Anti-Corruption in China: The Key Findings

China Up Close {Part Two of Three}
Read part one.
Read part three.
Based on data from the Global Integrity Report: China

The findings of the study that follow reflect the ratings given to China on 23 categories of good governance, government accountability and anti-corruption indicators. Those categories comprise more than 300 specific questions scored by our in-country team as part of the Global Integrity Report: China.

The detailed findings, which led to previous conclusions about across-the-board weaknesses in: government transparency; government accountability; anti-corruption mechanisms; and methods to check excessive government authority and protect citizens against government abuse, are presented below.

+ More than half of the 23 governance sub-categories were assessed by Global Integrity to be “Very Weak” (the lowest possible rating).

+ Another 4 of the categories for China were listed as “Weak”, giving China a total of 17 (74% of) categories that were listed as “Weak” or “Very Weak”. The 74% finding compares to an average of 47% “weak” or “very weak” categories for all 55 nations assessed in the Global Integrity Report: 2007.

+ China failed to achieve a “strong” or “very strong” rating for any of the 23 assessed categories. In contrast, on average, the 55 nations in the Global Integrity report: 2007 were rated as “strong” or “very strong” in 7 out of 23 (or 31%) of the government accountability and anti-corruption categories in the assessment.

+ China’s combined score for all 23 categories placed it among the lowest 15% of the 55 countries assessed.

+ Only 7 of the other 54 countries in the Global Integrity report: 2007 had a bigger gap than China between the rating of their anti-corruption laws, on the one hand, and the rating of their actual implementation of anti-corruption practices, on the other.

+ The judiciary, the newly-formed Anti-Corruption and Anti-Bribery Bureau, and the Central Disciplinary Committee all lack the political independence – and political will – to go after senior government officials accused of graft without the Party’s approval.

+ In China, taking business disputes before a judge may not be an effective method of recourse for Western investors. While there may be a transparent method for choosing judges, they are in practice under the control of the Communist Party of China and are not subject to asset disclosure requirements.

+ Transparency around Chinese government procurement is poor, and tax discrimination is a major problem since firms with close relationships with the government generally benefit from tax reductions or other preferential treatment.

Read the conclusions with part three of three.