Rich
List or Wanted List?
Hu
Run’s Rich List (富豪榜)
has been dubbed Wanted List (杀猪榜)
in China. Each year shortly after the
list was published, some of people on the
list would quickly fall from grace. There
is no exception this time around.
It
is revealed by Guangzhou Property Tax
Bureau that, of 41 large corporations
that have failed to pay taxes 20 million
yuans or more, 31 are property-related
companies. And the number ten on the Hu
Run’s Rich List is one of them. With
his financial assets adds up to a
dazzling 10 billion yuans, he still
chooses not to pay his tax. So far he has
accumulated an unpaid tax debt of 28
million yuans, not counting the interest
he owns.
In
a country where many people cannot afford
to go to hospital and a lot of families
are struggling to make ends meet in order
to allow their children to finish school,
it is understandable that this extremely
wealthy man’s extraordinary mean act
has caused a wide resentment. To make
things worse, he is a property developer.
For
years, China’s property market is
generally viewed as THE most corrupted
industry in China, and the property
developers became the most disgusted
group.
China's
property industry is a hotbed of
corruption, where private business people
and local government officials often team
up and exercise forced land acquisition
and dodged tender practice. Case in point
is Shanghai when it was under the rule of
Chen Liangyu. Some time ago, over 200
Shanghai residents sent an open letter to
Beijing, detailing how their houses in
Putou district were demolished by a
private developer associated to Chen,
from whom the rightful owners of the
properties received no compensation but
fists and punches. Many of them are still
left without a place to call home so far.
And that are not all. Price manipulation
and tax invasion are also said to be the
trademarks of this industry. A local
study shows that 90 percent of
property-related companies fail to pay
their tax.
Another
rich man on the Rich List publicly
declaimed that he dared not to enter the
property market. "The Field is too
filthy," he reportedly said.
Related stories:
Previous
| Next
All
Stories
|
