A New Impetus for the Fight Against Corruption

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Analysis by Jerome Doyon based on:- Ren Zhongyuan, (1) ... (Systematic separation of powers and ensuring autonomous supervision of the anticorruption fight), Xin shiji, 31 December 2012.- Zhang Weiying, (2) ... (Two choices for the fight against corruption), speech during the second session of the Jingjiguangcha Bao annual conference on reforms in China, held on 19 December in Beijing, reported by Xinlang Caijing, 19 December 2012.- Chen Baocheng, (3) ... (New anticorruption dynamics), Xin shiji, 31 December 2012.- Hu Shuli, (4) ... (Ease and difficulties in the anticorruption fight), Xin shiji, 17 December 2012.- Yang Minzhi, (5) ... (Liming powers and then resuming the anticorruption fight), Caijing, 10 December 2012.- Wang Jing, (6) ... (Advances in Guangdong's policy of 'the Party's strict supervision'), Xin shiji, 7 December 2012.The 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seems to have opened new chapter in the history of anticorruption struggles in the People's Republic. The dismissal of Li Chuncheng, deputy Party chief of Sichuan, 22 days after his inclusion as an alternate member of the Party's Central Committee illustrates how times have changed. Never in the past ten years has an alternate member been dismissed so quickly. Xi Jinping's new eight rules for rectifying cadres' behaviour - especially the one simplifying the style of official meetings and limiting extravagance in receptions - also symbolise this trend.!7)While corruption is an old phenomenon, Ren Zhongyuan notes new initiatives that came about in 2012. The Party leadership appears increasingly aware of the extent of the problem and the consequences for its own future if nothing is done. Besides, some major cases such as the Bo Xilai affair are particularly highlighted, despite their rarity. Xin Shiji notes that Bo was only the third Politburo member to be dismissed since 1992. The Internet and microblogs have central place in the anticorruption fight, which raises the issue of the use of such information and its interaction with the CCP's internal mechanisms.Leaders' awareness and pressure from the InternetGiven the rising number of cases and steep inflation of sums involved, corruption among cadres constitutes major challenge for the Party's new leadership. According to Yang Minzhi, former head of the Hunan provincial discipline inspection commission, the central commission's report to the 18th Party Congress noted 643,759 corruption cases between November 2007 and June 2012. According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Blue Book on Fighting Corruption and Upholding Integrity, national-level supervision organs received as many as 1,345,814 complaints in 2011 alone.Zhang Weiying notes that on the popular news website Baidu Xinwen, the number of articles tackling the anticorruption topic rose from 11,900 in 2003 to 76,200 in 2004 and reached 246,000 articles in 2010. Similar evolution was evident on the People's Daily website.The number of corruption cases, measures to deal with the scourge, and media reports on such affairs has been rising. This coincides with increasing awareness in the top leadership, as confirmed by former General Secretary Hu Jintao at the 18th Party Congress, when he declared that corruption was a matter of life and death for the Party and the country. Zhang Weiying comments ironically on this assessment with popular formula: Inaction will kill the country but the anticorruption campaign will kill the Party. Even though, to him, the country is not in danger, it is time to engage in saving the Party through frontal attack on corruption in its ranks.In Zhang's view, corruption has not only grown exponentially, but its nature has also changed over the past ten years. In the spirit of Kellee Tsai's work, Zhang describes the passage from reforming and value-adding corruption to conservative and counterproductive one. …