ABSTRACT
On December 29 and 30, 1985, the Chinese news media gave front-page prominence to the crimes of one Du Guozhen, a “big swindler” arrested some nine months earlier. One searches in vain for any meaningful understanding on the part of the Chinese authorities of what seems to be a fairly serious problem. The first lesson of the Du Guozhen case might be that the values that the Chinese leadership wishes to stabilize and maintain continue to be confused or incoherent. Du Guozhen, who because of his spectacular successes became known as the “God of Fortune,” had a short but significant career. One lesson of the God of Fortune affair seems to be that the types of “economic crimes” revealed in the case are to a certain extent a function of China’s condition of economic and political underdevelopment.
