Corruption in China

Cleaning up the Party

Dec 26th 2012, 18:28 by J.A.

WITH all due respect to Barack Obama and Angela Merkel, the most important politician in 2013 could well be Xi Jinping, chosen a month ago as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and on schedule to be formally "elected" in March as president of the world's most populous country. A perceptive article in The World in 2013 outlines the challenges confronting Mr Xi (pictured): for example, an economy that now needs to concentrate more on domestic demand or the trial that awaits the charismatic Bo Xilai, purged from the Politburo April in somewhat murky circumstances (his wife, Gu Kailai, pleaded guilty in August to the murder of a British business associate of the family) but previously a rival to Mr Xi. 

However, Cassandra reckons that the most important challenge is to check the corruption, both great and small, that runs throughout the society and threatens to discredit the Communist Party and ultimately undermine its right to rule. After all, even though Deng Xiaoping famously said "to get rich is glorious", there has to be a limit—and excesses of nepotism and bribery clearly breach it in the popular mind. Back in October China's authorities angrily blocked the online edition of the New York Times after a well-researched article revealed that the family of Wen Jiabao (who will step down as prime minister in March, to be replaced by Li Keqiang) had amassed assets worth a staggering $2.7 billion (Mr Wen, it should be said, makes a point of being honest; an American diplomatic cable in 2007 released by Wikileaks said he is "disgusted with his family's activities, but is either unable or unwilling to curtail them"). But contrast that reaction by the authorities, presumably anxious that no foreign "smear" should taint the leadership, with the zeal now to punish offenders lower down the party ladder—witness this fascinating article in today's New York Times. As far as I am aware, there is no move this time to ban the New York Times from Chinese eyes.