Report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: The political mystery behind Xi Jinping’s ten-year anti-corruption campaign:

On September 1, 2022, Xinhua News Agency announced that Liu Yanping, former vice minister of the Ministry of Public Security and head of the discipline inspection and supervision team of the Ministry of State Security, was expelled from the party for "serious violations of discipline and law", and will be expelled from public office and will be prosecuted. This is the latest move by the CPC Central Committee to purge the political and legal departments ahead of the 20th National Congress in October this year. So, what are the achievements of Xi Jinping's ten years of anti-corruption?

Decades of anti-corruption corrupt officials

have followed one after another Liu Yanping's fall was due to political violations of discipline and corruption in life, which is very similar to the reasons for the fall of many officials in recent years. Statistics show that after 10 years of anti-corruption, corruption cases and corrupt officials have not decreased.

According to the figures released by the State Supervision Commission of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, in 2020, 618,000 cases will be filed and 604,000 people will be punished; in 2021, 631,000 cases will be filed and 627,000 people will be punished; 273,000 people were punished.

The article "2020 Anti-Corruption "Transcript" published on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision Commission on January 26, 2021: Punishment of 27 Provincial and Ministerial Cadres " 'Look, the number of cases filed each year exceeds 500,000, and the number of people punished each year exceeds 500,000."

An article published in the first issue of the New Year's Day in 2022 of "China Journal of Discipline Inspection and Supervision" said, "In 2021, 25 Famous cadres in central management were investigated, and 30 cadres in central management were punished by party discipline and government affairs, all of which are record highs since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.” The article also pointed out that judging from the data in 2021, whether it is the party organizations and leading cadres of party members who are held accountable, the objects under supervision, or the number of cases filed and the number of punishments ".

Although Xi Jinping emphasized in the group study of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on June 17 that it is necessary to "promote not dare to be corrupt, cannot be corrupt, and do not want to be corrupt", he also admitted that this is a "tough and protracted battle". "Hong Kong 01" on August 20 this year, "Normalization of anti-corruption does not equal institutionalization" quoted Ren Jianming, a professor at the School of Public Administration of Beihang University, as saying: "When corruption becomes a deeply ingrained officialdom Culture, the investigation and punishment of individuals is like an iron fist on cotton, and it is difficult to have a greater deterrent effect.... As the world's largest party, the Chinese Communist Party is still far away from the goal of not being corrupt, not being able to, and not wanting to be corrupt. "

Transparency International's annual global "Corruption Perceptions Index" (or "Corruption Perception Index") shows that since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 to fight corruption for ten years, China's corruption corruption index ranking has advanced, among about 180 countries, from 2012 80th in 2021, rising to 66th in 2021. However, the comprehensive scores of various indicators in China have not changed much, and are still around 40 points (the full score is 100). This may show that corruption in China is not improving, while corruption globally is getting worse

Xu Wenli, the former chairman of the National Joint Headquarters of China Democracy Party and a senior researcher at Brown University in the United States, believes that the Communist Party under the guidance of communism must be a corrupt group, because its supreme power is in the hands of such a small number of people, or even one person, and it is ineffective. There is no way to replace and effectively replace him, so the choice or replacement of the leadership of the Communist Party will always be his biggest problem, or he simply does not change, and has always ruled like this.

Xu Wenli said: "Just like Xi Jinping, once he reaches this position, he does not want to leave this position, because he can do whatever he wants in this position. This is the result caused by the theory of communism, causing him to be ruled by a few people, even It is ruled by one person. This person is never willing to give up power like him. Sitting in this position for a long time is naturally corrupt."

Anti-Corruption: Political Struggle and

Selectivity With anti-corruption as a means to quickly grasp the greatest power. But his anti-corruption is based on gangs, obedience and disobedience, and belonging to him. He said that all corrupt people know that the key question is whether it is politically correct to take sides. If you stand on the right side, then how corrupt you are, not only will it be fine, but it will help you suppress those whistleblowers.

Former Chinese Human Rights Chairman Liu Qing said: "For example, Li Zhanshu, he is one of Xi Jinping's important accomplices. Li Zhanshu's daughter can easily buy a house with tens of millions in Hong Kong, and she can buy two at a time. After this kind of thing was exposed, the media that exposed it published an apology within a few days, saying that it was wrong. Everyone knows this kind of thing. This is completely covering up corruption, condoning corruption, and supporting corruption. This matter is clearly seen, so the willingness of all officials to want to corrupt will never be weakened. So what is the only thing he did? Don’t go with the wrong team."

Xia Ming, a professor of political science at the City University of New York, also pointed out Xi Jinping's selectivity in fighting corruption. He said that the most obvious example is that there are many overseas leaks, all of which are quite authentic, including the "Red Casino" written by Shen Dong that broke the Wen Jiabao family. The characteristics of these revelations come from different factions.

Xia Ming said: "Either Bo Xilai went to the Xi's house, or the original person from Xi Jinping's side broke Zhou Yongkang's material, or Zhou Yongkang's side broke Wen Jiabao's material. ... We have seen several waves, overseas. For example, like the "Panama Papers", the Virgin Islands documents, their revelations. In addition, we can see Guo Wengui's revelations."

Professor Xia Ming pointed out that these revelations involve the former and current leaders of the highest level of the CCP. People are still safe.

