, a day after he was stripped of his Shanghai CPPCC committee membership. He ranked 31st on Hu Run's list of China charitarians with donations of 24.90 million yuan in 2006.

"An outstanding entrepreneur should have a healthy personal belief that accords with the society's mainstream moral obligations," said the commentary. It added they should be advised not to follow a "violent growth" mode, through which they would take all kinds of risks to make profits.

The government should also take new approaches to manage enterprises and work out ways to prevent crime and corruption, suggested the commentary.

During the past year, government officials were brought to the front line by the Communist Party's watchdog in its battle against corruption. By June, a total of 24,879 cases had been investigated, with concerned bribes totaling more than 6.156 billion yuan.

Government employees were involved in 5,523 bribe cases, accounting for 22.2 percent of those caught, according to China Daily.

Also last year, eight high officials were sacked and expelled from the Party, and would face criminal charges. These included Chen Liangyu, Shanghai's former Communist Party chief, and Pang Jiayu, vice chairman of the Shaanxi provincial committee of the CPPCC.

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