Xi Jinping anti-corruption campaign
An anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping has been running in China since the end of November 2012 . Xi Jinping launched it as the newly elected General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the Chinese Communist Party's 18th Congress . Two months later he affirmed that not only flies but also powerful tigers should be investigated. Both simple functionaries and high-ranking party cadres are meant.
The anti-corruption campaign focuses on members of the CCP from the party apparatus, in state authorities, the People's Liberation Army or Chinese state-owned companies. The anti-corruption campaign is organized and coordinated by the Central Disciplinary Commission of the Communist Party of China , headed by Politburo member Wang Qishan .
prehistory
Anti-corruption campaigns in China have been carried out regularly for decades. Under President Hu Jintao , the fight against corruption among party members was intensified from 2006 onwards. Until 2012, only a few high-ranking provincial or ministerial officials, such as Chen Liangyu or Zheng Xiaoyu , were sentenced to death, imprisonment, and expulsion from the CCP. A turning point in the fight against corruption was the arrest of Bo Xilai , a member of the Politburo and party leader of Chongqing, in March 2012. He was expelled from the party in September 2012 just before the beginning of the 18th Congress of the CCP and in 2013 for corruption, embezzlement and embezzlement Abuse of office sentenced to life imprisonment.
Measures and motives
Xi Jinping, in a speech seen as a plan for the campaign, stated that power must be constrained by a cage of rules. He explained the necessity that officials and officials did not dare, could not and did not want to become corrupt.
activities
The anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping, which has been running since the end of 2012, includes a bundle of measures:
- Investigation and imposition of disciplinary measures (including expulsion from the CCP) for fulfilling offenses of corruption. Senior CCP officials can be held accountable for neglecting the fight against corruption in their subordinate units or companies.
- Investigation and prosecution of the regulations on party discipline and the prohibition of “forming political gangs” regardless of the existence of a suspicion of corruption. The Central Disciplinary Commission has been pursuing these measures primarily since 2015.
- Referral to state investigative and judicial authorities on suspected criminal offense under Chinese law.
- Persecution of people who have fled abroad using international arrest warrants (Operation Sky Net).
As part of the anti-corruption campaign since 2013, the state law enforcement authorities step up action against corruption perpetrated by foreign companies. In addition to the classic bribery of officials, this also includes impermissible restrictions of competition.
At the sixth general assembly of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC in October 2016, further measures to institutionalize the campaign were decided. This was already evident from the documents that were submitted in July 2016 and that the Politburo of the CPC decided on September 27, 2016 for submission to the Central Committee. The party-internal supervision of party members is to be strengthened by the so-called "democratic centralism" is strengthened, it was declared. This is understood as a warning to party members who try to escape the campaign through "passive resistance" and hope for a different policy in the future. While on the one hand this terminology emphasizes a common leadership style in which higher functionaries take on a role model function for lower levels, the unity of the party was emphasized at the same time. According to the decision of the plenary session of the Central Committee, Xi Jiping is the core of the party to which everything should be aligned.
From October 17, 2016, an eight-part television series was broadcast by the state television broadcaster CCTV , which it had produced in cooperation with the Disciplinary Commission. In the series, whose English title Always on the Road (dt. Always on the road ) is that cases are presented from convicted for corruption officials, the title is interpreted in such a way that this campaign is not to stop. Some of the convicts have their own say in the series, such as Bai Enpei the former party leader of Yunnan or the former deputy party leader of Sichuan Li Chuncheng . Excerpts from their court hearings are shown on the cases of Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang . The series is seen by observers as a comparatively very effective document in the fight against corruption and is seen as support for the following General Assembly of the Central Committee.
During the tenth inspection of 32 state and party organizations from June 2016 onwards, the anti-corruption authority found violations of the rules intended to limit the waste of funds and the granting of privileges in the day-to-day operations of the organizations. It was also criticized that the party leadership was very weak in some places and that disciplinary measures were only very weakly applied. Stricter party leadership was therefore demanded.
By the end of October 2016, no verdict with an immediate death penalty had been passed against the 80 high-ranking officials who had been convicted by then. Only two years suspended death sentences were given. This practice has been criticized as an apparent rule for high-ranking officials. Experts defended them, however, by pointing out that the death penalty cannot curb corruption and that international standards are being followed with consideration for the right to life. The sentence of a death penalty on probation, which can be commuted to life imprisonment with no prospect of pardon, has already made convicts feel that it is worse to live than to die, it said.
