Chinese Government Takes Steps Against Corruption While Land Abuses Continue

February 1, 2006

The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) and Ministry of Justice (MOJ) participated in a December 14 online forum posted by the People's Procuratorate Daily (in Chinese) to discuss the impact of the UN Convention Against Corruption (Anti-Corruption Convention) on China's anti-corruption efforts. The forum took place on the same day that the Anti-Corruption Convention went into effect worldwide. SPP representative Zhang Zhihui and MOJ representative Huang Feng agreed on the need to improve domestic legislation to bring China into line with its obligations under the Convention. They also highlighted the need for China to supplement criminal penalties with preventive measures, including better management over public assets, the establishment of an anti-corruption agency, and increased education on corruption issues.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) and Ministry of Justice (MOJ) participated in a December 14 online forum posted by the People's Procuratorate Daily (in Chinese) to discuss the impact of the UN Convention Against Corruption (Anti-Corruption Convention) on China's anti-corruption efforts. The forum took place on the same day that the Anti-Corruption Convention went into effect worldwide. SPP representative Zhang Zhihui and MOJ representative Huang Feng agreed on the need to improve domestic legislation to bring China into line with its obligations under the Convention. They also highlighted the need for China to supplement criminal penalties with preventive measures, including better management over public assets, the establishment of an anti-corruption agency, and increased education on corruption issues.

The Chinese government has sought over the past two years to bring domestic law into compliance with international obligations. China signed the Anti-Corruption Convention on December 10, 2003. The National People's Congress ratified the Anti-Corruption Convention on October 27, 2005, according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency. At a December 2005 meeting of Asian and European prosecutors in Shenzhen, Deputy Procurator General Wang Zhenchuan emphasized that procuratorates nationwide prosecuted and punished 50,000 corrupt officials from 2003 to 2005, according to a December 11 report by the official Xinhua news agency. A December 15 article in the China Daily noted, "As prevention is even more important than prosecution, international co-operative efforts must be made."

Despite the ongoing efforts, Transparency International (TI), an anti-corruption NGO based in Berlin, ranked China 78 out of 158 in its 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index, and recent corruption scandals demonstrate that corruption in China has increasingly involved senior officials. In a case that the China Daily labeled "China's biggest political scandal," more than 260 government officials were alleged to have connections with Ma De, a senior official in Heilongjiang province convicted in July 2005 for taking bribes. Two senior officials allegedly connected to Ma include Tian Fengshan, China's former Minister of Land and Resources, and Han Guizhi, former chairwoman of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Beijing courts tried Tian on December 13, according to a Xinhua report on the same day, and Han one week earlier, according to a Xinhua report (in Chinese) on December 6. One scholar described these high profile prosecutions as "'show trials' that are becoming increasingly ineffective as warnings to lower-level officials," according to a December 14 report by the Voice of America. Tian received a life sentence on December 27, and Han received the death penalty, with a two-year reprieve, on December 15, according to a December 28 report by the China Daily. The prosecution and harsh sentencing of Tian, the highest ranking official in China's Ministry of Land and Resources, help confirm that corruption and abuse in land deals remains widespread.

SPP representative Zhang mentioned during the online forum that one area for reform will be the increased participation of citizens in keeping official corruption in check. Article 10 of the Anti-Corruption Convention calls on state parties to take measures that will enhance transparency in public administration. Article 13 emphasizes the need for active participation by individuals and groups outside the public sector in fighting against, and raising public awareness about, corruption. Barriers to public participation in challenging official corruption have resulted in increasing popular resentment in past months. Villagers and officials clashed on September 12, 2005, in Taishi village, Guangdong province, after the local government blocked a campaign to recall village committee head Chen Jinsheng, who allegedly embezzled village funds from land deals. Despite national law guaranteeing village electoral rights, local officials blocked the recall effort by forcing elected village representatives to resign and detaining lawyers providing legal advice to the villagers. A confrontation between villagers in Dongzhoukeng village, Guangdong province, ended in bloodshed on December 6. The conflict over land seizures to make way for a power plant escalated amid accusations of embezzled compensation funds and after the failure of attempts to launch citizen petitions and a lawsuit. The Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced on December 28 that it has launched a new Web site, jubao.gov.cn, to facilitate the public reporting of corruption, according to a Xinhua report on the same day.

Additional information on corruption in China is available in the introductory section to the CECC's 2004 Annual Report. For more on the growing social unrest over land deals, see materials from the June 21, 2004, CECC Roundtable on Property Seizure in China: Politics, Law, and Protest. See also the introductory section on Growing Social Unrest and the Chinese Leadership's Counterproductive Response, in the CECC's 2005 Annual Report.