Who Guards the Guardians?

There is a meme working its way around the world of China-watching that says Chinese people have resigned to the fact that domestic politics aren’t going to change anytime soon, but hey, that’s OK because the ruling party is going to make us rich. This is the supposed unspoken “deal” that you’ll invariably read about in almost any “big think” piece about China’s future.

But the validity of this pact hinges on the quiescence of the Chinese people. Quiet, it seems, equals contentment.

Of course it could be the case that there’s a swelling of anger towards the powers-that-be in China, but lacking an effective voice, citizens find it hard to vent their criticism (i.e., at the ballot box). The South China Morning Post is reporting today that a new corruption hot line set up by the CCP has been “overloaded” in its first week of existence.

China’s new government corruption hotline was overwhelmed in its first week with more than 17,000 tips and an unknown number unable to get through on overloaded lines, state media reported on Tuesday.The government invited the public and government insiders to help ferret out widespread corruption by anonymously reporting tips to the telephone and internet hotline launched on June 22, the China Daily reported.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate hotline is seeking information on crimes, including corruption, bribery, dereliction of duty, unlawful searches, illegal detention and illegally coercing confessions, it said.

However, many more would-be whistleblowers may have been unable to get through.

In the first week more than 11,000 people called in telephone tips and 6,000 others reported cases on the hotline’s website, 12309.gov.cn, the report said.

So it seems not everyone’s happy with the way things are going; that the pact isn’t all that its reported to be by many in the Western media.

One of the good pieces of news to come out of China in recent years is the role of technology in uncovering the depth of corruption at the local level. And it helps that officially, the central government is supporting increased efforts to limit the scope of corruption.

Many of the organizations working in China, including CIPA, the Transition Institute, the I Pencil Economic Research Institute, and the Shanghai Institute for Finance and Economics, are working in the area of what could be loosely called “economic rights” in an effort to bolster property rights and general economic liberty. These efforts are raising the expectations of the Chinese, which in turn is putting pressure on all levels of government. It’s not a magic bullet by any means, but there has been real progress in the sphere of human liberty in China, and much of that has come from the growth of civil society that is buttressed by increased economic liberty.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 11:55 AM. It is filed under Asia/Pacific and tagged with China, CIPA, corruption, I pencil Economic Research Institute, Shanghai Institute for Finance and Economics, South China Morning Post, technology, Transition Institute. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.