Judicial reform versus judicial corruption: Recent developments in china

Criminal Law Forum

Volumn 11, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 323-351

  Keyuan, Z O U ^a  

^a NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE   (Singapore)

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EID: 54649084722     PISSN: 10468374     EISSN: 15729850     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1009479211354     Document Type: Article

References (155)

1. Ibrahim F.I. Shihata, Corruption -A General Review with an Emphasis on the Role of the World Bank, 15 DlCKINSON J. INT'L L. 453 (1997).
2. See also R. K.LITGAARD, CONTROLLING CORRUPTION 22 (1988);
3. A. Shleifer and R. Vishny, Corruption, 108 Q. J. ECON. 599 (1993);
4. M. Nairn, The Corruption Eruption, 2 BROWN J. WORLD AFFAIRS 245(1995), at p. 248.
5. See Klitgaard, ibid., at pp. 38-417.
6. Shihata, supra note 1, at p. 455.
7. See M. Johnston, The Political Consequences of Corruption: A Reassessment, 18 COMP. POL. 459 (1986), at p. 464.
8. See Shihata, supra note 1, at p. 456.
9. See TING GONG, THE POLITICS OF CORRUPTION IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA: AN ANALYSIS OF POLICY OUTCOMES 21 (1994).
10. Liu Cuiping, On the Identity Between Opposing Bourgeois Liberation and AntiCorruption, GUANGMING DAILY (in Chinese), July 30, 1990.
11. See HUANG BAILIAN, CURBING CORRUPTION: STUDY ON THE PROCEDURE AND SYSTEM OF DEMOCRATIC SUPERVISION 4 (1997) (in Chinese).
12. See LESLIE HOLMES, THE END OF COMMUNIST POWER: ANTI-CORRUPTION CAMPAIGNS AND LEGITIMATION CRISIS 66 (1993).
13. This concise definition is given by Leslie Palmier. See Leslie Palmier, Bureaucratic Corruption and Its Remedies, in CORRUPTION: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES AND CONTROL 207 (M. Clarke, ed., 1983).
14. BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 365 (6th edn., 1990).
15. See JULIA KWONG, THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CORRUPTION IN CHINA ix (1997). According to Kwong, corruption is breaking legal and organisational rules to use public goods or the power vested in one's public office for private ends.
16. See Holmes, supra note 9, at p. 65.
17. They are: (1) turning a blind eye; (2) refusal to investigate/charge, and/or obstructing investigation; (3) avoidance of specific procedures (all together as "deliberate dereliction of duties, inaction and obstruction"); (4) nepotism; (5) shared experiences (cronyism); (6) shared interests (the above 4, 5, 6 are "improper filling of office" - patronage); (7) false reporting - overstatement; (8) false reporting - understatement; (9) deception of supplicants; (10) forging of documents ("deliberate deception"); ( 11 ) accepting bribes; (12) offering bribes; (13) extortion; (14) blackmail; (15) not earning one's salary; (16) improper use of socialised property; (17) embezzlement; (18) speculation; (19) smuggling; and (20) treason. See Holmes, ibid., at pp. 81-88. Holmes also gives illustrative examples for the above twenty forms of corruption in one chapter. Her list is probably too long and some of the forms can be combined.
18. PEOPLE'S DAILY (in Chinese), September 11, 1998.
19. See Xu Zhenqiang and He Caiying, Police Corruption and Its Prevention, 1 TRIBUNE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND LAW 48 (2000) (in Chinese). The authors list eight types of police corruption. Torture is one of them.
