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БОРЬБА С КОРРУПЦИЕЙ В КИТАЕ С 18-го НАЦИОНАЛЬНОГО КОНГРЕССА
КОММУНИСТИЧЕСКОЙ ПАРТИИ КИТАЯ: ДОСТИЖЕНИЯ И ОПЫТ
ДЭН Чжунхуа, руководитель группы по дисциплинарной ответственности, аккредитованной Центральной комиссией по проверке дисциплины Коммунистической партии Китая в Китайской академии общественных наук
Китайская Народная Республика
E-mail: [email protected]
В статье освещается опыт Китая по выходу из крайне неблагоприятной коррупционной ситуации, по борьбе с появлением и распространением таких негативных тенденций, как злоупотребление властью, а также по созданию социалистической системы рыночной экономики. Коррупция сегодня представляет наибольшую угрозу для партии страны. В этом контексте Центральный комитет Коммунистической партии Китая, обладая, как отмечает автор, большим политическим мужеством и сильным чувством ответственности, выдвинул ряд крупных инициатив по борьбе с коррупцией, провел важные реформы, решил большое количество наболевших проблем и выполнил задачи, которые длительное время оставались нерешенными. Подчеркивается, что ради блага всех народов и избавления от коррупции, которая бросает тень на будущее человечества, необходимы совместные усилия всех стран и интегрирование их в мировую систему.
Автор указал на различия между странами с точки зрения антикоррупционных подходов и практик, обусловленные их разной историей, культурой, социальной структурой и моделью развития. Однако независимо от того, какова систематическая модель, борьба с коррупцией остается актуальной проблемой, которую еще предстоит решить каждой стране в рамках национального управления. За четыре десятилетия, прошедшие после политики реформ и открытости внешнему миру, особенно после 18-го Национального конгресса партии, Китай добился значительных успехов в борьбе с коррупцией и накопил серьезный опыт.
Ключевые слова: антикоррупционные инициативы, 18-й Национальный конгресс Коммунистической партии Китая.
CHINA'S FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION SINCE
THE 18th CPC NATIONAL CONGRESS: ACHIEVEMENTS
AND EXPERIENCES*
DENG Zhonghua, head of the disciplinary responsibility group accredited by the Central Commission for the inspection of the discipline of the Chinese Communist Party at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
People's Republic of China
E-mail: [email protected]
The present report highlights the experience of China in the grim situation of corruption and the breeding and spread of "unhealthy tendencies" (such as abuse of power) in its exploration for the establishment of the socialist market economy system. The corruption now poses the biggest threat to the Party. In this context, the CPC Central Committee, with great political courage and strong sense of responsibility, has launched a series of major anti-corruption initiatives, carried out a series of significant reforms, solved a number of long-standing problems, and completed a number of significant tasks that had remained unfulfilled in the past. It remains a general trend and a common aspiration of the people that all countries open their doors and integrate themselves to the world system to jointly drive away the "corruption haze" in the community of shared future for mankind.
The author pointed out differences among different countries in terms of anti-corruption approaches and practices due to their different history, culture, social structure and development model. However, regardless of what kinds of systematic model, anticorruption remains a pressing problem every country is yet to resolve in its national governance. Over the four decades since the reform and opening-up, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Party, China has made remarkable achievements in fighting corruption and accumulating original experiences.
Keywords: anti-corruption initiatives, the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
DOI: 10.12737/art.2018.3.4
t is known to all that corruption is the "cancer of government". It is a global challenge and, especially, occurs easily and frequently in countries when their industrialization and urbanization process accelerates. In the past four decades, China has greatly emancipated and developed its productive forces after it initiated the reform
* The Report at Eurasian Anti-Corruption Forum "Conflict of Interest: Law and Ethics", Moscow, April, 25 of 2018.
