[_delirium]

Chinese ministers barely even claim to be communist these days; anyone in the government who takes communism seriously is seen as left-fringe. It's true that they seem to be miraculously making more money than their official salaries, but that's also true in many countries, including Europe and the US. Some are shadier than others; it ranges from outright dirty stuff (taking bribes, insider trading) to gray-area stuff (accepting free trips and gifts) to semi-legit stuff (giving paid speeches and doing private-sector consulting on the side). US Senators get paid $174,000/year, for example, yet their average net worth is $14 million. Some of that is wealth accumulated before entering office, but a typical Senator also makes quite a bit more than their official salary when in office. Though I can certainly believe that the scale of shadiness is much higher in China.

[danmaz74]

As a matter of fact, in Europe and the US, when it becomes known that a public official spends much more money than what he/she should be able to afford, it is a scandal. I'm not saying that there is no corruption in the West, just that it is by no mean a double standard to talk about (alleged) corruption in Communist China, as it was said in the comment I was responding to...

[philwelch]

Senators also tend to be high-status men who can marry into wealthy families, like Kerry, who married into the Heinz family.