There is a very interesting article on corruption in China that has appeared in Business Spectator ( an Aussie on-line only business newspaper, recently acquired by Rupert Murdoch ). The author is John Lee who is an academic at Sydney University; he is of Chinese extraction.
Link: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs. ... ph&src=rotThe Chinese military budget has been growing at double-digit rates for two decades, with an 11.2 per cent growth in 2012. But senior officers of the People’s Liberation Army have been told to knuckle down by the Central Military Commission, the country’s peak military decision making body.
As official state-media Xinhua reported last week, luxury banquets and alcohol has been banned at receptions. Delicacies such as shark’s fin and turtle soup will be reportedly off limits, as is partaking in the miracle benefits of ginseng-laced concoctions. Red carpets, elaborate floral arrangements and other expensive decorations will be severely curtailed. Luxury ‘civilian’ hotels will become a rarity for officers on overseas trips, and room service and other ‘entertainment’ expenses will be cut -- even if there is no word yet on the appropriateness of first and business class travel. And to rub more salt in the wound, spouses, children and relatives will no longer share the trappings of office.
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Official corruption comes in many different forms. The most obvious is graft, or outright theft. According to a Chinese Central bank report in July 2011, some 16,000-18,000 officials have stolen more than $US120 billion, and fled overseas since the mid-1990s. That’s around $US7 million per official, with America, Canada, Australia and Europe being the most popular places to deposit the ill-gotten proceeds.
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It is true that the CCP {Chinese Communist Party} is not one homogenous entity speaking in one voice. But its vast, unaccountable governing structure is part of the problem. Modern China is the second most-governed country in Asia (by number of officials per capita) after Malaysia, even if it is rated one of the poorest governed lands in the region. During the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), there was one official for every 2,927 people. During the more recent Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), there was one official for every 299 people. In today’s China, there are up to 50 million officials, amounting to about one official for every 27 people.
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It is no wonder that becoming an official is seen by many as a ‘lucrative’ career option. This perception is supported by numerous surveys that indicate that well over 90 per cent of the richest 1,000-10,000 people in China (depending on which survey you use) are CCP officials or their family members.
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There is an interesting comment to the article:
Basically what’s happened in China (and Vietnam) is the greatest theft in history, staged in 3 phases over several decades (No shark fin soup for Christmas, December 24):
1. The State nationalises everyone’s assets
2. The Party takes absolute control of the State’s assets
3. The Party re-privatises and re-distributes the State’s assets to some of its members.
Corruption is a way of taking even more from the part of the wealth that’s still outside the Party’'s control and giving a share of the loot to lowly Party members who have benefited little from the Grand Theft.
Unity within Party ranks - and the Party itself - cannot survive if corruption is curtailed.