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Since Chinese President Xi Jinping launched his sweeping anti-corruption campaign in 2012, more than 1.5 million officials, including some of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) top leaders, have been disciplined. Among them is Ji Jianye, the former leader of Nanjing and Yangzhou, in Jiangsu Province. Disgraced, Ji is now remembered only for his bribes and scandals. Yet, prior to his downfall, he was famous for his iron-fisted competence. “In Yangzhou,” reads one local media report in Southern Weekend, “most people agree that Ji is the leader who has made the greatest contributions to the city since 1949.”
Portrayals of China’s political system are sharply divided. One camp describes China as a Confucian-style meritocracy where officials are selected, as Daniel A. Bell of Shandong University puts it, “in accordance with ability and virtue” through a top-down process, rather than by elections. According to Bell, meritocracy presents an alternative – even a challenge – to democracy. He recommends that the Chinese government export this model abroad.
The second camp comprises naysayers such as Minxin Pei of Claremont McKenna College and author Gordon G. Chang, who have insisted for decades that the CPC is decaying from corruption and will soon collapse. In dire terms, Pei describes the regime as filled with “looting, debauchery, and utter lawlessness.”
In fact, neither view is correct. Corruption and competence do not just coexist within China’s political system; they can be mutually reinforcing. Ji is a case in point. Through massive demolition and urban-renewal projects, he rapidly transformed Yangzhou into an award-winning tourist destination, and over the course of his career has earned the nickname “Mayor Bulldozer.” Under his leadership, the city’s GDP surpassed the provincial average for the first time ever.
Meanwhile, Ji’s long-time cronies made a fortune during his tenure. In exchange for lavish gifts, bribes, and company shares, Ji awarded their businesses near-monopoly access to government construction and renovation projects. One of these companies, Gold Mantis, saw its profits grow fifteenfold in just six years. The more Ji pushed for growth, the more spoils he produced.
This paradox is not limited to Ji. In a forthcoming book, China’s Gilded Age, my study of 331 CPC city-level secretaries’ careers, I find that 40% of those who have fallen to corruption charges were promoted within five years, or even just a few months prior to, their downfall.
To be sure, champions of Chinese meritocracy, like venture capitalist Eric X. Li, acknowledge the existence of patronage and corruption, but argue that “merit remains the fundamental driver.” Yet corruption is more of a feature of the system than a bug. This should come as no surprise. The CPC controls valuable resources – from land and financing to procurement contracts – and individual CPC leaders can and do command immense personal power. Hence, CPC leaders find themselves constantly inundated with requests for favors, many of which are accompanied by graft.
Moreover, any political meritocracy faces the problem of who should guard the guardians. Li describes the Party’s appointment-making body, the Organisation Department, as a “human resources engine that would be the envy of some of the most successful corporations.” Yet, if anything, this office is even more corruptible than others, precisely because it controls appointments and promotions. Lo and behold, in 2018, 68 officials at the Central Organisation Department were punished for corruption.
Naysayers, meanwhile, err in the opposite direction, magnifying stories of Chinese corruption while ignoring corrupt officials’ effectiveness in promoting growth and delivering social welfare. Bo Xilai, the former Party boss of Chongqing who was dramatically ousted in 2012, is the most striking example. Although he flagrantly abused his power, Bo turned around his landlocked municipality’s fortunes, and delivered public goods and affordable housing to tens of millions of poor residents.
What both camps fail to grasp is the symbiotic relationship between corruption and performance in China’s fiercely competitive political system. For political elites whose formal pay is low, cronyism not only finances lavish consumption but also helps advance their careers. Wealthy cronies donate to public works, mobilise business networks to invest in state construction schemes, and help politicians complete their signature projects, which improve both a city’s physical image and the leader’s track record.
Like a supersized game of Whac-A-Mole, Xi’s crusade against corruption has netted a staggering number of officials, and is still ongoing. But the campaign ignores a crucial reality: politicians’ performance is dependent on sponsorships from corporate cronies and political patronage. Nor has the spate of arrests reduced the power of the state over the economy, which is the root cause of corruption. On the contrary, Xi has ratcheted up state intervention to a level not seen in years.
Paradoxes define China’s political economy. China is ruled by a communist party yet it is capitalist. The regime has a meritocracy yet it is also corrupt. Understanding China requires that we grasp such seeming contradictions, which will persist well into the next decade.
Yuen Yuen Ang is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019, published here with permission.
34 Comments
"Since Chinese President Xi Jinping launched his sweeping anti-corruption campaign in 2012, more than 1.5 million officials, including some of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) top leaders, have been disciplined."
Yeah right - the top ten in the National Peoples Congress have accumulated $185 Billion between them.
http://londonpublishingpartnership.co.uk/china-trade-and-power/
"Paradoxes define China’s political economy. China is ruled by a communist party yet it is capitalist. The regime has a meritocracy yet it is also corrupt. Understanding China requires that we grasp such seeming contradictions, which will persist well into the next decade". Seems that future generations are not willing to tolerate those contradictions: BBC In pictures: The face masks Hong Kong wants to ban https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49938843
If communism was judged by the true sense of the word, where everyone chips in according to their capability and takes out according to their need (note need not want) then we would quickly realise there has never been a truly communist nation, Cuba maybe coming closest, as soon as you have a ruling elite who have control of the wealth, much to their own advantage, you don't have communism, you have something entirely different.
