China takes officials to prison as warning: report

Chinese officials have been sent on prison tours visiting inmates including former colleagues as a warning against corruption, state-run media said on Monday, provoking mockery online. More than 70 officials and their spouses in central China’s Hubei province spent a day in prison this month “as an educational warning”, the government-published China Daily reported. The trip provided them with a chance to meet 15 former government staff currently serving custodial sentences at the institution, it added.

If you carried out a random check on these officials, most of them would belong in prison anyway.

A poster on Sina Weibo, in response to news of the scheme

The tours encouraged cadres to “be aware of wrongdoings involving corruption”, the CCDI was quoted as saying. China’s ruling Communist party has vowed to crack down on endemic corruption, with several former senior figures placed under investigation in recent years. But there have not been systemic reforms and critics say that with tight controls on media and the judicial system the campaign is open to being used for factional infighting.

china corruption Business