Xia Ming said: "The Bloomberg news broke the news about the Xi family's wealth accumulation, especially the Xi family's real estate situation in Hong Kong. We also saw that many overseas news broke about Zeng Qinghong's family in Australia. , his son bought the most expensive real estate in Sydney in Australia.... It can be seen that the Wen Jiabao family is also. Recently, there is also a report that Li Zhanshu's son-in-law and daughter are in Singapore, and he is also accumulating a lot of money. "

Xia Ming said: "It's the faction that fights corruption and frees up some positions for all the people I like. So I think one of the main things that Xi Jinping has done today is to provide space for his personnel arrangements."

Xu Wenli said: " It should be said that the CCP's anti-corruption, selective anti-corruption, the most corrupt and corrupt situation at the highest level will not become more clean... In the end, ordinary officials who have selfish motives will follow the example and become officials. More corruption and corruption in one direction.”

Analysis: Laziness and slack in government “lay flat”as early as February 11, 2014, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang once said at a clean government work conference that “we must vigorously rectify inaction, slow action, Chaotic behavior, lazy institutional disease". He said, "If you can't do it diligently and don't work with a salary, it can also be said to be a phenomenon of corruption." On October 9 of the same year, Li Keqiang denounced "the 'lazy government' of inaction is also corrupt."

From 2012, when Xi Jinping came to power, until today, the saying that "lazy governance is corruption" has never stopped, showing that the problem of "lazy governance" has not been resolved.

An article titled "Impact with an iron fist to rectify laziness and laziness" published on the website of the State Supervision Commission of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the People's Republic of China on August 5, 2022 stated that since 2017, Tianjin has been carrying out a special rectification of formalist bureaucracy and non-responsibility and inaction. A total of 5,922 problems were investigated and dealt with, 4,534 people were punished, and 155 bureau-level cadres were dealt with.

Some analysts have linked the lazy government to the anti-corruption campaign after 2012. "Hong Kong 01", which has a Chinese background, said in a special article published on August 20, 2022: "With the development of anti-corruption, the officialdom has also begun to permeate the atmosphere of negativity and inaction, because more doing more mistakes, less doing less mistakes. It's not good."

The article "Incentives for "Lazy Politics": Micro-Corruption and Six Bad Mindsets, published on August 9, 2016 by the "Procuratorate Daily" sponsored by the Supreme Procuratorate of China, analyzed from an official point of view, and also believed that anti-corruption is the cause of laziness. one of the reasons for politics.

Some people believe that starting from the large-scale anti-corruption launched after Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, the anti-corruption has made the CCP officials at all levels to be wary and dare not talk nonsense, leading to laziness and inaction in all departments and levels of the Chinese government system. .

Xia Ming, a professor of political science at the City University of New York, said: "There is a saying in China that if you do more, you will make mistakes. If you don't do it, you can't make mistakes. ... I think China's campaign-style anti-corruption campaign has definitely lost officials. I think there is no incentive. On the contrary, it will It leads to mutual suspicion and more power struggles.

In fact, the current Chinese officials are actually very serious. They try not to take responsibility, try not to start, try to wait and see. I think it is the mainstream of Chinese officialdom now. "

But some people, including Xu Wenli, believe that the so-called "lazy government" is bureaucracy, which has a long history in the CCP system. Former Chinese human rights chairman Liu Qing also holds this view.

Liu Qing said: "In fact, senior officials of the CCP have already said about such things as being lazy and neglecting government. Some people, such as during the Hu-Wen period, said that their orders were not to leave Zhongnanhai. Their command cannot have the effect of prohibition. This in itself is a kind of laziness and negligence."

But the fight against corruption has added new incentives to today's bureaucracy. In recent years, the new term "lazy government" in the political world, what ordinary people call "laying down", when applied to officials, means not doing things or doing things. In fact, it is a manifestation of what was called "bureaucracy" in the past If you do more things, more things will happen; no corruption is allowed, and there is no motivation to do things.

Professor Xia Ming said: "They must keep in mind that as long as I don't make mistakes in the limelight of anti-corruption, I would rather not do or do less of other things. As long as I don't make political mistakes, I can still be safe or get through this. The limelight." What

is the future of anti-corruption?

On August 19 this year, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced businessman Xiao Jianhua, who holds Canadian citizenship, to 13 years in prison. The court found that the actions of Xiao Jianhua and Tomorrow Holdings Co., Ltd. constituted the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits and using entrusted property in breach of trust, and sentenced him to a fine of 6.5 million yuan (about 950,000 US dollars). China's foreign ministry said Xiao Jianhua's foreign nationality was not recognized and therefore he was not entitled to foreign consular protection.

Former Chinese Human Rights Chairman Liu Qing said: "Xiao Jianhua, his corruption involves more than trillions of assets. Xiao Jianhua himself has never shied away from being the white glove of the second generation of red. He once said a word, he said that Beijing's red The second generation has a price tag, and none of them has a price tag."

Xu Wenli said: "If you carefully study the dozens, or even hundreds of campaigns that the Chinese Communist Party has carried out, they are all anticlimactic. At the beginning, it will be a little exciting. Meaning, because most people, especially those at the bottom, will feel angry about the corruption of the upper class or some people, and it will have a little cheering effect, and then it will not work. Even the Cultural Revolution that Mao Zedong carried out with the greatest force cannot go on. , People finally, after 1949, raising flowers, grass, and pets began in the late period of the Cultural Revolution."

Xu Wenli said that people will lose their initial freshness, and after knowing that this is something deceiving, they will lose their morale.

Analysts believe that the CCP's corruption is institutional corruption, not a phenomenon that has only occurred in the past decade. The difference is that in the ten years since Xi Jinping was in power, anti-corruption has become the most important tool for infighting.