Corruption With Chinese Characteristics

Corruption Prosecuted Only in China?

Western media have been waging a corruption perception war on China since the Communist Party came to power 60 years ago but lately the framing of the story has changed.

Our press talks, almost daily, about corruption in Chinese government yet is silent about the systemic corruption in our own. They'll cover domestic corruption incidents if they're scandalous but frame the issue so that our legislators and businessmen who get caught are merely rotten apples. Western governments themselves are almost completely silent about government corruption. Our business leaders' corruption is, of course, ignored, and the rare prosecution is aimed at underlings and whistleblowers and, even then, carried out with obvious reluctance.

The Chinese media, by contrast, shout from the rooftops that corruption will doom the Communist Party. The country is going to the dogs, they say, and it's the corrupt officials who are to blame. And the business class? They're often presented as even more venal than the government; prosecutions of the Chinese financiers are reported in lip-smacking details and, if the wretched businessman is condemned to death (not uncommon), then so much the better! Kill the chicken, frighten the monkeys.

You get the impression that a corrupt official in China can make a lot of money. But you also get the impression that he can be imprisoned or executed with considerable relish.

Framing the Chinese Narrative
Western Media: Our politicians are moral and trustworthy with the exception of a few bad apples. The system they govern is the world's best because it's free and democratic.  Compared to ours, China's leaders are authoritarian princeling slave-drivers who exploit their people for personal gain and power. And China's economy is about to collapse – its people are on the verge of open rebellion. We, the media who are reporting this to you, are honest, truthful and free because our government doesn't believe in censorship.

Chinese Media: Our  politicians and business leaders are riddled with corruption from top to bottom. The system they govern is unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable. This rampant corruption is destroying the credibility of the Communist Party and if it continues it will destroy the entire country. Why aren't more officials and corrupt financiers being prosecuted? And China should study the West and learn from it because it will take us decades to reach their level of democracy, civil society, and prosperity and media sophistication. Chinese media are just learning the craft of journalism and we rely on Government censors to ensure that what we publish is fair, useful, and accurate.


Western Narrative vs. Western Reality
Our politicians auction themselves to rich people every 4 years. The 2012 Presidency was auctioned off for $1.2 billion per candidate. All other elected offices were also auctioned to the highest bidder. Our system is so crooked that it actually weeds out honest candidates. Only glib liars who are willing to vote as their sponsors demand can be elected. As a result our system is broken; wages have been falling for 40 years, people's net worth has vanished so that 80% of us will retire with no assets at all. Our oligarchs take all the money and leave little for anyone else.

I'd rather have our government warning us about government corruption than making it part of their modus operandi. In my opinion, the Chinese government is the most honest of all the major nations'. The results they obtain – year after year – cannot be accomplished by a corrupt government. And the Chinese people agree: 80% of them trust the Government of China (Pew, Edelman, Harvard). So strong is the trust that the people of Taiwan trust the President of China much more than they trust their own, recently-elected President.

Imagine what our lives would be like if we could trust our government to that degree!