China’s anti-corruption drive has turned up 162,629 people who don’t exist. The phantom workers are all on government payrolls, but their salaries have been slipped into the pockets of other, very real officials. A report in the Communist Party’s mouthpiece newspaper People’s Daily says Hebei Province has the largest number of ghost employees, 55,793, and Sichuan Province had 28,466. No such phantom employees were found in either Tibet or Shanghai. The anti-graft drive has also found 114,418 unnecessary vehicles that have been bought by officials with public money, and these are being scrapped.
