‘Under the Light’ (坚如磐石) is the latest movie from Zhang Yimou, the Chinese film director renowned for movies such as ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ (my personal favourite) and his most commercially successful ‘Full River Red’. ‘Under the Light’ is a story about a young police officer, the son of a vice mayor in a large city, who conducts an investigation into corruption amongst senior businessmen and government officials. The film highlights the Chinese police efforts to combat corruption and organised crime as well as the engrained corruption of senior public figures. The trailer (with English subtitles) is an action packed preview of the full movie can be seen here:
‘Under the Light’ is one of a growing number of Chinese films that deal with organised crime and corruption, highlighting a social problem that the central government has concentrated on during the tenure of President Xi Jinping (including the new film ‘No More Bets’ discussed in a prior edition of the Asian Crime Century). It is indicative of the changing views of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censors that such films are allowed to be released, showing dramatized crime and also corruption involving senior levels of government.
Also just released to cinemas is ‘Moscow Mission’, the dramatized story of a series of violent armed robberies on the Trans-Siberian Railway connecting Beijing and Moscow that took place in 1993. ‘Moscow Mission’ shows the Chinese police cross-border investigation to find the robbers that took the undercover team to Moscow disguised as businessmen. The film is based on a real historical event (most likely with significant historical license), and the nail biting trailer that can be see here:
Both films show the Chinese police, usually the Public Security Bureau (PSB), in a positive and even heroic light. This is not surprising as the PSB and other government security agencies in China certainly need a positive brand improvement to lessen their reputation for detaining citizens and extracting confessions for such offences as ‘Picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ (寻衅滋事)or ‘Inciting subversion of the state’ (煽动颠覆国家政权罪). The central role of the PSB, as well as the Ministry of State Security (MSS) and the People’s Armed Police (PAP), is a political one to ensure the rule of the CCP. There is a potential conflict in this when so much of the criminal problem in China for the past several decades has been corruption involving CCP cadres and other Chinese government officers.
Corruption is endemic in China, and is increasingly systemic as it is an engrained part of single party rule by the CCP. Corruption has been a part of Chinese business and governing for millennia, and despite the grand pronouncements of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) about eradicating corruption it has not only lasted throughout their rule but grown to spectacular levels.
‘Under the Light’ reflects the reality of corrupt government officials dealing with powerful businessmen. This reality involves huge numbers of people arrested for corruption in recent years. In 2021 the Chinese authorities accused 9,083 people of accepting bribes (an increase of over 20% from the prior year) and 2,689 of offering bribes. Since the launch of the anticorruption drive by Xi Jinping in 2012 up to 2021, the authorities have investigated 3.8 million cases and punished over 4 million government and CCP officials for corruption.
The people prosecuted in this drive have been both junior and senior, but the highest level officials have been those who may be a threat to the increasingly autocratic rule of Xi Jinping. The anti-corruption drive instigated by Xi Jinping has now entered its second decade and seems to be never ending. Recent cases indicate that corruption remains entrenched at senior levels, or that the campaign continues to be used for political discipline.
In July, Li Yuchao and his deputy Zhang Zhenzhong of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force, which is responsible for China’s nuclear arsenal, were both replaced with no official reason given. Caixin, a respected business news platform, reported that “China Appoints New Leadership for Missile Force” with new leadership for the missile force in charge of the country’s nuclear arsenal in a recent military shakeup. There was no mention of corruption, but the South China Morning Post reported that sources had told reporters that the anti-corruption unit of the Central Military Commission and also the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (the powerful CCP anti-corruption body) have both been investigating the PLA Rocket Force’s current commander as well as his past and present deputies.
The entrenched corruption stretches from government to state owned enterprises. In September, Wang Bin, a former chairman of China Life Insurance (Group) Co., was sentenced to death with two-year reprieve for corruption. Wang was found guilty of receiving bribes amounting to 325 million yuan (US$44.6 million) and illegally concealing 54.2 million yuan (US$7.5 million) in overseas deposits. This is not private sector corruption, as the China Life Insurance Group is a holding company for the Ministry of Finance.
The systemic corruption has also infected the judiciary. In September, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Zheng Xuelin, a retired senior official of the Supreme People’s Court, is being investigated for suspected “serious violations of discipline and law,” which is how the CCDI usually refers to suspected corruption cases.
In addition, the prosecutor authorities have been tainted by corruption. In September, Zhang Bencai, former head of the General Office of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) and chief procurator of Shanghai People’s Procuratorate, pleaded guilty to accepting over 48 million yuan ($6.6 million) in bribes in return for favours.
Also in September, Chen Jiadong, a former director of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Xiamen, was convicted of corruption relating to his positions as a senior official in Tibet and Fujian between 2000 and 2022. In Tibet, Chen allegedly accepting bribes amounting to 94.2 million yuan ($13 million) in exchange for favours related to obtaining contracts and the rights to use forested land, and in Fujian he illegally overpaid property developers for projects between 2013 and 2014, leading to a loss of more than 190 million yuan, and also embezzled 3.4 million yuan of state property along.
There are far more examples of similar corruption cases at the highest levels of government. These few cases illustrate that the systemic corruption extends to senior leaders in the military, the judiciary, prosecutors, state owned financial corporations, and provincial government officials. With so many corruption cases exposed since the Xi Jinping crackdown during the past decade, it must be asked how can ordinary Chinese citizens trust those who govern them?
This brings us back to ‘Into the Light’(坚如磐石), which is a reel of film reflecting real life. With director Zhang Yimou producing such a film dramatization of the real life corruption will be by millions of people across China. What will this make them think about those who lead them in government and in the Chinese Communist Party? If the most senior leaders are always corrupt, then surely the system is always corrupt?
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ensures the maintenance of CCP rule, but generals have become rich from involvement in businesses that the army turned to for funding after 1979 leading to many senior officers been arrested for corruption in the past decade. The continual corruption at state, provincial, city and local levels shows the extent of endemic corruption involving senior and junior government officials. The rise and fall of business empires has involved the tycoons who in many cases came from poverty, grew rich through corruption, but fell to the crackdown during the Xi Jinping era. The former colonies of Hong Kong and Macau have grown by facilitating money laundering of the proceeds of corruption and crime from Mainland China, helped by Triad Societies from Hong Kong and international gambling in Macau.
Whilst citizens may become accustomed to seeing brief news reports of officials arrested for corruption and learn to shrug the issue off, they may think more about corruption when they see the dramatic version of reality on the cinema screen.