With local protests driven by official corruption plaguing China, how much longer can Communist Party last?
In recent days, the western media separately reported two discrete stories on China -- one on corruption and a second on a social protest. The two are, however, part of broader, interrelated trends, which together constitute significant threats to autocratic China.
Event one was an online analysis from the money laundering bureau of the People's Bank of China, the central bank, stating that 17,000 Communist Party members and state functionaries had illicitly obtained and then smuggled out of China an astonishing $124 billion from the mid-90s until 2008. These kleptocratic acts are symbolic of China's broader corruption.
Event two was a riot by migrant workers in the southeastern city of Zengcheng, in Guangdong province, forcibly put down by security forces. Migrant workers -- estimated to number at least 150 million nationally (roughly half the U.S. population) -- often protest because they lack residency rights, which are necessary for access to social benefits like education and healthcare in communities where they work. And these migrant worker disturbances are emblematic of a rising tide of social protest by a variety of groups, which occur at the local level, but which the authorities fear could coalesce into a national movement. Even Chinese authorities estimate that the number of demonstrations is approaching 100,000 per year.
The central bank report on monumental theft of state funds by cadres and officials was completed in June, 2008, then marked confidential, but recently (and somewhat mysteriously) appeared on its website. after broad coverage in the Chinese media and a public outcry, the report was swiftly removed from site. According to the Wall Street Journal, the central bank had no comment on the report after its fleeting online appearance. And, although the report itself discusses methods China should take to stop money laundering, it apparently does not explain how party members, officials, and officers in state enterprises obtained their outsized illicit gains.
This central bank accounting of huge party and government theft is but one type of corruption involving the Party and government which affects people and enterprises -- both Chinese and non-Chinese. For example, bribes are paid for procurements; judges are bribed by parties to cases; local officials take land from peasants for minimal amounts and personally profit from resale to development interests; officials misuse public funds for personal reasons (from sex to real estate to trips to investments to expatriation of funds); officials exercise "administrative discretion" in favor of those they can extort; enforcement of laws may be frustrated by pay-offs and kick-backs; and local governments may be entwined with organized crime.
Corruption, of course, is notoriously hard to measure. (Analysts look at hard statistics like investigations, prosecutions and convictions -- but these numbers may bear little relationship to underlying reality.) For many who live and operate in China, however, it is an ever-present feature of daily life. In a 2008 survey, Pew found that eight of 10 Chinese consider party and governmental corruption a significant issue.
Read more at The Atlantic
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