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POLITICS-CHINA: ‘New Anti-graft Body Lacks Teeth’

Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Sep 17 2007 (IPS) - Corruption in China may be as old and enduring as the country’s legendary bureaucratic system but Chinese leaders are determined to use modern approaches in tackling it.

Alarmed by growing international repercussions to China’s graft and fraud practices and mindful of swelling disaffection at home, they have unveiled a new anti-corruption body tasked with preventing corruption rather than punishing it. Its newly appointed leaders speak of eradicating corruption ‘at its roots’ and promise to introduce the requirement that government officials declare their personal assets as a deterrent.

But while the new National Bureau of Corruption Prevention prides itself on drawing experiences from respected graft fighters like Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption, it lacks their independence and power of enforcement, say experts.

“The new focus is not on handling individual legal cases but on education and coordination with international partners,” says Li Chengyan, professor at the Centre for Building Honest and Clean Government at Beijing University. “It is early days yet but I doubt the bureau would be vested with the power of enforcement,’’ he told IPS.

China already has a complicated anti-corruption system in place under the ministry of supervision, which probes cases of civil servants, and the much-feared Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in charge of investigating Communist party members. Additionally, anti-graft offices at different levels deal with cases of commercial corruption.

But these bodies are consistently criticised for failing to stem rampant corruption and often perceived by the public as politically motivated. The disciplinary inspection commission, in particular, has a history of witch-hunting since the early days of the communist party’s rule when its ‘eradication campaigns’ were targeted at the party’s critics.

Much like the political purges in the radical days of the 1950s and 1960s, today’s anti-corruption drives often shadow power struggles and serve political ends. Recent corruption probes for instance, have netted members of the so-called “Shanghai faction”, which had challenged Beijing’s agenda of taming runaway economic growth and creating a “harmonious society”.

Anecdotally too, many of the official sacked for corruption were found to have been implicated in sex scandals, perpetuating a worldly Chinese belief that sleazy money in high ranks equals many mistresses.

All firings have been made public and the propaganda machine has trumpeted the party’s determination to stamp out rampant official corruption. Appearing to respond to public demands to deal with corrupt officials, the party leadership has reasserted its authority with wayward localities as they make political manoeuvring before the 17th party congress, due in a month’s time, when a new Politburo will be named.

Yet public discontent has not dissipated. A string of high-profile corruption cases – from this summer’s execution of the nation’s top drug watchdog for graft to last year’s disgrace of the Shanghai Communist Party boss for mismanaging pension funds, have all outraged ordinary Chinese people.

What is more, top leaders are alarmed that domestic failures to curb official corruption are now beginning to damage the nation’s vital export trade. China’s exports have been hit by a wave of recalls in the United States and Europe because of their use of tainted or flawed products and experts have pointed to official corruption as one of the reasons.

An editorial in last week‘s China Daily noted that commercial and job-related corruption cases are on the rise, involving higher-ranking officials and larger amounts of money. Citing statistics of the Supreme People’s Court, it said that, in 2006, job-related corruption cases involved more than 10 million yuan (1.3 million US dollars), or double the amount in 2003.

“Given that corruption in this country is taking on new features and becoming more covert, it is high time to enhance prevention and educate all public servants to lead a decent life,” the editorial said.

Unveiling the new anti-graft body, its head Ma Wen said such an organisation was needed to orchestrate all the resources and “prevent corruption at its roots”. Speaking at a press conference, Ma Wen, who is minister of supervision, and her deputy Qu Wanxiang, promised also to set up a national asset-declaration system for civil servants.

Experts warn though, that to achieve “zero tolerance” to corruption, the new body would need to be backed by strong public participation. Hong Kong’s anti-graft body is the envy of many mainland Chinese corruption prevention officials but its track record includes years of boosting public supervision, Beijing lawyer Chen Chuangdong argued in the Beijing News.

In China, corruption cases are handled from the top, which means that ordinary people have little recourse to justice. The worst cases of corruption occur in the provinces where provincial officials and party chiefs have built up strong networks of power and patronage.

It took 13 years before central investigators got to Pang Jiayu, former mayor of Baoji city in Shaanxi province, who was reported to have supported 11 mistresses and misused millions of dollars worth of state funds.