Fighting Corruption for Clean Governance

Clean governance is desired by people from every country. However, authority has always been vulnerable to corruption throughout history. Preventing abuse of power has proven a key task in modern governance. Cleanliness is even an important factor in quantifying the modern development of governance. Since 2013, China’s new leadership has promoted clean governance to new levels by successfully combating corruption and implementing zero tolerance. The campaign has received resounding applause from the public.

Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have expressed their resolution to combat corruption on many occasions, firmly supporting the anti-corruption campaign. Over the last three years, China’s anti-corruption watchdog has punished more than 80 high-ranking officials, referred to as “tigers,” and nearly 180,000 low-ranking officials, known as “flies.” As China’s anti-corruption campaign cracks down on both “tigers” and “flies,” civil servants are responding to the pressure by refusing to take bribes ever again.

In the past, corrupt officials would flee abroad once their crimes were found out and enjoy their embezzled money and assets in other countries without fear of punishment by Chinese law enforcement. Every criminal who walked free in a foreign country exerted a horrible influence on the bureaucrats in China. The current administration has strengthened cooperation with other countries to crack down on corruption by signing a series of international anti-corruption treaties and establishing a cooperative mechanism to chase down international fugitives. After three years of efforts, more than 2,100 suspects who fled abroad have been extradited and subsequently arrested. The anti-corruption campaign has left nowhere for corrupt officials to hide.

Severe punishments for corrupt officials are only a short-term preventative method. Effective long-term anti-corruption reform requires mechanism upgrades and comprehensive improvement of the political system. China’s political system contrasts with those of Western countries in many ways. The long-term ruling position of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is a decision made by both history and the Chinese people. China needs a supervision system suitable for its own conditions. This administration has made bold moves to reform the supervision mechanism. Pilot reform programs were launched in Beijing, Shanxi Province and Zhejiang Province. According to the new measures, a supervision committee with equal status to the government will be elected by the local people’s congress in each province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government. The supervision committee will enjoy tremendous supervisory powers under the law. It integrates the corruption supervisory functions that are so far distributed to the supervision bureaus under the government and the procurator. The integration averts complex coordination among different organs to improve efficiency.

The CPC is improving its system to ensure effective long-term anti-corruption mechanisms. Last year, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee deliberated and approved the Regulations of the Communist Party of China on Internal Oversight, which stipulated measures on stricter supervision of party members with respect to clean governance and unified punishment according to Party discipline. The CPC insisted that Party discipline should be stricter than the law. The Party has clearly stipulated the responsibility for appointing cadres and the mechanisms for punishing those who violate rules in the hope of standardizing the procedures for promotion and preventing problematic officials from ever getting promoted in the first place. The improvement of selection procedures will contribute to a better mechanism that works over the long term.

China’s anti-corruption efforts will foster steady politics, clean governance and a harmonious society.  

The author is a professor from the National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University of China.