Standing Firm

A post on this blog from the 23rd August looked at proposed changes to China's criminal law, whereby the National People's Congress is considering removing several economic crimes from the list of those punishable by death. These include some types of financial fraud, and the smuggling of gold and precious relics. As this blog noted, the number of people executed on these counts makes up a small percentage of the total each year, so the numeric effect of this amendment will not be substantial.

It seems though that some Chinese citizens have started to worry over the long-term implications should the changes be ratified. Corrupt officials are often punished with capital sentences (usually commuted to life imprisonment after two years), as part of the Chinese government's efforts to demonstrate its support for healthy, fair government. However, according to Xinhua, the amendment has drawn criticism from those who believe that it will result in an increase in levels of corruption, and that it could be used as a means for officials to escape severe punishment for their crimes.

Thus, Chen Sixi (member of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee and Vice-Chairman of the NPC's Committee for Internal and Judicial Affairs) was online on Tuesday defending the change in the law and reaffirming the state's commitment to fighting corruption with capital sentences. Amongst other things, Chen was keen to stress that the amendment does not change the status quo vis a vis sanctions for dodgy officials, only that less severe crimes will no longer warrant the death penalty.

Another Case of Corruption

Guangdong province has hit the headlines again with the revelation that another of its former high-ranking officials has been found guilty of corruption. Following the conviction of Zheng Shaodong (once deputy head of Guangdong's Department of Public Security) three weeks ago, Xinhua announced today that Wang Huayuan (formerly secretary of the provincial commissions for discipline inspection in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces) been handed a 2 year suspended death sentence for corruption.

According to Xinhua, a court in the Shandong region found against Wang in relation to charges that he accepted 7.71 million yuan (about 1.13 million U.S. dollars) in bribes between 1998 and 2009, while holding positions that ironically included an anti-corruption remit. As with the case of Zheng Shaodong, Wang has been stripped of his CCP membership, although his capital sentence is likely to be commuted to life imprisonment after 2 years. While this conviction has come about as result of a crackdown on high-level corruption launched last year, the possibility remains that there are deeper political forces at work behind Wang's sentencing. However, it is hard to know what these could be.

Gain and Grain

In a previous post, Sino-Gist mentioned an independent Chinese report which found that officials received 5.4 trillion yuan in 'gray income' (money gained through corruption, bribery etc.) in 2009, with the growth in levels of such income exceeding that of GDP. Since their release, the findings have caused controversy, with individuals from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) suggesting that the problem has been overstated.

While nobody would deny that corruption exists in Chinese society, NBS officials are unconvinced over the reliability of the findings in the 'Gray Income and National Income Distribution' report, which puts 'gray income' levels about 90% higher than the NBS' own estimates. According to the People's Daily, one NBS analyst wrote on the Bureau's website that “there are many flaws in the report, such as how the samples were chosen and calculations made, and the final result is significantly higher (than the actual level)”. Such 'flaws' include the fact that the independent researchers analysed only 4,909 households (7.6% of the total looked at by the NBS), and that the survey sample was hand-picked rather than being drawn randomly.

However, as Andrew Batson comments on the Wall Street Journal's 'China Real Time Report':

“It’s become increasingly widely accepted among researchers that better-off Chinese people not only hide their money from the taxman, they also don’t honestly answer the survey questions that government agencies use to figure out household incomes. The clear implication is that official income figures are too low.”

Thus, while some from the NBS take issue with the figure of 5.4 trillion yuan, Andrew Batson's article suggests the problems with official statistics implied in the independent report are not being dismissed out of hand. With any luck, the NBS will be able to use it to improve its own statistical surveys in the future.

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According to an article from the People's Daily, Zhang Ping (head of the National Development and Reform Commission) is aiming to increase China's annual grain output to 550 million tonnes by 2020 (with the 2009 figure standing at 530.8 million tonnes). China has an approach of remaining 95% self-sufficient in its food supply. Thus, with its expected demand for grain due to rise to over 570 million tonnes by 2020, Zhang's target figure would ensure that China maintains its levels of self-sufficiency for the forseeable future.

To realise this, Zhang's report to the current session of the National People's Congress announced further investment in farming infastructure and high-yield technologies. In addition, according to Zhang, the coming years will also see improvements in the way the agricultural sector copes with environmental disasters, which are likely to become more frequent in the future.

China's aim of being 95% self-sufficient in food supply is clearly intended to secure China's position as worldwide pressure on food resources grows in the coming decades. However, with its expanding population and consumption needs, whether or not China will be able to stick to this target is doubtful. There will come a point when grain production peaks, at which time the country will need to start looking to other countries to make up an expanding shortfall. In much the same way as with the exhaustion of the Daqing oilfields in the early 1990s, China will move very quickly from a position of security to one of dependance- a situation that could add an interesting dynamic to international relations.

The Politics of Sentencing

Yesterday, Sino-Gist commented on new proposed changes to China's capital punishment laws, whereby 13 economic crimes would no longer warrant the death penalty. However, an announcement by Chinese media today of the sentencing of Zheng Shaodong (the former assistant Minister for Public Security) to death with a 2 year reprieve shows how committed the Chinese authorities remain to making a firm example of those who harm the public interest.

