Famous for his book Democracy is a Good Thing, Yu Keping, deputy director of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, is a major player in China's political process. During a recent interview with China News Service (CNS), he claims that China's reform has hit a bottleneck and needs a new breakthrough. One urgent area requiring government intervention is action to combat corruption effectively.
Doctors and teachers may face bribery charges if they receive monetary or other forms of reward in exchange for favors granted in the course of their work, according to a new judicial interpretation issued on Nov. 24 by Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).
"In traditional Chinese culture corruption in other sectors may be tolerated, but not in these two fields. Teachers and doctors are often considered to represent the social conscience. But now, things are going from good to bad. Putting aside the personal element, the social environment is having an impact, especially where official corruption is endemic," Professor Yu tells CNS. "In China, the role of officialdom is vital; these are the people who set the tone for society."
Yu used to be optimistic about progress in combating corruption in China. But today's reality has forced him into a rethink. He says that even powerful top-down supervision is not enough in the campaign to fight corruption.
"The Chinese government has in fact gone a long way in terms of putting into place strong supervisory measures. Supervision agencies have been set up at both central and local levels. Numbers of corrupt officials have been prosecuted and jailed. Education against corruption is a daily process. So why does the country continue to face such difficulties in the fight against corruption? We need to reflect on the matter, and we need a new breakthrough, both in thinking and in action," Yu adds.
According to Yu, most Chinese officials are paid well. But corrupt officials still exist, and they want more and more money. Why do they need so much money? There are dozens of answers. Setting aside natural human greed, there are two other reasons that merit particular consideration. First, extra-marital affairs. There were reports which suggested that as many as 95 percent of corrupt officials have one or more lovers outside of their marriage. These lovers are looking for little more than money from their affairs with corrupt officials. Second, children. Corrupt officials are always looking for more money to buy houses and cars for their children and send them to study abroad.
Yu thus points out that top-down supervision can only accomplish so much. Comprehensive measures must be taken to combat corruption and build clean government, covering not only supervision, but also factors such as selection and appointment of officials, accountability processes, and transparency in government affairs.
Yu admits that top-down supervision is one vital element in combating corruption, but he thinks current supervision mechanisms have two loopholes: Firstly, current supervision is self-supervision, coming mainly from internal systems, such as disciplinary inspection processes within the Party and administrative inspection processes within government. Secondly, even internal supervision processes are far from satisfactory, especially at the level of Party and government heads, who are virtually exempt from supervision. There needs to be a closed-circle supervisory process, in which each link acts as a constraint on the others. Internal processes of self-supervision are necessary and essential, but not sufficient. Public supervision from outside of the system is required.
Yu is of the view that firstly, selection and appointment processes should be strengthened to improve the quality of officials. This is an effective way to reduce the risk of corruption.
Secondly, distribution of authority should be appropriate to ensure that no one can be both suspect and judge in the same matter.
Thirdly, further improvements must be made to the official accountability system. The system is a substantive step forward that the government has made in building responsibility, but it needs reform. For example, we have "first responsible person" and "one ballot veto" systems, which both sound better in theory than they perform in practice. People understand that with power comes responsibility, and this creates a dilemma: absolute responsibility needs absolute power, but absolute power can lead to an absence of supervision.
Fourthly, greater transparency is required. Governmental affairs, especially important decision-making processes, should be transparent in order to ensure the public's "right to know"; such basic information as the financial assets of public officials should be open to the public.
Yu also calls for early legislation on inheritance. "Let our successors pay high inheritance taxes when they inherit large fortunes. This is an effective way to curb corruption and to teach succeeding generations to stand on their own feet instead of living in the shadow of their predecessors," he says.
In addition, Yu calls for reforms of medical and transport services and housing systems for government officials. He says that government officials already have the means to afford themselves a decent lifestyle, but they still enjoy privileges in housing, medical and car services. He describes such privileges as a form of legalized corruption. He urges relevant government departments to look into the question of how to provide officials with an honorable and respectable but not excessively luxurious lifestyle.
Yu was China's first holder of a Ph.D in political science. His interests and his studies go much further than the simple issue of democracy. Most of his time is spent on research into ideal forms of political expression in human society. He says China has made great progress towards democracy despite the absence of a strong democratic tradition.
Yu ends with his own perspective and judgment on future political trends in China: "No matter what reforms are made to China's political system, and no matter what form of governance is followed, for the far-sighted among China's leadership, the goals of reform and development must be very clear: these include democracy, the rule of law, justice, responsibility, transparency, efficiency and harmony."
(China.org.cn by Zhang Yunxing, December 15, 2008)