Tiger's Taste for Maotai Takes him Down

Wang Xiaoguang is the latest official to be jailed for 20 years for corruption

While you may think Chinese President Xi Jinping has been busy with Belt and Road, and the Greater Bay Area, don't think he hasn't had time to bag more tigers. One more was recently taken down, the former vice-governor of Guizhou province.

Wang Xiaoguang, who was in power from 2009-2016 was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined a record 174 million yuan (US$26 million) for taking bribes, embezzlement and insider trading.

Wang was known as the "Maotai collector"

The prosecution claimed that Wang had taken advantage of his position to receive 49 million yuan in bribes, made 163 million yuan from insider trading of stocks and embezzled 4.8 million in land sales proceeds in 2000.

What did he do with all that money? Apparently he liked to collect rare orchids and Maotai, a kind of baijiu that is distilled from sorghum.

The court said Wang's sentence was light because the 57-year-old pleaded guilty to all charges.

In a confession, Wang said he was "addicted to orchids" and the National Supervisory Commission or anti-corruption watchdog said he had amassed so much Maotai that he became known as the "Maotai collector" and even obtained liquor licenses for his relatives to help him sell it. His wife reportedly dunked a lot of the prized Maotai down the sink before the authorities came to arrest him.

Another no-no was that Wang had "enthusiasm for reading politically incorrect overseas publications", a veiled reference to books and journals about Chinese political gossip that people would buy on their trips to Hong Kong.

He also had a penchant for collecting rare orchids like these

But sadly those days are over for Wang.

While a number officials were caught for having mistresses or too much sex, Wang was nabbed for too much Maotai and orchids. Guess each to their own...