According to the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court, over the course of 6 years from 2001 Zheng used his various positions (including being deputy head of Guangdong's Department of Public Security from 2001 until 2005, before being promoted to assistant Minister for Public Security) to amass over 1 million US dollars in bribes. The court also found him guilty of abusing his offices.

Death sentences for top officials are not uncommon in China. Recently, in July 2010, Chen Shaoji (the head of the Chinese People's Consultative Conference in Guangdong province) was given a similar suspended capital sentence for allegedly accepting over 4 million US dollars in bribes between 1992 and 2009. Such verdicts for high profile figures serve two key purposes. Firstly, after past public complaints about the widespread corruption in Chinese political life, the Party and the state authorities use cases like Zheng Shaodong's to clearly distance themselves from this climate of unscrupulous conduct. However, as a Reuters article commented when reporting on Chen Shaoji's sentencing, actions against top officials can also be heavily influenced by politics. Indeed, Reuters suggested that Chen's arrest can be seen as part of a wider purge of the Guangdong political scene by Wang Yang, the region's party secretary (and a known ally of Hu Jintao). With a leadership change due in 2012 at the next CCP Congress, provincial Party figures like Wang Yang are (in the words of Reuters) 'jockeying for position'.

Most probably, after Zheng's two year probationary period has elapsed his sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment. However, with the Xi'an court's verdict also including the removal of all of his political rights, it seems unlikely that Zheng will be a political phoenix. Even if he still has some allies in the Party, proven charges of corruption are much harder to work around than ideological crimes. Although there may come a time when China no longer views corruption as a crime worthy of capital or life sentences, the continuing 'gray income' problem in Chinese official life makes it seem unlikely that this point will be reached anytime soon.

Changes to the Law

Amnesty International estimates that China executes more people per year than the rest of the world put together. While most death sentences are given for murder and drug-related crime, capital punishments can also be applied to a selection of economic crimes, including corruption, fraud and smuggling. For example, in 2007, the former head of China's food and drug safety watchdog (Zheng Xiaoyu) was executed for corruption amid several health scares surrounding Chinese products.

However, this might be about to change. This morning, the Xinhua News Agency reported that an amendment to China's criminal code has been submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (China's most senior legislature) for its first reading. The proposed change would remove 13 economic offences from the current list of 68 crimes punishable by death, including the smuggling of precious metals and relics, some types of financial fraud, and teaching others how to commit crime.

China has maintained the death penalty for such offences up to now for the purpose of upholding public security and stability. Although the proposed change to the state's execution policy is in line with the declining use of the death penalty across the world, numerically the effect of this amendment will be minimal. Economic criminals make up only a small fraction of the total number of people executed in China each year, and death sentences for some offences are extremely rare (for example, the last capital sentence for teaching criminal methods was issued in 1997). If the amendment were to be passed it will be a definite step in the right direction, but further reform to the criminal law will be needed for rates of execution in China to drop significantly.

This current session of the Standing Committee of the NPC is also considering several other important additions to the law. These include the safeguarding of aspects of China's national cultural heritage, the criminalising of drink driving and making employers criminally responsible for defaulting on their employees' wages. As these are all only receiving their initial reading, it remains to be seen whether they will be passed into law or not.

A helpful reminder...

On Thursday 12^th August, the Xinhua New Agency reported comments written by Jia Qinglin (Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) calling on non-Party political figures to back the Communist Party's “socialist core values system” for the development of Chinese socialism.

Formulated in 2006 at the 16^th Central Committee's 6^th Plenum, the system consists of (in the words of Xinhua) “Marxism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, patriotism, the spirit of reform and innovation and the socialist sense of honor and disgrace.” Beijing's need to re-iterate these core values of its political ideology, especially at a time when relations with China's other legal political parties seem to be good (as shown by the recent celebrations of the Chinese Peasant's and Worker's Democratic Party's 80^th anniversary in the Great Hall of the People), suggests a sense of growing uneasiness amongst the CCP's top leadership. As with the Imperial dynasties that preceded it, natural disasters pose a major challenge to the government's levels of popular support. With the ongoing flooding across China, particularly in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, and the awful aftermath of these events, Jia Qinglin's remarks may be intended to serve as a reminder to the Chinese political landscape that the CCP remains the guiding hand for China's development in effect reaffirming its control. This is not to suggest that the Party is looking down the barrel of revolt against its rule, but governments often look at their weakest during times of environmental crisis. Certainly, the recent events in Pakistan demonstrate this.

Interestingly, the theme of the 'socialist sense of honor and disgrace' has been seen in the past week with several reports around corruption in official Chinese state media. After the People's Daily Online (English edition) featured findings that officials had received 5.4 trillion yuan in 'gray income' in 2009, with such income between 2005 and 2008 growing faster than China's Gross Domestic Product, this week saw He Guoqiang (China's anti-corruption chief) and Li Changchun speak out against corruption. Li Changchun also backed 'The Final Struggle', a new theatre play with a distinct anti-corruption message.

Of course, these latest in a long line of anti-corruption messages from the centre are not going to solve China's problem overnight. In a country as big as China, the inevitability of widespread corruption seems almost guaranteed. Since 1949, the many layers of government at the local, county and provincial levels has led to a proliferation of middle-men and, despite its reputation of ruling with a strong dictatorial fist, the CCP's reach only extends so far. In this sense, it is hard to see how China's great corruption 'issue' will be resolved. Whether it needs to be resolved is an altogether different argument.