BEIJING: Last year, a small incident involving a 62-year-old grandmother and the local party secretary of a village in China's Shandong province became a national sensation, talked about in television and papers, and generating countless posts on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
Zhang Xiufang used to maintain a diary of news reports on cases of corrupt government officials. Then she decided to inscribe the names of these officials on a metre-long slab of stone and install it in the village square. For good measure she made another similar plaque and put it up on the main street.
The day these stark reminders went public a crowd gathered and fireworks were set off. The village party secretary, Chen Weisheng led a group of villagers and beat up Zhang and her husband. The police arrived soon and Chen was arrested . Later he was sent to cool his heels for 15 days in the local prison, and was fined 1000 yuan. Zhang, meanwhile, had hit national headlines. She was interviewed on TV, and her photos appeared across the country's newspapers.
This incident is but the tip of an iceberg . While international media obsesses over the Bo Xilai cause celebre because of its political implications Bo, after all, was a member of the all powerful politbureau of the ruling Communist Party but a tour of smaller towns and villages shows the widespread grassroots churning that is going on in the fight against corruption.
Since the reforms and opening up was launched in 1978, but more decisively in this past decade, corruption has become rampant at all levels. Even the Chinese government admits this. In a White Paper issued by the state council (equivalent to the Cabinet in India) in 2010, this was described as arising due to "system transition" , that is, from a planned, state controlled economy to a "socialist market economy" .
Fang Cao, an academic, says that many senior officials, both in the party and in the administration have used their power to illegally amass wealth. In particular, he identifies top officials of public corporations, like Dong Yuejin, former assistant to the general manager of China International Telecommunication Corp, who was found to have embezzled $85 million, apart from taking millions more in bribes.
"Their children study abroad, money regularly goes abroad and their lifestyle is super-rich. It is only through illegal means that such wealth can be acquired," he asserts.
Even as the national government took up the fight against corrupt public officials and CPC members through a slew of measures, the common people appear to have responded with gusto and innovative daring.
Thousands of cases of bribery or misuse of official power are reported on Weibo, Ren-Ren (the Chinese equivalent of Facebook), and dozens of chat forums on the Web. In Luoyang city, a prominent anti-corruption net-activist Zhang Xiaoli , who uses the online pseudonym Lao Niu, was elected to the municipal wing of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body.
After the party's watchdog Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) set up an online platform to receive tip-offs , they were flooded with 1.43 million petitions leading to recovery of $1.3 billion losses. The supreme people's court launched a web platform to solicit reports of illegal activities by judges. In six months, complaints were recorded against 294 judges, resulting in 116 prosecutions . Within five months of its launch in early 2010, Beijing police microblog attracted more than 300,000 followers . Li Chengyan, a professor at the School of Government of Peking University told Beijing Review that the role of Internet was still limited because whistle-blowers often faced retaliation and victimization.
However, China still has some of the world's toughest laws against corruption, including the death penalty. A 2010 law asking all government employees to declare their assets, as well as details of spouse and children living abroad and transfers to them remains partially implemented . Over 1.67 million officials had declared financial details of their families till last year, out of an estimated 6 million officials.
According to Gan Yisheng, a senior official with the CCDI, 146,517 officials have been punished across China in 2010, up 6% from 2009. As Fang says, market socialism brought high growth but it has also unleashed greed big time.
Zhang Xiufang used to maintain a diary of news reports on cases of corrupt government officials. Then she decided to inscribe the names of these officials on a metre-long slab of stone and install it in the village square. For good measure she made another similar plaque and put it up on the main street.
The day these stark reminders went public a crowd gathered and fireworks were set off. The village party secretary, Chen Weisheng led a group of villagers and beat up Zhang and her husband. The police arrived soon and Chen was arrested . Later he was sent to cool his heels for 15 days in the local prison, and was fined 1000 yuan. Zhang, meanwhile, had hit national headlines. She was interviewed on TV, and her photos appeared across the country's newspapers.
This incident is but the tip of an iceberg . While international media obsesses over the Bo Xilai cause celebre because of its political implications Bo, after all, was a member of the all powerful politbureau of the ruling Communist Party but a tour of smaller towns and villages shows the widespread grassroots churning that is going on in the fight against corruption.
Since the reforms and opening up was launched in 1978, but more decisively in this past decade, corruption has become rampant at all levels. Even the Chinese government admits this. In a White Paper issued by the state council (equivalent to the Cabinet in India) in 2010, this was described as arising due to "system transition" , that is, from a planned, state controlled economy to a "socialist market economy" .
Fang Cao, an academic, says that many senior officials, both in the party and in the administration have used their power to illegally amass wealth. In particular, he identifies top officials of public corporations, like Dong Yuejin, former assistant to the general manager of China International Telecommunication Corp, who was found to have embezzled $85 million, apart from taking millions more in bribes.
"Their children study abroad, money regularly goes abroad and their lifestyle is super-rich. It is only through illegal means that such wealth can be acquired," he asserts.
Even as the national government took up the fight against corrupt public officials and CPC members through a slew of measures, the common people appear to have responded with gusto and innovative daring.
Thousands of cases of bribery or misuse of official power are reported on Weibo, Ren-Ren (the Chinese equivalent of Facebook), and dozens of chat forums on the Web. In Luoyang city, a prominent anti-corruption net-activist Zhang Xiaoli , who uses the online pseudonym Lao Niu, was elected to the municipal wing of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body.
After the party's watchdog Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) set up an online platform to receive tip-offs , they were flooded with 1.43 million petitions leading to recovery of $1.3 billion losses. The supreme people's court launched a web platform to solicit reports of illegal activities by judges. In six months, complaints were recorded against 294 judges, resulting in 116 prosecutions . Within five months of its launch in early 2010, Beijing police microblog attracted more than 300,000 followers . Li Chengyan, a professor at the School of Government of Peking University told Beijing Review that the role of Internet was still limited because whistle-blowers often faced retaliation and victimization.
However, China still has some of the world's toughest laws against corruption, including the death penalty. A 2010 law asking all government employees to declare their assets, as well as details of spouse and children living abroad and transfers to them remains partially implemented . Over 1.67 million officials had declared financial details of their families till last year, out of an estimated 6 million officials.
According to Gan Yisheng, a senior official with the CCDI, 146,517 officials have been punished across China in 2010, up 6% from 2009. As Fang says, market socialism brought high growth but it has also unleashed greed big time.