A provisional ordinance was published on January 20, 2017, according to which the procedures by the Central Disciplinary Commission should be completed in a maximum of 90 days. An extension of another 90 days is only possible in exceptional cases. The persons affected by the investigation should continue to be addressed as “ comrades ” in order to protect their rights as party members. The person concerned has the right to be heard by the investigative commission, as well as to rest breaks, nutrition and medical care during the investigation. Insults, humiliation or physical punishment are prohibited during the interviews. All interviews must be videotaped to avoid torture to obtain confessions. The ordinance has been criticized for not mentioning the "Shuanggui" practice. As a procedure that is not regulated by law, the Shuanggui permits long-term, non-time-limited detention of the person concerned and is viewed as a violation of personal freedom.
On October 9, 2017, the eighth plenary session of the Anti-Corruption Commission took place, at which the report was presented for submission to the seventh plenary session of the 18th Central Committee and the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China. Wang Qishan, the secretary of the Anti-Corruption Commission, said the campaign was the largest, most effective and influential of its kind in history. According to a survey by the national statistics agency, 92.9% of people were satisfied with the campaign in 2016, which is an increase of 17.9% compared to 2012. It was stated that the campaign would not lose sight of its goal in the next five years and that both "flies" and "tigers" would be examined.
Motifs
Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign aims to strengthen the credibility of the CCP, the government and the administration. An ambivalence arises from the fact that the expulsion of high-ranking CCP officials and generals of the People's Liberation Army has massively strengthened Xi Jinping's position of political power. If the Central Disciplinary Commission investigates, there is no right to a fair trial. Your investigation, which is carried out under exclusion from the judiciary and the public, enables personal accounts and the elimination of dissenters motivated by power politics.
The deputy head of the Central Disciplinary Commission Wu Yuliang said that there were no political motives in the campaign to eliminate political opponents. Wu stressed that the investigation was being conducted in accordance with the party's guidelines and that appropriate party penalties would be imposed. The judiciary, for its part, treats the punishment according to the law. These statements were supported by other Chinese observers who accused the Western media of acting on the basis of conspiracy theory. It was also judged that media reports of political cleansing sought to defame the party and were not unselfish. Groups of functionaries who had come together out of economic interests were cited as the basis for such claims. These groups wanted to turn off the campaign, it said.
Effects
More than 100 high-ranking functionaries from the highest party offices or the provincial ministries were removed from their office and mostly also excluded from the party. Hundreds of thousands of functionaries, civil servants or state employees in lower hierarchical levels were punished. The suicides of party members under investigation appear to have increased.
As of mid-2015, 38.7 billion yuan in assets had been confiscated from individuals who had been fined for corruption.
In the first three years and nine months of the campaign until October 2016, a criminal investigation against one million party members for "violations of party discipline" was filed with the public prosecutor's office by the central disciplinary commission. Another 708,000 similar cases, in which approximately one million party members were investigated, were dropped by the commission.
From December 2012 to August 2016, the cases of 187,409 party officials for violations of discipline law were investigated. Of these, 7,682 cases were processed by the end of 2013, 23,646 cases in 2014, 33,966 cases in 2015 and 26,609 cases by the end of August 2016. In these cases, 91,913 incidents resulted in punishment. According to rank, 84,068 functionaries at the city level or similar rank, 6903 functionaries at the district level or similar rank, 927 functionaries at the rank of mayor or similar rank and 15 functionaries at the rank of provincial leader were punished. Regarding the type of violations, 26,172 cases of misuse of company vehicles for personal journeys or expensive equipment of company vehicles were punished, 13,826 violations concerned the issue of money to employees in excess of the permitted amount. In 12,934 cases, excessively expensive weddings or funerals were criticized and in 11,015 cases gifts were accepted. In 9,978 cases, public money was spent on private meals.
In 2017, more than 159,000 people were fined for corruption and violations of party discipline, the Disciplinary Commission announced.
In March 2018, former Lüliang Deputy Mayor Zhang Zhongsheng was sentenced to death without reprieve as a probationary agent for accepting bribes and taking benefits that would seriously affect the local economy. Zhang was charged with 18 cases of bribery, allegedly receiving a total of RMB 1.04 billion from 1997 to 2013. Zhang continued his behavior after the 18th Communist Party Congress in 2012. The penalty was imposed because of the unusually large amount of bribes, but also as a deterrent, it said. The verdict from a court in Shanxi Province has yet to be upheld by the Supreme People's Court before it can be carried out.
Since many functionaries get a considerably lower total income than before due to the loss of additional income, their work motivation has fallen sharply, because they saw this additional income as the actual incentive of their work.
People who were investigated as part of the campaign (selection)
- Bo Xilai, sentenced in the first instance on September 22, 2013, upheld by the appeals court on October 25, 2013. Until 2012 he was a member of the Politburo and party leader of Chongqing .
