Corruption in China
CORRUPTION IN CHINA
The domestic challenges facing China during the next few decades are enormous. China faces serious corruption, increasing mass unrest, enlarged polarization in the personal and regional income distribution, increased unemployment and insufficient social safety net, shortages of energy and key resources for economic modernization, massive migrations from rural areas to urban areas, extensive bad debt held by state banks and deep problems in the financial sector, excessive public debt, environmental deterioration, etc. All these problems and obstacles could lead to political instability and disrupt economic growth.
In China, corruption refers to “all acts of bribery, embezzlement, misappropriation, official profiteering or illegal speculation, illegal procurement, and other acts of unlawful profit-making that utilize public resources for private gain, committed by the personnel of any state organ or enterprise” (T. Wing Lo, 1993:1). By comparing cases of corruption occurred in the early 1980s and cases taking place in the 1990s, two crucial variables: political and socioeconomic factors changes amongst will be analyzed later.
Early 1980s demonstrated a changing political-economic relations characterized by “rampant bureaucratic corruption, widening social inequalities and the rising material needs of the people” (T. Wing Lo, 1993: 70) under the background of transitioning from state planning to market economy, with the elaborated leftovers of former command economy. Politically, during the Cultural Revolution, the breakdown of existing law and institution pushed people into the dogma: power is everything. The abuse of power and official positions by the state functionaries were rampant, since the bureaucrats were at privileged and superior position. Another aspects of the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution was resurgence of informal and instrumental relations (Guanxi) and the illicit transactions based on those relations, which was
The domestic challenges facing China during the next few decades are enormous. China faces serious corruption, increasing mass unrest, enlarged polarization in the personal and regional income distribution, increased unemployment and insufficient social safety net, shortages of energy and key resources for economic modernization, massive migrations from rural areas to urban areas, extensive bad debt held by state banks and deep problems in the financial sector, excessive public debt, environmental deterioration, etc. All these problems and obstacles could lead to political instability and disrupt economic growth.
In China, corruption refers to “all acts of bribery, embezzlement, misappropriation, official profiteering or illegal speculation, illegal procurement, and other acts of unlawful profit-making that utilize public resources for private gain, committed by the personnel of any state organ or enterprise” (T. Wing Lo, 1993:1). By comparing cases of corruption occurred in the early 1980s and cases taking place in the 1990s, two crucial variables: political and socioeconomic factors changes amongst will be analyzed later.
Early 1980s demonstrated a changing political-economic relations characterized by “rampant bureaucratic corruption, widening social inequalities and the rising material needs of the people” (T. Wing Lo, 1993: 70) under the background of transitioning from state planning to market economy, with the elaborated leftovers of former command economy. Politically, during the Cultural Revolution, the breakdown of existing law and institution pushed people into the dogma: power is everything. The abuse of power and official positions by the state functionaries were rampant, since the bureaucrats were at privileged and superior position. Another aspects of the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution was resurgence of informal and instrumental relations (Guanxi) and the illicit transactions based on those relations, which was