What are the main causes of corruption in China - Research Paper Example

Task: Corruption is an economic challenge that has brought down many nations. It occurs through different avenues and mostly orchestrated by people holding powerful positions. Although, the fight against corruption is crucial for the elimination of the vice, some administrations have used the war on corruption as a political weapon to silence their political nemesis. It is necessary to explore some of the intrigues surrounding corruption in China. What are the main causes of corruption in China? Introduction Just like many countries, China experiences widespread corruption. A report by Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index ranked China in the 80th position out of 176 countries. Some of the corruption means in China include enticement, backdoor deals, graft, misappropriation, benefaction, statistical distortion and nepotism. This paper will explore some of the issues related with corruption in China. The four major cause of corruption in China include the negative effects of the market economy, lack of strong monitoring commission against corruption in the communist country, lack of legal knowledge and morality about corruption and frequent political struggles. These factors have combined to ensure that corruptions exacerbates in China Negative effect of market economy In the last few decades, China has carried out economic reforms that have seen its economy grow remarkably. However, the economic model that has enabled China this level of economic success has some negative effects on the flip side. The speed by which China is accumulating wealth is far below its economic growth. Even though most developed countries like Japan, the United States and Europe were drastically affected by the financial crisis of 2008, China was able to maintain a growth in its Gross Domestic Product. Nonetheless, the wealth of China does not accumulate at the same rate with its GDP. This is attributed to China’s market economy as its development model. A case in point is where China has enhanced its real estate industry through the development and construction apartment blocks, high-rise office buildings and huge shopping malls. These large scale constructions occur as a result of the destruction of old buildings. Although, this market economy has the effect of creating more employment opportunities, it also reduces the speed at which the country can create wealth. This situation encourages people to enter into corruption dealings so as to bridge the gap. The high speed economic growth of China has always neglected the quality of the product. Although GDP is used for the measurement of the rate of economic growth of a country, this does not have direct reflections on the growth of the product (Yan 59). Lack of strong monitoring commission against corruption in China It is possible for the Communist Party of China to mobilize both financial and human resources to help fight the problem of corruption in the country. However, there are several setbacks towards this endeavor. It is believed that the government has numerous involvements in corrupt activities in the Communist republic. Interestingly, it is the government agents who are responsible for the formulation and implementation of institutional frameworks for addressing corruption. Therefore, they would not want to strengthen the very institutions that they know would later fight their activities. China does not have laws to protect whistle blowers. Instead, they are attacked and even threatened with death if not killed. A case in point was in the year 2004 when the communist party officials later denounced a whistle blower, who had previously accused his seniors in the city of Fuzhou of tolerating formal corruption. His supposed mistake was breaking party rules. In that same year, a cadre of low level written to the People’s Daily how his efforts at fighting corruption was being hampered by corrupt senior officials and weak departments that lacked institutional capacities to handle corruption cases (Manion 42). Although there are a number of laws in China aimed at fighting corruption, they are rarely enforced. The government even has jeopardized all efforts of creating an independent judiciary. They have also handicapped the media that should most corrupt cases. The media is not free to independently report corruption among cases. Worse still, the government has censored and imposed blackouts of the media. Recently, fights against corruption have witnessed some high profile arrests, corruption still remains entrenched in government cycles. Because of infighting amongst government officials themselves, the measures provided have most of the time proved ineffective in fighting corruption (Eicher 94). It is even sad that officers who are charged with the responsibility of fighting corruption are the very ones who break the laws on corruption. For instance, an official holding a senior position in the anti-corruption institution had his death sentence suspended because of accusations of receiving bribes totaling to about $1 billion to favor some people in court cases and businesses and also to escape arrests. When the institution at the center of power that is the Communist Party officials hampers the efforts of institutions, corruption is bound to persist. With the lack of free media and independence of the judiciary, the fight against China will still remain a pipe dream. The monopolization of power by Chinese officials is not a guarantee of transparency in its operations. Adequate fight of corruption requires the establishment of strong institutions that are given sufficient resources in terms of human capital and finances to do so. But importantly, they should be allowed to operate independently at all times (Lu 241). Lack of enough legal knowledge and morality on corruption The broad definition of corruption involves an act where individuals destroy their integrity while discharging their duties to the public by taking bribes or engaging in favors. This definition of corruption deprives the public of the true and actual nature of corruption. It tends to limit corruption to only those individuals who work for the public, perhaps in government institutions. However, private institutions seem to be ignored in terms of corruption. In this case, the public does not consider a school principle of private institutions who seeks favors from a parent before admitting his son corrupt. In actual sense, corruption entails abusing the prescribed responsibility or trust that someone has by virtue of holding a position in any organization, be it private or public. Many countries including China do not offer civic education to their citizens regarding what corruption entails. As result, many people get involved or become victims of corruption without their knowledge (Transparency International 56). Political struggle The ruling party in China has all along promised to set out basic standards to help it in rooting out corruption. There has been order for the cadres to lower their expensive banquets and instead adopt humble lifestyles that puts them at par with the public. Through social media exposure, some key individuals have speedily investigated for cases of corruption and subsequently suspended. However, these measures would not yield much if the party continues to close all the avenues for external scrutiny. The most significant ways to fight corruption are ensuring democracy, observance of the rule of law and enhancing democracy. Apparently, the anti-corruption currently underway does not encompass any of these three things. This requires structural changes of the party organs for rolling out any progress in fighting graft. The current political framework has provided so many but separate institutions like the judiciary and