20. They are: (1) taking bribery or embezzling state funds and properties; (2) seeking benefits for dependants, relatives, and friends in recruiting, school admission, job assignment, cadre status, exit permit, and admission to the Party; (3) neglecting one's duty and, thereby, causing great damage to the economy; (4) providing trusted followers with key official positions; (5) working inefficiently, shirking responsibility, and shifting blame onto others; (6) acting arbitrarily, retaliating, and framing cases against others; (7) making false reports, prone to boasting and exaggeration; (8) using public funds for banquets and gift-giving; (9) running businesses and profiteering; (10) taking advantage of one's position to occupy or build houses for oneself; (11) living lavishly; (12) mishandling sexual relationships; (13) forming cliques to pursue selfish interests; (14) gambling and visiting prostitutes; (15) spending extravagantly on marriage and funeral arrangements; (16) engaging in superstitious activities; (17) smuggling; and (18) selling state intelligence. Ting Gong, supra note 6, at p. 9.
21. Jacob van Klaveren, THE CONCEPT OF CORRUPTION, in POLITICAL CORRUPTION: READINGS IN COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS 38 (Arnold J. Heidenheimer, ed., 1978).
22. T. WING Lo, CORRUPTION AND POLITICS IN HONG KONG AND CHINA 1 (1993).
23. See Nation moves boldly forward, CHINA DAILY, March 6, 2000.
24. See Chen Wuming, The Characteristics of the Rampant Corruption and Its Grave Harm, 8 SEEKING THE TRUTH 27 (2000) (in Chinese).
25. Major Corruption Cases, BEIJING REVIEW, May 22, 2000, at p. 14.
26. BEIJING REVIEW, Ibid.
27. See PEOPLE'S DAILY, September 15, 2000, at p. 1 (in Chinese).
28. Hu Changqing, former vice-governor of the provincial government of Jiangxi Province, was sentenced to death for his acceptance and requesting of large bribes on February 15, 2000. He was executed on March 18, 2000 for his acceptance and requesting of large bribes. For details, see Case of Hu Changqing Involving Accepting and Giving Bribes and Holding a Huge Amount of Property with Unidentified Sources, Communique of Supreme People's Procuraturate of the People's Republic of China, no. 4, 2000, 21-23 (in Chinese).
29. Cheng Kejie, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, was sentenced to death on July 31, 2000 for accepting bribes and executed on September 14, 2000. He was the first high ranking official to be punished for corruption in the history of the Peoples Republic of China.
30. See Chen Wuming, Curbing Corruption: A Juncture Which Must be Leaped Over, OUTLOOK WEEKLY, August 7, 2000, pp. 27-28 (in Chinese), and
31. Liu Chun, An Analysis of the Characteristics of China's Corruption in the 1990s, [2000] ORIENT No. 3, pp. 8-9.
32. See Li Ming, City beefs up anti-graft drive, CHINA DAILY, April 22, 2000.
33. Quo Chunming and Liu Zhigang, Judicial Justice: A Summarisation of the Seminar on the Goals of the Judicial Reform, [2000] CHINESE LEGAL SCIENCE, No. 4, p. 158 (in Chinese).
34. See Courts Correcting Misjudged, Mishandled Cases, CHINA DAILY, September 15, 1998.
35. JinZeqing, Prosecutor vows corruption fight, CHINA DAILY, March 11, 2000.
36. See Xu and He, supra note 16, at p. 47.
37. See Zhuang Huining, To Use Heavy Punishment against Crime of Misconduct in Office, OUTLOOK WEEKLY, May 8, 2000, p. 26 (in Chinese).
38. The First Case of Judicial Corruption in Guangxi, XlNHUA NEWS AGENCY, May 29, 2000, available at (consulted August 26, 2000). They got the money from prisoners' families to parole the prisoners or reduce their length of sentence illegally.
39. See S. Rose-Ackerman, THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CORRUPTION - CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES (1996); cited in Shihata, supra note 1, at p. 461.
40. Promulgated April 21, 1952. The text is reprinted in SELECTED DOCUMENTS ON CLEAN MAINTENANCE AND ANTI-CORRUPTION 50-53 (1989) (in Chinese).
