Corruption in China...charges and counter-charges, who do you believe?

US-based Chinese businessman Vincent Wu faces charges for role as ruthless crime boss
(10-18 16:22)
When more than 500 policemen swooped in to arrest 40 suspected gangsters in southern China last year, the alleged kingpin was a Los Angeles businessman who had hoisted an American flag amid a crowd to welcome Xi Jinping, now China's president, to California.
Vincent Wu's (pictured with wife and daughter, waiting to greet President Xi Jinping in Los Angeles) children and lawyers say he is an upstanding, philanthropic Chinese-American entrepreneur who has been framed by business foes who want to seize his assets, including a nine-story shopping mall. But police in the southern city of Guangzhou say he was a ruthless mob boss who led gangsters with nicknames such as “Old Crab'' and “Ferocious Mouth.''
Wu is expected to stand trial within weeks in Guangzhou on charges of heading a crime gang that kidnapped rivals, threw acid at a judge, set fire to farmers' sheds, operated illegal gambling dens and committed other offenses. Wu has told his lawyers that police interrogators tortured him into confessing, AP’s Gillian Wong, reports.
In the absence of an independent legal system, the truth may never emerge. And although Wu is a naturalized US citizen, American diplomats have not been able to see him because China recognizes only his residency in Hong Kong.
The case provides a glimpse into the often murky world of business in China. Widespread corruption means entrepreneurs can cozy up with police and run roughshod over the law, but they are also vulnerable if their rivals gang up with local authorities.
When disgraced politician Bo Xilai led the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, hundreds of businesspeople were accused of involvement in organized crime; many were believed to have been tortured into confessing while authorities seized their assets. Bo was sentenced to life imprisonment last month for embezzlement, bribery and abuse of power, but allegations that the businessmen were wrongfully convicted were not aired at his trial.
Wu was detained in June last year in a pre-dawn operation involving hundreds of police across Guangdong province, which includes Guangzhou and Wu's hometown of Huizhou.
He is charged with getting an associate to throw acid at a judge who ruled against him in a lawsuit, and with ordering thugs to set fire to sheds owned by farmers who refused his offer of compensation to clear off land he wanted to develop. He's also accused of operating illegal casinos that raked in 48 million yuan (US$7.8 million), and of attacking or kidnapping people who crossed him in various disputes. About 30 other people face related charges of gang crimes.
Wu maintains his innocence, his attorney Wang Shihua said. Before his detention, Wu had been praised by local Chinese newspapers for giving more than 20 million yuan to his hometown.
“My dad is a really good person at heart, especially to the people who are farmers and have not enough money to go to school. He's donated money to the elderly and to help build a road,'' said Wu's daughter, Anna Wu, in an interview from Hong Kong, where she has based herself to try to draw attention to her father's case. “But in China, money speaks louder than law... if you want to bring someone down, you can bribe the police and certain people to make it happen.''
Huang Xiaojun, a former business partner of Wu's and one of his accusers, said it is Wu who exploited government corruption. Huang said Wu tried to kidnap him four times and sought to seize his share of their business by bribing court officials.
“He is a man with no morals and integrity,'' Huang said in a phone interview. “He's extremely good at playing or acting and confusing right and wrong.''
Wu's lawyers want to use his case to test the Chinese government's resolve to stick by its stated opposition to convictions based on evidence extracted through torture. In a written record of a December 2012 meeting with his lawyers, Wu described being beaten, kicked and deprived of food and sleep as police tried to coerce him to sign a confession.
On occasion, Wu's arms were tied behind his back with a rope that was then strung from a ceiling beam _ a torture method dubbed the “suspended airplane,'' he told his lawyers. If he fainted, he was woken with water or chemical stimulants.
“As soon as I did not cooperate, they hit me, hanged me,'' Wu told his lawyers, according to a copy of the deposition provided to The Associated Press by Wu's family.
Wu's legal adviser, Li Zhuang, said more than 20 witnesses also were tortured. During a pretrial meeting at the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on Monday, Wu's lawyers demanded that the court keep their testimony out of Wu's trial, which they expect to begin within a month.
An official at the Huizhou police bureau's propaganda department said he “had not heard'' that interrogators might have tortured Wu.
Wu left China in the late 1970s as a stowaway to neighboring Hong Kong, where he obtained residency. He moved with his family to the U.S. in 1994, settled in Los Angeles and eventually became a US citizen.
Even as an American, Wu spent most of his time in China, tending to his businesses and visiting Los Angeles twice a year, his daughter said. But she said he was also active in Los Angeles' Chinese-American business community; photos provided by her show him hoisting an American flag as he welcomed then-Vice President Xi Jinping _ now the president _ to the city early last year.
Chinese authorities have denied Wu access to U.S. officials, saying they regard him as a Hong Kong resident because he last entered China on a Hong Kong identity card.
US officials have sent several notes to Chinese authorities about Wu's case, Wu's daughter said. U.S. Embassy spokesman Nolan Barkhouse said American officials were monitoring the case but could not comment out of privacy concerns.
Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report. 