police to fight corruption. This is not sustainable at all because of overlaps and conflicts of interest. The international watchdog for corruption by the communist party has departments in which there are the police, prosecutor’s office and other personnel. Citizens who report to the police are sometimes sent to the prosecutor’s office and vice versa. In the end, they do not get their corruption complains heard and addressed (Heidenheimer and Johnston 704). Relationship between political struggle and corruption in China Most of the architects of corruption such as cartels have relationships with politicians and therefore plays big roles in setting out political spaces for executing their vices. Interparty competition in offices is encouraged by the electoral systems in operation (Kidd and Richter 73). Analysis of Bo xilai, Wang Lijun The incident of Wang Lijun played a key political scandal in China in February 2012. In this incident, Chongqing’s vice mayor, Wang Lijun was given abrupt demotion for allegedly revealing the details of the Consulate to the United States. Neil Heywood was a British businesswoman who was murdered and the crime covered up. Apparently, Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai were entangled in some political infighting. Bo Xilai was the secretary of the Chongqing Communist Party. Because of the scandal, many key officials of the Communist Party received severe repercussions including the discrediting of the red culture movement and the Chongqing model. Analysis of the former Shanghai party secretary Chen Liangyu Chen Liangyu was the secretary of the CPC Shanghai Committee and a politician in the Communist Party. This is probably one of the top positions in the country. While still working in Shanghai, Chen Liangyu undertook several mega projects that contributed to major developments of the city. It is during his reign that the city of Shanghai played host to 2010 World Expo. However, he also played political partisanship and also opposed the control policies that were set out for macro economics during the administration of the Hu-Wen. In September 2006, Chen Liangyu was dismissed from office on allegations of taking part in corruption activities through misusing the social security fund of Shanghai. This later culminated to his sentence in court for 18 years in April 2008 over abuse of power, bribery acceptance and financial fraud. Analysis of the former Mayor of Beijing Chen Xitong Chen Xitong served as the Beijing mayor during Tianamen breakdown in the year 1989. However, in 1995, he was sacked from his position before being sent to jail sentence on corruption charges. Many people saw this as the consequent of power struggle that the former mayor had with President Jiang Zemin. He has consistently denied these corruption charges labeled against him. The role of political struggle in corruption cases in China Chinese Communist Party headed by Xi Jinping had recently promised to live no stone unturned in the fight against corruption. This implies that the corruption blade will cut both the small and the mighty in the communist country. Pundits are waiting to see how this will work considering the issues that have defined the past wars against corruption in the country. He used the words tigers and flies to refer to top party officials and common people respectively. The history of fighting corruption in China has only targeted low-key officers. However in those few cases where high-ranking officials have been the victims, there have been complains of political patronages and witch hunting by the government. In its entire 63 years reign, the Chinese Communist Party has only jailed two key personalities. These were Chen Xitong and Chen Liangyu. However, in all these cases, there were complains of political persecutions. Other official who are nearly on the verge of prosecution due to corruption include Cheng Kejie and Bo Xilai. Cheng Kejie was Congress’ vice chairperson (Kidd and Richter 73). Kejie had himself jailed for two years on alleged corruption charges. However, his position a Politburo member was just a junior. This shows that senior offices hinder their prosecution cases and so it becomes hard to prosecute them for corruption. Bo Xilai who was a party heavyweight has his case still pending after numerous case battles. Amidst all these, the fact that political struggle has played roles in the fight against corruption in china cannot be ignored. Successive administrations have used anti-corruption fights as political weapons against their opponents. During the era of Mao, two former heads of the party, Zhang Zishan and Liu Qinsgshan were executed in 1952. It was reported that Mao approved the executions himself to send a message that the fight against the vice was real. Considering the role that these two officials had played in the development of the party, Mao feared future competition. Deng Xiaoping did not have much of any political threat during his reign and not any key party official lost his job or was prosecuted over corruption issues. On his part, Jiang Zemin used anti corruption as a weapon of fighting against individuals whom he perceived to have defied his authority. This is especially factual considering the fact that he did not have any military background. He particularly considered Chen Xitong as his personal enemy and was therefore committed to destroy him using corruption charges. The subsequent administration that was headed by Hu Jintao followed in the footsteps of Jiang Zemin. Hu prosecuted Chen Liangyu for corruption allegations on account that the latter belonged to the faction that opposed his authority. Unconstructive aspects of corruption and solution Corruption is a negative aspect of the society. This is because it destroys the social fabrics that hold the society together. It encourages a few individuals in privileged positions to amass huge wealth for themselves and leave the remaining majority poor. Additionally, it slows down the economic development of a country due to individual greed and patronage. As a result, private individuals swindle funds that are meant for public development. The first step in curbing corruption is providing education to the society especially the youths on the implications of corruption. The government also needs to strengthen institutions for fighting corruption with enough personnel and funds and give them autonomy. Conclusion The causes of corruption in China include the negative effects of the market economy, lack of strong monitoring commission against corruption in the communist country, lack of legal knowledge and morality about corruption and frequent political struggles. These occur through bribery, backdoor deals, graft, misappropriation, patronage, statistical distortion and nepotism. Works cited Eicher, Sharon. Corruption in international business: the challenge of cultural and legal diversity. Farnham, England ; Burlington, VT : Gower Publishing, Ltd., 2009. Heidenheimer, Arnold J and Michael Johnston. Political Corruption: Concepts & Contexts. New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, 2009. Kidd, John B and Frank-Jurgen Richter. Fighting Corruption in Asia: Causes, Effects, and Remedies. London u.a.: World Scientific, 2003. Lu, Xiaobo. Cadres and corruption: the organizational involution of the Chinese Communist Party. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2000. Manion, Melanie. Corruption by Design: Building Clean Government in Mainland China and Hong Kong. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2009. Transparency International. Global Corruption Report 2007: Corruption in Judicial Systems. London: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Yan, Sun. Corruption And Market In Contemporary China. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2004. Read More