The Dynamics and Trajectory of Corruption in Contemporary China

Andrew Wedeman

《The China Review An Interdisciplinary Journal on Greater China》 22卷2期 (2022/05) Pp. 21-48

摘要

Analysis of the data on the anti-corruption crackdown launched by Xi Jinping in late 2012 and early 2013 shows that its primary effect was to dramatically increase the number of senior offcials-popularly known as ＂tigers＂-charged with corruption. Heretofore, much of the debate about the crackdown has focused on who was been taken down and why. In this article, I shift the focus away from the ＂who＂ and ＂why＂ questions to a deeper question: what led to the proliferation of tigers? That is, how did corruption spread among the senior ranks of the party-state? Drawing on data on the tigers' involvement in corruption, I argue that corruption was ＂promoted＂ upward during the years that preceded Xi's crackdown. Xi's fight with corruption has thus been a battle with corruption that spread first among the middle ranks of the party-state and then moved upward into the leadership as corrupt officials rose up through the ranks.