The politics of China’s anti-corruption campaign
15 September 2015
Author: William H. Overholt, Harvard
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign has highlighted the seriousness of China’s official malfeasance. The outcome will shape a new era of China’s politics, economy and foreign policy.
‘Corruption’ covers quite disparate phenomena. It may mean graft, taking a tip for doing your job, or it may mean corruption in the stricter sense, taking money in return for undermining the national interest — which is much more costly.
Chinese ‘corruption’ is overwhelmingly graft, whereas in, for instance, the Philippines under former president Ferdinand Marcos, and in India, corruption in the narrow sense predominates. Many important Marcos-era projects were designed to fail, leaving the government in debt. In China, good roads and ports get built consistently. In India they don’t. Likewise with primary education and international sporting events.