China: The extinction of corruption?

China's relentless battle against corruption: Xi Jinping's "tiger", "fly", and "fox" campaigns reshape society

To make the people's lives better, Xi Jinping's China has declared an uncompromising fight against corruption. Maximumist legislation has initiated "tiger-busting" (the Party hierarchy), "fly-busting" (petty officials and day-to-day corruption) and "fox-busting" (suspects who have fled abroad). The results are there, and since 2012, 4.44 million offenders brought to justice. Hopefully, within a few years China could be called a low-corruption country.

Concluding his report to the XX^e Congress with vehemence, Xi Jinping Jinping said, "Corruption is the most serious cancer, the one that harms the survival and fighting spirit of the Party. As long as the ground and conditions for corruption exist, the fight against corruption should not stop and the war trumpet should continue to sound. We will adopt zero tolerance for corruption and its perpetrators Corruption cases where political power and money power are intertwined to put an end to the collusion between politicians and business, ensuring that every culprit is punished without the slightest indulgence."

If corruption has always been present in China, it became unbearable after the opening of the country to the market economy to the point that in 2012, Hu Jintao noted: "Corruption that has become systemic can lead to the fall of the CCP and the People's Republic of China." Five years later we were at the same point, Xi Jinping was still lamenting that corruption was the greatest threat to the Party."

2022, the tone is quite different. Speaking explicitly to party delegates, Xi Jinping reminded them that "the very nature of the CCP requires it to reform itself because it is in charge of the fundamental interests of the Chinese people. It must never represent the interests of any interest group or privileged class. Instead, it must have the courage to take on the powerful who have failed rather than leave 1.4 billion people to fend for themselves. The Communist Party is true to itself when it opens the campaigns of "tiger-busting", "fly-hunting" and "fox-hunting". And it shows the world what the CCP will be in the new era.

The organization of the fight

To fight, it was necessary to- arm China with appropriate weapons. This was done on March 20, 2018 when the "Supervision Law" was passed. It creates a central anti-corruption agency, the National Supervision Commission, the NSC, and places all anti-corruption departments under its authority. The NSC investigates misconduct by government officials, managers of public institutions and directors of state-owned enterprises. No one escapes the NSC, even CCP members¹ . The appointment of Yang Xiaodu, a member of the Politburo and close to Xi Jinping, to head the NSC is an undeniable sign of the authority conferred on it¹ .

In 2021, the NSC's jurisdiction was extended to civil society so that it can investigate and sanction active corruption. Companies can be blacklisted to restrict market access. This is an important development in repressive actions, which are no longer limited to the criminal practices of public officials.

In addition, under the authority of the CNS, the provinces, regions, municipalities directly under the central government, and prefectures set up decentralized surveillance commissions. Decentralization of repression, a change of scale that implies the creation of a network of agents spread throughout the country. Training courses in "discipline inspection", now a major speciality in the teaching of law, are intended for them in many universities.

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The agency's investigative powers are exorbitant. The Commission can require individuals and organizations to provide evidence and can place them under electronic surveillance. Suspects can be detained for up to three months (extendable in exceptional cases for an additional three months). Their assets may be seized, sequestered or confiscated. It should be noted that the law sets out the details of the investigation procedures to ensure that they are rigorous and that the prosecution is legitimate, in order to avoid too many possible excesses² . 

The results are there

The repressive action is commensurate with the scourge to be eradicated. Since 2012, some 4.52 million investigations have been launched and 4.44 million offenders brought to justice. These include 553 vice ministers in the central administration, 25,000 departmental or equivalent officials, and 182,000 county-level officials³ . The "fox hunt" is also successful from 2014 to May 2021, 9,165 overseas refugees of them have been extradited from 120 countries, and more than 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) could be recovered.

The action does not falter, so that in the first half of 2022, about 1.75 million complaints were received. About 273,000 officials received administrative sanctions and 227,000 were sanctioned by the Party⁴ . These mass actions relegate the press's focus on the conviction of senior Party officials to anecdotal evidence designed to impress the people. Among others: Fu Zhenghua, Minister of Justice, Sun Lijun, Vice-Minister of Security or Mr. Tong, Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party of Sanya (sub-prefecture of 690,000 inhabitants) who was able to accumulate up to more than 40 million euros of bribes. for 274 million yuan (41.07 million dollars of bribes). All were sentenced to death, a sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

The powerful have been attacked with the unexpected consequence that the revenues of the VIP segment of Macau's gambling industry have collapsed by two-thirds, while the other segments remain unaffected⁵ .

Towards a transformation of society

Initially focused on leaders, public sector managers, the fight against corruption now extends to the whole society. Xi Jinping states, "The ultimate goal of the fight against corruption is to make sure that the Chinese people can live better."

It is everyday venality that must be eradicated when it affects what matters to families and the weakest: livelihoods, education, poverty reduction. Xi Jinping goes so far as to write, "We will resolutely punish the 'flies' (corrupt petty officials; we will go so far as to punish their families: spouses, children and close circle." Testifying to the determination of the NSC: on cases related to poverty reduction (presumably in the countryside), about 300,000 proceedings have been initiated⁸

The public is associated with these campaigns through a television series called "Zero Tolerance", an annual production that is very popular with the public. It denounces the perversion and opulence of rogue party members. Appropriately, they are self-critical. They confess how they have abused their power and accumulated enormous wealth. In addition, in keeping with tradition, the population is invited to denounce the corrupt staff, and they doso. From January to September 2021, more than 2.84 million petitions, letters and files were sent to anti-corruption authorities⁶ . 

How can we appreciate this balance sheet when on the one hand it gives pride of place to institutional demagogic announcements and on the other hand some people in the West only see in these campaigns a means of eliminating masses of opponents?  Undoubtedly they are making progress in Chinese society, but at what price? Shouldn't we be alarmed by the excessive nature of these campaigns when they call for denunciation, and fear that they may be reminiscent of the Hundred Flowers Campaign or the beginning of the Cultural Revolution? 

The fact remains that what has been undertaken and achieved constitutes a solid political edifice. Barring major events, it should continue to grow stronger. So much so that when we enter the 2030s, without corruption being totally eradicated one day (it is inseparable from the personality of too many men), China could be qualified as a country with little corruption, as is the case today with Japan or Hong Kong.  And can we not already assume that this global campaign that sweeps the Party, the State and society will be one, characteristic of Xi Jinping's mandates?

EV

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_Sources:

 _{(1) China's New Anti-Corruption Agency Will Wield Broad Powers? Morrison Foerster, 03/22/2018} 

_{(2) Supervision Law of the People's Republic of China, extwprlegs1.fao.org/docs/pdf/chn202783.pdf,}

_{(3) China Focus: China's anti-corruption endeavor yields tangible results in past decade, Xinhua, 22/10/2022}

_{(4) China Focus: China's anti-corruption endeavor yields tangible results in past decade, Xinhua, 19/09/2022}

_{(5) China's anti-corruption crackdown significantly affected Macau's VIP Baccarat, according to new study, yogonrt.com, 22/10/2022}

_{(6) Top anti-corruption group meeting stresses zero tolerance for graft, Global Times19/01/2022}

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