Healthy China must avoid stink of corruption
- Source: Global Times
- [03:59 November 20 2009]
- Comments
A former local government official, dubbed the "super-expensive- cigarette director," was sentenced last month to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes.
Zhou Jiugen came under fire from Chinese netizens and later faced investigation after photos surfaced online of him smoking $22-a-pack cigarettes and wearing a pricey Vacheron Constantin watch.
The case is one of many examples demonstrating the rising power of Chinese netizens to fight corruption. As He Guoqiang, secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, stated Wednesday, the party's stepped-up drive against corruption will give much more weight to online comments and will seek greater public participation in anti-corruption efforts.
Corruption is an inevitable problem worldwide, one that is intertwined with power and money. For an emerging economic giant like China, corruption is an ugly "scar" that needs to be removed immediately.
Among the 180 countries and regions surveyed in the 2009 Transparency
International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index released Tuesday, the Chinese mainland ranked just 79th, with a score of 3.6 on a 10-point scale.
The "scar" is not merely cosmetic: It threatens to do real harm. A healthy China must avoid the stink of corruption.
To some extent, the hefty social cost paid for corruption has been covered up by the economic prosperity China has enjoyed since embarking on its process of reform and openingup three decades ago. The epidemic is even described by some as the "grease on the wheels of Chinese commerce."
