China Executes Billionaire Who Ran ‘Mafia-Style’ Criminal Gang

[former9thward]

Source: New York Times

HONG KONG — A Chinese billionaire who was building a mining empire in Australia was executed Monday after a court last year sentenced him to die for running a “mafia-style” gang that engaged in murder and extortion.

Liu Han, 49, his brother Liu Wei, and three associates were executed on Monday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Xianning Intermediate People’s Court in the central Chinese province of Hubei. The men had been sentenced last May for running a criminal syndicate that killed at least eight people, ran extortion schemes, trafficked weapons and operated gambling dens.

Their crimes were “deeply evil and particularly cruel,” Xinhua cited the court as saying.

China leads the world in executions, but Liu Han’s case was particularly noteworthy because of his great wealth — with one official report pinning his family’s assets at more than $6 billion — his international business network that invested in Australian mines, as well as his reported connections to a disgraced former Chinese police czar who is awaiting trial.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/world/asia/china-executes-billionaire-who-ran-mafia-style-criminal-gang.html

[Orrex]

1. How can they do this?

Don't they realize that he was rich?

[former9thward]

2. I guess they have different standards than the U.S.

[Orrex]

3. I'm surprised that American English even allows the phrase "executes billionaire."

[DetlefK]

4. China HAS to execute people for corruption. The reasoning is very simple:

In communism, rulers depend less on the goodwill of the ruled than in democracy.
=> Abuse of power and corruption is easier.
=> Abuse of power and corruption is more rampant.
=> China needs a powerful deterrent.
=> Executions.



You think the US is a corrupt cesspool of big donors buying politicians? Imagine what the US would be like if backroom-deals would decide who does and who doesn't get on the ballot!

[father founding]

6. we have to talk about something

Sorry to burst your bubble, BUT....

[Trillo]

5. Seems like lifetime imprisonment and taking away all his wealth would have been

more punishing than a quick death.

[Diclotican]

7. former9thward

former9thward


I guess he was not powerfull enough - and had not the right conections into the PRC leadership - to not get excecuted - others who do usaly get away with maybe a prison time..... Or maybe he got excecuted to warn off others - who might got as greedy as he is - but who is less aggresive than he was....

Diclotican