$5 Billion Illegal Funds Set up by Chinese Officials Uncovered

On Tuesday, a senior Chinese official revealed that numerous Chinese Communist Party departments and public organizations set up secret and illegal funds to embezzle public money. The disclosure follows a nationwide clampdown against corruption that started in 2009.

State-run China Daily cited the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Deputy Secretary Wu Yuliang. Wu said about $4-billion of the slush funds has been recovered. Over 10-thousand individuals have been punished.

Local Chinese Communist Party officials have been using these funds for bribes and for embezzling public money. So far, over 61-thousand secret and illegal funds have been uncovered in the past three years.

The anti-corruption campaign apparently did not deter Chinese officials from operating and setting up illegal funds to siphon money for bribes and other inappropriate expenses.

The Wall Street Journal reported that since last August over 3,000 new slush funds were uncovered—pushing the total amount up from $4.16-billion to $5.01-billion.

Chinese netizens are saying corruption is far more rampant than what the Chinese authorities have revealed.

The Wall Street Journal cited a Weibo user saying, "There are practically no government work units that aren’t stealing. There is practically no officials working in financial affairs who are completely honest."

The report quoted another Weibo user, saying the uncovered figures "still don’t include the ones not discovered yet."