Are the United States and China more alike than we think? Striking similarities come to mind as corruption charges have brought down senior leaders in both China and the United States in recent months. Yet, critical differences also abound as contrasting approaches to fighting corruption underscore that China, for now, still remains more rule by party or “people,” than rule by law.
In the U.S. state of Virginia, which I long ago called home before moving to New York and then to Asia to take up a board seat several years back at the Asian Development Bank, former Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen were recently convicted of taking bribes in a corruption case that derailed the career of this one-time rising political star.
The corruption verdict stemmed from charges related to the couple’s help promoting a dietary supplement for a wealthy businessman and vitamin executive, Jonnie Williams, in exchange for more than $165,000 in gifts and loans. A federal jury in Richmond, VA, convicted Bob McDonnell of 11 of the 13 counts he faced. Former First Lady of Virginia Maureen McDonnell was convicted of nine of the13 counts, and she was also found guilty of obstructing justice after the scandal broke by returning a designer gown Williams had bought for her during a New York shopping trip. Both husband and wife are appealing their convictions.
Perhaps, the money and the evening wear might well sound like “small potatoes” halfway around the world in China, where Xi Jinping continues to press a much vaunted anti-corruption drive against “tigers” and “flies” – from powerful leaders to lowly bureaucrats – as he has consolidated power and set the tone for his leadership since taking the reins as China’s president in March 2013.
“We must uphold the fighting of tigers and flies at the same time, resolutely investigating law-breaking cases of leading officials and also earnestly resolving the unhealthy tendencies and corruption problems which happen all around people,” Xi had said in January 2013 in a speech carried by the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
In the parlance of the Chinese, the McDonnells would no doubt be Tigers – “big fish,” not “small fries,” in American English slang. Notably, the Virginia governor had even been mentioned at one point as a potential candidate for U.S. president and as a prospect for a place on Mitt Romney’s presidential ticket in 2012.
McDonnell is one of the most senior elected officials recently brought down by corruption charges in the United States, but others including numerous governors from U.S. President Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois, have also been found guilty.
Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is serving time in prison for trying to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat. McDonnell and Blagojevich join at least seven other former governors, from both major U.S. political parties, who have been convicted of corruption in recent years after having had their day in court, or pleading guilty in a deal.
And therein lies a vital difference between U.S. and Chinese efforts against corruption: the role of an independent judiciary and of a free media. In trials, often widely and aggressively covered by journalists, U.S. politicians and business leaders, like all Americans, also have recourse to law and legal counsel, and the chance to defend themselves. Verdicts are not foregone conclusions, written before the charges are filed.
For China’s anti-corruption efforts to succeed in the long run, Xi must pair this latest anti-corruption campaign with the more difficult undertaking of political reform. Otherwise, his efforts may well be perceived as little different that those of his predecessors, though the “tigers” might well be bigger this time around.
In the past, anticorruption campaigns have been used to conceal political struggles inside the Communist Party of China. Frequent official announcements of corrupt officials being brought to “justice” have also been used by the Party to demonstrate its own achievements while seeking to limit the space for outside anti-corruption voices.
Certainly, there continue to be no shortage of allegations of corruption in the Middle Kingdom, at national, provincial and municipal levels. In 2013, China watchers were riveted by the then largest political scandal to unfold in years, namely the downfall off Bo Xilai, the former Communist Party chief in Chongqing and one-time high-flyer and potential future national leader and rival to Xi Jinping.
Bo’s wife Gu Kailai had in August 2012 been given a suspended death sentence for the murder of a British businessman in Chongqing, as the noose tightened around her husband. According to a timeline of the Bo Xilai scandal posted online by the BBC, Bo’s trial began on Aug. 22, 2013 at the Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan, Shandong province. His trial ended four days later, and on September 22nd, he was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life in prison. On Oct. 9, 2013, a Chinese Court said it would hear Bo’s appeal. On October 25th, that appeal was rejected.
Less than a year later, new names have been added to China’s growing pantheon of ever-higher, corrupt officials. This summer, retired People’s Liberation Army general Xu Caihou, a former vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, was expelled from the ruling Communist Party after having been found to have accepted bribes, according to Chinese state media. Others ousted included: Jiang Jiemin, a former minister in charge of state assets; Li Dongsheng, a former vice minister of public security; and Wang Yongchun, a former deputy head of state-owned oil giant China National Petroleum Corporation.
According to CNN, Xinhua recently touted the catching of 30 such “tigers” since Xi took power less than two years ago. And Bloomberg News reports, “Xi’s nationwide campaign to rein in graft has ensnared more than 480 officials spanning all of China’s provinces and largest cities.”
Investigations, reportedly but not so transparently, now continue as Xi moves to take down the biggest tiger yet. This July, Xinhua released a statement saying that China’s former security chief Zhou Yongkang was being investigated for “serious disciplinary violations” – often code words for corruption. Officials in China are typically detained in secret, with no opportunity to address charges publicly.
Bloomberg also notes that a quarter of the officials or senior executives in state-owned companies with a vice minister rank or higher toppled during the past 18 months (as of July 31) have direct links to Zhou.
In his campaign to catch both tigers and flies, Xi may well be advancing a systematic effort to stem the corruption that undercuts support for and could well one day threaten the legitimacy of one-party Communist rule. But he will also have to address the underlying system if he is to change both the perception and the reality of modern China.
According to the latest Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International, which ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be, China continues to do poorly. In 2013, China ranked only 80th out of some 177 places reviewed. The United States ranked 19th. At the top are Denmark and New Zealand. At the bottom of the list are Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia.
In China today, anticorruption efforts and the transparency around such efforts only go so far. Bloomberg, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other western media have drawn the ire of China’s leaders by reporting on the wealth of family members of China’s senior leaders.
That is certainly not the case in my former home state of Virginia or hometown of New York City, where media and increasingly social media play a role in bringing attention to abuses of power. Corruption surely exists in many places, including in places that require some form of financial disclosure of the assets of top leaders. China is not alone in not requiring such transparency.
But citizens ultimately will have greatest confidence in systems driven by rule of law, not by personal vendetta or power pushes. And, ideally that system includes the checks and balances of an independent judiciary and free media.
As the latest corruption campaign continues to unfold in China, that nation’s own citizens are likely keeping tabs whether anyone associated with Xi Jinping will be tagged in this latest effort. If not, cynics may well see it as not coincidence but business as usual.
There may well be more talk and action against enemies, perceived or real, and against the corruption that threatens government and individual officials’ legitimacy. But with no significant change to the underlying system, it will continue to be the case in China, unlike perhaps in Virginia, that there are still some people above the law.
Curtis S. Chin, a former U.S. Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, is managing director of advisory firm RiverPeak Group, LLC. Follow him on Twitter at @CurtisSChin.
