Teaching Comparative

Structural obstacles to China's anti-corruption efforts

It does help to look at the organization chart when analyzing policy making efforts. And that's what Wu Zhong did for this report from Asia Times Online. You might ask your students to do the same while explaining why reporter Wu thinks a free press would help in the campaign against corruption.

China's flawed fight against corruption

"Ahead of its 17th National Congress next autumn, the power center of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has begun to restructure its anti-graft system to strengthen its direct supervision of the behavior of regional officials in the hope of more effectively curbing rampant corruption...

"In China, almost all senior government officials are party members; hence the country's anti-graft campaign is pretty much a house-cleaning job of the CCP itself. Under the current system, there is the Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI) at the top of the party hierarchy that in fact also acts as the country's top anti-graft watchdog. Accordingly, there is a commission for disciplinary inspection under each regional party committee to act as local anti-graft watchdog.

"But the big drawback of this system is that the head of a local commission for disciplinary inspection (CDI) is practically appointed by the regional party committee and as such is under the command of, and has to report to, the local party chief. Under such a system, a regional party chief is virtually immune to supervision by the local watchdog and can hardly be checked if he or she becomes corrupt, unless the case is brought to the attention of the power center.

"Under the principle of 'upholding the party's absolute leadership', the party chief of a region is like a king with all officials subordinate to him. In such a system, to ask the head of the local anti-graft watchdog to supervise the party chief would be like asking someone to lift himself up in the air by pulling up his own hair with his own hands...

"[T]he power center of the CCP... has begun to appoint [anti-graft] officials directly from the power center...

"The CCP power center has also made another move to make the function of a provincial CDI more independent of the provincial party committee... so he would be in a better position to carry out his mission... it is aimed at establishing a more independent mechanism for supervision.

"It is certainly an effective way to check rampant regional protectionism and nepotism for Beijing to send its own people to head the local anti-graft commissions. This is a check on the absolute power of the 'local kings'...

"If President Hu wants at least to minimize official corruption, he must consider letting the media play a role in this arduous fight. Greater freedom of the press would allow the public to participate in the supervision of officials by putting them under a microscope. But until now there is no sign that the CCP is ready to embrace freedom of the press..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:53 AM