Complementing the local discipline inspection commissions of the CCP: empowerment of the central inspection groups

Rampant corruption among China’s party members suggests that the existing system of party discipline is too fragile to function effectively. The question now is how the central leadership reinforces party supervision over leading cadres in both government and state firms. The Chinese leadership, after some period of experimentation, has introduced new institutions, named zhongyang xunshizu (central inspection groups), to complement the existing discipline system. This article examines how these central inspection groups complement the existing groups institutionally and normatively, and explores the Chinese Communist Party’s institutional engineering efforts to maintain legitimacy, organizational integrity and sustainability. This article considers these initiatives from the view of institutional complementarity and compensation. Theoretically, the application of institutional complementarity to China’s party discipline inspection should expand the scope of analysis into China’s institutional reform of party discipline. Empirically, the central inspection groups are the least known, but perhaps most significant, direct channel for central supervision of leaders in both local government and key state-owned enterprises. By comparing the rationale and operation of disciplinary inspection commissions (DICs), this article attempts to explain how the central inspection groups complement the supervision of local DICs in terms of scope, structure and methods of control.     

Defining the limits of local government power in China: The relevance of international experience

This paper looks at the impact of decentralization on China's market system. It is argued that as the Chinese central government relaxed its control over the economy through decentralization, local governments turned many of the transferred powers to restrict market competition. This paper proposes that an umbrella legislation of Interregional Commerce be enacted and a Fair Trade Commission be created to ensure that government policies at all levels be pro‐competition. As an institutional prerequisite, the government organizational reform should be extended to more sectors of the economy.     

China's land disposition system

This paper studies the present land disposition (requisition and acquisition) and land use rights transfer system in China with emphasis on its marketization and its institutional arrangement concerning the central state and the local government. China's current land property right system is first described. It finds that although the communist government gained full control over the Chinese Mainland in 1949, it had never constitutionalized the state ownership of land until December 1982. Since then, the State owns all urban (nonagricultural) land and the rural collectives jointly own agricultural land. Only the user rights of urban land are allowed to be transferred. China's land administration system, its historical evolution, and its institutional configuration are then studied. Institutional difficulties associated with this system are also discussed. This paper proceeds further to study China's land requisition approval system. The role of the local government in land transactions is also discussed. The rest of this paper inquires into the marketization of land transactions in China. Discussion on the trend of China's land market development, suggestions for its improvement and remarks for future studies conclude this paper.     

How Political Accountability Undermines Public Service Ethics: the case of Hong Kong

Hong Kong's Principal Officials Accountability System (POAS) aims to create a coherent political leadership within the government whose members are responsible for policy decisions. POAS also aspires to better protect the professional integrity of a neutral public service. Since the implementation of POAS in 2002, the objective of enhancing political accountability has come into conflict with the protection of the integrity of the public service. The reason for this is twofold. First, a critical analysis has revealed major institutional defects in POAS, which have undermined the integrity of the public service. Second, a close examination of some recent incidents has established that the implementation of POAS under an increasingly politicized environment has undermined some core values traditionally nurtured by Hong Kong's public service.     

Anti-Corruption Approaches in Macao: lawmaking and legal enforcement

Successive governments have sought to address the enduring problem of corruption in Macao. Yet the institutional framework for dealing with corrupt practices has singularly failed to live up to political promises and public expectations of clean government. The Ao Man-long case, in which a former Secretary for Transport and Public Works was found guilty of corrupt practices involving an estimated $800 million (about US$100 million), rocked public confidence in the anti-corruption institutions and gave credence to the widely-held view that an expanded gaming industry had provided more opportunities for illicit behavior. Diagnosing the causes of failure suggests that neither a lack of resources nor the absence of rules serves to explain the continuing high levels of bureaucratic corruption. Rather the explanation for the failure of the institutional framework lies in the content of the rules and the way in which they are implemented. While this situation continues to persist, it is unlikely that the problem of bureaucratic corruption will be resolved or that its wider impact on the government's legitimacy will be reduced.     

Challenges for China's Reform of Government Procurement

China's reform of government procurement aims to promote greater prudence in expenditure management through introducing transparency, accountability, and competition into the procurement process. The reform can also be construed as China's effort to fulfill its commitment to the WTO. This paper examines the evolution of the reform and measures the success of the reform against three indicators: the amount of cost reduction, the coverage of procurement activities, and the degree of harmonization with the WTO Agreement of Government Procurement. This paper argues that the success of the reform has been limited by an array of factors, including the misconceptions of certain procurement officials and their malpractices in procurement processes, the poor capacities of some local governments in enforcing reform, structural deficiencies in the budget management system, and the lack of political will of both central and local authorities in spurring trade liberalization.     

China's post‐1979 uneven regional policy: Shanghai and Guangdong

This article examines the effects of China's uneven regional development policy, especially in relation to Shanghai. It analyses the evolving role of Shanghai and the constraints that it has operated under during the reform period. Discussion will be particularly devoted to the areas such as the fiscal transfer, central investment in the municipality, the tax and other incentive program allowed to increase the inflows of foreign direct investment by adopting a series of comparisons with Guangdong province. The article argues that it is not economically efficient for China to ‘open its door’ by creating new cities in its southern area while neglecting to improve existing facilities in Shanghai and other advanced cities. This article also suggests that social‐economic institutional change is the same important source of Shanghai's difficulty in keeping pace with Guangdong as the preferential treatment given to Guangdong by the central government in the 1980s.     

