This Chinese banker had a big apartment
full of luxury goods.
But it left her feeling so empty.
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Is it possible to have too much money?
If you have massive student loan debt, the answer is probably no.
But if you’re a corrupt Chinese Communist Party member, the answer might just be yes.
It happens when you have so much money, you can’t spend it, because then people would
get suspicious.
Yet people keep bribing you with more and more money.
And if you turn it down, people will also get suspicious.
So what’s a poor corrupt Party Member to do?
The answer is, buy a second apartment to hide all your luxury goods.
That’s what happened to Chinese banker Wang Li.
From the young age of 17, hardworking Li had successfully climbed her way into the Chinese
Communist Party as Secretary and eventually Chair of the Bank of Qinghai.
Most recently, she held the role of Deputy Director of the Qinghai Provincial Local Financial
Supervision Administration.
That job included regulating financial institutions to make sure they’re not corrupt.
And along the way, she accepted a huge amount of bribes.
Li took advantage of her position as chairman and president of Qinghai Bank to embezzle
public funds.
The amount was so large, she may have suffered a mental breakdown...from too much power and
greed.
“[Wang Li] took herself to be more like a private boss.”
“She compared herself with her associates who were bosses of private enterprises, and
that caused a psychological imbalance.”
Li had surrounded herself with the heads of various financial corporations, and watched
as they spent lavish amounts of money.
And since she had invested most of her working life to the development of Qinghai Bank, she
got the idea that the bank’s money was basically her own.
Li began accepting whatever bribes came her way, whether it was money or luxury goods.
And she even took out loans from Qinghai Bank that she never paid back.
It got to the point where she had to buy a separate apartment without her husband’s
knowledge—just so she could have a place to hide all of the luxury goods she’d accepted.
Eventually, she got caught.
And the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection made a video exposing her secret
life, including her apology-slash-forced-confession.
The possessions that Wang Li accumulated included piles of watches, gold bars, stacks of US
dollars, as well as jars of a local Qinghai province treasure: Musk!
If you’re wondering what musk is, it’s “The dry secretions of mature [musk deer]
males located in the gland between the belly button and the genitals, and it was once used
as a raw material for perfume.”
Yes, rich people want to smell like the glands of a dead deer.
Unless they want to smell like whale poop.
And just like whale poop, musk is very expensive.
Musk deer are an endangered species, and the trade in musk is highly regulated.
So Wang Li had her musk, but couldn’t do anything with it except keep it in a jar.
Just like her feelings.
Wang Li also kept a hidden safe in her apartment, which supposedly contained keys to other safes
that held information about her corrupt associates.
But Wang Li’s secret apartment was a sanctuary only she could enjoy.
She had an entire dresser stocked with luxury brand silk scarves, each one worth upwards
of 600 US dollars.
Plus a closet full of more than 40 famous name brand bags estimated to be worth more
than 60,000 dollars.
But as I mentioned, Wang Li had a problem.
She could not actually enjoy the luxury items she received over the years, because she was
too scared to be seen outside of the house wearing them.
“[Wang Li] said her biggest sorrow was that her apartment was the only place she could
find peace.
Her biggest happiness was that she could wear all these luxury items and look at herself
in the mirror.
In fact she was awfully conflicted and suffered.”
So she’d just stand alone in front of the mirror wearing her favorite silk scarves?
Does luxury really mean anything if you can’t show it off?
In her final repentance video, this is what Wang Li had to say.
“I think all money comes and goes, really.
Especially for someone like me who was fortunate enough to be under the care of an organization.
I was already well off.
In fact, the money was entirely unnecessary for me to have.
Yet…
I still accepted many things I should not have accepted.
Truth be told, all the money and luxury items in the end just go with you to the grave.
They have no purpose.”
“After leaving my job and my organization, I felt soulless and spineless.
Just a pile of skin and bones sprawled on the floor.
I didn’t know what I had until I lost it.
This is my greatest despair.”
Poor rich Wang Li is hardly alone.
The scale of corruption among Chinese Communist Party members is hard to imagine.
We know a little bit from videos like this one that come out from time to time.
We also showed you one a few weeks ago, about the Chinese official who had 100 mistresses
and 3 metric tons of secret cash.
One little slip up and you’re done.
Like this guy, Yang Dacai.
A local official who was caught on camera back in 2012 wearing luxury wristwatches.
Chinese netizens started calling him Brother Wristwatch.
And then he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption.
Yeah, that’s why Wang Li only wore her fancy scarves in her secret apartment.
But Wang Li and Brother Wristwatch are only the few people who get caught—or get taken
down in anti-corruption campaigns.
And there are lots more who don’t get caught.
But that doesn’t mean they’re living the good life.
What good is money and luxury if you’re living in fear that one day, you’ll be the
next Wang Li?
And this is the problem with the Communist Party.
A lot of high ranking Chinese officials are extremely rich.
For example, China’s National People’s Congress has 93 billionaires, and countless
millionaires.
But since so many of them got their money through corrupt means, they can be taken down
at any time if they fall out of favor.
And that’s one reason why they have to do whatever the Communist Party tells them.
It’s a tough life.
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from a viewer who supports China Uncensored
on Patreon.
Leslie Soule asks: “With Gavin Newsom (governor of California) having completed a $1 billion
mask deal with China, and Dianne Feinstein having had a Chinese spy on her payroll for
years, what other connections do you think might exist, between California leadership
and China and/or the CCP?
Well Leslie, there are lots of connections.
Not just the people you mentioned.
There’s a long string of San Francisco mayors connected with China, as well as other politicians.
For example, current San Francisco mayor London Breed, pictured here with the Chinese Consul
General.
In February last year, Chinese state-run media praised her for hosting Chinese New Year at
City Hall, and inviting the Consul General.
“He pledged to work with San Francisco to bolster its ties with Shanghai.”
And later London Breed said that photos of China locking up its own people during Covid
helped convince her to lock down San Francisco.
Because the China model really screams success.
Now some California politicians simply don’t understand the nature of the Chinese Communist
Party.
They think they’re dealing with a normal government, and such-and-such trade sounds
like a good deal.
But they’re actually dealing with a gangster regime.
And it affects policy.
Like when the California state legislature shelved a resolution that would have supported
Falun Gong—because they got pressure from the Chinese consulate.
Falun Gong is a spiritual group that’s persecuted in China.
They’re beaten and often sent to labor camps to be killed for their organs.
Or as the California legislature would say...
Good job, California.
It’s not just California, though.
For years, the Chinese Communist Party has spent a lot of effort trying to get local
and state officials on their side.
After all, a local California city councilman could one day get elected to Congress.
So it’s a great idea to start spying on him early.
In fact, maybe I should do an episode on how the Chinese Communist Party targets local
US officials.
Let me know if you’d like to see that in the comments below.
Thanks for your question, Leslie.
Be like Leslie, and support China Uncensored through the crowdfunding website Patreon.
Go to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored to learn more.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.