Macroscope | Why Xi Jinping's corruption purge may soon make its way to Hong Kong
Given the volume of mainland money channelled through Hong Kong over the past three decades, it is likely some billions will have corrupt origins
I have just finished reading Hack Attack, the shocking exposé of journalistic telephone hacking in Britain that revealed Rupert Murdoch's News International at the heart of a massive and flagrantly illegal hacking enterprise that exerted corrupt influence to the very top of Britain's most powerful institutions - including the police and political leaders.
The British scandal, which ended with a commission of inquiry and numerous prosecutions, provided epic evidence of how megalomania and huge corporate power can combine to blur the line between normal fierce competition, and criminally corrupt behaviour that can link a country's power elite.
That got me thinking about the anti-corruption campaign being waged on the mainland by President Xi Jinping and his Beijing leadership.
There is a simple linking conclusion: autocratic power structures that allow business elites to consort unfettered with top officials can lead to corruption on an epic scale - whether it is in Britain, Hong Kong or on the mainland. And without a free and untainted press, strong and independent judicial systems, and democratic institutions that allow ordinary working folk to bring some real world influence to bear, then this corruption can spread, invisible and unchecked, for a very long time.
To the credit of Xi, the Beijing leadership seems to recognise the cancerous damage being done by cosy, nepotistic corruption up to the highest levels of the Communist Party and the nation's giant state-owned enterprises. A purge that is clearly more than the slaughter of a few chickens to frighten a monkey or two, has now investigated about 75,000 party members, with almost 20,000 already being punished. No wonder luxury spending has crashed.
Huge corrupt networks in giant SOEs like PetroChina, extending across the energy sector, are now being investigated, virtually paralysing the sector. About 45 PetroChina officials are being investigated, along with 13 in the National Energy Administration, and 33 or more in energy-rich Shanxi province. With Beijing acknowledging that many of the 113 SOEs under its control (with a further 145,000 under the control of local and provincial governments) have harboured corrupt networks and politically significant patronage networks, there is clearly still a great deal of disentangling to be done.