With inflation running high and stock markets depressed, it is no wonder that Moutai, China’s most famous brand of the infamously potent baijiu liquor, has been elevated to the status of investment-grade luxury item in recent years. But according to one unexpectedly straight-talking communist party official [Shenzhen CCP Secretary Wang Rong], the sky-rocketing price of Moutai is also emblematic of another Chinese trend: rising corruption.

[...]“Moutai is so expensive. If there were no such consumption using public funds, it wouldn’t have reached its current price,” Mr. Wang said.

The most expensive category of Moutai, which is made in the southwestern province of Guizhou, now fetches a retail price of 2,000 yuan per bottle, up from around 1,500 yuan last year, the equivalent of many blue-collar Chinese workers’ monthly salary.

Mr. Wang’s tirade comes at a time of widespread public anger over the so-called “three publics” phenomenon, a reference to government officials’ use of public funds to travel abroad, buy cars for personal use, and eat and drink.

AFP covers President Hu’s recent remarks about the importance of combatting corruption. The article outlines the latest and most highly publicized cases of corruption in China:

[...]The most high-profile corruption scandal in recent years involved railway minister Liu Zhijun, who was sacked last February for “serious disciplinary violations”, wording that typically refers to corruption.

State media reports have alleged Liu took more than 800 million yuan (about $127 million) in kickbacks over several years on contracts linked to China’s high-speed network.

The public is increasingly intolerant of perceived official corruption, with a growing number of people taking to the streets and social networking sites to criticise the government and protest against pollution and graft.

Last month villagers in the southern province of Guangdong lived under police blockade for more than a week after driving out Communist Party leaders they said had been stealing their land for years.

A Xinhua article relays the rhetoric from a recent press release that came out of a plenary session of the CCP’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI):

[...]The communique said China’s current fight against corruption comes while the international environment is severe and complicated, and the domestic economic system and social structure are undergoing significant changes.

The war on corruption has scored evident achievements, but prominent problems still exist, and although anti-corruption efforts have been intensified, corruption still occurs, it said.

The general situation also features people’s higher expectations for anti-corruption achievements coexisting with the fact that corruption cannot be eradicated in the short term, it said.

And for some video coverage, see New Tang Dynasty TV’s report on corruption in China:

According to official data, 140-thousand officials were investigated for corruption in China in 2011. Professor Hu Xingdou from the Beijing Institute of Technology says that based on the world’s average corruption level, 99 percent of the corruption in China goes unreported.

[...]Liu Kaiming from the Shenzhen Institute of Contemporary Observation says there are ways the Chinese regime could combat corruption if it really wanted to.

[...]Corruption is an endemic problem in China, with public officials and managers of state-owned enterprises having stolen an estimated $123-billion since 1990.

Also see previous coverage of Chinese corruption and the campaign against it, via CDT.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-corruption, baijiu, corruption, moutai
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A popular saying among Chinese government officials goes: “Fear not the heavens or the earth, but fear the summons of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s Anti-Corruption Office.”

The Dui Hua Foundation has translated and reposted a recent blog post showing, in photos, the inside of a “shuanggui” investigation facility, where Party members accused of corruption are held and interrogated:

People facing shuanggui, which can be translated as “dual designation” and refers to a designated time and place of inquiry, are usually apprehended at their places of work or summoned for “voluntary visits” with investigators. They are then held in an undisclosed location, often a specially designed hotel or office building. There have been reports of psychological manipulation and physical torture during detention and interrogation, such as sleep deprivation, simulated drowning, burning the detainee’s skin with cigarettes, and beating. Since shuanggui is rooted in Party regulations instead of formal legislation, it is a form of extra-legal detention. Because such regulations lack the transparency afforded by a legal system, the extent to which human rights violations are committed during shuanggui is not well documented.

Despite its susceptibility to human rights violations, shuanggui gained the unashamed support of Chu, who assumes the same disposition of his readers. In the post, Chu describes his rare visit to a shuanggui investigation facility. The circumstances that led to the visit are unexplained; however, the trip does result in the publication of what Dui Hua believes to be the first photographic exposé of the inside of a shuanggui investigation facility ….

Sadly, acceptance of shuanggui seems to have seeped into international human rights circles and resulted in a dearth of relevant research and advocacy.

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Post tags: anti-corruption, Communist party members, corrupt officials, detention, interrogation, torture
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A government report from the State Council said prosecutors investigated more than 240,000 embezzlement, bribery and other cases involving official corruption from 2003 to 2009. In the past five years, more than 69,200 cases of commercial bribery involving some 16.59 billion yuan were investigated, the report said. The Communist Party leadership said China’s “harmony and stability” depended on efforts to build a clean government.

“So far, China’s effort to combat corruption…has yielded notable results,” the report said. But it warned that “corruption persists, with some cases even involving huge sums of money. The situation in combating corruption is still very serious, and the tasks are still abundant.”

Wu Yuliang, member of the Communist Party’s central disciplinary committee, told a press conference on the report that more curbs on “extravagant expenses” such as official travel, purchasing cars and banquets would be implemented. He said the focus of government and party anti-corruption efforts would be “institutional building,” meaning efforts to structure the political system in a way that prevents corruption.

