Op-Ed Contributors
Eyes on officials during Spring Festival
By Wang Aihua and Li Huizi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-26 07:47
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At one of Beijing's famous tea stores, shop assistants easily sold beautifully wrapped packages of tea priced at 42,000 yuan ($6,160) before the Chinese Lunar New Year on Feb 14.
At department stores, customers buying gift cards had to wait in long queues.
The Chinese tradition of presenting gifts to family members and friends during the lunar new year has now been extended to sending gifts to officials, posing new challenges to the country's anti-corruption efforts.
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It also said that among the 100 bribery cases heard from 2005 to 2007 at the Beijing Dongcheng district people's court, Beijing Haidian district people's court and the Beijing No 1 intermediate people's court, 78 officials had accepted bribes during the lunar new year period.
Peking University Professor Huang Zongliang attributed this phenomenon to bribers trying to "buy over" officials discreetly and facilitate asking for favors in the future. "Festival gifts are simply bribes in disguise, although bribers may not ask for favors immediately," Huang said.
However, nearly half of the officials who took gifts during the lunar new year believed that they should not be considered bribes, according to the Procuratorial Daily report.
Shortly before this new year, a former high-ranking official in southwest Chongqing Municipality defended himself in court and said that the gifts he took for his birthday that coincided with Spring Festival celebrations should not be considered bribes.
The official was Wen Qiang, former director of the Chongqing municipal bureau of justice and a key figure in the country's largest gang crackdown. He was found to be in possession of antiques, brand-name watches and an authentic painting worth several million yuan in total.
Huang said the official's argument was just an excuse. "If he did not have power, many would not have bought him birthday gifts," Huang said.
China's Criminal Law defines bribes as cash or properties that officials take in exchange for favors carried out through the abuse of their power.
According to the law, bribes worth 5,000 yuan or less could send an official to two years in prison. Those taking more than 100,000 yuan could face more than 10 years in jail, or even life imprisonment.
Traditionally, items such as wine, tobacco, tea and brand-name watches would be on officials' gift lists.
New gift ideas in recent years have included prepaid gift cards and monetary gifts covering officials' private travel costs.
Corruption watchdogs in China have in the past repeatedly warned officials against taking gifts disguised as bribes during festivals, with some even explicitly listing what items to avoid.
In January, President Hu Jintao again called for stricter self-discipline among officials.
In a speech delivered at the Third Plenary Session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Hu said CPC members must unremittingly improve their mastery of the "Party spirit," meaning that moral and discipline standards should be further raised.
Besides self-discipline, experts believe supervision from both high level departments and the public should be another tool used to curb corruption.
Li Chengyan, a professor at Peking University, said the public should be allowed to participate in the appraisal of an official's performance.
Li also believed information of an official's possessions should be made public and people should be encouraged to supervise and report irregularities in officials' private lives.
The authors are writers with Xinhua News Agency.
(China Daily 02/26/2010 page8)
