Ed Morrison · Chinese corruption update

July 29th, 2009

Today, I got a sense of the power of the Internet. Yesterday, I was out in Lantian at our factory and at a local police station. I took video of the police, as they scattered in my presence. (I have a short sequence of one guy who makes a 180 and then runs up the stairs.)

This morning, our joint venture manager and I met with the Communist Party officials in charge of complaints by foreign investors. (In China, there are the official offices and then there are the shadow offices of the Communist Party officials. China operates a kind of dual system. So, for example, the cities and towns have a mayor, but the real power rests in the party secretaries.)

Whereas the official offices are easy for Westerners to locate, the offices of the Communist Party officials are typically not. This office was located on the 11th floor of an otherwise nondescript office building. Inside the office, three officials occupied one room. A blue organization chart provided the only color on the white walls. There was a small couch, folding chairs and tea served in paper cups.

Our joint venture manager had met with officials in this office several times. His last meeting was only a week ago. Today’s meeting would be different. My presence certainly underscored our seriousness in pursuing our charges of corruption in Lantian County. But that is not what made the impression.

We discussed our situation with the head of the office, and I pulled out my laptop and showed him the videos I had taken the day before. I made the point that I was currently building a website on Lantian corruption, and that I will launch it shortly.

This afternoon, the official called back and said that he had traveled out to the County (which is about 50 km away) and that he had found some “evidence” that would interest us. He encouraged us to go out to the County tomorrow and talk with the Communist Party officials in charge of discipline for officials in the County. He said after that, we should come back to him, and he could advise us on our next steps. (Our sense that we may be on the edge of getting some documentary evidence to expose the public officials who are supporting the criminal conspiracy in the county.)

We make progress today, because, in the end, the Internet changes everything.

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