Shanghai's top crime boss executed: report

This case illustrates one key factor in China's success: ruthless pragmatism.

We can't comment on the particulars of the case, but it is widely known that the Chinese authorities regularly execute perpetrators of serious crimes.  Indeed, Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, was executed in July 2007 for corruption.  China seems to be unique in its zeal to purge evildoers.  The Anglo-European treatment of corrupt officials is positively indulgent in comparison. 

 This is not to say that the Chinese prescription has eradicated corruption or crime.  A propaganda-ridden, authoritarian state suffers a deep and chronic corruption which can only be purged through great pains: here is the hidden weakness of China.  However, until the day of reckoning comes for the tyrants (when wealth becomes scarce again), they forestall decay by weeding out undesirables.   Without delving into the morality of this approach, it would serve us to take notice of its pragmatic value: what use do we have of gangsters?