Critical Review of Conceptual Definitions of Chinese Corruption: a formal–legal perspective
2011; Routledge; Volume: 20; Issue: 70 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/10670564.2011.565170
ISSN1469-9400
Autores Tópico(s)Corruption and Economic Development
ResumoAbstract This paper examines definitions of Chinese corruption. While many Chinese corruption studies have argued that Chinese corruption has its own unique features, our review of definitions of Chinese corruption featured in current academic literature reveals that most definitions in use are similar to the general definition of corruption: abuse of public office for private gains. Valuable as it is, such a general definition does not adequately specify the actors, behavior and motives in Chinese corruption. This paper argues that actors in Chinese corruption are not limited to employees in the public sector but also include any Chinese state functionary engaging in public activities. In addition, corrupt behavior refers to both economic (embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds, and bribery) and disciplinary corruption (violation of social norms and the dereliction of duty) that are damaging to public interests. In doing so, this paper finds that even behavior such as the dereliction of duty and violations of social norms, that is not motivated by private gain, is regarded as corruption in China. We also discuss the political nature of this broadly defined Chinese corruption. Notes 1. Michael Johnston, 'The definitions debate: old conflicts in new guises', in Arvind K. Jain ed., The Political Economy of Corruption (New York: Routledge, 2001). *Kilkon Ko is assistant professor at the Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore. He received his Ph.D. in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh. His major research areas are: public sector decision making, Chinese corruption and administrative reform, and comparative public administration. Cuifen Weng earned her B.A. from the School of International Studies at Peking University and her M.A. from the Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore. She currently works at East Asian Institute, Singapore. The authors can be reached by email at polkk@nus.edu.sg. They would like to thank anonymous reviewers and the editor of JCC, Professor Zhao Suisheng, for their invaluable comments and Kasthuri Prameswaren (National University of Singapore) for her assistance with the manuscript. 2. Minxin Pei, 'Will China become another Indonesia?', Foreign Policy 116, (1999), pp. 94–109. 3. Gang Chen, '1.6‰ of CCP members were punished every year', (5 October 2007), available at: http://news.hexun.com/2007-10-05/100830177.html (accessed 10 July 2009). 4. Minxin Pei, 'Corruption threatens China's future', in Policy Brief 55 (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2007). 5. Stephen K. Ma, 'The dual nature of anti-corruption agencies in China', Crime, Law and Social Change 49, (2008), pp. 153–165. 6. Transparency International, Global Corruption Report 2004 (Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2004), p. 178. 7. Andrew Wedeman, 'Win, lose, or draw? China's quarter century war on corruption', Crime Law and Social Change 49, (2008), pp. 7–26; Yong Guo, 'Corruption in transitional China: an empirical analysis', The China Quarterly 194, (June 2008), pp. 349–364; Andrew Wedeman, 'Anticorruption campaigns and the intensification of corruption in China', Journal of Contemporary China 14(42), (2005), pp. 93–116; Andrew Wedeman, 'The intensification of corruption in China', The China Quarterly 180, (2004), pp. 895–921; Xiaobo Lu, Cadres and Corruption: The Organizational Involution of the Chinese Communist Party (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000). 8. Melanie Manion, Corruption by Design: Building Clean Government in Mainland China and Hong Kong (London: Harvard University, 2004); Dali Yang, Has Corruption Peaked in China?, vol. 214 (East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, 2004). 9. Guo, 'Corruption in transitional China'; Yan Sun, Corruption and Market in Contemporary China (New York: Cornell University Press, 2004). 10. Pei, 'Corruption threatens China's future'; Olivia Yu, 'Corruption in China's economic reform: a review of recent observations and explanations', Crime, Law and Social Change 50(3), (2008), pp. 161–176. 11. Pei, 'Will China become another Indonesia?'; Qinglian He, 'On systemic corruption in China and its influence', in William C. Heffernan and John Kleinig, eds, Private and Public Corruption (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). 