Greasing palms
December 9, 2011
You're nothing in China if you don't have connections, or guanxi. If you want to get your child into a good school, you have to be ready to bribe officials with anything from cell phones to iPads or laptops.
One mother told this reporter she had given gifts and bribes worth more than 72,000 yuan (11,000 US dollars) to get her son into an elite school in Beijing.
And it doesn't stop once your child has secured a place in a good school. You have to make sure he or she will get good marks. For 12 years running, parents feel forced to give gifts on Teacher's Day so that their children do not fall behind. The woman whose son is now in an elite school said she would have settled with a scarf or bag but the competition with other parents is such that you end up having to give more and more expensive gifts each year - these might even include trips abroad.
A hong bao here, a hong bao there
And the same is true in every walk of life. In hospitals, if you want to be treated by a senior doctor, you first have to hand over a hong bao, a well-filled red envelope. It would seem that everybody from judges to police officers to public officials takes bribes.
And yet, "simple people hate corruption," another woman says. She is one of the increasingly angry masses who demand tougher punishment for corrupt officials.
The government is well aware that corruption threatens to bring down the whole system. Last summer, President Hu Jintao warned that it would "cost the party the support and trust of the people."
Severe punishment is no deterrent
However, party cadres and officials continue to line their pockets despite the harsh punishments. Last year, some 29,000 officials were convicted on corruption charges with many being handed down long jail terms, others being executed.
The benefits seem to outdo the risks. In June, a report released by China’s central bank found that 800 billion yuan (123 billion US dollars) had been smuggled out of the country by some 17,000 communist party cadres, police officers, judicial officers and executives working for state-owned companies between the mid-1990s and 2008.
The findings were initially published online but vanished from cyberspace after triggering public outrage.
Author: Ruth Kirchner / act
Editor: Arun Chowdury