Anti-corruption drive now covers retired officials to strengthen the rule of law and ensure that offenders don't go unpunished

The Ministry of Supervision announced on Oct 11 that Zhao Shaolin, former chief of the Jiangsu provincial committee of the Party, has been put under investigation for corruption, drawing widespread attention because Zhao retired eight years ago. The announcement reiterated that the anti-corruption campaign would not spare retired officials.

A few provinces have already taken measures to strengthen supervision over retired officials and order probes against those suspected of being involved in corruption. At a recent press conference of the Guangzhou municipal disciplinary agency, its spokesman Mei Heqing said that some retired officials had been penalized for the corrupt deeds they committed 20 years ago. "They are gray-haired but still have to be responsible for their misdeeds," Mei said, adding that corrupt officials, serving or retired, must be punished according to the law.

The move is welcome because unlike in many Western countries, corrupt officials in China can continue to trade power for money even after retirement. A common trick used by such corrupt officials is to "assign" loyal "subordinates" in their offices to maintain the dirty "arrangement" after their retirement and then seek new positions in other public enterprises to continue the illegal deals. By doing so, the corrupt officials not only change their share of the dirty money into legal income, but also better cover the clues that could expose them as their "loyal" subordinates need not directly participate in the power-for-money exchange.

Sometimes a retired official can weave a network of personal relations wide enough to control many powerful government agencies. Former national security chief Zhou Yongkang, now under investigation for corruption, had succeeded in spreading such a net.

Until recently, corrupt officials felt quite safe in running their rackets after retirement, because anti-corruption officials believed retirees were beyond their supervision. As a result, corruption passed from one person to another like an epidemic, and sometimes involved most officials in an agency or bureau.

The ongoing anti-corruption drive, however, is expected to end this vicious circle. By hunting down retired "tigers" and strictly imposing disciplinary measures that prohibit retired officials from assuming improper positions in enterprises or social organizations, the new leadership has ended the illusion that "retirement makes an official safe".

The drive against retired corrupt officials could also deter those still in office from indulging in corruption. Now corrupt officials have to worry about the consequences of their misdeeds as long as they are alive, knowing that the long arm of law will reach them one day.

The move is a smart strategy also because it will diminish the influence of retired officials and thus prevent the corrupt ones from mobilizing enough resources and manpower to evade investigations. Two such examples are Xu Caihou, former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Zhou Yongkang, both of whom are now under investigation for corruption.

The damage done by retired corrupt officials should never be underestimated. After the investigation against Zhou was announced, some media outlets prepared graphics of his corrupt relationship network, in which a number of officials of the level of vice-minister or above were involved. Without Zhou being put under investigation, his network of corruption would not have been exposed.

These facts make it all the more necessary to strengthen supervision over officials even after they retire. Keeping in mind this necessity, the central leadership has already issued a number of disciplinary measures to regulate the behavior of retired officials.

In September, the People's Liberation Army introduced a new regulation on salaries, rights and responsibilities of retired military officers, which prohibit them from taking up certain positions in social organizations. Civil officials are likely to be bound by similar regulations in the near future to end the corruption rackets run by retirees.

Of course, one or two regulations are not enough to solve all the problems. The existence of retired officials engaged in corruption best explains how loose the supervision over power is. Corruption can be rooted out only by strengthening the rule of law and shutting power in the cage of law. That may be a long process, but China has to start the aggressive operation because corruption has already taken a cancerous form.

The author is a researcher in political science at the Central Institute of Socialism.