Corruption in China

= Imperial China =

Spread of corruption in traditional China is often connected to the Confucian concept of "renzhi", "government of the people" as opposed to the legalist "government of the law".

Profit "li" was despised as preoccupation of the base people, while the true Confucians were supposed to guide there actions by the moral principle of justice "yi". Thus all the relations remained to be based solely on mutual trust and propriety "li".

As a matter of cause, this kind of moral uprightness could be developed only among the minority. A famous attempt of Wang Anshi to institutionalize the monetary relations of the state, thus reducing corruption, were met with Confucian elite's sharp criticism.

As a result, corruption continued to be widespread both in the court (Wei Zhongxian, Heshen) and among the local elites.

Special kind of corruption in the after-Tang China developed in connection with the imperial examination system.

People's Republic of China

In the PRC the reforms of Deng Xiaoping were much criticized for reintroducing of corruption, as the cost of economic development. Emergence of private sector inside of the state economy in post-Maoist times tempted the CPC members to misuse their power on the government posts.

Attacking corruption in the Party was one of the forces behind the Tiananmen protests of 1989.

The powerful economic levers in the hands of the Party elite propelled the sons of some party officials to the most profitable posts, so as to make the CPC called the "princelings' party" ("taizidang"), referring to the Imperial China patterns of corruption.

Scores of corruption scandals make the old generation nostalgic of Maoist egalitarianism.

*Wang Shouxin
*Yang Bin
*Chen Liangyu
*Qiu Xiaohua, the nation's chief statistician, was sacked and arrested in connection with the pension-fund scandal. [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IC01Cb02.html]
*Zheng Xiaoyu
*Lai Changxing