See also a report from Bloomberg. Read the full text of the government White Paper here.

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Post tags: anti-corruption, corruption, State Council
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The restriction does not clearly regulate the appointment of naked officials, but some local governments have their own regulations. In Shenzhen, officials whose spouses and children have all migrated abroad are not qualified to be heads of Party and government agencies, that is, they cannot be appointed principal positions.

However, as long as they do not undertake illegal actions, they have the right to take deputy positions. The temporary restriction also emphasized these officials’ legal rights.

The new restriction also raised a question of transferring positions. In order to avoid arousing suspicion and conflict of interest, a “naked official” should not take a position that is related to the country where the official’s spouse or children have migrated. This regulation is very strict, as it involves national interests.

Public supervision is also necessary. Since the naked official’s spouse and children are far away, other people around the official are those who know him or her best. How can they be supervised? This requires opening up officials’ work performance, personal wealth and family situation, so the public could judge whether the information reported is true or not.

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Post tags: anti-corruption, corrupt officials
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China has issued new anti-corruption rules which require government workers to report their investments, incomes and assets, state media reports.

Officials must now also give the financial details of family members and any change in their personal status.

Analysts say the new rules are designed to prevent officials from hiding income under the names of other people.

The Chinese president has said fighting corruption is a matter of life and death for the Communist party.

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Post tags: anti-corruption, anti-corruption law, transparency
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The man behind the crackdown is a national politician, Chongqing’s Communist Party secretary Bo Xilai.

Mr Bo, tough, sophisticated and ambitious, comes from the Communist aristocracy – his father was one of Mao Zedong’s leading comrades.

Many see Bo Xilai as a potential future national leader

Yet Mr Bo is very much an example of the new China – he dresses superbly and sent his son to Britain to be educated at Harrow – one of the most famous and expensive private schools – and latterly at Oxford University.

In his efforts to stamp out corruption in Chongqing, Mr Bo has attracted accusations that he uses some highly questionable methods.

Read more about Bo Xilai and the crackdown on corruption in Chongqing via CDT.

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Post tags: anti-corruption, Bo Xilai, Chongqing corruption
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This year Wen’s take-home message was that the government would step up the fight against corruption, a tacit acknowledgment that the widespread problem has a direct bearing on the Communist Party’s grip on power. Wen also said transparency should empower the people and the media to oversee the government.

Yet for the roughly 500 reporters representing overseas news organizations in Beijing, it’s not the words of the premier that matter so much, but the words of the low-level politicians from across China gathered in the capital for the next two weeks. “What we can get out of the NPC is listening,” Erling says.

A few years ago, for the first time, the foreign press were invited into panel discussions that sometimes hint at what’s to come. In 2007, for instance, one such panel introduced Xi Jinping. Then a part of the Shanghai delegation, Mr. Xi now is widely expected to be named president in 2012.

Veterans say they watch for high numbers of symbolic “no” votes in what’s understood to be the predetermined election of delegates. Reporters also are on the lookout for the occasional real surprise in what legitimately is dubbed a rubber stamp parliament for its predictability. There was 1998, for instance, when Qiao Shi, then chairman of the standing committee of the NPC, was ousted in an unexpected twist to an otherwise expected government shakeup.

See also “Profile: China’s National People’s Congress” from BBC.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-corruption, NPC 2010
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For years, major changes in the Communist Party of China have preceded a war on corruption. Anti-corruption drives have been used to smash or weaken political rivals. The CPC today unveiled a new drive that is appears set cause serious tremors in Chinese business and politics at the same time.

The latest ethics code has a 52-point check list, which would make it extremely difficult for vast numbers of party officials to prove themselves to be totally untainted. Two potent diktats: party members connected to business enterprises and real estate deals will be punished.

“This is a sign of inner party struggle. It is closely related to the succession issue in the Communist Party leadership. This is also an attempt to curb the growing influence of money power in the party set up,” Srikanth Kondapalli, professor of Chinese studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, told TNN.

“The action shows Chinese president Hu Jintao is finally in full control of the party. There is going to be a scramble among party members to prove their loyalty,” a senior diplomat with a western country said on condition of anonymity.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-corruption, Communist party members
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One of China’s former top judges will be tried for taking up to four million yuan ($A652,000) in bribes, in one of the nation’s most high-profile graft cases, the state press says.

Huang Songyou, former deputy head of the Supreme People’s Court, will go on trial by the first week of March, making him the most senior judicial official to be tried since the establishment of new China in 1949, the Chongqing Evening News said on Sunday.

Huang, 52, is being accused of abusing power, enabling profit for others, taking bribes and living a “corrupt and lavish” life, the report said.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-corruption, corruption, Huang Songyou, judges
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He, secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said channels should be expanded to solicit public opinions and efforts be made to give full play to the positive role that the Internet has had in the fight against corruption.

“He’s remarks showed the unprecedented resolute determination of the CPC to fight corruption, and it will lead to powerful practice,” said Ye Duchu, a senior professor with the Central Party School.

“The top officials of the CPC have realized that online opinion is a weapon to curb graft, but it is a tough decision for them to make as the Party had been very cautious about handling information against a Party member,” Ye said.

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-corruption, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, He Guoqiang
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