海角大神

Seven months after he took office pledging to crack down on official corruption, Chinese President Xi Jinping has impressed even some skeptics by sticking to his guns.

At the end of an unusual three-day meeting of the all-powerful Politburo of the ruling Communist Party last week, President Xi was strikingly blunt in his admonition of his most senior colleagues.聽

The men at the very top of the party must 鈥渟trictly abide by party discipline鈥� and 鈥渟trictly manage their relatives and their staff and refrain from abusing power,鈥� he told the 25 member Politburo. He expected them, he said, 鈥渢o play an exemplary role.鈥澛�

The meeting, given blanket coverage in the official Chinese press, has made its mark. 鈥淭here have been anticorruption campaigns before and at first I doubted whether this one would last,鈥� says Ren Jianming, deputy head of the Chinese branch of Transparency International, an anticorruption watchdog. 鈥淏ut it seems that they are strengthening the campaign and that is a good sign.鈥�

Doubts persist, though, whether Xi can succeed in the absence of political reforms to make the Chinese political system less prone to corruption, for example by freeing the law courts from Communist Party tutelage, or allowing a freer press.

鈥淲ithout solving fundamental political and institutional problems, such as the lack of checks and balances or constraints on power, we cannot solve the problem of corruption,鈥� argues Jiang Dehai, a law professor at the East China University of Politics and Law in Shanghai.

鈥淚鈥檝e seen no moves during the campaign so far to address the fundamental problems,鈥� Professor Jiang adds.

Strategy to prolong grip on power聽

Nor do many observers here expect any such moves; the Communist Party鈥檚 new leaders have shown no propensity to relax their grip on power and official media have, in fact, recently been excoriating 鈥渃onstitutionalists鈥� who would like to see the ruling party abide by the rule of law.

Indeed, officials are being careful to keep the anticorruption campaign itself an internal Communist Party led affair, and to stop citizen activists from taking things too far. Ten anti-corruption activists were arrested in May when they called publicly for the publication of officials鈥� salaries and assets.

But Xi is clearly under no illusions about the gravity of the situation; in his very first speech to the Politburo last November he warned that corruption, which is endemic in China, threatened to 鈥渄oom the party and the state.鈥�

If China鈥檚 new leader has nailed his colors so firmly to the anticorruption mast, says Russell Leigh Moses, dean of the Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, it is because he sees the fight against official extravagance and dishonesty as a key to reforming the party in ways that will prolong its grip on power.

鈥淭his is not a campaign,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his is a strategy.鈥�

Lavish banquets and normal perks

It has already had its effects. The leadership is targeting not only influence peddling, the sale of jobs to the highest bidder, direct bribery, and other clear cut cases of corruption, but also what officials here call 鈥渂ad working style.鈥�

That working style includes the lavish banquets paid from the public purse that officials at all levels of government routinely regard as a normal perk; it includes the fancy cars without license plates whose drivers flout traffic rules with impunity; it includes unnecessary foreign trips ostensibly on official business 鈥� often taken with wives or girlfriends.

鈥淭he prevailing style of extravagance not only depraves officials and destroys their image but also undermines public trust鈥� in the party and government, warned a commentary in the Communist Party鈥檚 official organ, the Peoples鈥� Daily, last week. 鈥淣othing isolates the party from the masses more than extravagant style.鈥�

The most obvious victims of the campaign against 鈥渉edonism鈥� include the high-end restaurants that once catered to officials and to the businessmen trying to woo them. Such restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu saw their revenues drop by 20 percent from a year earlier during the last Chinese New Year festivities according to figures from the China Cuisine Association, the catering industry body.

The campaign against extravagant 鈥渟tyle鈥� habits is likely to work better than just a simple head-on assault against corruption, says Mao Zhaohui, an anticorruption expert at Renmin University鈥檚 School of Public Administration in Beijing.

鈥淚f officials weigh their hedonism against their career prospects they鈥檒l give up the hedonism if the two are in conflict,鈥� he predicts; by changing the way they work, they won鈥檛 be so open to corrupt temptations.

'Tigers as well as flies鈥�

At the same time, the past few months have seen the arrests of some senior Communist Party and government figures, in line with Xi鈥檚 promise that the anticorruption dragnet would catch 鈥渢igers as well as flies.鈥� The latest to come under investigation, and to lose his job, was Liu Tenan, vice chairman of China鈥檚 economic planning agency, accused of 鈥渟evere disciplinary violations,鈥� according to the official Xinhua news agency.聽

He is unlikely to be the last such victim; the Communist Party鈥檚 Discipline Inspection Committee has sent investigation teams fanning out across the country in recent weeks, and they are not expected to come back empty handed.

鈥淭he campaign is valuable because fighting corruption is better than not fighting it,鈥� says Jiang. 鈥淭here will be benefits because they will arrest some corrupt officials. But they won鈥檛 solve the fundamental problems that cause corruption.鈥�

That may be right, Dr. Moses acknowledges. 鈥淏ut Xi is trying to see how far he can go, and his tenure thus far is looking like a very serious experiment.鈥澛