Corruption in everything, everywhere, all of the time - Systemic (anti) corruption in China
The Asian Crime Century briefing 63
The recent annual meeting of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) in China was preceded by the work report on enforcement action against corruption in the country, including anti-corruption overseas including on the ‘Belt and Road’ (BRI). The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) reported its activities from 2023 and reiterated that this year it would pursue corruption not only within the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) but also overseas. The regularity, structure, ideology and language of the CCDI reports indicates a systemic approach to anti-corruption and also that corruption itself is systemic.
Corruption in everything
On 25 February, before the NPC commenced, the CCDI published its annual work report. The work report was announced by Li Xi, the secretary of the CCDI and the seventh-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCDI enforcement statistics are always sobering as they consistently show high numbers of corruption cases at all levels across the country and the consistency indicates that corruption is endemic to the system.
According to the work report, the CCDI and also the National Commission of Supervision agencies across the country recorded 626,000 cases, detained 26,000 people, and imposed party discipline and government sanctions on 610,000 people. These included ministerial level officials, referred to as “tigers” because of their seniority, Dong Yunhu, former chairman of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress; Sun Zhigang, former vice director of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee under the NPC; and Han Yong, former chairperson of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
A key part of the CCDI objectives is to “Study and understand Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era with heart and affection”, and it should be remembered that the CCDI is a Communist Party organisation and not a government organisation although it has an impact across the entire government. The report highlighted its Party role as in 2023, according to the state owned Global Times, the CCDI “also rigorously investigated and dealt with double-dealers or two-faced persons who were disloyal and dishonest to the Party”, with 8,890 individuals punished for violating political disciplines, including 34 mid-level officials.
The main tasks for 2024 illustrate how corruption has been everywhere in society, making it necessary to “resolutely prevent the resurgence of hedonism and extravagance” that includes eating and drinking on government expenses, extravagant receptions by state owned enterprises, receiving expensive gifts giving to gain favour, and training inspections that are effectively public funded tourism. The extent of the problem of corrupt officials was shown by the CCDI reporting in January that in 2023 110,000 CCP cadres faced disciplinary action, an increase of 13% from the prior year.
Corruption everywhere
The CCDI role is not confined to the PRC borders, and the report stated that the agency aimed to deepen international anti-corruption cooperation. This included holding the third Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum on the Clean Silk Road and signing anti-corruption cooperation memorandums of understanding with six countries. The case impact of these cross border activities involved the recovery of 10.2 billion yuan in losses and the "Skynet 2023" operation that recovered 1,624 fugitives.
Concerns regarding the extent of corruption in projects that are part of the Belt and Road were illustrated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which stated that the huge investments involved in the BRI make it absolutely essential to safeguard the Initiative from corruption. A key challenge for anti-corruption in the globally diverse BRI projects is the opaque nature of the entire program. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) pointed out in 2019 that “By limiting outside scrutiny, the initiative's lack of transparency gives Chinese companies an edge in risky markets, and it allows Beijing to use large projects to exercise political influence.”
Corruption all of the time
Anti-corruption in the PRC is clearly associated with CCP internal party discipline, which is a key reason for the emphasis on a continual program. As part of the main tasks for 2024, the CCDI work report outlines the political aspects of anti-corruption:
“Put strict party political discipline and political rules in a prominent position. Focus on political loyalty, promptly discover and solve the "seven problems", and resolutely correct "low-level red" and "high-level black". Focus on political security, show no mercy to those who form political gangs, cliques, and interest groups within the party, and eliminate political risks in a timely manner.”
The language throughout the report stresses political discipline and the importance of following the instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, illustrating the highly centralised and hierarchical leadership concentrated around him.
The first major anti-corruption campaign during the tenure of XI Jinping was in 2012 following the 19th NPC meeting, eventually leading to action against high ranking CCP officials including Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Xu Caihou, Ling Jihua and Su Rong. In 2015, Xi Jinping highlighted these officials and said that “the greater power and higher position they hold, the less they take the Party's political discipline and rules seriously. Some of their conduct is outrageous. Driven by their overinflated political ambitions and eagerness to acquire personal gain or the benefit of their inner circle, some resort to political conspiracies against the Party and plot to undermine and divide it.” Xi has clearly stated that the bad conduct of officials can not only lead to corruption but also breaches of Party discipline and eventually the desire for political as well as material gain.
The regularity, structure, ideology and language of anti-corruption work in the PRC all show a top down system driven by the necessity for political discipline in the CCP for reasons of both preventing corruption amongst cadres as well as a check and balance on political ambitions. Given the continuation of widespread corruption at both national and local levels of government, it is clear that anti-corruption is systemic but so is corruption.
Anti-corruption requires prevention and this is the weak point of the PRC system. Transparency International lists five key ingredients to stop corruption, which are:
1. Effective law enforcement to ensure the corrupt are punished and break the cycle of impunity, or freedom from punishment or loss, supported by a strong legal framework and an independent and effective court system.
2. Reforms focussing on improving financial management and strengthening the role of auditing agencies, which in many countries achieve greater impact than public sector reforms on curbing corruption.
3. Promotion of transparency and access to information, including government openness, freedom of the press, transparency and access to information, which increases the responsiveness of government bodies.
4. Empowering citizens to hold government accountable as a sustainable approach to build mutual trust between citizens and government, for instance community monitoring initiatives contributing to the detection of corruption, reduced leakages of funds, and improved the quantity and quality of public services.
5. Close international loopholes to prevent corrupt public officials being able to launder and hide the proceeds of corruption.
Whilst law enforcement and strong (or compliant) courts are present in the PRC, all of the other conditions are absent. Independent auditing agencies would lead to scrutiny of the deeply buried problems within many state owned enterprises. Transparency is considered to be a threat to the single party rule of the CCP. Citizens have no freedoms to hold government accountable, which would usually be considered to be political dissent. Lastly, despite enforcement efforts there has been more than a decade of huge capital outflow from the PRC, which undoubtedly has included the proceeds of bribery moved overseas by corrupt officials.
The top down approach to discipline from the CCP will continue, evidenced by revised discipline inspection regulations approved by the Politburo and announced in February that add new provisions including that the “fundamental task is to resolutely safeguard the core status” of Xi as well as his authority and leadership, and that the CCDI teams will make a priority to check on the implementation of “major decisions and arrangements of the party’s Central Committee, especially the implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches and important instructions”. This does not contribute to a vibrant civil society, which is the key factor in preventing corruption. We will see continued systemic anti-corruption and also corruption in the future in the PRC, and it seems beyond its borders in the countries that are part of the Belt and Road if they do not embrace open anti-corruption strategies involving civil society.