and opening-up drive; it has achieved an average annual GDP growth of about 9.5% (constant prices) and become the world's second-largest economy, largest industrial power, largest trader of goods, and largest foreign exchange reserve holder; it has evolved from a state of "shortage" of goods to "abundance" of goods, and, based on the current standards of the United Nations, successfully lifted more than 700 million impoverished people out of poverty (accounting for over 70% of the global total population that
has been lifted out of poverty), creating an eye-catching "Chinese miracle". In the meanwhile, despite consistently adhering to Deng Xiaoping's guiding philosophy that "we must combat corruption throughout the reform and opening-up process", China has also experienced the grim situation of corruption and the breeding and spread of "unhealthy tendencies" (such as abuse of power) in its exploration for the establishment of the socialist market economy system. President Xi Jinping has warned that what people hate most is corruption, and corruption now poses the biggest threat to the Party. In this context, the CPC Central Committee, with great political courage and strong sense of responsibility, has launched a series of major anti-corruption initiatives, carried out a series of significant reforms, solved a number of long-standing problems, and completed a number of significant tasks that had remained unfulfilled in the past. In the following I would like to make a brief introduction to China's internationally recognized anti-corruption achievements from three dimensions:
I. Anti-corruption measures since the 18th CPC National Congress
Since its 18th National Congress in late 2012, the CPC has embarked on a new campaign for strict self-governance, bringing its anti-corruption campaign to a never-seen high level in an unprecedentedly forceful manner. In a nutshell, effective measures are mainly reflected in the following four aspects:
Striking tigers. In the eyes of the Chinese public, the investigation and punishment of corrupt senior officials is equal to «striking tigers» by the top authorities. According to statistics, during the period from the 18th to 19th National Congresses of the Party, a total of 440 senior officials (at or above the provincial- and corps-level) and cadres under direct central administration were investigated, of whom 43 were members or alternate members of the CPC Central Committee and nine were members of the CCDI. Since the 19th National Congress of the Party in October 2017, another eight cadres under direct central administration was put under investigation. The forceful anti-graft campaign, of which "striking tigers" constitutes an important part, bears two prominent features. The first one is the wide range, namely, any officials, either at the central or local level, either from the military or from the Party and administrative agencies, either from State-owned enterprises or from institutions, will be investigated and punished if confirmed involved in corruption. The second one is the high level of netted corrupt officials. The investigation of cases of Zhou Yongkang (former member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and former secretary of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee), Bo Xilai (then member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Party secretary of Chongqing), Guo Boxiong, (former member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and former vice-chairman
of the Central Military Commission), Xu Caihou (former member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission), Sun Zhengcai (then member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Party secretary of Chongqing), Lin Jihua (then vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee), Su Rong, (then vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) sent a strong signal that any one, no matter who they are and no matter how senior titles they hold, will be investigated and brought to justice as long as they contravene laws or Party disciplines.
Swatting fliers. "Fliers" mentioned here refer to grassroots Party cadres who violate the law and Party disciplines. Some people say "tigers" are too far away from the public, but "flies" face the ordinary people every day, as President Xi pointed out. He also stressed that "minor corruption may become a 'huge scourge' to damage the vital interests of ordinary people, erode their 'sense of gain' and squander their trust in the Party". Therefore, he demands the discipline inspection agencies at various levels forcefully swat such fliers in accordance with the requirements of the central authorities and investigate the issues involving the violation of the laws and Party disciplines by grassroots Party cadres. For instance, during the period from the 18th to 19th Party congresses, the discipline inspection organs at various levels launched investigations into a total of 189,000 cases involving the use of public money for dining, gift-giving and travelling, the use of public vehicles for private purposes, the construction of buildings and premises in violation of relevant State regulations, the lavish holding of marriages or funerals, and the abuse of public money for welfares, all these being the issues with which people feel particularly dissatisfied. A total of 256,000 persons were held accountable, with approximately 140 ones on the average punished per day. This has caused officials' working style to greatly turn better.
Hunting down foxes. Targeting such issues as the transfer of "whitewashed" illicit money by corrupt officials or their fleeing abroad, China has utilized the prevailing international system or governance mechanism, such as the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and Interpol's Red Notice, to vigorously pursue the repatriation of corrupt officials who have fled abroad and the retrieval of transferred illicit money. The Central anticorruption coordination group has set up an office tasked with hunting for Chinese fugitives abroad and recovering their illicit money, and built a coordination mechanism for this work. By Dec 31, 2017, a total of 3,866 corrupt officials who have fled abroad had been returned from more than 90 countries and regions, more than 50 of whom were on the Red Notice list, recovering over 9.6 billion yuan illicit money. The number of newly-added corrupt
officials who fled abroad declined from 31 in 2015 to 9 in 2016 and 4 in 2017. In 2015, the number of returned Chinese fugitives overseas for the first time exceeded that of those who fled abroad, initially curbing the momentum of corrupt officials fleeing abroad and effectively blocking the "route of retreat" for corrupt officials to flee overseas to get an "overseas heaven".
