See that building above? That’s what people in the Yingquan district of Fuyang City in Anhui
province sarcastically call the “white house” and is the building wher ethe local government
does its work. The local party secretary is named Zhang Zhi’an and was one of the people
responsible for the construction of this building. Earlier this year, in March, one of the people
that worked under him—Li Guofu—was found dead, from apparent suicide, in the prison
where he was being held. Why was he in prison? Because he’d done a bad thing: he
ratted on his superior, Zhang Zhi’an—and made several trips to Beijing to do so.
Li, in several reports/letters he wrote to Beijing authorities, claimed that Zhang had taken
bribes, forcefully reclaimed land from peasants, and taken public money to finance his “white
house” among other projects (golf courses, race tracks, etc.) and in general was a bad apple.

Danwei had a good post about it called Darkness in the “White House” which can you read for the rest
of the background…well, it turns out that three of the top officials in the district—Zhang and two others—have been suspended over the dubious suicide. Those guys spent
1/3 of the district’s revenue building their copycat “white house”/Capitol Building…even
without a probable murder to mix things up, these guys deserved their comeuppance long ago.

Technorati Tags: white house, fuyang, anhui, corruption, li guofu, zhang zhi’an, peasants, land, property, real estate, crime, suicide, chinese

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