41. See JEAN-LOUIS ROCCA, POWER, WEALTH AND CORRUPTION IN MAINLAND CHINA 3 (1993).
42. The 1989 amendment to the Constitution has such new wordings as "the People's Republic of China implements law to govern the state and construct the socialist country with rule of law". See PEOPLE'S DAILY, March 17, 1999 (in Chinese). For an assessment of the amendment,
43. see Zou Keyuan and Zheng Yongnian, China 's Third Constitutional Amendment: A Leap Forward towards Rule of Law in China, 4 YEARBOOK LAW AND LEGAL PRACTICE IN LAST ASIA 29 (1999).
44. See Liu Jinguo, Legal Constraints to Power Corruption, 1 CHINESE LEGAL SCIENCE 47 (2000) (in Chinese).
45. Article 155 of the 1979 Criminal Law. The text is reprinted in COLLECTIONS OF LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 48 (1986) (in Chinese). An English version is available in LAW IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: COMMENTARY, READINGS AND MATERIALS 995 (Ralph H. Folsom and John H. Minan, eds., 1989).
46. Articles 118-119, 126, 152, and 185 of the 1979 Criminal Law.
47. SELECTED DOCUMENTS ON CLEAN MAINTENANCE AND ANTI-CORRUPTION, supra note 36, at pp. 185-189.
48. The 1982 Decision was followed by the Decision on the Punishment of Serious Criminal Activities in the Lconomic Field jointly issued by the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council, ibid., at pp. 193-204.
49. They are the Reply Concerning Certain Questions on the Specific Application of the Law in the Present Handling of Cases of Economic Crime (for Trial Implementation) jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuraturate and the Notice Concerning the Strict Prohibition of Illegal Profit Seeking in Social Economic Activities issued by the Office of the State Council. The Reply is available in THE CLASSIFIED ASSEMBLAGE OF THE LAW OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 54-59 (1994) (in Chinese).
50. The Notice is reprinted in SELECTED DOCUMENTS ON CLEAN MAINTENANCE AND ANTI-CORRUPTION, supra note 36, at pp. 278-279.
51. SELECTED DOCUMENTS ON CLEAN MAINTENANCE AND ANTI-CORRUPTION, supra note 36, at pp. 313-316.
52. Article 1 of the Supplementary Provisions.
53. Article 4 of the Supplementary Provisions.
54. For example, for the crime of graft, those who have illegally obtained RMB 50, 000 or more may be sentenced to death; and for the crime of bribery, those who have accepted RMB 10,000 or more and severely harm state or collective interests are to be sentenced to life imprisonment or even death. See Articles 2 and 5 of the Supplementary Provisions.
55. Since 1979, there had been twenty-three supplementary regulations in the field of criminal law. Fifteen of them have been repealed with the entry into force of the amended Criminal Law in 1997. The 1982 Decision and the 1988 Provisions were two of them.
56. See Helena Kolenda, One Party, Two Systems: Corruption in the People 's Republic of China and Attempts to Control It, 4 J. CHINESE L. 215 (1990).
57. PEOPLE'S DAILY, September 18, 1988, p. 3 (in Chinese).
58. See GAZETTE OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, 1999, No. 14, p. 563 (in Chinese).
59. GAZETTE OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, Ibid., pp. 558-561.
60. The text of the amended Criminal Law is reprinted in COMPENDIUM OF THE CURRENT LAWS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 389-4160 (1998) (in Chinese). The crime of graft is contained in Chapter 8, which has fifteen clauses.
61. Chapter 9 of the 1997 Criminal Law.
62. See Liu Shiyang, Legal Basis for the Sentencing of Cheng Kejie, PEOPLE'S DAILY, September 15, 2000, p. 2 (in Chinese).
63. See Gu Angran, Report of the Law Committee of the National People's Congress on Its Deliberation over the Draft Interpretation by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Regarding the Second Paragraph of Article 93 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, GAZETTE OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, No. 3,2000, p. 226 (in Chinese).
