Abstract
Corruption has been a persistent feature of human history for thousands of years (Lo 1993:1). This is why Bardhan (1997:1320) calls it “an ancient problem.” From the Alps to the Yangtze River, from biblical time to the post-modern era, it is epidemic in most societies. As Zou (2000:323) claims that “corruption is a universal phenomenon. Where there are human beings, there is corruption in different forms and different degrees.” Therefore, “the subject has long been of interest to philosophers, historians, and social scientists” (Gillespie and Okruhlik 1991:77). Osborne (1997) documents that throughout human history, from ancient Greece or William Shakespeare in the West to Confucianism and Hinduism in the East, one can find repeated expressions of distaste by scholars and ordinary people for corruption and dishonesty.
Throughout the text the Pinyin (拼音) system of Romanization is used for all Chinese names. Names are written according to Chinese tradition—family name first, given name second.
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Notes
- 1.
In 1951 the Three-Anti Campaign against three ‘evils’ (corruption, waste and bureaucratism) was launched. The Five-Anti Campaign against five ‘evils’ (bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts and stealing state economic information) was launched in 1952, targeting businessmen and industrialists. In 1962, the Four-Cleanups (cleaning up account book, granaries, properties and work place), another campaign to combat corruption at villages level, was launched. All these campaigns worked effectively, and China in Mao’s era is regard to be clean. See http://www.yangjianli.com/articles/01_minzhu_en.htm.
- 2.
Received case refers to the total of case number reported to the Procuratorate from all channels, such as public security department, the mass, media and functionaries. However, not all cases will be filed for some are just rumors without strong evidence. That is why they have two separate statistics (filed case number and received case number).
- 3.
The survey was conducted by the Institute of Opinion Research which is affiliated to the Renmin University of China. Please refer to “Survey finds corruption greatest concern to workers” Beijing: Zhongguo Xinwen She (中国新闻社) in English (June 10, 1996) FBIS Daily Report—China, June 14, 1996 (PrEx 7.10: FBS-CHI-96-115).
- 4.
He states that up to now, “the corruption phenomenon is still much alive, and presently is seen as the second greatest public concern (behind unemployment).” See He (2000).
- 5.
Hsu (2001) did a fieldwork in 1997–98. His finding confirmed this fixation.
- 6.
Retrieved on Sept 19, 2007 from http://english.people.com.cn/200401/13/eng20040113_132410.shtml.
- 7.
It is called the CCP CDI of XXX County (Municipal or Province) at local levels.
- 8.
It is called department of supervision (监察厅) of XXX Province or bureau of supervision (监察局) of XXX City at local levels.
- 9.
In Chinese, it is called “one team with two signs”. As Wedeman (2005:93) points out “in recent years, the two systems have in fact been effectively merged into a single non-judicial disciplinary apparatus.”
- 10.
After the initial investigation by Party's Commission for Discipline Inspection or Bureau of Supervision, the case may be dropped, or forwarded to the Procuratorate.
- 11.
Refer to China Daily, August 13, 1996.
- 12.
Audit bureau launched an “audit storm” in 2004. Billion yuan were found lost, and hundreds of officials were punished in the “storm”. Retrieved on January 18 2007 from http://au.biz.yahoo.com/050629/33/549m.html.
- 13.
The concrete codes are as follows: embezzlement by state functionaries, misappropriation of public funds, acceptance of bribes by state functionaries, acceptance of bribes by a unit, offering bribes to state functionaries, offering bribes to a unit, introducing bribery, unit offering bribes, failing to explain significant excess of property or expenditure over lawful income, concealing saving outside the territory of China, illicit division of state-owned assets, illicit division of fines, confiscated money or property, acceptance of bribes by employees of companies and enterprises, offering bribes to employees of companies and enterprises, members of intermediary organizations deliberately providing false testifying papers, embezzlement through dereliction of duty by employees of enterprises, misappropriation of unit funds, misappropriation of specific funds and materials, dereliction of duty by ordinary people in public service, dereliction of duty by judicial personnel, and practicing favoritism and dereliction of duty by officials in administrative organs.
- 14.
Refer to Liaowang (瞭望), 1997, No. 18.
- 15.
Wedeman (2005:96) analyzes the logic of campaign-style enforcement. According to him, there are four rationales for campaign-style enforcement. (1) Effective policing is very resource-consuming; anti-corruption campaign, however, can compensate by mixing routine “police patrols” with periodic crackdowns during which resources are redeployed from other areas for a burst of “hyper enforcement.” (2) Anti-corruption campaign can deter officials by inducing fear, awe and uncertainty, and then turn out to be a psychological warfare. (3) Anti-corruption campaign can intimidate the guilty and shock them into surrender. (4) Anti-corruption campaign can effectively prevent corruption from spiraling out of control.
- 16.
Mainland Chinese always try to get their children into their own work unit if they son or daughter cannot go to school for higher education, especially if his/her work unit is very competitive in income and welfare. China also used to have replacement system (顶替in Chinese) which helps employees’ children get employed in their own work unit after they retire if their children cannot go to college and subsequently find a job elsewhere. In such a case, it is very easy for them to develop social network (root of corruption, especially collective corruption). Such a rule means once if one individual works in a government department, his/her spouse, children, and close relatives are not allowed to work in the same department. In other words, it is designed to control nepotism which a major form of corruption.
- 17.
For some cadres, they grow up in their home towns and work there, so they have to face social lobbying since they have family members, friends, and relatives in the city. Corruption is very easy to occur in such a social environment.
- 18.
It is “‘a poll of polls’ complied from separate surveys among managers in multinational firms and commentators on international business.” The index “rates the extent to which business transactions in particular countries are perceived to be ‘clean’ and of the highest integrity at one extreme or dominated by kick-back, extortion and bribery at the other” (Snell et al. 1999:282).
- 19.
Refer to http://www.asiarisk.com/.
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Jiang, G. (2017). Corruption and Anticorruption in China. In: Corruption Control in Post-Reform China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4050-4_1
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