Teaching Comparative

Political culture on display

The battle against corruption and the independence of local officials in China has been going on for centuries. The contest for power between the CCP and the government is new. Can the Chinese government check the power of local officials? Can it check the power of the Communist Party?

I highlighted the section in the third paragraph below. If Edward Cody, the Washington Post writer, is correct in his assessment, the contest between the government and the CCP for oversight is well underway.

Chinese Raise Outcry Over Local Officials' Perpetual Corruption

"The outrage started with the discovery that more than 500 migrant laborers had been forced to work in conditions bordering on slavery in out-of-the-way brick kilns. Local Communist Party authorities, state-run media said, had looked the other way.

"Then came news that local governments were still misappropriating public funds to build palatial offices, despite attempts by President Hu Jintao's government to end such lavishness. Finally, word spread that a recently arrested business magnate, known as a shady dealer and notorious for driving armored personnel carriers down the street, was also a member of the local assembly that advises authorities in Beijing.

"The accumulation of reports about official misconduct in recent weeks has produced a public outcry and led to calls for better supervision by the central government in Beijing. The angry tone in the official press, tolerated by party censors, suggested growing impatience among the Chinese public with the government's failure to stanch the corruption that has metastasized across the country during a quarter-century of economic reforms...

"'This is really a big humiliation for a civilized society,' said Jia Fenyong, a columnist on the official New China News Agency Web site.

"'This shows that the authority of the central government is not strong enough and the central government lacks the resolution to punish bad officials,' a commentator who identified himself as Ye Zhiqiu said on Strong China Forum, a site affiliated with the party's official People's Daily. 'In the eyes of our public, the central government has the most powerful authority. Who dares to sniff at its orders? But in fact it's not true. The central government's power has always been challenged by local authority.'

Kang Xiaoguang, a sociologist at People's University of China, noted that local leaders have resisted rule from Beijing for centuries, 'maybe since the founding of China.' But the problem has become particularly acute in recent years, he added, because of a proliferation of illegal moneymaking schemes by dishonest businessmen in collusion with corrupt local officials...

"The promises to crack down, however, skirted what some Chinese experts and reform advocates have described as one of the main obstacles to cleaning up China's corruption... the [Communist] party relies on its own inspectors to investigate and discipline corrupt members. In addition, the party continues to maintain control over the judicial system, they noted, so there is no countervailing power to act as a check on political appointees..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:31 AM