The Chinese government has aggressively gone after elite officials with illegal overseas assets in its battle against black money.
Lai Changxing could well be described as China’s Vijay Mallya. For years, he topped the list of runaway tycoons pursued by the Chinese government. Lai, who presided over a business empire that spanned cars, cigarettes and real estate, was accused of illegal dealings worth billions of dollars. In 1999, he fled to Canada. Beijing created a special department of more than one thousand investigators just to pursue him and recover his assets. When China finally secured his extradition 12 years later, after assuring Canada he wouldn’t be executed, the Communist Party broadcast his return to Chinese soil live on state television, showing the stout, bespectacled businessman being escorted off an Air Canada aircraft by two towering policemen.
Like India, China has been waging a war on black money, one that intensified after President Xi Jinping took over in 2012. Yet it has been a different battle—focusing on repatriating economic fugitives and recovering their assets rather than on illegal cash holdings at home. It was later expanded into a domestic campaign to target select high-profile officials.
TWO BLACK MONEY BATTLES
Denne historien er fra December 19, 2016-utgaven av India Today.
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Denne historien er fra December 19, 2016-utgaven av India Today.
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He gave the beat to the world
He would pick up the rhythms of each experience of mobility and weave them into his taals. Thus it was that he reflected joy and laughter in rhythmic cycles...such was the magic of Zakir's fingersText and photographs by Raghu Rai
KERALA TOURISM CAMPAIGN, 1989 - TICKETS TO PARADISE
All it took was a catchy tagline-'God's Own Country'-for the world to discover Kerala's wealth of natural beauty. It remains among the best tourism ad campaigns, earning the state a place among top 10 international destinations
SPIRITUALITY - THE GURUS OF COOL
Among the cult Indian gurus, no one had a bigger hold on western minds than 'Osho' Rajneesh. He's also perhaps the role model for the enterprise-building gurus of today
RETAIL SHOPPING - THE MALL MANIA
Shopping malls, a 1990s innovation in India, changed the way the Indian middle class shops. Their success now lies in being 'shoppertainment' destinations, offering something for everyone
CULINARY RENAISSANCE, 1978 - TANDOORI NIGHTS
ITC's Bukhara and Dum Pukht turned the world to tandoori cuisine and had an enormous impact on the F&B industry. Decades on, they are still a pit-stop for celebrities and heads of state visiting Delhi
INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH - REVENGE OF THE NATIVE
Rushdie lit the way but Indian writing in English has taken a life of its own in the past few decades, with translated Indian fiction most recently having its moment in the sun
INDIAN ART - A BRUSH WITH GOLD DUST
The 1990s economic liberalisation came as oxygen, lighting up the Indian art scene. Today, artworks by established masters routinely go for astronomical amounts
FESTIVAL OF INDIA, 1982 - CULTURE CAPITAL
The Festival of India grew into a symbol of our 'soft power', introducing our art and aesthetics to a global audience while also helping rebrand our domestic products
THE INDIPOP TREND - DISCO GOES DESI
For ages, the film song ruled. Nothing else was audible. Then came Nazia, charioteered by Biddu, and Indian ears went into a pleasant madness. Literally, Disco Deewane. A whole genre was born
SHOLAY 1975 - THE BIRTH OF THE FANDEMIC
India had seen hits before. But Sholay seared into its collective psyche like a badland bullet. The effect was on a scale never seen before- one film creating a new mass folk culture. And a trail of monster blockbusters that still continues
