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September 27, 2014

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Picture this: Another path to official bribery

THE realistic photo depicting a running stream and strange rocks on Yuntai Mountain in Henan Province was recently pulled off billboards inside Metro stations in Beijing and Shanghai.

Why? The photographer, Qin Yuhai, 61, a former top Henan official, is under investigation, accused of “serious violation of Party discipline and the law,” according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Qin, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of Henan Province People’s Congress, is the latest high-ranking official to be ensnared in an anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping.

In addition to his 9-year position as one of Henan’s top officials, Qin aroused public discussion for his other titles — a member of the Chinese Photographers’ Association and honorary chairman of the equivalent association in Henan Province. In 2005 and 2007, he won national prizes for his pictures.

Photography can be an extremely costly hobby for serious aficionados, and that seems to have made it another path of corruption among government officials. According to Xinhua news agency, Qin’s enthusiastic pursuit of photography is believed to have been funded by illicit lucre.

And he is not alone. Qin is among several officials who loved photography and were lured by expensive camera equipment that got them caught in the anti-corruption campaign. 

Cameras can be upgraded often with ever-faster and more versatile systems; lenses have dozens of expensive options due to various angles, focal lengths and brands. Numerous other accessories — converters, extension tubes, viewfinders, UV filters and more — also can be quite expensive.

William Cai, a manager at a foreign company in Shanghai, takes pictures religiously. Yet Cai, who earns 300,000 yuan (US$48,830) a year, finds it hard to have all the devices he dreams of.

“Plus, with the money you need to travel around for beautiful landscapes, I can only afford one good camera (around 40,000 yuan for the camera body),” he says.

“For a decent package of camera gear, it will cost you at least 250,000 yuan,” Cai is quick to add.

Such an expensive hobby among officials created an opening for people currying special favors. They bought expensive camera gear for these officials and planned photography excursions for them. In addition, they helped the officials hold lavish exhibitions and published personal albums of their works.

Terrible photography trip

Discreet sources at publishing houses reveal that where the sales and royalty revenues came from remained quite suspicious, because it was unlikely that purchasers were ordinary people.

A photography hobbyist told Xinhua that he once saw an “very important person” riding in a police helicopter on a photography trip in Henan Province to take pictures of swans in the Yellow River during winter.

The noise from the helicopter scared all the swans away, ruining the experience for other photographers and nature lovers on the ground. Very few swans were seen in the area for the next two weeks, according to the hobbyist.

One member of Qin’s photography group said the official improved his craft through frequent photo trips on weekends and public holidays. His award-winning water-themed photos were produced using expensive equipment.

“It is the Hasselblad camera, which costs more than 200,000 yuan only for the camera body. Adding the lens and film, it could cost at least another 100,000 yuan,” says Jason Wu, a professional photographer from Shanghai.

“When you take out a camera like a Hasselblad, you will definitely get envious glances from other shutterbugs,” he adds.

For Wu, while the fancy camera gear is great, the most important thing is the process of taking pictures.

“I know some officials shoot with top-grade cameras, but I don’t see great works coming out. All they do is flaunt the equipment,” he says.

An unnamed source told Xinhua that Qin got his expensive gear from a “famous” business in Henan. As he came under scrutiny from investigators, Qin started ditching cameras and lenses worth hundreds of thousands of yuan. Police and security personnel found many of these abandoned within his residential compound.

The same thing happened with Wang Huishi, former vice mayor of Ordos city in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Wang is being probed by local prosecutors for corruption and abuse of power. The investigators found a dozen or so expensive camera equipment at his home.

In February this year, Zhang Minji, chairman of Wuhan Gas in Hubei Province, was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for corruption, abuse of power and bribery. Among his equipment was a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, four lenses from 27mm to 400mm, one Hasselblad digital camera plus four matched lenses — all gifts. 

In June, six white SUVs (sport utility vehicles) traveled on the prairies of Inner Mongolia followed by 20 other cars. Three of the six luxury vehicles’ car plates were covered with camouflage jacket. The fleet stopped around a pasture while the passengers came out starting to take pictures of the horses.

According to the local media, the three “covered” cars were all former high officials of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of Inner Mongolia. They came with other officials for a photography excursion. Rumors had it that all the SUVs were government cars.

Now investigation is underway.




 

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