64. The text of Interpretation is also reprinted in the Gazette, at p. 223.
65. For the purpose of implementing the Interpretation, the Supreme People's Procuraturate issued a Notice to all its subordinated organs. See Communique of the Supreme People's Procuraturate of the People's Republic of China, No. 4, 2000, p. 19 (in Chinese).
66. GAZETTE OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, No. 7, 1999, pp. 694-696 (in Chinese).
67. Interim Provisions Governing Disciplinary Sanctions against Corrupt Functionaries of State and Administrative Organs, 1988, SELECTED DOCUMENTS ON CLEAN MAINTENANCE AND ANTI-CORRUPTION, supra note 36, pp. 382-386;
68. Explanation of the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuraturate Regarding Matters Relevant to the Implementation of "the Supplementary Provisions for the Suppression and Punishment of Corruption and Bribery", 1989, COMPENDIUM OF LAWS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, Supplementary Volume 9-12 (1990) (in Chinese);
69. Notice of the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuraturate Calling for the Offenders of Corruption, Bribery and Speculative Activities to Voluntarily Surrender and Make Self-Confession to the Judicial Organs within the Specified Time Limit, 1989, ibid., at pp. 15-16;
70. Detailed Opinions on the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuraturate on the Implementation of the Stipulations in Article 2 of the "Notice", 1989, ibid., at pp. 16-17;
71. Official Reply of the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuraturate on Matters Relevant to the Implementation of the "Notice", 1989, ibid., at p. 18;
72. Circular of the Supreme People's Procuraturate on Relevant Matters Concerning Application of Law Handling Criminal Cases of Personnel of Companies and Lnterprises who Take Bribes, Seize or Misappropriate the Funds of Companies and Lnterprises, 1995, COMPENDIUM OF THE LAWS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (1995) 86-87 (1996) (in Chinese);
73. Circular of the Supreme People's Procuraturate on Further Strengthening the Handling Cases of Malpractice for Personal Gains, 1995, ibid., pp. 90-91;
74. Circular of the Supreme People's Court on Printing and Distributing Several Provisions Regarding the Correct Application According to Law of Probation to Criminals of Lmbezzlement, Bribery Acceptance and the Appropriation of Public Funds, 1996, COMPENDIUM OF LAWS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (1996) 80-81 (1997) (in Chinese);
75. Lxplanation of the Supreme People's Procuraturate on Several Matters Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Cases of Favouritism, 1996, ibid., at pp. 84-85;
76. Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Issues Related to Specific Application of Laws to Trying Cases of Illegal Appropriation of Public Funds, 1998, COMPENDIUM OF LAWS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (1998) 62-63 (1999) (in Chinese);
77. Decision of the Supreme People's Procuraturate on Several Issues of Anti-Corruption Work by the Procuraturates, 1999, Communique of Supreme People's Procuraturate of the People's Republic of China No. 1, 2000, pp. 16-20 (in Chinese).
78. Communique of Supreme People's Procuraturate of the People's Republic of China No. 2, 2000, pp. 20-21 (in Chinese).
79. Communique of Supreme People's Procuraturate of the People's Republic of China, Ibid., alp. 22.
80. It was first adopted in 1979 and amended in 1996. The amended Law came into effect on January 1, 1997. Text in COMPENDIUM OF THE CURRENT LAWS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, supra note 53, at pp. 355-388.
81. Text in CHINA LAW, June 30, 1998, pp. 110-112, September 15, 1998, pp. 111113 (both in Chinese and Lnglish). Such joint issuance of a law in China is really rare. Its legal nature was queried: "it does not have the nature of legislative interpretation, nor judicial interpretation; it can only be regarded as a kind of emergency measure to coordinate various departments in the implementation of the law in an accurate and all-round way".
82. See Bian Jianlin, An Important Measure to Ensure Correct Implementation of the "Criminal Procedure Law", CHINA LAW, June 30, 1998, p. 71.
