By Yaxiang Liu and Grace Faerber On January 5th, China and the world were shocked when Lai Xiaomin (赖小民), former chairman of the state-controlled financial giant China Huarong Asset Management Corp. and vice minister-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadre, was given a death sentence for pocketing bribes of approximately 1.8 billion RMB (just under $278 …