12. Yan Sun, 'The politics of conceptualizing corruption in reform China', Crime Law and Social Change 35, (2001), pp. 245–270. 13. Yan Sun, 'The politics of conceptualizing corruption in reform China', Crime Law and Social Change 35, (2001), pp. 245–270.; Wedeman, 'The intensification of corruption in China'; Alan P. L. Liu, 'The politics of corruption in the People's Republic of China', The American Political Science Review 77, (1983), pp. 602–623. 14. Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts: A User's Guide (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006), p. 1. 15. Giovanni Sartori, Social Science Concepts: A Systematic Analysis (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1984), pp. 9–10. 16. Refer to Johnston, 'The definitions debate'; Michael Johnston, 'Measuring corruption: numbers versus knowledge versus understanding', in Jain, ed., The Political Economy of Corruption, for detailed debates on the definitions and measurements of corruption; Gerald E. Caiden and Naomi J. Caiden, 'Administrative corruption', Public Administration Review 37(3), (1977), pp. 301–309. 17. Giovanni Sartori, 'Concept misformation in comparative politics', The American Political Science Review 64(4), (1970), pp. 1033–1053. 18. Yufan Hao and Michael Johnston, 'China's surge of corruption', Journal of Democracy 6(4), (1995), p. 82. 19. Peng Ye, 'The characters of the corruption crimes and anti-corruption in China', paper presented at The 3rd ICAC Symposium: Corporate Corruption, Integrity & Governance, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (2006); Young Nam Cho, 'Implementation of anticorruption policies in reform-era China: the case of the 1993–97 "anticorruption struggle"', Issues & Studies 37(1), (2001), p. 50 nl; Han S. Chan and Jie Gao Chan, 'Old wine in new bottles: a county-level case study of anti-corruption reform in the People's Republic of China', Crime, Law and Social Change 49, (2008), pp. 97–98. 20. Jinzhi Yang, 'Shanghai procuratorate: dereliction of duty is corruption; mass report is welcomed', (5 December 2006), available at: http://news.cctv.com/china/20061205/104398.shtml (accessed 6 July 2009). 21. Peter Harris, 'Socialist graft: the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China—a preliminary survey', Corruption and Reform 1, (1986), p. 13. 22. Lu, Cadres and Corruption. 23. Clemens Stubbe Ostergaard and Christina Petersen, 'Official profiteering and the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in China', Corruption and Reform 6, (1991), pp. 87–107. 24. Wedeman, 'The intensification of corruption in China'; Flora Sapio, Implementing Anticorruption in the P.R.C.—Patterns of Selectivity, vol. 10 (Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, 2005); Guo, 'Corruption in transitional China'. 25. Guo 'Corruption in transitional China'. 26. Qianwei Zhu, 'Reorientation and prospect of China's combat against corruption', Crime, Law and Social Change 49, (2008), pp. 81–95. 27. J. S. Nye, 'Corruption and political development: a cost–benefit analysis', The American Political Science Review 61(2), (1967), pp. 417–427. 28. See, for example, Samuel P. Huntington, 'Modernization and corruption', in Arnold J. Heidenheimer, ed., Political Corruption: Readings in Comparative Analysis (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc, 1970); Nathaniel H. Leff, 'Economic development through bureaucratic corruption', in Heidenheimer, ed., Political Corruption; Philip H. Jos, 'Empirical corruption research: beside the (moral) point?', Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory: JPART 3(3), (1993), pp. 361–362. 29. Transparency International, Global Corruption Report 2007: Corruption in Judicial System (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007). 30. Sun, 'The politics of conceptualizing corruption in reform China', pp. 247–248. 31. In the first Criminal law enacted in 1979, 'state functionaries' was defined broadly referring to 'all personnel of state organs, enterprises and institutions and other personnel who are engaged in public service according to law' (Article 83, 1979 Criminal Law). 32. Judicial functionaries, 'staffs who have the functions of investigation, prosecution, adjudication and supervision and management' (Article 94, 1997 Criminal Law), are separately treated in the Criminal Law. 33. Yijun Yin, 'Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan Gainian Bianxi' ['On the concept of state functionaries'], People's Procuratorate 5, (1998), pp. 4–6; Fangmin Ruan, '"Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan" Gainian Ruogan Wenti Bianxi' ['On the concept of "state personnel"'], Journal of Zhejiang University (Humanities and Social Sciences) 2, (2000); Ying Zhang, 'Lun Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan De Gainian' ['On the concept of state functionary'], (19 July 2007), available at: http://www.chinacourt.org/public/detail.php?id = 257311 (accessed 11 July 2009). 