Only comprehensive cage can curb corruption

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses the 6th plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) in Beijing, Jan 12, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

ON THE SIDELINES of the current annual session of the National People's Congress, Wang Rulin, Party chief of North China's Shanxi province, revealed that a vice-mayor in the province embezzled more than 640 million yuan ($98 million), which was almost the total revenue of nine poverty-stricken counties last year. Beijing News on Monday questioned how such an enormous amount of money could be misappropriated:

Although details about the corrupt vice-mayor remain unclear, the considerable amount of money said to have been embezzled may be just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to corruption. Before the ongoing anti-corruption campaign, the abuses of power may have been even worse than one might imagine, as the province has witnessed some of China's worst corruption cases. The relations between local officials and businessmen have basically spun out of control.

In the past 17 months, the disciplinary authorities have punished 31,164 government officials after investigating 28,668 cases in the province. Thirty-four officials have been handed over to the judicial authorities to face criminal charges.

To some extent, this explains the province's sluggish economic growth and worsening natural environment, as enterprises colluded with corrupt officials to over-exploit the natural resources.

On the other hand, that the insatiable public servants always managed to bypass all restrictions on the abuse of power, indicates that the supervisory mechanism was not working effectively previously.

It probably took years for the vice-mayor to accumulate his ill-gotten wealth. A possible explanation of why the local supervisors failed to discover and stop his misconduct in time might be that the "give-and-take" mentality had become an open secret.

The astonishing amount of corruption in the province has dealt a major blow to Shanxi's economy, which is already suffering from its previous extensive development at the expense of the environment. Therefore, local officials must heed the lessons and draw the necessary line between power and business.