Building a "cage of institution". President Xi Jinping points out that we should strengthen restraints and monitoring over the use of power to put power into the "cage of institutions". China's effort to fight corruption by building a "cage of institutions" marks its effort to address the issue of corruption from the roots. As a component of China's legal system, the intra-Party regulations of the CPC as China's ruling Party, have promoted handin-hand advancement of the Party's governance in line with relevant regulations and the rule of law. On the one hand, intra-Party laws and regulations have been endlessly reinforced, with the intensive promulgation of the Party's accountability, punishment, monitoring and inspection ordinances, which have played a crucial role in supervising and managing Party members and cadres. On the other hand, legal means have been used to fight corruption, such as the establishment of the National Supervisory Commission and the enactment of the Law of Supervision through revising the Constitution. The Amendment (IX) to Criminal Law adds new clauses on the application of life imprisonment to those who committed bribes-taking after the expiration of their reprieve death penalty and increases fines on those who gave and took bribes, in a bid to raise comprehensive efficiency of the fight against corruption in accordance with the law. Over the past five years, the State Council, China's Cabinet, has slashed the number of administrative examination and approval items by 44%, and completely terminated all non-administrative examination and approval items; the number of enterprise investment projects approved by the central government has been reduced by 90%, and the number of intermediary services for administrative examination and approval items reduced by 74%. The "internet plus governance services" and "one-stop services", which allow power to operate in the sun and leaves on internet the marks of administrative examination and approval, have further reduced the space for power rent-seeking.
II. Anti-corruption achievements since the 18th Party Congress
Over the past five years, under the CPC's strong leadership, China's "anti-corruption" story has won for itself the supports of people and the Party itself, as well as widespread praises and extensive approval from the international society. The overall achievements are mainly reflected in the following five aspects:
First, the spread of corruption has been effectively curbed. In the report delivered to the 19th National Congress of the Party, President Xi Jinping announced that "no place has been out of bounds, no ground left unturned, and no tolerance shown in the fight against corruption"
over the past five years, "we have taken firm action to 'take out tigers', 'swat flies' and 'hunt down foxes'", "The goal of creating a deterrent against corruption has been initially attained", "the cage of institutions that prevents corruption has been strengthened", "moral defenses against corruption are in the making", and "the anticorruption campaign has built into a crushing tide, is being consolidated, and continues to develop". Data released by the discipline inspection organs nationwide offer persuasive evidences for Xi's remarks. In 2016, the number of letters of accusations and complaints received by the authorities declined by 17.5% from 2015, a decline for the first time since the 18th Party Congress, demonstrating the significant progresses made in "removing the stock and containing the increment of the problems"; under the strong anti-corruption deterrent, as many as 57,000 Party members voluntarily confessed their problems to respective Party organizations in 2016 alone, more than ten-fold that of 2015, showing the strong effects of "forced self-restraints".
Second, the Party has successfully won public supports. It is China's traditional political motto that "the one who wins people's approvals gets the world". According to a public opinion poll conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics on the Party's working style and the building of clean governance, China's anti-corruption campaign has won extensive supports and praises from Chinese people. Before the convocation of the 18th CPC National Congress, the degree of people's satisfaction with the Party's working style, clean governance and the fight against corruption was 75%, but it increased to 81% in 2013, 88,4% in 2014, 91.5% in 2015, and 92.9% in 2016, showing a rising trajectory on a yearly basis. The poll indicates that compared with previous years, people's satisfaction with and confidence in the authorities' capability to curb corruption increased in 2016. For example, 93.1% of the surveyed showed increased confidence in the fight against corruption, an increase of 13.8 percentage points (p.p.) from 2012; 92.1 of the respondents believed the efforts to promote in-depth implementation of the authorities' eight-point regulation and continuously correct "formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance" achieved obvious effects in 2016, an increase of 10.8 p.p. from 2013; 90.1% of the surveyed people believe the authorities have work efficiently in tackling such issues as infringements into the interests of the masses and corruption, 18.1 p.p. higher than 2012.
Third, sustainable and healthy economic development has been achieved. Practice has proved that the assumption that "fighting corruption affects economic development" is a false proposition. China's effective anti-corruption campaign has not only helped purify the political and social ecology and form a new, clean political-business relationship, it has also helped maintain the market economic order, reduce transaction costs and protect the innovation and start-up vitality in the society. After several years of high-handed crackdown on corruption,
China's GDP grew by 6.9% for the whole of 2017, which was generally higher than expected and reached its highest level since the third quarter of 2015. "The Chinese economic miracle did not end, but entered the second stage", as the Forbes magazine commented on China's economic growth. The 17 economists interviewed by Bloomberg also believed that China's anti-corruption campaign will bring about a growth of 0.1 to 0.5 p.p. for its GDP by 2020, which is equivalent to $70 billion (equal to Sri Lanka's economic aggregate). China has contributed over 30% to world economic growth for many years, establishing itself as the main stabilizer and power source of world economic growth. It can be seen that China's anti-corruption drive has not only caused the domestic economic "new normal" to stabilize and go upward, but will also produce positive "spillover effect" on the world economy.