83. Clauses 1, 2, and 3 of the Provisions. The procuraturate has jurisdiction over the crimes of dereliction of duty prescribed in Chapter 9, and over the crimes of corruption prescribed in Chapter 8 and crimes in other chapters which are explicitly made punishable in accordance with the special provisions of Chapter 8 of the Criminal Law. The public security department has jurisdiction over crimes prescribed in Articles 163 (1)(2), 184(1), and 164 of the Criminal Law.
84. Clause 6 of the Provisions.
85. See Chapter VII of the Provisions.
86. Decision on Several Issues of Anti-Corruption Work of the Supreme People's Procuraturate, in Communique of Supreme People's Procuraturate of the People's Republic of China, No. 1, 2000, p. 17 (in Chinese).
87. See Yin Jiuxin, Examination Methods before the Case of Crimes of Corruption and Bribery Is Put on File, [2000] CHINESE CRIMINAL LAW 109-110 (in Chinese).
88. See Destruction of a High Rank Leading Cadre, PEOPLE'S DAILY, September 15, 2000, p. 2 (in Chinese).
89. See Huang, supra note 8, at p. 96. These include: Interim Measures on Severely Punishing Communist Party Members Who Have Violated Laws or Party Disciplines in the Economic Field, 1983; Opinion on Severely Punishing Economic Criminals, 1983; Notice Requiring Communist Party to Comply with Professional Ethics in an Exemplary Way, 1987; Decision on Firmly Dealing with Communist Party Members Who Extort Bribes, 1988; Interim Regulations on Disciplinary Punishment for the Party Members and Eeading Cadres Who Have Committed Severe Bureaucracy and Dereliction of Duty, 1988; Interim Regulations on Disciplinary Punishment for the Communist Party Members Who Have Violated Party Disciplines in Foreign Activities, 1988; Certain Provisions on Punishing Party Members Who Have Breached the Socialist Ethics (Trial), 1989; Certain Provisions on Disciplinary Punishment for Communist Party Members Who Have Violated Eaws or Party Disciplines in the Economic Field, 1990; Provisions on Disciplinary Punishment for Party Organisations and Party Members Who Have Hampered the Investigation of Cases, 1990; Regulations on the Work Case of Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party Discipline Inspection Organ, 1994.
90. The text is available in PEOPLE'S DAILY, December 4, 1998 (in Chinese).
91. Articles 399-401 of the 1997 Criminal Law.
92. See The Supreme Court Issued the Regulations on Strictly Implementing the Challenge System to Safeguard Judicial Justice, PEOPLE'S DAILY, February 1, 2000 (in Chinese), and
93. China Tightens Rules for Judges, THE STRAITS TIMES, February 2, 2000.
94. Xiao Yang, Firmly Eliminate Corruption among Judicial Personnel and Work Hard to Maintain Judicial Justice -Report on Carrying out Centralised Education and Rectification among People's Courts, GAZETTE OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, No. 1,1999, at p. 13 (in Chinese).
95. Text in Communique of Supreme People's Procuraturate of the People's Republic of China, No. 2, 2000, pp. 22-24 (in Chinese).
96. Han Zhubin, Work Report of the Supreme People 's Procuraturate, ibid., at p. 19.
97. Regulations on Investigation and Affixation of the Responsibility for Legal Enforcement Faults by People's Police of Public Security Organs in 1999, and the Circular of the Ministry of Public Security on Practice of a Police Affairs Opening System in Public Security Organs Nationwide in 1999. Texts are available in GAZETTE OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, No. 27, 1999, pp. 1193-1200 (in Chinese).
98. Quo and Liu, supra note 29, at p. 158.
99. See Circular of the Supreme People's Court Regarding the Print and Distribution of Five-Year Reform Programme of the People's Courts, in GAZETTE OF THE SUPREME PEOPLE'S COURT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, No. 6, 1999, pp. 185-190 (in Chinese).
