HOTEL MANAGER Li Meiling was reading a newspaper article that announced the death sentence for Cheng Kejie, former vice-chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the highest official in communist China to receive such a penalty.
'What's new?' she asked. 'Officials are sentenced to death or given long prison sentences every week. We all know our leaders are corrupt.
'This just confirms what we already know.' Her attitude, a cynical shrug of the shoulders, summarised the feelings of ordinary people towards a case that made headlines around the world.
'His greed and sexual immorality are completely unacceptable,' she said. 'We common people should not behave in this way, let alone those in high positions.'
'Cheng will be shot, that is certain,' said Yang Li, a car park attendant. 'He is not high enough to escape death. Were he an official of the central Government who had committed the same offences, his sentence would be suspended. But he is only a provincial official. His guanxi [connections] were not good enough.'
Cheng, a member of the Zhuang nationality, was the highest official in Guangxi province from 1990 to 1998, and held his post in the NPC, China's parliament, by virtue of being from a minority.
'The Communist Party must sacrifice some to save others,' said Liu Guoli, an architect. 'It must show the public that it is doing something against corruption. People higher than Cheng deserve to be arrested but they are protected from prosecution.'
