China’s corruption crackdown nets 8 finance sector official, Prada handbags – so why is it being ridiculed online?

Four phones made by Huawei Technologies Co., three iPhones and three sets of Apple noise cancelling earphones were among items seized from an official in China’s latest anti-corruption drive. But the haul has been mocked by social media users as its value is only 100,000 yuan (US$15,000).

China’s top disciplinary watchdog announced charges against eight officials in the finance sector this week as part of an accelerating anti-graft campaign.

In addition to the electronics, Wang Yonghong, a former director of the technology department at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), has been accused of accepting 10 cartons of Chunghwa cigarettes, caterpillar fungus and ginseng between 2015-20, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said.

The CCDI, the highest anti-corruption agency of the Communist Party, said earlier this week it had confiscated the items and expelled Wang from the Communist Party and public office in May.

The amount confiscated is just a fraction of the alleged 463 million yuan in bribes accepted by former CCDI deputy leader Dong Hong or the 450 million yuan taken by the former deputy party chief of Guizhou province, Wang Fuyu – both of whom were handed suspended death sentences in January.

The CCDI notice released on Wednesday said Wang still faces “other serious violations of discipline and laws”, a standard euphemism suggesting unacceptable moral wrongdoings, with a criminal case likely to follow.

The charges triggered heated discussion online in China, with many people arguing the gifts Wang allegedly accepted were small and even normal, making him look like an “upright and incorruptible official”.

“It feels like no matter if you were corrupt or not, you would be listed as corrupt in the end. What will happen to other officials later? If making a disclosure, please give some sensible charges,” one user on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo said on Friday.

“He didn’t even take as much as some village heads did – a waste of his job,” another Weibo-user quipped on Thursday.

Many users of news and content aggregation platform Toutiao said on the CCDI channel more focus should be placed on the cash crisis emerging at multiple rural banks in the central province of Henan.

One Toutiao commenter said in light of Wang’s case “no official can survive investigation”.

Beijing announced a sweeping disciplinary crackdown on the nation’s financial sector in October last year.

The party has arrested dozens of officials at financial institutions and regulatory agencies. Since April it has stepped up inspections, including at the upper levels of the central bank.

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One of the recent most high-profile cases was Sun Guofeng, the former head of the monetary policy department at PBOC, who was removed from office under supervisory investigation last month.

Wang Zongcheng, former director of the accounting department at the China Securities Regulatory Commission, was the latest target of the probe, according to the CCDI.

Chen Yaoming, a former board director of the China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, an affiliate of the central bank, was also included in the statement.

The PBOC denied a “despicable” rumour that Chen had forged 2 trillion yuan of banknotes in December, after the allegation began trending on social media.

He was expelled from the party and public employment in March, after he was accused of taking 10,000 yuan worth of sea cucumbers, caterpillar fungus and bird’s nest. The CCDI said he accepted other gifts including Mao-tai liquor and commemorative gold coins between 2014-20.

Chen was also charged with wrongfully purchasing public housing with a total acreage of 139.1 square metres (1,496 sq ft). His case has been handed to authorities for prosecution.

Another high-profile suspect is Chen Ping, a former procurement head at Great Wall Precious Metals, a subsidiary of the China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation.

She has been accused of taking bribes, including two iPhones, luxury handbags and scarves from bands like Prada and Louis Vuitton, as well as jewellery, commemorative coins and ginseng between 2015-18.

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She has also been banished from the party and public life while he waits for prosecution.

The other cases covered five local officials at state-owned financial institutions or regulatory agencies in Zhejiang, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Beijing and Gansu.

“Some [officials] have even evolved from receiving wine-and-dine and gifts to power-for-money deals,” the CCDI inspection team to the central bank said in a separate statement on Wednesday.

“The team urged financial officials to adhere to the party’s anti-extravagance rules and build a cordial and clean relationship between government and business”.