Anyway, for the purposes of this exercise we still lazily call the Chinese govt communist, so I will as well, but whatever you call it, it sure does not come across as particularly appealing and is becoming more and more authoritarian, which is the real problem. It is showing quite obvious signs of imperialism, domination and threat.
Why is MSM ignoring Bridges, Brownlee and Yang's visit and the subsequent attendance of Yang at the 70 yr celebration. This is an extremely concerning turn of events but seems to be being completely bloody well ignored.
See, there's the communism as it exists in your head (fantasy), and there's the communism that has been implemented time and again all across the world (reality).
There's always a ruling class. You cannot implement communism without massive centralised use of force.
Capitalism produces prosperity and equality. Communism produces misery and wild inequality. The evidence is before your eyes.
really? where? All the intentional communities that practice communism that I am aware of have either collapsed due to the building up of internal anger at unfairness/freeloading/disproportionate contributions, or use various nasty psychological control ploys to keep membership compliant (like Gloriavale utilising ostracism and not equipping their children with skills they need to make it outside), or have transitioned to capitalist models (most Kibbutz). Communism just does not work for fundamental reasons of human behaviour, it always ends up in thuggish autocracy.
Socialism is the philosophy. Communism is inevitably what plays out when you mix in the human element of absolute power corrupting absolutely.
It seems we're moving into a period of history where ideology is becoming increasingly important. There is no status quo anymore. Media opinion and bias are more fragmented than ever. And our shared moral social fabric (does anyone know what that means any more?) is flimsy, self serving and makes us ripe for picking by a stronger culture.
This is why populism is on the rise. In this fluid crucibal, people are being forced to think where they stand. At our core, we are tribal and 30 odd years of neo-liberalism isn't going to change hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.
Very similar to many South American countries heavily influenced by USA and devoid of the rule of law.
However if it was a certainty I doubt any Democrat would become president. I also wonder if Trump winning republican primary was the intention of most corporates or republican patronage - he was an outsider (who ought to have been left outside). Also wonder if Jacinda was the choice of big business before the last election although she does seem to have become captured by the cheap labour business lobby since becoming prime minister.
This sort of seems relevant somehow:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7528217/13-5-tonnes-gold-worth…
Makes a nice headline, but not really true. Those poorest 50% of Americans still own the future value of their labour, worth a couple of trillion per year, with a net present value of 10's of trillions, and both Buffet and Gates have committed to giving essentially all their wealth away.
Yes indeed, a nation of many contradictions & much irony. Power is a funny drug. Often people will do something completely opposite to their values to extract a result. Xi is culling the grafters & their takers, but it's the grafters & corrupt that actually get things done. I've being trying to work China out for over 20 years & confess to being just as perplexed as I was when I started. What i do know is that Trump has shouted "Oi" & they don't like it. Perhaps in time China will come to be known as the biggest bubble in human history? We'll just have to watch & wait.
The meritocracy as mentioned by the Chinese (and also the Singaporeans) is nothing but Authoritarianism in disguise, which is all about the expectation of unquestioning obedience in the cost of personal freedom (i.e. you have to do something even you don't want to do). It is very different from what the term actually refers to.
Exactly: US Power Wielding - Unconventional Warfare and Financial Power
"Government can apply unilateral and indirect financial power through persuasive influence to international and domestic financial institutions regarding availability and terms of loans, grants, or other financial assistance to foreign state and nonstate actors."
It is also interesting to note that the document clearly states that the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Bank for International Settlements are basically functioning as organizations that Washington can use to drive its global agenda and as yet another tool in America's quest for global hegemony.
Moral of the story : Economic progress is best achieved under authoritarian rule (despite the ills of cronyism, nepotism, etc) and once a certain level of progress and prosperity is obtained, then other forms of governing like democracy, etc can be explored. May be with a nudge.
Surveillance technology and high tech weaponry has ended the possibility of revolution overcoming autocracy - peasant revolts no longer have any chance. Open democracy is not a stable form of government, but Chinese/North Korean autocracy is. Fight like hell to preserve our democracy it from the forces of ignorance seeking to undermine and diminish it, we won't get it back if we lose it.
Interesting how Xi can exercise near total control of the Chinese internet, but he somehow can't control the giant factories that produce much of the world's methamphetamine and it's precursors, and their export.
Corruption and competence in perfect harmony.Get rich while destabilising the free world et al.
Why would he care about methamphetamine production beyond what it can do to de-stabilize populations elsewhere? I wonder if there is such an issue with it in China, I kind of suspect not. I have long thought that its supply is quite deliberate and the reason is as you suggest.
The party long ago figured out how to deal with drug abuse - they murdered all the drug addicts. For sure the Party is complicit in the production of drugs, a single Fentanyl bust (out of China) recently yielded 10x the annual world health industry consumption. They are entirely amoral and uncaring about causing death, heck they hack up of innocents to provide organs for their mafioso membership.
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