Fourth, social equality and justice has been maintained. China has made continuous efforts to bring its anti-corruption practices in line with a legalized, institutionalized and standardized model, thus bringing about a substantial "legal dividend". First, it holds a zero tolerance attitude towards corruption and has severely investigated various judicial corruption cases. According to statistics, during the period from the 18th to 19th Party Congresses, the Supreme People's Court launched investigations into 53 employees under its system in violation of Party disciplines and laws, and courts at other levels brought under investigation 3,338 police officers who took advantage of their judicial and law enforcement power to violate Party disciplines and laws, 531 of whom were transferred to the judicial organs for further investigations. The investigation and punishment of judicial corruption has led to the correction of a number of misjudged cases and make ordinary people more feel judicial fairness and justice. At the 2018 annual session of the National People's Congress, the work report delivered by the Supreme People's Court was passed with 94,77% votes from NPC deputies, a record high since the "pressing the voter's button" system was set up at the NPC session in 1990. Second, the anti-corruption campaign has helped break the barriers of entrenched interests, and investigate and correct corruption practices and unhealthy tendencies in the areas closely related to the interests of the public such as education, healthcare, housing, environmental protection and poverty alleviation, ensuring even development of basic public services, and provide people with equal access to the country's development fruits in a fairer manner.
Fifth, China's anti-corruption campaign has gained high approval from the international society. The Guardian comments China's current campaign against corruption as the most intense and widest-ranging in its modern history. According to the latest global survey conducted by Harvard University on the images of global leaders, the respondents' confidence in and endorsement of their respective leaders in dealing with
domestic and international affairs, and to what extent the respondents in 30 countries approve the leaders of the singled 10 countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping who vows to fight corruption to the end ranked first. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pointed out that President Xi is a truly powerful leader who has tools at his disposal to adjust the Chinese system and revitalize the CPC. Fighting corruption is exactly a kind of such tools. Former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin believes "the CPC has made great efforts, just as we have seen, to better serve the people, either in Party building or in the anti-corruption work". At the opening ceremony of "The Party and the World Dialogue 2015", Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd said that China has done very efficiently in fighting corruption, and China told the world a good story.
III. Anti-corruption experiences since the 18th Party Congress
We have seen that China's "anti-corruption story" is going abroad and providing a Chinese solution for the international community to meet the challenge of anticorruption and building a community of shared future for mankind that is aimed at promoting lasting peace and prosperity. China's anti-corruption experiences are mainly reflected in the following five "musts".
A country must have a political determination to lead its people to firmly combat corruption. President Xi Jinping has taken the lead and set a good example in promoting strict governance of the Party, creating a prerequisite and political precondition for China to achieve epoch-making achievements in the fight against corruption. Xi stresses that no one should hold a fluke mind or expect extra leniency from the law, "we set no quotas for anticorruption, and all corrupt officials, no matter how many, once identified, will be brought to justice", "all corruption cases must be probed and all evils eliminated", and "corrupt officials must be returned to the motherland and brought to justice even if they have fled to the ends of the earth". Xi's such remarks are tantamount to a declaration to people inside and outside the Party and the country of the Chinese top leadership's firm belief and strong determination that it remains irreconcilable with corruption and will fight corruption to the end; they will guide the country's anti-corruption work to adhere to a problem-oriented approach, maintain strategic concentration and press ahead, with the heroic spirit that "the more arduous, the more forward we should advance" and the struggling spirit "when two men meet at a narrow road, the bolder one will win". As the first-cycle review report of the responsibilities fulfillment of the 2016 United Nations Convention Against Corruption points out, since the 18th CPC National Congress, China's leadership has attached more importance to the anti-corruption work and displayed a persistent and unwavering determination.
A country must rely on the ruling party's courage to carry out self-revolution. The Party's strict self-governance practices since its 18th national congress
have proved that China's anti-corruption campaign is neither a power struggle, nor has its "House of Cards". Instead, it is a self-revolution of the CPC as a long ruling party in China, aimed at relying on the Party's self-correction capability to resolve its existing outstanding problems, and continuously strengthen its self-purification, self-perfection, self-innovation and self-improvement capabilities. Facing up to the worldwide difficult problem concerning how to exercise effective self-supervisions on a ruling party, the CPC, through strengthening the restraint on and supervision over the use of power, has explored a Chinese solution to how the Party's and national supervisory system can be built under the condition of its long-term governance and comprehensive leadership, and opened an anti-corruption road with Chinese characteristics that jumps out of the historical periodic law. This can offer important and far-reaching reference for other developing countries to combine China's model with their own national conditions to carry out a distinctive anti-corruption campaign.
