Corruption In China: Time To Throw In The Towel

Source:  Reuters.

The new Chinese president, Xi Jinping who I guess isn't that new anymore, has been on a public binge in trying to do away with corruption.  On one hand, it's really for show just like most political plays in the world, and on the other hand, it's only highlighted how Chinese government corruption is a fact of life and may be essential to its economic viability and there may be nothing the Chinese can do about it.  And without it, the Communist elite will not survive.

This Reuters story about how an engineer was tortured for 39 days in an effort to extract a confession out of him show just how jaded the Chinese are dealing with corruption.  And the officials responsible for the engineer's death were charged only after reports of the man's death came to light.

Detained under a system called "shuanggui", Yu Qiyi essentially disappeared.  And he's only one of a number of unheard folks who have disappeared into this shuangui system.  And on one knows where these detainees end up.  And its use has been increased because of Beijing's directive to weed out more corrupted officials and businessmen.  What's worse is that the system is ripe for corruption and greed in and of itself.

Xi noted that corruption threatens the Community party.  However, given that corruption is an essential part of Chinese economy and political system, doing away with it may also end up with the collapse of the system.  And with this shuangui system, it's being used as a threat against anyone who isn't loyal to whoever is in charge.

Yu's death is only the limelight only because of the outrage generated by public interest.  The truth is that most other prisoners will go on to confess their "crimes" whether they did it or not and the winner at the end of the day isn't the Chinese people.

The winners are the officials who will step in and continue the business as usual.