What is the Connection between Guanxi and Corruption in China - Essay Example

What is the connection between Guanxi and corruption in China Guanxi, according to the Chinese, is a system or network of connections between individuals that may lead to the development of indebtedness and favors. Some schools of thought assert that guanxi must have emerged in China between the years 1966-9176 during the reign of Mao Zandong. This took place at the time when the communist government tried to do away with the Chinese traditions and the capitalist systems and replaced them with socialism. On the contrary is a theory, which claims that guanxi must have emerged from the early Confucianism of 500 BC. In this context, thinkers try to relate guanxi to the traditional policy of reciprocation as embedded in Confucianism (Nordenfur 3). However, the practice of guanxi is believed to be embedded on favors that person “A” may give to a person “B” either directly or indirectly. Moreover, these favors given are on the condition of reciprocation, but not on a set time limit. Through this practice, thinkers claim that favor is the measuring yardstick in determining the strength of the existence of guanxi between two individuals. Other theorists believe that guanxi is an act by which individuals get economic favor, jobs, and many privileges through paying of bribes. Therefore, given that dimension, guanxi becomes a contributing factor to the rampant corruption that exists in China. Accordingly, theorists claim that corruption and guanxi are intertwined to the extent that the two cannot be easily separated. Further, observations reveal that in China, guanxi is the synonym for corruption and other practices such as bribery, nepotism and tribalism among other negative frauds that have become major impediments to the societal developments. Moreover, other claims suggest that in the Chinese society, one either trade favors or simply buys them. Secondly, if one cannot have guanxi based on personal relations, bribery then becomes the best alternative for building up first and strongest relationship, which may open doors for other favors. Therefore, guanxi holds the capability to propagate the rolling of corruption from individual’s actions to the institutional levels. Guanxi, therefore, can give corrupt individuals an opportunity to benefit with grabbed public resources while, on the other hand, deny the other group their right for the lack of social network. In other words, guanxi can influence corrupt individuals to sacrifice the social good for personal gains. In this way, scholars view guanxi and corruptions as the major impediments to positive developments in the Chinese society (C.C. Chen, X.-P. Chen 7).s According to analysts, China is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In the KPMG Global Anti-Bribery Corruption Survey of 2011, China had the third highest corruption index. In the same context, a report released by Transparency International in the year 2006 claimed that among the thirty exporters, China is the second most in giving and taking of bribes (Shum 1). However, this act of corruption is seen to be tolerated by lack of proper legal channels that can back the national government rather than individual’s selfish practices. The practicality of corruption in China can be detected in various sectors of the government. First is the judicial system where corruption is viewed as the order of the day. In the Chinese judiciary, corruption is claimed to be common among the judges themselves (Wong 2). In most cases, judicial corruption has been equated to the minimal payments that the judges get. The other claim will relate it to the cultural practice of guanxi that is capable of influencing the social structure that will in turn influence the individual decision makers. Through this social structure, individual members can use their positions to influence judgments not based on law but their existing personal network. These kinds of acts have made most of the citizens to lose faith in the Chinese judicial systems, as no judgment will try to be and fair (Irwin 4). Second, media is also another area where corruption is reported to exist. For instance, in China, media is found to be used to influence judgments. In this circumstance, media has been realized to be capable of exaggerating some information and, therefore, help shift the public views to other directions. However, such views may later be found to have been influenced by groups of individuals with competing interests rather than logical facts (Kaena 1). Third, there have also been cases of corruption in schools where head teachers takes a bribe to influence decisions within the educational system. Fourth, is the medical fraternity where some doctors have been reported to be taking full care of some individuals whom they may relate to in one way or another. Here, the patients who deserve help, but fall outside their social network will have to suffer as favors are shifted to the advantaged instead of the deserving patients. Finally yet importantly are the government officials who favor some companies that they ought to supervise. These officials may