A country must have the supports and participation of the masses of people. Mao Zedong, first-generation leader of the CPC, once said that "the government does not dare to be lax only after people are allowed to supervise the government". In China, the complaints from grassroots Party members and ordinary people have long been a main channel to find corruption clues. In 2017, the discipline inspection organs nationwide received a total of 2.733 million petitions and complaints, handled 1.251 million clues, held 284,000 conversation-based enquiries, started investigations into 527,000 cases and punished 527,000 people (including 443,000 ones meted out Party discipline punishments), of whom 58 were the officials at or above the provincial or ministerial level, 3,330 were the officials at the department or bureau level, 21,000 were the ones at the county level, 78,000 were the ones at the township or section level, 97,000 were ordinary officials and 327,000 were rural residents enterprises' employees. In an increasingly information- and network-based new era, the CPC also attaches great importance to the use of technological means such as internet and other new media to give play to people's supervisory role. For example, it has carried out active exchanges and interactions with the public through introducing orderly participation of citizens, opening unblocked supervisory and reporting channels for the discipline inspection organs at all levels, opening supervision and reporting websites, hotlines and e-mails, setting up exposure platforms and encouraging snapshots from cell phone users and one-key Wechat input function. The discipline inspection agencies now attach greater importance to actively responding to social concerns, disclosing their work process and publishing information on discipline enforcement and investigations on their websites at the first time, thus winning for themselves greater attention and trust from people.
A country must reform and innovate its anticorruption system and mechanism. China adheres to
preventing and treating corruption in a development-focused and reform-minded approach and has made vigorous efforts to promote reform of the anti-corruption system and its institutional innovation. For example, since the 18th Party Congress, China has gradually promoted the reform of the supervision system, and created supervision commissions which are independent of the administrative organs and work together with the discipline inspection commissions, realizing all-inclusive coverage of public employees who exercise public power. At the same time, the Law of Supervision endows supervision commissions at various levels with necessary power and investigation means, especially replacing the "shuanggui" (require the investigated to report his or her problems within a prescribed time and in a prescribed place) with the "power of detention", which has realized standardized and legalized development of anti-corruption practices and is thus of far-reaching significance to advancing modernization of the country's governance system and governance capability. For another example, the CPC has strengthened from-top-to-down organizational monitoring and reformed and innovated the intra-Party inspection system, which has helped Central inspection teams find more than half of corruption clues to bring down some "tigers" since the 18th Party Congress.
A country must strengthen international anti-corruption cooperation. It remains a general trend and a common aspiration of the people that all countries open their doors and integrate themselves to the world system to jointly drive away the "corruption haze" in the community of shared future for mankind. President Xi attaches great importance to "anti-corruption diplomacy", stressing that China will strengthen international anti-corruption cooperation so that "Belt and Road" becomes a clean road. Under Xi's vigorous push, the international society has achieved a series of anti-corruption fruits, from the Beijing Declaration on Fighting Corruption passed at the APEC Beijing Conference and G20 High-Level Principles on Cooperation on Persons Sought for Corruption and Asset Recovery, which was unanimously adopted by the leaders of the G20 Hangzhou Summit, to the establishment of a G20 center in China on seeking for corruption and asset recovery and the G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan 2017—2018, symbolizing solid steps China has taken toward building a new pattern of international anti-corruption cooperation. This is also one of China's important experiences taking advantage of "two kinds of resources and two networks" (domestic and international) to effectively promote anti-corruption work.
In today's world, naturally there are differences among different countries in terms of anti-corruption approaches and practices due to their different history, culture, social structure and development model. However, regardless of what kinds of systematic model, anti-corruption remains a pressing problem every country is yet to resolve in its national governance. Over the four decades since the
reform and opening-up, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Party, China has made remarkable achievements in fighting corruption and accumulating original experiences, but, as President Xi said, "we will not pause in our fight against corruption and our campaign for stricter governance of the Party is always underway". It is predictable that in the future China will continue to comprehensively deepen its anti-corruption work, strengthen international cooperation based on China's
actual conditions, and work together with the rest of the world to decipher the "Goldbach Conjecture" of national governance and contribute Chinese wisdom to rooting out the "cancer of government" for the human society in a better and faster manner. It is better to see once than hear a hundred times, as an old Chinese saying puts it. I welcome you to walk and have sightseeing around China so that you can feel and witness China's anti-corruption stories in person.
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