Weeding Out the Corrupt

China takes a tough stand on bribery and corruption of officials

By LI LI

The Communist Party of China’s (CPC)

Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) had a busy year in 2009 as it worked to fight corruption.At CCDI’s annual work review press conference on January 7, Deputy Secretary Gan Yisheng recited a list of achievements∶ 2,231 Party members across China had been stripped of their membership and referred for prosecution for embezzlement or bribery from January to November 2009;almost 14,000 commercial corruption cases were investigated and handled by disciplinary and supervisory organs, of which about 21 percent involved civil servants; discipline inspection bodies received almost 1.32 million petitions and tip-offs during the same period, about 11 percent of which were tentatively veri fi ed and 8.75 percent were placed on fi le for investigation and prosecution; and at least 15 ministerial- or provincial-level of fi cials, including heads of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), were investigated for corruption.

While these figures shed light on a big year for China’s national disciplinary and supervisory organs, another statistic shows the large amount of work still needing to be done. China ranked 79th in 2009 on a corruption index of 180 countries and regions monitored by Transparency International, a Berlin-based non-governmental organization.

“The fi ght against graft and the promotion of clean and honest work among Party members has great bearing on the Party’s survival,” Huang Zongliang, a professor at Peking University, told Xinhua.

When CCDI convened its plenary meeting on January 12, Chinese President and General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Hu Jintao told members that the Party should “fully recognize the situation of the fi ght against corruption,” which is “persistent, complicated and arduous.”

The CCDI communiqué that resulted from that meeting pledged to fi ght corruption with new tactics—increasing monitoring of of fi cials’ family members, supervising SOE executives and seeking whistleblowers on the Internet in 2010.

Asset declaration

Party organs at all levels are to carefully administer of fi cials’ family asset declarations to prevent them from abusing power, taking bribes or participating in other illegal activities, said the communiqué.

The CPC promulgated the family asset declaration regulation in 2006, by which Party of fi cials were obliged to report information such as employment conditions, real estate and investments of their spouses and children.

A Peking University study at the end of 2008 said more than 10,000 corrupt Chinese officials had fled to North America and Europe over the past decade, taking with them more than 650 billion yuan ($95.6 billion) in illegal income.

An editorial in the Commercial Times newspaper said the asset declaration regulation has yet to yield its full potential due to the governments’ failure to publicize officials’family and asset information to the public.The newspaper is based in Shenyang, northeast China’s Liaoning Province.

The article said that at pilot programs in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Zhejiang Province,the information on offi cials was either partly publicized or kept within their government departments. Only the full exposure of of fi cials’ assets can make effective social monitoring possible, the article said.

Commercial bribery

China’s discipline and government watchdog also pledged to tighten supervision over SOEs and fi ght corruption among their executives.

“We will push hard to investigate and punish corruption in the restructuring,mergers, property transactions, capital operations and construction projects of SOEs,” said Vice Minister of Supervision Qu Wanxiang at a meeting in Beijing on January 7.

Since it launched nationwide anticommercial bribery campaigns in 2006,China has seen a string of serious corruption cases in SOEs that have included senior management of some of the country’s largest corporations.

Liao Ran, Transparency International’s Senior Program Coordinator for Asia Paci fi c,told Beijing Review that an important factor behind China’s less-than-satisfactory ranking on his organization’s annual list is that multinational corporations have engaged in commercial bribery in developing countries,where they are less likely to face prosecution.

Zhu Xiaoqin, head of the Beijing People’s Procuratorate’s Anti-corruption Bureau, told China Daily that corruption and bribery cases involving officials connected to major engineering projects in Beijing have grown by 31 percent annually since 2006.

Zhu said SOE-related cases account for the majority that involve briberies of 100,000 yuan ($14,700) and above, with real estate companies being the main culprit.

Senior Officials Put Under Investigation, Referred for Prosecution or Tried in 2009

Zheng Shaodong, former Assistant Minister of Public Security,was investigated in January.

Zheng Shaodong

Wang Huayuan, former Party disciplinary head of east China’s Zhejiang Province,was investigated in April.

Chen Shaoji,former top political adviser in south China’s Guangdong Province, was investigated in April.

Xu Zongheng,former Mayor of Shenzhen, was investigated in June.

Xu Zongheng

Kang Rixin, former General Manager of the China National Nuclear Corp., was investigated in August.

Huang Yao, former top political advisor of southwest China’s Guizhou Province, was investigated in August.

Song Yong, former Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Liaoning Provincial People’s Congress, was investigated in October.

Li Tangtang, former Vice Chairman of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region,was put under investigation in October.

Sun Shuyi,former top political advisor of east China’s Shandong Province, was sacked in December.

Zhang Chunjiang,former Vice Chairman of stateowned China Mobile, was investigated in December.

Zhang Chunjiang

Chen Shaoyong, former member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee, was referred for prosecution in January.

Wang Yi, former Vice President of China Development Bank, was arrested in January.

Mi Fengjun, former Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Jilin Provincial People’s Congress, was referred for prosecution in March.

Zhu Zhigang, former Deputy Director of the Economic and Financial Committee of the National People’s Congress, was referred for prosecution in June.

Pi Qiansheng, former head of the Management Committee of the Tianjin Binhai New Area, was referred for prosecution in June.

Huang Songyou, former Vice President of the Supreme People’s Court,was referred for prosecution in August.

Huang Songyou

Liu Zhihua,former Vice Mayor of Beijing, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in January.

Chen Tonghai, former Chairman of China’s state-run oil re fi ner Sinopec,was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in July.

Sun Yu, former Vice Chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,was sentenced to 18 years in prison in August.

He Hongda, former Director of the Political Department of the Ministry of Railways, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in November.

Source∶ Southern Weekend

Internet watchdogs

The CCDI communiqué also encouraged more public participation in anticorruption efforts and pledged to improve the disciplinary organs’ ability to collect and research public complaints of corruption by of fi cials that have been lodged over the Internet.

On October 28, 2009, the CCDI and the Ministry of Supervision launched a national informant website, www.12388.gov.cn, to record tips from netizens all across the country.

“A noteworthy and exciting phenomenon in China’s 2009 anti-corruption campaign was a growing number of Internet whistleblowers who posted their observations on corrupt of fi cials’ lives and eventually attracted the attention of government supervision organs,” said Liao. He said some Chinese of fi cials have not yet realized the potency of the Internet.

Zhou Jiugeng, the former head of a Nanjing district real estate management bureau in Jiangsu Province, became an overnight Internet “celebrity” after a photo of him and his cigarettes at a meeting was posted online in December 2008. The poster pointed out that Zhou’s cigarettes cost about 150 yuan ($22) per pack. Taking on the nickname of the “super-expensive-cigarette director” by netizens, Zhou was investigated and was later sentenced to 11 years in prison for taking bribes in 2009.

Another scandal exposed through the Internet was a fraudulent lottery that purported to offer winners affordable housing in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. A June 2009 post claimed that after taking bribe from prospective homebuyers, some officials rigged the lottery, which resulted in the appearance of winners in six consecutive numbers. The whistleblower claimed to be one of those who paid a bribe but failed to get the ideal apartment since many had already paid a bribe. In June, police arrested five suspects who allegedly took nearly 1 million yuan($147,000).

“The development of Internet monitoring will usher in a new era when of fi cials are exposed to public supervision anywhere and anytime,” said Liao. ■