34. Guoyun Hou and Youyun Bai, eds, Xin Xingfa Yina Wenti Jiexi Yu Shiyong [Explanation and Application of Puzzling Questions in the New Criminal Law] (Beijing: China Procuratorate Press (zhongguo jiancha chubanshe), 1997), p. 185. 35. Qian Sun and Yijun Yin, 'Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan Zhiwu Fanzui Lun' ['On occupational crime by state functionaries'], Cass Journal of Law [Faxue yanjiu] 4, (1998). 36. This is not limited to state-owned companies, enterprises, or institutions. It also includes non-state-owned ones. This is because in Article 93 of the 1997 CCL, state functionaries should include those 'appointed and sent by state organs, state-owned companies or enterprises or institutions to non-state-owned companies or enterprises or institutions or mass organizations to carry out public service'. 37. Ruan, '"Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan" Gainian Ruogan Wenti Bianxi'. 38. Zhang, 'Lun Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan De Gainian'. 39. Ruan, '"Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan" Gainian Ruogan Wenti Bianxi'; China Railway Erju 1st Engineering Co. Ltd, 'Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan Baokuo Naxie' ['What are included in state functionaries'], (15 October 2008), available at: http://www.cregcfir.com/managesystem/lawshow.aspx?id = 33 (accessed 1 August 2009). 40. Ruan, '"Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan" Gainian Ruogan Wenti Bianxi'; China Railway Erju 1st Engineering Co. Ltd, 'Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan Baokuo Naxie' ['What are included in state functionaries'], (15 October 2008), available at: http://www.cregcfir.com/managesystem/lawshow.aspx?id = 33 (accessed 1 August 2009). 41. Roughly speaking, state-owned companies in the CCL are close to state-owned enterprises or government-owned corporations in other countries. While the CCL distinguishes these two types of public companies, they are often mentioned together. 42. Ping Wu, 'An analysis of the concept "people's community" in the criminal law of P.R.China', Law Science [Falu¨` kexue] 1, (2000), pp. 125–128. 43. Ruan, '"Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan" Gainian Ruogan Wenti Bianxi'; China Railway Erju 1st Engineering Co. Ltd, 'Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan Baokuo Naxie'. 44. Zhang, 'Lun Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan De Gainian'. 45. Ruan, '"Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan" Gainian Ruogan Wenti Bianxi'; China Railway Erju 1st Engineering Co. Ltd, 'Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan Baokuo Naxie'. 46. Ruan, '"Guojia Gongzuo Renyuan" Gainian Ruogan Wenti Bianxi'. 47. Sun, 'The politics of conceptualizing corruption in reform China', p. 248. 48. Zhongguo Jiancha Nianjian Bianjibu, Zhongguo Jiancha Nianjian 1997 [Procuratorial Yearbook of China 1997] (Beijing: Zhongguo Jiancha Chubanshe (Chinese Procuratorial Press), 1997), p. 420. 49. Mao Chongmin, "The Wen Zhongxian Embezzlement and Bribery Case", available at: http://cqfy.chinacourt.org/public/detail.php?id=33892. 50. The specification of the 1997 Chinese Criminal Law does not mean that the Chinese government failed to provide a concrete guideline of corruption. Since it recognized that the 1979 Criminal Law was not enough to deal with growing corruption, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) promulgated the Supplementary Regulation on Suppression of Corruption and Bribery in 1988 and provided a detailed guideline on sentencing for embezzlement, bribery, and misuse of public funds. The 1997 Chinese Criminal Law is a result of such a previous effort. 51. '24 provincial anti-dereliction of duty have been established to combat corruption', People's Daily, (15 December 2006), available at: http://news.cctv.com/china/20061215/101321.shtml (accessed 15 July 2009). 52. '24 provincial anti-dereliction of duty have been established to combat corruption', People's Daily, (15 December 2006), available at: http://news.cctv.com/china/20061215/101321.shtml (accessed 15 July 2009). 53. '24 provincial anti-dereliction of duty have been established to combat corruption', People's Daily, (15 December 2006), available at: http://news.cctv.com/china/20061215/101321.shtml (accessed 15 July 2009). 