控权问责、服务提升与电子政务的清廉效应——基于中国282个地级市调查数据的实证分析

十九届四中全会对推进反腐败斗争和政务信息技术的运用提出了明确要求,而电子政务能否以及如何影响地区清廉水平在实证研究中尚未得到充分的验证。本文采用中国282个地级市政府的相关调查数据进行分析,发现电子政务确实能够显著提升地区的清廉水平,地区电子政务发展水平越高,公众经历的索贿、贪污类腐败事件比例越低,对政府的清廉感知水平越高。进一步的分析表明,电子政务发展是通过控权问责和服务提升两种内在机制改善了地区的清廉水平,前者显著减少了地区公职人员的索贿行为,而后者在提升公众的清廉感知水平方面发挥了积极作用。目前,我国地方政府电子政务发展中存在的诸多问题限制了其在廉政治理中的潜力发挥,未来应采取措施推进电子政务在政务公开和在线服务等方面的纵深化和高质量发展。     

Fiscal Federalism: a refined theory and its application in the Chinese context

China's central–local relations have been marked by perpetual changes amidst economic restructuring. Fiscal decentralization on the expenditure side has been paralleled by centralization on the revenue side, accompanied by political centralization. Hence, our understanding of China's fiscal relations is not without controversy. This paper aims to make a theoretical contribution to the ongoing debate on ‘fiscal federalism’ by addressing crucial questions regarding China's central–local fiscal relations: first, to what extent do Chinese central–local fiscal relations conform to fiscal federalism in the Western literature? Second, are there any problems with existing principles of fiscal federalism and, if so, how to refine them? Third, how are refined principles relevant to the Chinese case and what policies should the Chinese government pursue in the future? Based on an in-depth and critical review of the theories on fiscal federalism, we develop a refined prototype of fiscal federalism. The model shows that quasi-traditional fiscal federalism is a much closer reality in China, while we argue that the refined fiscal federalism should be the direction of future reform in China.     

Institutional Design and Corruption Prevention in Hong Kong

In recent years, the Hong Kong government has sought to supplement its highly successful, rule-based anti-corruption strategy with value-based elements which stress the importance of ensuring personal integrity and avoiding conflicts of interest. The introduction of these elements raises issues about the relationship between rules and values within public organizations seeking to enhance their integrity management systems. In the Hong Kong case, it is argued, the predominance of the rule-based system means that value issues, such as potential conflicts of interests, tend to be pushed up through the hierarchy for resolution at higher levels in the organization. In addition, the development of informal rules relating to value issues limits the extent to which public officials can exercise personal discretion. The article is based on a survey of Ethics Officers and Assistant Ethics Officers in the Hong Kong government in June 2010 and on follow-up interviews conducted between October and December 2010.     

State–Society Interdependence Model in Market Transition: a case study of the ‘Farmers’ City’ in Wenzhou during the early reform era

Based on first-hand field research data, this paper explores the construction of a ‘Farmers’ City’ in Wenzhou in the early 1980s. It studies the actors, their relationships, and the institutions, and proposes a ‘state–society interdependence model’. It concludes that the spontaneous, bottom-up urbanization process initiated by farmers as described in the texts was actually the win–win result of an interactive and interdependent relationship between the farmers and local government. The reasons are: (1) the actors, including the local government, the specialized farmers (zhuanye hu), and the other farmers, collectively owned, controlled, and obtained the resources; (2) in terms of the mobilization-response process, the close patron–client ties between the farmers and local government formed a strong interdependent relationship; and (3) in terms of the institutional reforms, the folk interests and demands were always a reference point for the local government. The farmers and their government were partners, participants, and practitioners in grassroots institutional reform.     

Railway Sector Reform in China: controversy and problems

The railway sector in China has undergone several major rounds of reform and institutional restructuring since 1986. These reform initiatives have largely been unsuccessful due to strong resistance from vested interest groups. The development of China's railway sector has raised some challenging issues that include the centralization of power in the Ministry of Railways (MOR), state monopoly control, rampant corruption and the accumulation of a huge debt burden. The 2013 railway reform initiatives have provided very little in the way of concrete measures to deal with these thorny issues but have instead created more controversy and problems in an already crisis-ridden sector. For the railway industry, the transformation from the mixed-function MOR to a monopolistic China Railway Corporation (CRC) will not necessarily lead to better railway management.     

The 1998 State Council Organizational Streamlining: Personnel reduction and change of government function

The two goals of the 1998 State Council organizational streamlining were personnel reduction and a change of government functions. It is argued that the methods being used to achieve personnel reduction do not constitute a real reduction but largely involve transferring staff to other public institutions. Real personnel reduction could not be achieved without a major change of government function. Institutional reforms of both the central and local governments since the 1980s have been adaptations to the changing economic structure from a planned to a market economy. Government functions have served both existing economies. Cadres cannot be reduced unless the government function of direct management of state-enterprises is completely severed. The major contents of the 1998 institutional reform are examined and evaluated. The prospects for the success of the reform are also assessed.     