100. LEGAL DAILY, August 14, 2000, p. 2 (in Chinese).
101. LEGAL DAILY, February 23, 2000 (in Chinese).
102. Mark Findlay, Independence ' and the Judiciary in the PRC: Expectations for Constitutional Legality in China, in LAW, CAPITALISM AND POWER IN ASIA: THE RULE OF LAW AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS 297 (Kanishka Jayasuriya, ed., 1999).
103. Article 126 of the Chinese Constitution. The Lnglish version is available in I LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA GOVERNING FOREIGNRELATED MATTERS 299 (1991).
104. Article 4 of the Organic Law provides that the courts should conduct adjudication independently and subject only to the law, and shall not be interfered with by administrative organs, social organisations or individuals.
105. See Song Bing, Assessing China's System of Judicial Review of Administrative Actions, 8 CHINA LAW REPORTER 17 (1994).
106. See Gao Qicai et al., Procedure, Judges and Adjudicating Impartiality, LEGAL SCIENCE, No. 8, 2000, p. 9 (in Chinese).
107. Song Bing, supra note 83, at pp. 16-17.
108. See Li Hanchang, A Perspective of Judges' Quality and Training against the Background of Judicial System Reform, CHINESE LEGAL SCIENCE, No. 1, 2000, pp. 48-4-9 (in Chinese).
109. COMPENDIUM OF THE CURRENT LAWS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, supra note 53, at pp. 132-140 (in Chinese).
110. Ibid., at pp. 140-148.
111. Amended Laws Raise Qualifications of Judges, BEIJING REVIEW, August 7, 2000, p. 6. See also,
112. Zhuang Huining, How to Revise the Laws of Judges and Prosecutors?, OUTLOOK WEEKLY, July 24, 2000, pp. 26-27 (in Chinese).
113. Tang Min, Trials to Open to Public in Beijing, CHINA DAILY, September 20, 1998. For the Beijing Municipality, there are three regulations governing this practice: the Decision of Beijing Higher People's Court on Implementing Public Trial at All
114. Beijing Courts; the Regulations on Citizens' Overhearing of Publicly Tried Cases; and the Regulations on Reporters' Overhearing of Publicly Tried Cases
115. Feng Qihua, Judicial transparency, CHINA DAILY, June 28, 2000.
116. PEOPLE'S DAILY, August 25, 1999, p. 3 (in Chinese)
117. For details, see Yu Xiaoqing and Li Yonghong, Necessity and Feasibility of the People's Congress to Supervise the Individual Cases in the Judiciary, LEGAL SCIENCE, No. 1, 1999, pp. 25-28 (in Chinese);
118. and Cheng Xianqing, Thinking on the Supervision of Individual Cases, PEOPLE'S DAILY, July 28, 1999, p. 9 (in Chinese)
119. See Wang Chenguang, The Conflict between the Independent Adjudicating Power of the Court and the Supervisory Power of the People's Congress over Individual Cases and Its Adjusting Mechanism, LEGAL SCIENCE, No. 1, 1999, p. 23 (in Chinese).
120. See PEOPLE'S DAILY, August 25, 1999, p. 3 (in Chinese).
121. See Xiao Yang, supra note 72, pp. 8-9.
122. For details, see Pan Jianfeng, Looking at the Existing Problems in Our Judicial Reform from the Angle of Japan 's Third Judicial Reform, LEGAL SCIENCE, No. 8, 2000, pp. 14-17 (in Chinese).
123. XlNHUA NEWS AGENCY, July 31, 2000, available in (consulted: August 25, 2000).
124. Zhong Jixuan, Reflections on 'Governing the Country by Heavy Punishment', PEOPLE'S DAILY, March 29, 2000, p. 4 (in Chinese).