54. 'Civil servant punishment regulation published, having mistress will be heavily punished', (13 October 2007), available at: http://fl.zjqy.gov.cn/news.asp?id = 282 (accessed 15 August 2009). 55. Haofen Wei, '500 party and government cadres holding part-time positions in companies have been punished', (24 January 2006), available at: http://www.qz123.com/news/html/wbxx/zh/20061/200612495527.htm (accessed 15 August 2009). 56. 'Topic of 30 April: civil servant having mistress will be heavily punished', available at: http://news.qq.com/a/20070430/001578.htm (accessed 20 August 2009). 57. 'New measure for a clean government: cadres must report their marriage changes', (14 May 2005), available at: http://www.qz123.com/news/html/zhoubian/zh/20055/2005514112555.htm (accessed 20 August 2009). 58. Stephen K. Ma, Administrative Reform in Post-Mao China: Efficiency or Ethics (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1996). 59. Ting Gong, The Politics of Corruption in Contemporary China (London: Praeger Publisher, 1994), p. 21. 60. Among 95 definitions of corruption from general and Chinese corruption studies, only five definitions use morality for defining corruption. 61. Gong, The Politics of Corruption in Contemporary China, p. 9; Wedeman, 'The intensification of corruption in China', p. 897; Julia Kwong, The Political Economy of Corruption in China (New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1997), pp. 12–18. 62. Zemin Jiang, 'Report to the Fifteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China', (13 July 2009), available at: http://www.china.com.cn/zyjy/2009-07/13/content_18122516.htm (accessed 17 July 2009). 63. Angang Hu, Zhongguo: Tiaozhan Fubai [China: Fighting against Corruption] (Hangzhou: Zhejiang People's Press, 2001); Jianhua Xie, 'Touxi Fubai Gainian Fanhua' ['On the generalization of the definition of corruption'], Honesty Outlook [Lianzheng liaowang] 1, (2006), pp. 50–51. 64. Xie, 'Touxi Fubai Gainian Fanhua', p. 50. 65. Xie, 'Touxi Fubai Gainian Fanhua', p. 50. 66. Barbara N. Sands, 'Decentralizing an economy: the role of bureaucratic corruption in China's economic reforms', Public Choice 65(1), (1990), pp. 85–91. 67. Ostergaard and Petersen, 'Official profiteering and the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in China', p. 88. 68. Victor Le Vine, Political Corruption: The Ghana Case (Stanford, 1975). 69. Gong, The Politics of Corruption in Contemporary China, pp. 10–11. 70. Hao and Johnston, 'China's surge of corruption', p. 82. 71. Gordon White, 'Corruption and the transition from socialism in China', Journal of Law and Society 23(1), (1996), p. 151. 72. Kwong, The Political Economy of Corruption in China, p. 25. 73. Zengke He, 'Corruption and anti-corruption in reform China', Communist and Post-Communist Studies 33, (2000), p. 244. 74. Richard Levy, 'Fubai: differing Chinese views of corruption since Tiananmen: does a road paved with corruption lead to socialism?', International Journal of Public Administration 23(11), (2000), p. 1863. 75. Xiaobo Lu, 'Booty socialism, bureau-preneurs, and the state in transition: organizational corruption in China', Comparative Politics 32(3), (2000), p. 275. 76. Lu, Cadres and Corruption. 77. Cho, 'Implementation of anticorruption policies in reform-era China', p. 50. 78. Ting Gong, 'Dangerous collusion: corruption as a collective venture in contemporary China', Communist and Post-Communist Studies 35, (2002), p. 87. 79. Chengze Simon Fan and Herschel I. Grossman, 'Incentives and corruption in Chinese economic reform', Policy Reform 4, (2001), pp. 195–206. 80. Manion, Corruption by Design, p. 5. 81. Wedeman, 'The intensification of corruption in China', p. 898. 82. Yang, Has Corruption Peaked in China?, p. 1. 83. Yunhai Wang, 'Corruption and anti-corruption policy in today's China', Hitotsubashi Journal of Law and Politics 33, (2005), p. 1. 84. Qiang Yan, 'Institutions, corruption, and anti-corruption policies: the case of China', paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL, 2006. 85. Ye, 'The characters of the corruption crimes and anti-corruption in China'. 86. Elizabeth A. Quade, 'The logic of anticorruption enforcement campaigns in contemporary China', Journal of Contemporary China 16(50), (2007), p. 65. 87. Chan and Gao, 'Old wine in new bottles', pp. 97–98. 88. Tak-Wing Ngo, 'Rent-seeking and economic governance in the structural nexus of corruption in China', Crime, Law and Social Change 49(1), (2008), p. 28. 89. Yu, 'Corruption in China's economic reform', p. 161. 90. Zhu, 'Reorientation and prospect of China's combat against corruption', p. 82.
Referência(s)