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Why China's current corruption crackdown is like 'killing the chicken to scare the monkeys'

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Ananth Krishnan
Ananth KrishnanApr 14, 2017 | 13:40

Why China's current corruption crackdown is like 'killing the chicken to scare the monkeys'

No story has dominated the news in China more than the massive corruption crackdown launched by President Xi Jinping. Since 2012, close to one million members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) — that’s one out of 80 members — have been investigated.

The campaign has begun to show some signs of slowing — for first time last year the number of investigations decreased — but it’s not going to stop, with thousands of officials in local governments likely to be purged this year.

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That was the message delivered this week, albeit conveyed in an unusual manner. A new television drama — a Chinese-style House of Cards — is quite the rage in China, presenting a real ringside view of the anti-corruption war.

In China’s heavily censored media, it’s usually taboo to discuss politics, but this drama, In the Name of the People, presents a rare look at the sordid underbelly of politics in that country.

As much as it has left Chinese audiences stunned for its realism — all anyone’s talking about in Beijing this week is an early episode that shows a local official who stashes millions in cash in his villa, even filling his refrigerators with currency — the show is a slick propaganda, with the broader message that the Xi administration is sparing no efforts in its corruption war.

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The campaign has achieved two things for him: Built him a mass of popular support, given the apparent popularity of the campaign, and eliminated political rivals. Photo: Reuters

But showcasing corruption is a double-edged sword, warns Andrew Wedeman, who is writing a book on Xi’s corruption crackdown and is a political science professor at Georgia State University.

As much as it shows that the Xi government means business, it has also risked unmasking the scale of the corruption. “Earlier, most Chinese would tell you the local government is corrupt, but the centre is more honest. The anti-corruption crackdown has convinced many people that the centre is as bad,” he says. Yet for Xi, the benefits probably outweigh this risk.

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The campaign has achieved two things for him: Built him a mass of popular support, given the apparent popularity of the campaign, and eliminated political rivals.

“He has convinced a cynical Chinese public that he means business,” says Wedeman. Corruption in China, given its five-times-larger economy, dwarfs that in India. Yet, it’s also a different beast.

It’s less of an issue in many respects for the public as there is far less everyday corruption, or bribing to ensure basic services, which the one-party state knows will harm its credibility. It has done far better on this count than India.

Yet the opacity of the Chinese system — and the lack of a free press — has allowed corruption at the higher levels to proliferate. Xi wants to clean this system, but the crackdown, as Wedeman puts it, is more of a “corrective than a cure”.

The current crackdown is based on fear, or as the Chinese put it, “killing the chicken to scare the monkeys”.

The problem for Xi is that the killing can’t go on forever.

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Last updated: April 14, 2017 | 13:40
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