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Stephen Chen

China’s anti-graft agency has published a confession by a government official about his life on the run in the United States as a warning to others guilty of corruption who might also be considering fleeing the country.
Wang Guoqiang was the former head of the Communist Party in the city of Fengcheng in the northeastern province of Liaoning.
He fled to the United States three years ago and was accused of taking bribes and corruption.
Media reports in China suggested he had spirited more than 200 million yuan (HK$253 million) out of the country.
Wang’s three-page confession was published on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Thursday.
He and his wife were on the run for two years and eight months before he turned himself into the authorities last December.
Wang, 55, had enjoyed a privileged lifestyle in Liaoning, but he claimed in his confession that he and his wife had to share a home with other lodgers during his time in the US.
If he rented a house he feared he would have to show his passport and his whereabouts would be passed on to the authorities in China.
“The condition of the shared house was really bad,” he said in the statement, without giving details of which city he lived in.
“The other tenant was tall and as big as a horse and always looked at my wife with kinky stares, which really terrified us.
“My wife was in panic all day. I was always prepared for the worst to happen.”
The confession, which dwells on the difficulties of Wang’s life as a fugitive, also claimed his wife dared not buy clothes or even visit a hairdresser in the United States.
The other tenant was tall and as big as a horse and always looked at my wife with kinky stares, which really terrified us
The couple was also scared to contact friends and relatives in the US and didn’t even tell their daughter working in America their whereabouts.
The strain of life on the run led the couple to get ill, wrote Wang.
“We were both troubled by various diseases,” he said. “I had high blood pressure and heart diseases; a heart attack almost killed me.
“My wife had glaucoma, hyperthyroidism, a breast tumour and depression,” he wrote.
“We couldn’t go to hospital, couldn’t buy medicine, because in the US pharmacies all require prescriptions, prescriptions require a doctor, and doctors require to see our passports,” he said.
Wang, 55, wrote that he hated himself for making his wife join him on the run. She was a former official in the customs department in Fengcheng.
Wang said he got so depressed about his lot that he decided to give himself up.
“If I must make a choice between going to jail in China or staying in the US as a fugitive, I’d rather go to the prison,” he wrote.
“Everyone said the US was heaven. Now I know China is my real home.”
The anti-corruption agency encourages former officials to write self-confessions and it was keen to exploit the propaganda potential of Wang’s account.
The commission said the confession was “vivid text book material” that should be read by all corrupt party officials who were considering fleeing the country.
A government campaign to track down corrupt cadres who fled abroad caught about 500 people last year.
The operation, dubbed “Fox Hunt”, also seized more than 3 billion yuan (HK$3.8 billion), according to government figures.
China is in the midst of a huge anti-corruption drive since President Xi Jinping took office in 2012, with thousands of government officials detained for alleged graft.
Critics say the campaign fails to address the primary cause of corruption in China, the Communist Party’s monopoly on power and its control of the legislature, courts, police and the media.
 


'Confessions' of a corrupt official on the run: China's veiled warning to other fugitives

Ex-fugitive Wang Guoqiang. The anti-graft authorities often get corrupt officials to write 'self-confessions". Photo: SCMP Pictures

China sheds light on its quest to track down fleeing officials

Embezzlement suspect Yu Zhendong (right) voluntarily returned to China in 2004. Photo: AP

A London-based newspaper quoted analysts as saying that if Wang Qishan visited the US as the CCDI's head, his main mission would be to seek Washington's help on fugitives. Photo: EPA

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China

China’s anti-graft agency publishes a cadre’s account of his life as a fugitive in the United States, painting a bleak picture to act as a ‘warning’ to others


China’s anti-graft agency has published a confession by a government official about his life on the run in the United States as a warning to others.
