From former Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s (鄧小平) open door to former president Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) harmonious society and now to President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders at the center of power have marshalled a succession of appealing rhetoric and national agendas to elevate the international status of the People’s Republic of China and improve the well-being of its citizens.
Thanks to decades-long economic reforms, China has the physical appearance of a first-world state. Superhighways, high-speed rail networks, modern airports, train stations and bus terminals dot the landscape.
While upholding the tenets of a state-controlled market economy and an autocratic rule, CCP rulers appropriate many universalizing categories of governance to work toward regime consolidation, national inclusion and social betterment.
However, giving rise to new expectations for a cleaner environment, a fairer socioeconomic system and a liberal form of government, their initiatives sow the seeds of popular frustrations with the autocratic system, sociopolitical exclusivity and discrimination against ordinary citizens and ethnic minorities.
In the provincial, county, municipal, township and village authorities, governors, mayors and local CCP officials execute land sales and construction projects, oversee social service and healthcare provision, monitor industrial, environmental, and labor policies, as well as administer policing, community relations and tax collection. They demarcate privileged from disadvantaged.
Meeting state officials here in their daily operations are not just ordinary citizens but, increasingly, those who take it upon themselves to defend the interests of particular social groups. Human rights lawyers, independent journalists, religious faithful, environmental and community activists are ready to speak out and challenge the longstanding “status quo.”
Since coming to power in 2013, Xi was shocked by the growing anti-corruption sentiment at all levels of society and perceived the ill-performing CCP officials as symptoms of bureaucratic demoralization and administrative deterioration.
Worrying that the one-party state would be jeopardized by incompetent officials from within, he launched and exploited the anti-corruption campaign to reinvigorate government institutions and to enforce his control over the bureaucracy. He acted on the premise that the state’s commitment to political stability and economic prosperity was closely linked to gaining citizens’ loyalty and enforcing effective control over lower-level bureaucrats and party officials.
Thus, the maintenance of sociopolitical stability was the top priority over other developmental issues.
On the surface, the highly publicized anti-corruption campaign seems to bear fruit as the CCP’s Central Discipline Inspection Commission under the tough leadership of Wang Qishan (王歧山) has prosecuted and jailed numerous high-profiled corrupt officials, and secured the return of more than 100 most-wanted corruption suspects living abroad.
The election last month of Chinese Vice Minister of Public Security Meng Hongwei (孟宏偉) as Interpol’s president added momentum to Xi’s campaign.
Yet, as was the case with other top-down political campaigns in post-1949 China, personality clashes and factional rivalries often led to infighting and power struggles. Most troublesome of all, Xi’s campaign recently signaled a qualitative shift from a fight against official and corporate corruption to that of political inquisition, monitoring the allegiance and commitment of CCP cadres to Xi’s agenda.
Xi may want to position himself as a new supreme leader for the nation, but the fact that he frequently demands absolute loyalty from state-owned enterprises, ministerial departments and state security agencies indicates a great deal of mistrust between him and many vested interests.
If this is the case, the efficacy of his popular anti-graft campaign might fail to overcome institutional obstacles and reach new heights. More importantly, economic growth and corruption are deeply intertwined when the Chinese state permits CCP members and government bureaucrats to get involved in business activities without restricting their absolute power and holding them accountable.
As the aftermath of the nation’s financial mayhem worsens, the central government still adheres to an outdated policy of using state-run commercial banks to subsidize state-owned enterprises rather than empowering private entrepreneurs and consumers.
Perhaps the only solution for Xi is to liberalize the system of political governance and let news media do their job.
As shown in Taiwan’s democratization, a free and independent media can serve as a valuable watchdog over government institutions and educate people about the challenges and crises facing them.
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee is professor of history at Pace University in New York City.
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