Dead tortoise the star as TV turns cameras on corruption
Print Edition
WITH a tale of a dead pet tortoise given Buddhist rites and a senior official shedding tears for his crimes, state television has begun airing a documentary that takes viewers behind the scenes of some of China’s most dramatic corruption cases.
The eight-part series that began on Monday promises an unusual warts-and-all approach to revealing the story behind the dirty deals and extravagant lifestyles uncovered by graft busters.
President Xi Jinping has waged a sweeping war on deep-seated corruption since assuming power almost four years ago, vowing to go after powerful “tigers” as well as lowly “flies.”
Three “tigers” featured in the first episode — Bai Enpei, former Party boss of southwest China’s Yunnan Province; Zhou Benshun, an ex-Party chief of north China’s Hebei Province and Li Chuncheng, a former deputy Party boss of Sichuan Province in the southwest.
Bai and Li have both been convicted, while Zhou awaits trial.
Against a backdrop of images of a Buddhist temple and to the sound of monks chanting, the documentary describes Zhou’s involvement in “superstition.”
Party officials are not supposed to practice religion.
Zhou “set his expectations upon protection from supernatural beings and was widely involved in superstitious practices,” the narrator says. “After a tortoise died at his home, he had scriptures specially transcribed and buried with it.”
Zhou even had a nanny for his pets, investigator Wang Han told the program.
The three officials all admitted their guilt in appearances on the show. Describing his failings, Li, given a 13-year jail term last year, struggled and failed to keep back tears.
“From a young age I hoped that under the leadership of the Party ... I could get progress for society, make the people happy,” Li said. “In the end, because of myself, I didn’t get there. I really let the Party down. I let the people down.”
The show is called “Always on the Road,” a reference to the Party’s vow not to relax in stamping out corruption, and further revelations are promised later in the week.
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