White Gloves 白手套

White Gloves 白手套

The term “white gloves” refers to people who run businesses created to cover up corruption by officials. The metaphor is clear: making illegal profits look as clean as white gloves. The white glove tactic is a favorite among dirty officials in China because their direct involvement in commercial activity is illegal. The expression was coined by the Taiwanese and quickly caught on in the mainland, where graft is rampant at all levels of government. Indeed, just as there is usually a mistress behind every corrupt official, there is also a pair of “white gloves” to help them amass wealth without leaving any fingerprints.