The epitome of sincerity

Call me a bastard, but I love it when people who are already in trouble do something really stupid to compound their problems.

Music, books and Hollywood films... China can now add testimonies of regret by corrupt officials to its exhaustive list of copyright violations.

Zhang Shaocang, former Communist Party chief of state-owned power company Anhui Province Energy Group Co Ltd, wept as he read a four-page "letter of apology" during his corruption trial at a court in Fuyang, Anhui, according to a Procuratorial [sic] Daily report reproduced in Wednesday's Beijing News.

But Zhang's sentiments were later found to be strikingly similar to those of Zhu Fuzhong, a disgraced former party chief of Tongan village in southwestern Sichuan province, whose apology letter was printed in the Procuratorial [sic] Daily less than two weeks before.

So, this moron actually lifted phrases word for word from the other guy's apology, which had been published for everybody to read just a couple of weeks before. Next time, he might want to rip off an apology that wasn't quite so fresh in peoples' minds.