Is Corruption Undermining The Power of the Communist Party of China?

November 7, 2009

Martin McCauley writes: The revelations emerging from the present campaign against the triads, criminal gangs, in the city of Chongqing, in western China, has shocked many in China and abroad. So far over 3,000 hoods have been arrested. It is now clear that the police and judicial authorities have been colluding with the triads for at least two decades.

The move against the criminals did not originate in Chongqing but in Beijing. It took the authority of President Hu Jintao to set the ball rolling. In other words, the local Party boss, Bo Xilai, was powerless to act on his own. Local syndicates were so entrenched – with high level patrons – that only the top leader could mobilise the police and legal resources to launch the drive against corruption. The city of 34 million is one of the fastest growing in China and a jewel in the crown of China’s industrialisation.

The amount of money involved is astronomical. So far about 1.7 billion yuan ($250 million) has been recovered from 24 leading crime bosses. According to official sources, the triads had penetrated finance, transport, construction and engineering, the entertainment world, gambling and were running numerous restaurants and shops. Over 200 members of the Chongqing police and legal administration are under investigation for providing a ‘red hat’, protection, for the hoods. Those involved include the former head of the legal bureau Wen Qiang and the deputy head of the Public Security Bureau. Wen has admitted receiving bribes and other gifts worth over 10 million yuan ($15 million). Wen was so confident of his position that he warned investigators that if he were sentenced to death he would spill the beans on senior officials.

Why did the city authorities tolerate the triads? They paid bribes but also were used to do some of the ‘dirty work’ with which no one in authority wished to be associated. For instance, if corrupt officials and property developers needed a prime site, the hoods would move in and harass the residents until they were willing to move for a pittance. They could be used against peasant farmers who did not wish to give up their land. Many of the big triads are billionaire businessmen. One was in transport in construction and was often elected a member of the city People’s Congress. Another hood ran a string of underground casinos – a Chinese passion is gambling. ‘Underground’ is perhaps the wrong word because many were located in the most luxurious hotels in town.
Chongqing became a municipality in 1999 and hence has an administrative ranking similar to Beijing and Shanghai.

This means that the first Party secretary can look forward to being elected to the Party Politburo. Former first Party secretaries now include a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo (the nine comrades who run China) and another is a member of the Politburo. The present first Party secretary, Bo Xilai, has been in office for two years and is a member of the Politburo. It is difficult to believe that Bo and his two predecessors were totally unaware of what the triads were up to in their city.

In order to exculpate himself, Bo told reporters that the triads were so powerful that little could be done to combat them. He revealed that Chongqing citizens often showed city government officials photographs of mutilated and blood soaked bodies. The ‘triads were cutting up people as if they were butchers carving up animals. It was unbearable’, he claimed. He said that cadres must not be gentle in dealing with the triads since they were violent. This reveals that authorities have been treating those involved in organised crime with kid gloves.
Bo confirmed that only when Beijing acted could anything be done. This seriously undermines public confidence in the police and legal authorities in China.

The ‘softly softly’ approach to organised crime by the police and legal authorities is in stark contrast to the treatment meted out to dissidents, human rights lawyers and nationalists in Tibet and Xinjiang. Recently some academics have received long prison sentences for merely writing articles calling for a more rapid move towards political reform.

Not surprisingly, Beijing has announced a nationwide crackdown on corrupt officials who are in cahoots with the triads. No wonder there is widespread scepticism in China about the impact of such a policy. One blogger maintained that a granary would, of course, be depleted if mice were employed to guard it.

If the Party does not eliminate the ‘mice’, the whole edifice of power will be weakened. It appears that as China becomes richer, the power of Beijing declines. Is the Middle Kingdom moving towards a system of self-governing cities and regions?

– End –

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