Wwhy did he write the book? Desmond Shum hesitates only briefly. “I started because I wanted to explain to my son why his mother disappeared without a trace.” Only later did Shum decide to publish his life confession. “Red Roulette” – that’s the English title – has taken off. It’s an insider’s report from the heart of China’s corrupt red caste. While Beijing is currently trying to put up a nice facade at the Olympics, Shum, who lives in exile in Britain, has nothing but contempt for the system.
Without good relations with the Communist Party, nobody gets rich in China, which now has more than a thousand billionaires. Corruption is omnipresent, Desmond Shum emphasizes to the FAZ. “Corruption is systemic,” he says in his calm and friendly, but firm voice. “The party sits above the state, it siphons off the wealth. Every company, every businessman has to pay party officials and bureaucrats.” In “Red Roulette” he describes how high-ranking party officials, whose wives and sons often demanded 30 percent commission for big deals. Even today, despite Xi Jinping’s tough campaigns, there is widespread corruption and enrichment, just a little more subtle than before.
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