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Que Jingde: Just the first of many

By Chen Weihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-07 17:35

Among that lifted from beneath the rubble of the collapsed 13-storey apartment block in Shanghai's Minhang district on June 27 is a shroud of secrecy.

Now known nationwide, Que Jingde, an assistant to the director of Minhang's local Meilong Town government, as it turns out, is also the second largest shareholder in the building's developer, Shanghai Meidu Real Estate Co.

The 51-year-old has held various other government posts in previous years, including head of the Meilong Town Land Requisition Department, general manager of Meilong Town Asset Management Co, chief at the Meilong demolition and relocation office for the Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev Project, and chairman and Party secretary of the Shanghai Xunhao land development company.

Que's instant notoriety should also be attributed to his name because it reminds people of the Chinese word "que jin de", which means "totally wicked or lacking in virtue." Ironically, his first name, Jingde, really means "to revere morality".

Que is not alone. More than 20 of Meidu's shareholders were reportedly working for the local Meilong Town government and other government departments. Which might explain why the land Meidu bought in 2003 was substantially cheaper than nearby lots leased to other developers.

Still, this is just the tip of a colossal iceberg. Countrywide, there are many officials and their relatives who have become rich or super rich like Que: by getting cheap land to sell at inflated prices in the red-hot property market; or taking their cuts by abusing the power of their office.

Two of the high-profile figures to have emerged in the last 10 months include former deputy head of Shanghai's Pudong New Area government Kang Huijun, now serving life sentence, and former Beijing Vice-Mayor Liu Zhihua, who received a suspended death sentence. Both were implicated in corruption related to real estate business, a reflection of the popular saying that goes, "As high-rises shoot up, officials fall down".

The extensive official abuse of power in real estate and other sectors might explain a recent Time Weekly report, which quoted Tsinghua University professor Cai Jiming, also a deputy to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, saying: About 91 percent of the 3,220 Chinese mainlanders with personal wealth exceeding 100 million yuan are the children of high-ranking officials. The numbers were credited to a central government research department report.

Related readings:  Building collapse: Nine under probe  Toppled tower owners in refund talks  China launches corruption-busting hotline  Realty sector needs reality check

While some have challenged the data's accuracy, it is hardly a secret that many people have used the official power and influence of their parents and relatives to rake in some big bucks in a short time.

It might also explain why the 2009 World Wealth Report released last month by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini showed that China now ranks fourth in the world in the number of high net wealth individuals or people with financial assets over $100 million. China has for the first time beaten Britain and now trails only the US, Japan and Germany.

It is probably revealing of why an official asset and income declaration system is still hard to come by after some two decades of deliberation.

So while people are awaiting a thorough probe into the corruption behind the collapsed apartment building, they also want to know how many Que Jingdes there are in the millions of projects across the country.

So far this year the central government has rolled up its sleeves in the battle against corruption. The launch of a national Crime Stoppers-like anti-corruption hotline (12309) last month, for example, is a promising move.

But stronger and more effective supervision, and legal mechanism are urgently needed in order to dig out more Que Jingdes and their connections.

E-mail: chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn