My friend sent me a text message, asking a difficult question: “How do you think 2013, with Xi at the helm, will go down in history?” I replied: “It depends on how the public sees it.”
Qin Xiaoying
Taxi drivers in Beijing are famous amateur current affairs commentators. One cabby told me: “It’d be even better had Xi come up earlier.” Pressed for an explanation, he answered: “Corruption would not have gone this rampant.” The anti-graft moves Xi and his colleagues have taken may well be the most exciting achievements to the Chinese public, and the most interesting ones to outsiders.
As a possible sign of influence of the linguistic styles of his father, Xi Zhongxun, as well as leaders of the Mao and Deng eras, Xi described his approach to corruption as “striking both tigers and flies” in early 2013, employing a vivid man-on-the-street analogy. Wang Qishan, his right-and man in the anti-corruption campaign, translated the expression into “combining the mild and the harsh, tackling both symptoms and root causes”.
“The mild” means that the authorities would inform competent communist party or government departments and their leaders in advance. Something like an early warning, or vaccine injection. The most notable phenomenon is that the central authorities would issue various “bans” before major national holidays. In a nation that places tremendous emphasis on festive occasions, every holiday offers institutions of power opportunities for collecting gifts (including bribery), and squandering public money at dinner tables and on sight-seeing trips. Over time, local authorities have developed a common practice of bribing central government ministries and commissions to have their pet projects approved or financed. Such briberies usually take place prior to major traditional holidays. The ugly chain of power-for-money transactions are now broken. At least the number of dirty deals has dropped dramatically.
Hand in hand with such milder “reminders” is severe punishment for violators. The new leadership’s tough stance against corruption found expression in the investigation of more than 20,000 party and government leaders in the past year, among whom 31 were senior officials under direct jurisdiction of the central leadership. They include Li Dongsheng, the vice-minister of public security now under graft probe; director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, who can be called a “cabinet member”, as well as leading officials from the provinces who were seldom subject to close scrutiny before. The high-transparency court trial of Politburo member Bo Xilai was convincing evidence of the CPC’s resolve against corruption.
Wang Qishan has displayed impressive decisiveness in hardening intra-party oversight and outsider supervision. His low-profile yet enormously effective reforms have greatly reduced the advisory and coordinating arms of the Ministry of Supervision and the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, from 125 to 14. At the same time, he, through strict redefinition of the responsibilities, terms of office, and powers of the inspectors dispatched by the central discipline watchdog, makes it difficult for dereliction of duty. That so many major corruption cases have been probed in 2013 had a lot to do with such moves.
The new leadership’s fresh approach to corruption has certainly been a heart-winner. Yet there have also been worries, because Xi and his colleagues still have a very long way to go, one that promises plenty of stumbling blocks and risks. Xi himself is also aware of the complexity of the matter, which is why he has stressed time and again that “the situation of the anti-corruption campaign remains complicated and grim”.
Then, will Team Xi’s new approach to corruption sustain through 2014? It depends ultimately on whether they can squarely face up to reality and are determined to crack the hard nuts. They will have to face the reality that corruption in China is no longer limited to isolated cases or degeneration of individual institutions. It is increasingly taking the form of industry-wide wrong-doing. The scandals that have broken in the fields of finance, securities, transport, industry and commerce, and taxation are absolutely not isolated cases committed by a couple of offenders. Therefore, Xi and his colleagues will first have to be brave enough to point their scalpel at corruption-prone industries. Secondly, they will have to show resolve to take on those in higher offices and wield greater powers. No level of leaders should be exempted from the fight against corruption. And there must not be a 21st century edition of the ancient tenet “criminal punishment shall not be applied to senior officials”.
China has just unveiled an ambitious blueprint for reforms. But it will take decisive headway in the fight against corruption to rejuvenate and sustain public confidence. This is the only way to demonstrate to the public the outstanding governance capabilities of a responsible government. This is the only way to convince people of the ruling party of China’s serious concern and sincere care about public interests.
Public confidence can only be won with faithful fulfillment of duties.
Let’s hope China’s 2014 battle against corruption can go down in history as a glorious chapter.
Qin Xiaoying is a Research Scholar with China Foundation For International and Stategic Studies.
