Statistics can be a profitable industry until you get caught – China politics and current affairs news from May 11, 2017

Authorities first started investigating Wang Baoan 王保安, former head of China’s National Statistics Bureau, in January 2016, and officially charged him with corruption in August. Reuters reports that on May 11, 2017, he pleaded guilty to accepting the equivalent of $22 million in bribes between 1994 and 2016. The article notes that “as well as accepting gifts, property and bribes, he frequently stayed at expensive hotels, engaged in ‘superstitious activities’ and ‘exchanged power for sex,’” according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the country’s major anticorruption task force. In exchange for the bribes, Wang secured project approvals or job appointments.

• Trump’s mixed signals on South China Sea worry Asian allies / NYT (paywall)
  “President Trump’s erratic approach to policy making and his focus on one issue — North Korea’s nuclear weapons program — are creating anxiety and confusion in the region.”
• Moon Jae-in of South Korea and China move to soothe tensions / NYT (paywall)
  “During a congratulatory call by President Xi Jinping of China to Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s newly minted president, Mr. Moon revealed his plans to send a delegation to Beijing” to discuss the THAAD anti-missile system and North Korea.
• North Korea expected to ask China for a break at summit / SCMP
  “North Korea is expected to press China to tone down its economic sanctions when its delegation ­attends an infrastructure and trade summit in Beijing on ­Sunday.”
• Can China score a new win in Africa with Xi Jinping’s ‘Belt and Road’ plan? / SCMP
  “Although Africa was not part of the Belt and Road plan when it was first proposed by Xi in 2013, ­Beijing has recently accelerated its push to include the continent.”
• China’s largesse lures countries to its Belt and Road initiative / Bloomberg
  The article includes informative maps of Belt and Road proposals.
• China says three of most wanted graft suspects let off / Reuters
  “Three people on China’s list of 100 most wanted graft suspects overseas were not prosecuted when they finally returned to China.”
• Ring of life: Former Chinese leader’s phone call dispels death rumors / WSJ (paywall)
  Former president Jiang Zemin dispels the regularly occurring rumor of his demise.
• Temple professor, once accused of spying for China, sues FBI agents / Philly.com
• Hong Kong pro-democracy rally displaced by pro-Beijing event, organizers say / NYT (paywall)