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| Posted 3/2/2011 |
For more than 4,000 years, China's great dynasties have risen, then quickly succumbed to debilitating corruption. Thoroughly weakened by bribery and theft, dynasties fell to inferior invaders – Arab raiders, Mongols, Europeans, and most often to rural revolutionists fed up with government corruption. Is the 62-year-old Peoples Republic of China in similar trouble today? Judge for yourself. Premier Wen has recently gone on record admitting the widespread corruption in China. He further noted that such corruption "is concentrated in the government and in the Communist Party." In the same speech he warned that the combination of rising food prices and corruption was leading to the current rash of protests in many of China's cities. What he did not admit was that there was even greater unrest in rural China. The Party is attempting to defuse the corruption issue by arresting, punishing and prosecuting some highly placed Communist Party and government officials. Railway Minister Liu Zhijun has been fired for "severe violations of discipline" – which is Communist Partyspeak for "corruption scandals, inadequate ticket supply and safety problems." Liu was also fired as party secretary, leading people to worry that China's much heralded high-speed rail system is fraught with problems. Luo Linguo, party secretary of Mauming in wealthy Gwandong Province, has been arrested on corruption charges along with a whole host of his subordinates. Suspicion involves construction project bribery. Mayor Tan Dengyao of Dongfang City was sentenced to 18 years in prison for stealing money and materials worth over $800,000. More than 500 officials were punished for lesser thefts. In Hainan Province, 515 officials were punished for corruption in 2010. According to official sources, 5,098 officials at the county head level or above were punished for corruption. Some 804 were turned over to the prosecutors. (The low nature of these figures suggests that Beijing is not all that serious about stamping out corruption since so many high-ranking members of the party are involved.) The Statistics Bureau of China says "corruption rose in 68 of 70 cities surveyed in January 2011." This clearly contradicts the party's attempt to diffuse the corruption issue with a few high-profile arrests and trials. Where corruption results in world embarrassment for the Communist Party, the punishment can be severe. On Tuesday, Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, was sentenced to death for taking 6.6 million Yuan in bribes from eight food and drug companies. He supervised the approval of substandard food, tainted food and fake drugs – some resulting in illness and death. Corruption in China is a variation on the old "Ponzi Scheme." It works like this:
Of course, the lower-level officials aren't the only ones engaged in illegal land grab activities. In 2008, a high official and the CEO of a steel firm sneaked the illegal construction of a $1.3 billion steel factory by Beijing. Both were sentenced to jail terms. Corruption is rampant in China because everybody is doing it. Everybody with an ounce of power "is getting in on the steal" (an American expression which applied to 19th century railroad building in the USA). Up until now, the people have not revolted forcefully against corruption. Unlike the uprisings in the Middle East, everyone in China has seen an improvement in his living standard during the past ten years. But if that rising living standard is eroded with huge food inflation, the uprisings will get bigger and more dangerous. A very worried Premier Wen is looking over his shoulder – at 4,000 years of collapsing, corruption-ridden Chinese governments. (click here for a printable version of this article) |
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