Great thief, no gambler

The master thief and the lousy gambler are not two different persons, they are one and the same.

Name: Li Weimin
Occupation: Township chief
Monthly income: 5,000 yuan
Performance as a master thief: embezzling 100 million yuan
Performance as a lousy gambler: losing 90 million yuan

It is not difficult to understand how Shanghai party boss Chen Liangyu could embezzle millions. As party secretary of Shanghai everybody in the city wanted to curry favor with him. Nobody dared to accuse him of any wrongdoing. How his fall came about is still not clear. But it could only happen with the explicit go-ahead of President Hu Jintao himself.

But township chief Li? How could this guy who only earned 5,000 yuan a month lay his hands on a hundred million and then gamble it all away? On one night in Macao, he lost 4 million yuan.

The gambling sector in Macao is booming. That is certainly a good thing for its economy and people. But most of the money gambled and lost has been embezzled in the mainland.

Maybe it would be good if Macao could diversify a bit. And humble township chiefs in China are prevented from stealing a hundred million.

And Li Weimin? He is waiting for the executioner’s bullet so he can continue gambling in the afterlife.