Hundreds of officials and their associates are thought to have fled China, in response to the widening anti-corruption net of President Xi Jinping. Investigators are thought to have asked New Zealand for co-operation in relation to evidence-gathering on Cao Jianliao, vice-mayor of Guangzhou, accused of having had at least 11 long-term mistresses and of being involved in corruption which could be valued at US$43m. A property lawyer who is alleged to have paid bribes to Mr Cao is a New Zealand citizen. 

Hundreds of cases

The Communist party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has, through the Chinese government, asked the New Zealand government to help it gain more information. This case ‘and hundreds like it’ pose ‘an enormous challenge to liberal democracies’, according to The Financial Times. A diplomat from a western country told the newspaper: ‘Our countries don’t want to be seen as havens where corrupt officials can flee to with their ill-gotten gains but there are serious questions facing any democratically elected government about how far they can co-operate with China’s authoritarian system.’ The Central Commission, for instance, has powers to hold Communist party members without trial and without access to lawyers. Source: Financial Times