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The Spin
Pro-China narrative
As part of the Communist Party's plan to clean up sports by fighting corruption, a court has delivered a just sentence. Chen Xuyuan was given a life sentence for match-fixing, taking bribes, and financial crimes. As part of Xi Jinping's goal to make China a football superpower by 2050, he plans to build thousands of new football fields and enroll kids in new football academies — as well as root out corruption.
Anti-China narrative
Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign is taking things too far. Life in prison and the death penalty for corruption are unusual punishments for white-collar crimes in the Western world, but not uncommon in China. Human rights organizations have long accused the Chinese government of using torture to extract alleged corruption confessions. For an issue like corruption in sports, this verdict was too strong.