馬英九不肯誠實面對的腐敗中國
CNN|Added on October 15, 2013
For the Chinese Communist Party, fighting
corruption is a matter of life and death.
CNN|Added on October 15, 2013
In this month's On China, we examine why
corruption is prevalent at all levels of Chinese society
CNN|Added on October 15, 2013
In China, they're called the "tigers and
flies," the powerful leaders and lowly officials all part China's
corruption.
Editor's note: Lijia Zhang is a Beijing-based writer and the author of "Socialism is Great! A Worker's Memoir of the New China." She appears in the latest episode of On China with Kristie Lu Stout, which examines the country's fight against corruption. For viewing times please click here.
By Lijia Zhang, Special for CNN
October 24, 2013 -- Updated 0301 GMT (1101
HKT)
Beijing (CNN) -- Another
"tiger" has been caught. Last week, Ji Jianye, the mayor of my
hometown Nanjing, a major city in eastern China, was arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes worth about
20 million yuan ($3.3 million)
After taking power in March, President Xi
Jinping launched a high-profile
anti-corruption campaign, vowing to catch both tigers and flies -- big and
small corrupt officials. China has seen plenty of such campaigns, arising and
subsiding like summer storms.
But this one appears to be the most vigorous
since China opened up; when corruption became rampant in the new market economy
and officials started to trade power for financial gains.
Much as I appreciate our president's
determination, his battle feels like an attempt to "put out a big fire
with a glass of water," given how corruption has reached every corner of
our society.
Chinese public opinion surveys identify
corruption as the most hated social problem, yet everyone is also guilty of it.
Last year, when my father fell seriously ill,
we took him to a decent hospital close by but were told the beds were fully
occupied. As always, we turned to our guanxi -- our network of
connections -- for help.
Fortunately, a relative, a not so senior but
well-connected official, managed to secure a private room at the hospital,
which is reserved for ranking leaders. In return, the relative agreed to get
the son of the hospital director into the most desirable school in Nanjing.
I became
aware the weight of guanxi shortly after I was thrust into adulthood:
At 16 I was dragged out of the school to work at a military rocket factory.
Two months later, when Spring Festival came,
my mother requested that I visit my boss' home with gifts she had prepared.
Naive and embarrassed, I refused. Mother angrily predicted: "You'll never
go far in life if you don't know how to la guanxi!" The verb la means
to pull or to develop. Sure enough, I never got any promotion during my
decade-long stint at the factory even though I acquired a degree in mechanical
engineering.
For any Chinese businessman, guanxi is
essential. Recently, I met up with a long-lost friend, with whom I marched in
the Nanjing streets back in the spring of 1989 and shouted "Down With
Corruption" -- one of the complaints that had sparked the unprecedented
Tiananmen Square democratic movement.
More than 20 years later, this friend spends
90% of his time running his high-tech company. His youthful idealism has gone
and his waistline has expanded considerably. With a ghost of a smile, he blames
it on the excessive dining, drinking and occasional visits to prostitutes that
are part of the tiresome game of guanxi. "Your business can't survive
a day if you are not corrupt," he told me.
He has to smooth every step of his business
with gifts or outright bribes: From obtaining the business license, to
entertaining potential clients, to receiving 15% of the tax deduction that a
high-tech company is entitled to. He estimates that 3% to 5 % of operating
costs goes to guanxi.
Such practices drive entrepreneurs to seek
senior officials as their patrons because politicians in China have the power
to approve projects and allocate resources.
The relationship between the now disgraced
politician Bo
Xilai and businessmen Xu Ming, the founder of Dalian Shide Group, was
typical of such patron-client relationships. Xu, a large man, allegedly
fattened his pockets through his guanxi with the Bo family as he funded the
family's jet-set life style.
Xu was detained shortly after Bo's arrest and
testified against Bo at his trial in August, although Xu has not been charged
with any wrongdoing.
Local media reports suggest that authorities are
investigating similar ties between the newly disgraced Nanjing mayor and Zhu
Xingliang, the richest businessman in Suzhou, a city near Nanjing, who has also
been placed under house arrest.
And politically, China produces its top
leaders more or less based on patron-client ties rather than meritocracy. Both
President Xi and Bo are "princelings" -- the children of senior
leaders, the most powerful and influential group in China. Nepotism, a form of
corruption, has feudal roots.
In fact, I believe the whole corrupt practice
of guanxi is rooted in China's long tradition of renzhi --
rule of men rather than the rule of law.
President Xi has called for a curb on
official extravagance: No red carpet treatment, no luxury banquets and no fancy
office buildings. But these are the symptoms not the root of the problem.
To stamp out corruption, he will have to not
only observe the rule of law but also introduce genuine political reforms that
would allow checks and balances, transparency, and independent scrutiny. Such
remedies, although proven elsewhere, may be too strong for him to take.
I don't doubt that the authorities will net
more tigers. But there will be hundreds and thousands more at large and
countless flies, thriving in China's politically and culturally rich breeding
ground for corruption.
（The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Lijia
Zhang.）
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