125. See also Zhuang, supra note 31, at pp. 26-21.
126. As the Commentary of the People's Daily on the execution of Hu Changqing stated, "for such a flagrant criminal, only the death penalty is sufficient to uphold national law, satisfy popular indignation, rectify Party work ethics and fight against corruption". See Execution means CPV is serious, CHINA DAILY, March 10, 2000.
127. Michael Levi, Stealing from the People, CHINA REVIEW, No. 8, 1997, p. 9.
128. See Liu Shoufen and Xu Daomin, Institutional Anti-Corruption, 1 J. PEKING UNIVERSITY (SOCIAL SCIENCES) 5 (2000) (in Chinese).
129. Michael Levi, The Crime of Corruption, in CORRUPTION: THE ENEMY WITHIN 37 (Barry A.K. Rider, ed., 1997).
130. The title of an 1818 novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Frankenstein is a young medical student who creates a monster that destroys him. It later refers to anything that becomes dangerous to its creator.
131. See Holmes, supra note 9, at pp. 4-5.
132. It is alleged that the masses have realised that the anti-corruption struggle is a hard task in the long term. The endurance of the masses for corruption has been strengthened so that the enlarging the scale of anti-corruption struggle will not cause social disturbance. PROCURATURATE'S DAILY, August 18, 2000 (in Chinese).
133. Yufan Hao, From Rule of Man to Rule of Law: an unintended consequence of corruption in China in the 1990s, 8 J. CONTEMPORARY CHINA 422 (1999).
134. Luo Ji, Public Prosecutors -A New Force against Corruption in China, CHINA LAW, No. 1, 1997, p. 69.
135. See Huang, supra note 8, at pp. 71-72.
136. Klitgaard asserts that it is impossible to eliminate corruption entirely, that the best any government can do is balance various considerations and determine its own "optimal level of corruption". See supra note 1, at p. 24.
137. DOCUMENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA 65-66 (1987).
138. Li Rongxia, Inflicting Severe Punishment on Corruption, BEIJING REVIEW, May 22, 2000, p. 13.
139. Shihata, supra note 1, at p. 467.
140. See Huang, supra note 8, at p. 92.
141. See Zhou Yezhong, // is imperative to realise three transformations in the anticorruption and advocacy of clean governance, LEGAL DAILY, August 25, 2000 (in Chinese). The "hardwares" refers to disciplines, laws and institutions, while the "softwares" to professional properties, effectiveness and quality of the civil servants.
142. Wei Jianxing, Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, stressed this during his inspection tour of Shenzhen in early 2000.
143. See Li Rongxia, Inflicting Severe Punishment on Corruption, BEIJING REVIEW, May 22, 2000, p. 14.
144. Choice of the Choices - What Means Should We Take to Combat Corruption", available in (consulted: August 26, 2000).
145. Shao Zongwei, Public asked to help stop corruption, CHINA DAILY, March 15, 2000.
146. Kolenda, supra note 49, at p. 232.
147. See PEOPLE'S DAILY, August 17, 2000, p. 3 (in Chinese).
148. See MlNGPAO, September 15, 2000 (in Chinese);
149. and Authorities set up units to target corruption, CHINA DAILY, September 15, 2000.
150. See Xinhua News Agency, August 16, 2000, available in (consulted: August 25, 2000).
151. The Programme on Deepening the Reform of Cadre Personnel System, PEOPLE'S DAILY, August 21, 2000 (in Chinese);
152. see also To Provide the Systematic Guarantee for the Building of Cadre Team with High Quality, LEGAL DAILY, August 23, 2000 (in Chinese).
153. Based on the Reform Programme of Personnel, the Chinese Communist Party Ministry of Organisation and the state Ministry of Personnel jointly issued the Opinion of Speeding up the Reform of the Personnel System of the Institutions in August 2000:
154. PEOPLE'S DAILY, August 14, 2000, p. 3 (in Chinese).
155. See Liu Weiling, New move to fight graft, CHINA DAILY, August 21, 2000.