马克思主义民主反腐思想及其当代价值

民主反腐是人类政治文明发展的重要成果之一,是马克思主义反腐倡廉建设的一个基本原则。马克思主义经典作家提出了丰富的民主反腐思想,既奠定了无产阶级政党反腐倡廉建设的理论基础,又成为中国特色反腐倡廉道路的指导思想。在新时期继承和发展马克思主义民主反腐思想,走出一条中国特色反腐倡廉道路,必须继续推进政治体制改革,发展人民民主,保证人民群众有效参与反腐倡廉建设。     

关于制度廉洁性评估规范化的思考

制度廉洁性评估工作是反腐倡廉机制创新的重大举措,是改进立法和决策的着力点和新机制,有助于推进决策风险评估、备案审查、立法后评估、立法清理等工作,增强立法和决策监督的有效性。立足于防治腐败,应当明确制度廉洁性评估的原则,完善制度廉洁性评估指标体系,健全制度廉洁性评估体制、机制和程序,逐步推进和实现制度廉洁性评估规范化和制度化。     

Support for Anti-corruption Campaigns in Rural China

Based on data collected in a survey conducted in six Chinese provinces at the end of 1997 and early 1998, this article offers a preliminary analysis of why some peasants wished to see Mao-style anti-corruption campaigns. It shows that the support for campaigns is negatively correlated with the respondents' evaluation of local officials' performance in governing by law, their confidence in the equality before the law, and their assessment of the effectiveness of lawful participation. It concludes that popular support for mass mobilization could contribute to rural instability as Chinese farmers become increasingly impatient with the regime's failure to control corruption.     

Re-interpreting China's Non-intervention Policy towards Myanmar: leverage,interest and intervention

China's non-intervention policy has long been criticized for prolonging the rule of many authoritarian regimes. Myanmar has become one of the classic examples. As China is expected to become a responsible great power, her behavioral patterns have aroused many concerns. This paper aims to re-interpret China's non-intervention policy. While explaining various constraints on China's capability to intervene in the Myanmar government, it shows how China is making efforts to seek a new intervention policy in dealing with countries like Myanmar. It argues that China's insistence on a non-intervention policy does not mean that China does not want to influence other countries such as Myanmar. To assess Chinese leverage and its non-intervention policy toward Myanmar as well as to supplement the current limited academic discussion on Sino–Myanmar relations, in this paper we first examine Chinese leverage in Myanmar through Burmese local politics, such as the power struggle between the central government and local rebel governments. Second, we disaggregate the Chinese interests in Myanmar into different levels (regional, geo-strategic and international) and discuss how these interests affect China's non-intervention policy. Third, we argue that China has indeed tried to intervene in Myanmar politics, but in a softer manner that contrasts with the traditional Western hard interventions, such as economic sanctions and military interference.     

Business as usual: The dynamics of government‐business relations in the Hong Kong special administrative region

This is an attempt to evaluate the implications of Hong Kong's political transition to post‐colonial rule for economic governance in the SAR beyond the ‘Beijing versus Hong Kong’ perspective. The article examines the changing government‐business dynamics in Hong Kong after the reversion by focusing on three inter‐related dimensions: economic ideology; institutional and policy framework; and the new political environment in post‐colonial Hong Kong. By challenging the assertion that Hong Kong is returning to the pre‐Patten colonial order under Chinese management, it argues that economic governance in Hong Kong has always been more complex than has been characterized in the literature. A conceptual framework incorporating the dynamic interplay of domestic and international factors is needed to comprehend the changing nature of government‐business relationships in the SAR.     

基层检察机关廉政文化建设研究

检察机关作为国家的法律监督机关,既肩负着反腐倡廉的历史使命,又面临着自身建设与反腐工作的巨大挑战。在开展党的群众路线过程中,一些基层检察机关不同程度地暴露出诸如作风不正、纪律不严、执法不实、行为不廉等与党的群众路线不相符甚至对立等问题,一些领导干部、检察人员的形式主义、官僚主义、享乐主义和奢靡之风依然盛行,这既严重损害了检察机关的良好形象和执法公信力,也严重阻碍了检察工作的健康持续发展。因此,检察机关需凝聚反腐工作共识,着力加强检察廉政精神文化、行为文化、制度文化和物态文化建设,努力营造以廉为荣、以贪为耻的检察机关廉政文化氛围。     

“零容忍”反腐败:内涵、特征与进路

本文在研究"零容忍"反腐败的内涵和特征以及借鉴新加坡和香港"零容忍"反腐败的基础上,提出"零容忍"反腐败的进路思考。"零容忍"反腐败要建立一套完整有效的法律制度,形成一支坚强有力的执行队伍,加强执行权威,建构一个公民参与的、广泛细化的反腐败网络,也要通过反腐败教育提高公民反腐败意识和公务员廉洁奉公的情操。