Evergrande Founder Xu Jiayin Sentenced to Life Imprisonment

His assets have been confiscated, and Evergrande's subsidiaries were fined more than 3 trillion won. This is the result of the Xi leadership strongly applying its normative guideline that real estate is not an object of speculation. Evergrande went beyond simple embezzlement, spreading damage through a massive Ponzi-type scheme and causing social chaos.

Such entertainment was part of an organized lobbying effort to gain real estate development rights. Lavish lobbying methods, including use of private jets and wine parties, continued over time.

In China, a protocol culture originating in Confucian classics such as the "Book of Rites" has deeply taken root in business. It has been formalized into the "suzuo" culture of building deals over food and drink. This formation of "guanxi" has functioned as an essential method of trade and negotiation in China's economic system. Building relationships through cash-mediated favors has long been an important element of business.

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pursued strong anti-corruption policies and enforced a ban on lavish entertainment. However, "guanxi" culture, which has persisted for thousands of years, has not disappeared in a short time and continues in changed, covert, and underground forms. Facilities like the "Palace of Luxury," which served senior Communist Party officials, have been maintained in closed forms.

China, due to its vast territory and the influence of monsoons, is a country where floods and droughts are frequent disasters. In particular, floods have hit the southern regions repeatedly over the past five or six years, and natural disasters have been accumulating. In managing and resolving these natural disasters (tianzai), the risk of man-made disasters (renzai), caused by human fault, is high.

Compared with dynastic eras, despite technological maturity, China repeatedly shows a powerless response when disasters strike. Warnings have emerged that the patience of the people is reaching its limit. Premier Li Qiang has visited disaster areas in an attempt to calm public opinion, yet resentment is gradually growing.

More than a week has passed without military deployment, and criticism is growing. As a result, the perception that disasters are man-made is spreading within China.

Among these, dam construction is considered a sector generating such enormous vested interests that it is called "diamond-grade" corruption. Corruption in the dam construction process is pointed out as one of the chronic problems of Chinese society.

Evergrande's Ponzi-style expansion and corruption in property construction and infrastructure created a severe bubble in China's real estate market. General Secretary Xi made a normative judgment to pop this bubble, but there are criticisms that his approach was direct and bold, lacking a reasonable, step-by-step exploratory process. This decision-making structure of Xi's led to unintended side effects in removing the bubble.

Even though an estimated 40 million people died unofficially during the Great Leap Forward campaign conducted over three years from 1959, the Chinese Communist regime survived. This is because the Party has a governing structure that prioritizes its permanent hold on power and national competitiveness over people's welfare. The Chinese Communist Party controls society by grasping the trunk rather than the mesh, and has a historical experience of maintaining the system despite mass casualties. This structural characteristic is cited as the basis for rebutting the theory of China's collapse.