end up being shareholders in the companies that they should guide and, therefore, fail to perform their duty as required by law. In the fields of medicine and trade, there are other companies, which bribes their ways in the governmental hospital to acquire tenders to supply drugs. Another form of corruption the contemporary China is the smuggling of goods. Through this act, participants may use their networks to help them smuggle goods without paying taxes as required by the government. In this extent, the government could have lost hope of getting taxes that would supplement the national budget. However, many theorists assert that corruption in China is part of the society that uprooting it may not be an easy task (Chan 2). They, therefore, leave the burden to the individual in the society to come up and recognize the importance of cleaning up the entire society for the benefit of all citizens but not an individual. In the recent time, one may realize that the Chinese communist party has been in the forefront in the fight against corruption and guanxi. In fact, this is a total war that the Chinese government has declared against all the corrupt individuals irrespective of their positions in government and their status in the society. The reasons for waging this war might vary; however, there are quite a number of facts that have been used to support this operation. Firstly, China being a hub for most trades will require an environment that is conducive and ready to accommodate all businesspersons. Therefore, to this extent, the fight against corruption and guanxi seems to be the only way in which China can woe the investors and hence create an economic boom (Vermeer 6). Secondly, the fight against corruption and guanxi is the only way in which the Chinese government can ensure sanity to all sections in the government. In fact, most of the citizens are believed to have lost hope in the government due to the high rate of corruption that had existed for along time. It is, therefore, the anti-corruption war the communist party can use to win back their trust. Thirdly, having fought and dislodged the nationalist government that had failed to deliver to the citizens, the communist party must now work extra hard and win the trust of its supporters. More so, the war against corruption is the best show for a commitment that the communist party can use to create a difference with other failed states that favor some corrupt individuals (Suzuki and Gong 10). In summary, the existence of corruption and guanxi within Chinese societies has been realized to be the major impediment to the realization of most positive development. It would, therefore, be logical for the Chinese government to make legislations that give full support to the operations of the national government for the realization of the true change. Works Cited C.C. Chen, X.-P. Chen. Negative Externalities of Close Guanxi within Organizations. 2008. Accessed from http://www.iacmr.org/Publications/OtherPublications/Articles/CChenXPChen_apjm2008 .pdf Chan, Alvin, M. The Chinese Concepts of Guanxi, Mianzi, Renqing and Bao: Their Interrelationships and Implications for International Business. 2006. Accessed from: http://www.anzmac.org/conference_archive/2006/documents/Chan_Alvin.pdf Guan, Jin. Guanxi: The Key to Achieving Success in China. 2011. Accessed from: http://sino- platonic.org/complete/spp217_guanxi.pdf Irwin, Judith. Doing Business in China: An overview of Ethical Aspects. 2012. Accessed from: http://www.ibe.org.uk/userfiles/chinaop.pdf Jayaraman, Karthik. Doing business in China: A risk analysis. 2009. Accessed from: http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jekem/vol1/iss1/7/ Keane, Michael A. Once were peripheral: Creating media capacity in East Asia. Media Culture and Society 2006. Accessed from: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/2426/1/2426.pdf Nordenfur, Anton. The Development of Social Connections and Guanxi in Chinas Reform Era. 2012. Accessed from: http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jekem/ Shum, Alex. Collective Corruption and Social Networks in China. 2007. Accessed from: http://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/economics_theses/56/ Suzuki, Sadami and Gong Jing Jing. An Empirical Investigation of Culture and Guanxi Actions between China and Japan. 2013. Accessed from: http://www.ijssh.org/papers/265- C00022.pdf Vermeer, Manuel. Corruption, Guanxi, Family and Favors – An Intercultural Approach to Doing Business in Asia. 2014. Accessed from: http://www.prime- speakers.ch/Speakers/speaker.php?ID=492914 Wang, Peng. How Guanxi distorts China’s legal system and facilitates the rise of unlawful protectors. 2014. Accessed from: http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1237924/extra- legal-protection-in-china-br-j-criminol.pdf Wong, Jeng-Ming. The Guanxi Strategies of Taiwanese Firms in China’s Economic Reforms. 2012. Accessed from: http://www.jgbm.org/page/15%20Jeng-Min%20Wong.pdf Yang, Fang. The Importance of Guanxi to Multinational Companies in China. 2011. Accessed from: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/viewFile/9446/7998 Read More