Xi’s Anti-Corruption Drive Hurting in the Trenches

Posted by david on Dec 26, 2014 in Blog | 0 comments

This NPR report rings so true.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/12/24/372903025/chinas-fierce-anti-corruption-crackdown-an-insiders-view

This official Wang interviewed in the report is a real cynical SOB with no loyalties or ideals so long as the gravy train keeps on coming.  His example is not a-typical at all.  Corruption in China can be deemed “collective or institutional” – the higher-ups accept large bribes, embezzle, and otherwise accumulate massive wealth while in addition to petty graft of their own, some of the largesse trickles down to the lower ranks in various form of perks – end-of-the-year bonuses of course but also food and other hampers/coupons, gift cards, club memberships, banquets, organized vacations, you name it.

The gifts and bonuses received by the underlings and lower rung staff can’t be considered corruption per se since they come out of company profits/budgets.  But, because they often significantly augment incomes, the vast majority of officials take a blind eye to the goings-on up top.  That’s why it is so rare for whistleblowers to sound alarm bells in China – because everybody gets something.  Officials often comment on whether a company/organization “generates much oil and water (benefits)”.

Xi’s anti-corruption campaign is hurting where it counts – not only squeezing and nabbing the direct graft-takers high and low but hitting those in the trenches who have benefitted from the old system.  It’s creating a “new normal” in the behavior of officialdom, that they cannot expect the gravy train to run forever.  That’s why it’s called “catching the tigers and swatting the flies” and “killing the chicken to show the monkeys”.