CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

companies were recommended for financial sanctions. And it named 85 corporations
based in Europe, the United States, Canada, Africa, Asia, and
Caribbean tax havens that it alleged were in violation of OECD guidelines
for multinational enterprises.
In the latter years of my career I have asked a lot of very sensitive questions
in a lot of very squirrelly places. I give high fives to the people who did
this work. The sad part is much of the issue remains unchanged. Some corporations
and individuals loudly protested their innocence, the western
world moved on to other concerns, and the Congolese continue today to be
drained, ripped off, threatened, brutalized, and killed.
China
Dirty Money at Work 143
True or false? With its booming economy, soaring per capita income, huge
inflows of foreign investment, and large hard-currency surpluses, China
need not worry about dirty money.
False. Pervasive domestic corruption and massive outflows of illegal proceeds
threaten China’s hope for peaceful transition to a sound market economy.
Instability is the one thing that China cannot risk. Every other nation
that illegally ships immense amounts of its wealth offshore is eventually
destabilized. There’s no reason to believe that China is an exception.
Minxin Pei, a China expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace in Washington, writes: “Corruption since the mid-1990s has
become intolerable. The blending of a semi-reformed economy, authoritarian
politics, decentralisation and burgeoning links to the outside world has
allowed corruption to mutate into a voracious and dangerous strain. ...
Corruption in authoritarian regimes tends to amplify systemic risks and undermine
the rulers’ legitimacy.” He goes on to suggest that China may already
be in “the late stages of regime decay.” 185
The Economist presents an equally sober assessment: “Scholars in China
are beginning to suggest what was once heretical: that the country suffers
from ‘systemic corruption.’ . . . [I]t would be hard to find any leader whose
associates and family members are beyond suspicion.” 186
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences extended its courtesies to me,
arranging appointments and providing translators on two occasions as I researched
corruption in and capital flight out of China. On the second trip,
after one day of interviews the academy-designated translator was replaced