Perhaps even more troubling for the Party is the surge in scepticism over how such wealth seems to find its way into the hands of officials and their families, not to mention into those of their beloved Swiss bankers, English boarding schools and Australian estate agents. Particularly galling are the reports about the great number of officials who have taken to working “naked”. That is to say, many officials are working in China while their wives, children and, presumably, a chunk of the motherland's money take residence overseas. A report released last year estimated that as much as $120 billion may have been transferred abroad by corrupt officials.
So one can only imagine the consternation caused by yesterday's sensational exposé by Bloomberg, which details the financial assets belonging to the family of China's president-in-waiting, Xi Jinping. Bloomberg was careful to note that no part of their investigation directly implicated Mr Xi, his wife, herself a famous PLA officer-cum-singer, Peng Liyuan, or their daughter, who is reportedly studying at Harvard University under an assumed name. The Bloomberg report suggests that other close relatives of Mr Xi have been blessed with abundant good fortune, to put it mildly. The article ties Mr Xi's sister Qi Qiaoqiao, her husband Deng Jigui, and another brother-in-law, Wu Long, to assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, or even billions. Their holdings are reported to include stakes in real estate and telecommunications, as well as the sensitive business of producing rare-earth minerals.
The government's response to the Bloomberg report was predictable. Both the Bloomberg and Businessweek websites are currently inaccessible inside China's “great firewall”. Although access to Bloomberg Professional, an essential tool for businesses and China's financial elite, so far remains unaffected.
Probably not, but it's pretty appalling all the same. With social tensionsrising steadily, the public's patience with the extravagance of the official class is wearing thin. Calls for greater transparency—not to be confused with any call for Western-style democracy—are growing louder. Many people in China have come to accept corruption as a fact of life, and feel that there is little that anyone can do to fix it.
Perversely the corruption of officials and their family members can serve as something of a check, as Mr Bo found out earlier this year. It ensures that no one in the system is invulnerable. The situation is like duelling with hand grenades. If everybody in your circle of power is dirty, then it's to your own advantage not to do anything to jeopardise your position, lest the others use what they have against you.
The system also gives those in power precious little incentive to advocate for meaningful political reform. Too many people have too much “skin in the game”. Political openness would threaten not only the Party's grip on power, but also a whole system which provides direct and indirect financial benefits to millions of relatively well-connected individuals. Factionalism abounds of course, but the divide is less between “reformers” and “hardliners” than it is between different political power-brokers and within their networks of patronage. Such competition becomes particularly fierce in the run-up to one of these once-in-a-decade leadership transition, as in 2012.