- Zhou Yongkang, sentenced on June 11, 2015. Until 2012, he was the chief security officer and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee.
- Xu Caihou , arrested on June 30, 2014, died while in custody. He was a general and a member of the CCP Political Bureau from 2007 to November 2012.
- Ling Jihua , sentenced on July 4, 2016. He was a close confidante of former President Hu Jintao and headed the general office of the Central Committee.
- Guo Boxiong , sentenced on July 25, 2016. He was a general and vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission from 2002 to 2012.
- Jiang Jiemin , arrested on February 16, 2015. From 2006 to March 2013, he was the head of the China National Petroleum Corporation and then head of the Chinese regulatory agency for the 100 largest Chinese state-owned companies.
Side effects on the economy
The anti-corruption campaign affects the Chinese domestic economy:
- the import and sale of luxury goods (in particular upper-class company cars, expensive watches and jewelry) decreased from 2013 onwards.
- The turnover in the casinos in Macau collapsed massively from mid-2014 onwards due to the decline in attendance by wealthy party officials.
Web links
- "Catching Tigers and Flies.Visualizing China's Anti-Corruption Campaign" interactive website
- "Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign" Web website of the South China Morning Post (Eng.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ worms in the carcass. Spiegel Online , December 26, 2012, accessed October 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Campaign against Corruption: Xi Jinping wants to fight "flies and tigers". January 25, 2013, accessed October 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Anti-graft drive makes officials dare not, cannot and not want to be corrupt in: Global Times, October 28, 2016, p. 17
- ↑ Mimi Lau: China's graft-busters release list of 100 wanted fugitives in Operation Sky Net. South China Morning Post , April 23, 2015, accessed October 9, 2016 .
- ^ A b Yang Sheng, CPC 6th plenary session to consolidate anti-graft drive in: Global Times , October 12, 2016, accessed October 17, 2016
- ↑ CPC convenes key meeting on strict Party governance from: China Radio International, October 24, 2016, accessed October 25, 2016
- ↑ Chen Heying, 6th plenum hails Xi as core leader in: Global Times, February 28, 2016, pp. 1–2.
- ^ Liu Xin, 8-part documentary features corrupt officials' confessions , in Global Times, October 19, 2016, p. 1/2, accessed October 22, 2016
- ↑ Anti-graft authority calls for stricter Party discipline in: Global Times, October 14, 2016, accessed October 17, 2016
- ↑ a b Cao Siqi, No politics behind corruption drive , in: Global Times, 29./30. October 2016, pp. 1–2.
- ↑ Liu Caiyu, 90-day limit for CCDI probes , in: Global Times, January 23, 2017, p. 4, accessed January 26, 2017
- ↑ Liu Caiyu, Graft crackdown effective , in: Global Times, October 10, 2017, pp. 1/2, accessed October 15, 2017
- ↑ a b Beat U. Wieser: Xi Jinping fights for himself. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 18, 2015, accessed on October 16, 2016 .
- ^ A b Johnny Erling: The fight against corruption drives politicians to suicide. Die Welt , March 2, 2015, accessed October 9, 2016 .
- ↑ China reports billions in success in the fight against corruption. Der Spiegel , July 29, 2015, accessed October 16, 2016 .
- ↑ Fei Fei, 1 mln officials punished for corruption , in: China Radio International , October 21, 2016, accessed October 22, 2016
- ↑ Strict new Party discipline rules on way , on: China Radio International, October 25, 2016, accessed October 26, 2016
- ↑ a b Zhao Yusha. Court sentences deputy mayor to death , in: Global Times, March 29, 2018, p. 3.
- ↑ Zhou Yongkang on the website anticorruption.chinafile.com, accessed on October 13, 2016
- ↑ Xu Caihou on the website anticorruption.chinafile.com, accessed on October 13, 2016
- ↑ Ling Jihua on anticorruption.chinafile.com, accessed October 13, 2016
- ↑ Guo Boxiong on the website anticorruption.chinafile.com, accessed on October 13, 2016
- ↑ Jiang Jiemin on website anticorruption.chinafile.com, accessed October 13, 2016
- ↑ Wolfgang Hirn: driven hunt for the bosses - only one clan is left out. Part 4: Anti-corruption campaign harms luxury manufacturers - and puts bureaucrats into shock. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 6, 2016, accessed on October 18, 2016 .
- ↑ Hendrik Anderbrand: The end of the fuss reaches the players' paradise Macau. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 1, 2014, accessed on October 9, 2016 .