The three groups of untouchables in China’s corruption crackdown
Deng Yuwen believes Communist Party leaders have set a bottom line of not targeting the scion of the nation’s founders, Politburo members and retired party elders, despite promises of a no-holds-barred anti-corruption campaign
China’s leadership seems to have set a bottom line for the anti-corruption campaign right from the start – that is, no matter what happens, three groups of people are off-limits. Illustration: Craig Stephens
In the recent Chinese hit drama In the Name of the People, Sha Ruijin, party secretary of the fictional Handong province, tells the graft-busting hero Hou Liangping that the clampdown on corruption has “no ceiling and no floor”. A zero-tolerance policy will be adopted and all will be investigated, regardless of status or rank. At the end of the series, Gao Yuliang, deputy secretary of the Handong political and legal affairs commission, and Qi Tongwei, director of the public security department, are arrested along with a number of “tigers”. The pledge was made good.
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In reality, China’s leaders often make similar statements. Nevertheless, judging from the arrests so far, it is clear that the campaign has succeeded in ensuring there’s “no floor” but is far from having “no ceiling”.
The current crackdown on corruption that began with the 18th party congress in 2012 has been the fiercest in Communist Party history. According to unofficial estimates, some 200 officials at the provincial level and above have been caught. This includes many members of the current Central Committee; Zhou Yongkang (周永康), a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee; and Guo Boxiong (郭伯雄) and Xu Caihou (徐才厚), both former vice-chairmen of the Central Military Commission.
Yet, many Chinese are not impressed. From the start, there have been murmurs of disapproval, with some calling the campaign “selective anti-corruption”, or a front for a purge, or a power struggle. As the current leadership prepares to undergo the five-yearly power transition this year, such views have become more, not less, commonplace.
President Xi Jinping arrives for the third plenary session of the National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in March. To be fair, we should not doubt the leadership’s sincerity and determination in tackling corruption. Photo: Reuters
