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The present authorities are very tolerant of dereliction of duty among bureaucrats. According to statistics from the People's Supreme Procuratorate, 95.6 percent of the bureaucrats prosecuted in 2006 for serious dereliction of duty were exempted from punishment or given suspended sentences.
The whole governing system of China is based on bureaucrats protecting one another. Higher authorities or supervisors often make excuses for their subordinates to allow them to evade justice and escape severe punishment. Even when there is a serious problem, the higher authority will only issue a warning, or at most impose a light penalty upon wrong-doers. Afterwards, the "problem person" can still be promoted, although the "problem" continues. Or the person will be temporarily transferred to another position, and then surprisingly get promoted again after public attention wanes.
China practices a lifelong cadre system of government. As a result, as long as a cadre does not make "mistakes," he or she will not be demoted. Despite the accusations of ordinary citizens and widely spread scandals, if a cadre does not offend his or her superior, he or she can still hold office. Corrupt officials are exposed only when there are a lot of deaths involved, or when the corruption has brought attention to the highest level authority.
Some government departments have huge organizational structures and funds and the sectors under their management appear to be in chaos, but no one will take the blame or resign from their position. It is not popular for any level of Chinese political officials to take political or social responsibility for their dereliction of duty. In fact, many cases of corruption will not be exposed as there is little supervision of officials. The majority of the media follow the same practice too.
One of the tacitly approved privileges of officialdom is the squandering of public funds by bureaucrats, which includes using public money to purchase cars, recreational activities, overseas travel, homes, healthcare and convalescence. According to media reports, the above five public expenses account for 50 percent of China's total expenditures. Another report reveals that during the 20 years between 1986 and 2005, China's per capita administration expenses increased by 23 times, while the GDP has only gone up by 14.6 times over the same period.
The lifestyle of public officials is very corrupt and lacks supervision. For example, although the central authority has set forth regulations and penalties for having mistresses, recently there has appeared online a winners' list in the "National Grand Competition of Concubines," which ridicules corrupt officials. This shows how serious the situation of corruption is and how dissatisfied with the officials ordinary citizens are.
The authorities will not impose legal penalties when officials actually commit crimes. Moreover, they may even block critical media reports. In some local regions, the policy is that cases of corruption and bribery involving less than 50,000 yuan (US$6,500) will not be put on record. Some places "aim at serious cases while neglecting small cases." All of this is actually against the law.
In addition, there are serious problems of bureaucracy and hidden rules. The popular behavior in the culture of officialdom is: establishing personal relationships, taking advantage of private connections, singing songs of praise, showing off achievements, putting on superficial shows for the public, and attacking opponents and other people who report to the authorities.
In a popular ballad called "Sketch of Officialdom" there is a vivid description of modern bureaucrats: the body grows large while the mind grows narrow; the title gets higher while knowledge gets shallower; speeches get longer while the truth is diminished; power grows stronger while credit shrinks; the cadre gets older while his lovers get younger. Some overseas comments have pointed out that Chinese people work as hard as ants and obey as obediently as horses and oxen. However, China lacks an appropriate scientific method for selecting leaders and managers, which results in many unqualified personnel occupying leadership positions.
The present authority must understand that without political civilization there will be no spiritual civilization, and the material civilization will also grow unhealthy. The ethical crisis of governance and management results from the backward system -- which follows the rule of men, not the rule of law, without accountability. Ethical standards should be the foundation of officialdom. Only if the officials become a model of such ethical standards can China's social ethics and civilization be improved. Therefore, "governing the officials" is very urgent for China now.
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(Hu Xingdou is professor of economics and China issues at the Beijing Institute of Technology and an expert on social problems. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese. ©Copyright Hu Xingdou.)