Bill's note: In the USA we rely on the FBI to investigate corrupt government. We trust the FBI and the courts. I hope this is the case anyway.

A German's View of Islam

ref: This is an email circulated to me that is worth reading. Other posts on this subject can be found by using the search box for muslim or islam.

The author of this

email is Dr . Emanuel Tanya, a

well-known and well respected

psychiatrist. A man, whose family was

German aristocracy prior to

World War II, owned a number

of large industries and estates.

When asked how many

German people were true

Nazis, the answer he gave can

guide our attitude toward

fanaticism.

'Very few people were true

Nazis,' he said, 'but many

enjoyed the return of German

pride, and many more were

too busy to care. I was one of

those who just thought the

Nazis were a bunch of fools.

So, the majority just sat back

and let it all happen. Then,

before we knew it, they owned

us, and we had lost control,

and the end of the world had

come.

My family lost everything. I

ended up in a concentration

camp and the Allies destroyed

my factories.'

We are told again and again by

'experts' and 'talking heads'

that Islam is the religion of

peace and that the vast

majority of Muslims just want

to live in peace. Although this

unqualified assertion may be

true, it is entirely irrelevant. It

is meaningless fluff, meant to

make us feel better, and meant

to somehow diminish the

spectre of fanatics rampaging

across the globe in the name of

Islam.

The fact is that the fanatics

rule Islam at this moment in

history. It is the fanatics who

march. It is the fanatics who

wage any one of 50 shooting

wars worldwide. It is the

fanatics who systematically

slaughter Christian or tribal

groups throughout Africa and

are gradually taking over the

entire continent in an Islamic

wave. It is the fanatics who

bomb, behead, murder, or

honour-kill. It is the fanatics

who take over mosque after

mosque. It is the fanatics who

zealously spread the stoning

and hanging of rape victims

and homosexuals. It is the

fanatics who teach their young

to kill and to become suicide

bombers.

The hard, quantifiable fact is

that the peaceful majority, the

'silent majority,' is cowed and

extraneous. Communist Russia

was comprised of Russians

who just wanted to live in

peace, yet the Russian

Communists were responsible

for the murder of about 20

million people. The peaceful

majority were irrelevant.

China's huge population was

peaceful as well, but Chinese

Communists managed to kill a

staggering 70 million people..

The average Japanese

individual prior to World War II

was not a warmongering

sadist. Yet, Japan murdered

and slaughtered its way across

South East Asia in an orgy of

killing that included the

systematic murder of 12

million Chinese civilians; most

killed by sword, shovel, and

bayonet. And who can forget

Rwanda, which collapsed into

butchery. Could it not be said

that the majority of Rwandans

were 'peace loving'?

History lessons are often

incredibly simple and blunt,

yet for all our powers of

reason, we often miss the

most basic and uncomplicated

of points: peace-loving

Muslims have been made

irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will

become our enemy if they

don't speak up, because like

my friend from Germany, they

will awaken one day and find

that the fanatics own them,

and the end of their world will

have begun.

Peace-loving Germans,

Japanese, Chinese, Russians,

Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans,

Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis,

Nigerians, Algerians, and many

others have died because the

peaceful majority did not

speak up until it was too late.

Now Islamic prayers have been

introduced into Toronto and

other public schools in Ontario,

and, yes, in Ottawa too while

the Lord's Prayer was removed

(due to being so offensive?)

The Islamic way may be

peaceful for the time being in

our country until the fanatics

move in.

In Australia, and indeed in

many countries around the

world, many of the most

commonly consumed food

items have the halal emblem

on them. Just look at the back

of some of the most popular

chocolate bars, and at other

food items in your local

supermarket. Food on aircraft

have the halal emblem, just to

appease the privileged

minority who are now rapidly

expanding within the nation’s

shores.

In the UK, the Muslim

communities refuse to

integrate and there are now

dozens of “no-go” zones within

major cities across the country

that the police force dare not

intrude upon. Sharia law

prevails there, because the

Muslim community in those

areas refuse to acknowledge

British law.

As for us who watch it all

unfold, we must pay attention

to the only group that counts --

the fanatics who threaten our

way of life.