China fact of the day

FT writes about the symbiosis between wealth and power in China,

A Bloomberg study showed that the 70 richest members of the National People's Congress, the national legislature, have a combined wealth of about $90 bn, compared with a combined wealth of about $7.5 bn for the 535 members of the US Congress, the President, his Cabinet, and the Supreme Court. Corruption scandals involving NPC officials erupt with regularity. 

Pranab Bardhan points to an even more staggering disparity in the wealth of Chinese and Indian politicians,

The Hurun Report, a Shanghai-based wealth monitor, estimated last year that the 83 richest delegates to the National People’s Congress and an advisory group, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, had a net worth of over $250 billion. By comparison, the declared assets of all of the roughly 545 members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s Parliament, amount to only about $2 billion. 

We really are looking at "epic corruption" in a "crony capitalist Gilded Age" for China!