One of the highest-profile government policies in China of late has been President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption, targeting low-ranking "flies" and powerful "tigers" and taking some major scalps in its dragnet.
Xi has described the anti-corruption campaign as essential to the party’s survival and said: “We must be vigilant.”
Among the big names caught up in the crackdown are one-time rising star Bo Xilai, the former mayor of Dalian, and an ex-standing committee of the politburo leader, Zhou Yongkang, whose network from within his support base in the petroleum industry has been devastated.
Since the campaign started about 270,000 cadres from the ruling Communist Party have faced sanctions, according to the government.
So it came as some surprise to see in the latest Transparency International (TI) report that corruption has actually become worse in China since Xi took over the leadership in 2012. In its survey of 175 countries, China came away with 36 points, putting it in 100th place, the same as Algeria and Suriname, a pretty steep drop from its 80th place the previous year.
TI's Srirak Plipat said the corruption perceptions index showed that scores of countries from Asia Pacific, the world's fastest-growing region, were not doing well enough and that despite many public declarations and commitments not enough is being done to fight corruption.
Fox hunt
“In 2014 we have heard a lot about government efforts to prosecute corruption and corruption scandals in China. Its commitment to catch ‘tigers and flies’ – public officials big and small – indicates the government is serious in its commitment. [It] also recognised the needs for China’s international efforts, launching a ‘fox hunt’ of officials overseas and withdrawing opposition to
G20
anti-corruption measures,” he said.
The low reading raised the question of how effective a top-down approach was in the absence of transparency, accountable government and free media and civil society, he said, adding that the crackdown on corruption looked more like efforts to clamp down on the government’s opponents.
“China’s attitude towards transparency and governance is important to the wider region, given its growing influence. If its spreads an economic model based on less transparency and accountability and excluding civil society, it will bode ill for the corruption fight in other countries too,” said Plipat.
The reaction in Chinese media was one of outrage, with the Global Times saying TI's report "completely contradicts reality".
"China's resolve to fight corruption and its notable achievements in this regard are clear for all to see. Scores and ranking on China given by the Corruption Perceptions Index 2014 totally contradicts the remarkable progress China has made in fighting corruption," the newspaper quoted foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying as saying.
"The Chinese people have a fair opinion of the visible achievements of China's anti- corruption campaign, and the Corruption Perceptions Index 2014 . . . cannot serve as a standard in this regard. Transparency International should seriously examine the objectiveness and impartiality of its index," she said.
Ireland scored 74 points and came 17th in the TI survey.
