There is no country in the world, past or present, that does not have (or that did not have) some level of corruption in business practices. Business transactions are often simply too complex, with too many opportunities for opportunism, for corruption to be avoided completely. It is well-known that corruption is rampant in contemporary Chinese business. This paper will describe some of what is known about this. While the paper will not offer a comparative analysis with corruption in France, or other European countries, it is well to bear in mind during the discussion that there is a tendency for ”Eurocentrism’ to creep into such discussions. In other words, there is a tendency to think that China and other counties in the Far East are somehow worse, or to be judged by a different standard, than European countries. One reason for this is simply a history of Eurocentrism and indeed colonialism. Another reason is that there is a tendency to assume that communist economies are doomed to corruption and failure, one that often draws upon the single example of the former USSR. This paper will attempt to avoid bias and simply state the facts as they are currently understood.
Two fairly dramatic examples of corruption in China have come to prominence recently. The first is that Wang Baoan, the former China statistics chief, was found guilty in a court in the city of Zhangjiakou of have received the equivalent of nearly 20 million Euros in cash and other gifts over the course of several years. Baoan was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes (Reuters Staff, 2017). The second example is that, according to one report, 1 million Chinese officials have been punished for corruption over the past three years (BBC, 2016). This astounding figure suggests some embellishment on the part of the government. As large as China is, it is not clear that it has the manpower to prosecute and sentence 1 million people over such a short span of time; but it is not clear whether it is accurate or not.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Corruption in Chinese Business".
In one sense, it does not matter whether the figure is perfectly accurate, for it underscores a kind of paradox concerning business corruption in China. On one hand, there is a great deal of corruption in China. No one denies that. On the other hand, however, the Chinese government tends to be vigilant and ruthless in dealing with such corruption. At least one relevant factor is surely the astounding large population of China, which has far more people than any other country—nearly 1/5 of the total world population.
Two questions remain to be addressed. First, what are the ethical implications of Chinese business corruption? Second, why is the country as corrupt as it appears to be? The ethical question is fairly easy to answer. Corruption in business is, as a general rule, morally impermissible. This is so on any reasonable conception of ethics or morality. To be sure, there are some hard cases concerning corruption, perhaps involving a person engaging in corrupt practices to help his or her otherwise starving family. However, corruption (like murder, for example) is by definition morally wrong, other things equal. The second question is partially answered by China’s size, and its nearly unprecedented economic growth over the past couple of decades. Nevertheless, some details concerns corruption in China are both available and revealing.
The principal reason for the corruption appears to be the close association, in at least many cases, of bidding companies (for example) and government officials. Such situations almost inevitably present the sort of quid pro quo that is the hallmark of business corruption (Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, 2016). It would be easy to point to this as a flaw in China’s quasi-communist economic structure. However, it would be naïve indeed to suppose that capitalist economies do not feature close connections between business and governmental decisions.
A second and final reason for business corruption in China is that its runaway economic growth has resulted in a situation in which governmental regulations simply cannot keep up with the ever-growing opportunities for business corruption. China either has now, or will soon have, the largest economy in the world. Keep in mind, however, that its tremendous growth has been achieved in an unprecedentedly small space of time—roughly half a century. The economies of Europe’s wealthiest countries, and that of the United States, took far, far longer to build (Rein, 2009). While comparable rates of economic growth have been witnessed in the so-called ”Asian tigers’ (or ”Asian miracles’) such as Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore, none of these countries is remotely as large as China. (Their populations added together, for example, still pale in comparison to China’s.)
From an ethical perspective, therefore, there is nothing to distinguish China from other wealthy countries, inside and outside of Europe. To the extent that there is more corruption in China’s economy than in other large countries it is arguably due to the two factors identified: China’s size, and an economy that has grown so rapidly that governmental regulators simply cannot keep up. Indeed, if there are ethical distinctions to be drawn it is probably fair to say that China deals more harshly with corruption than any European or Western country.
None of this, of course, is to say that China does not have its problems, or that it should serve as a model for the rest of the world. The point is simply that, for all that anyone has shown, China is both no more corrupt than any other country of its size (given also its tremendous economic growth in recent decades) and actually better—or at least harsher—at dealing with those who are found guilty of corruption.
- BBC. (2016). ”One million’ Chinese officials punished for corruption. BBC News, 24 October. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37748241. 18 October 2017.
- Canadian Trade Commissioner Service. (2016). Doing business in China—The dangers of engaging in corrupt practices. Retrieved from http://tradecommissioner.gc.ca/china-chine/market-facts-faits-sur-le-marche/153381.aspx?lang=eng. 18 October 2017.
- Rein, S. (2009). How to deal with corruption in China. Forbes, 7 October. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/2009/10/07/china-corruption-bribes-leadership-managing-rein.html 18 October 2017.
- Reuters Staff (2017). Former China statistics chief gets life for corruption. Reuters, 31 May. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-corruption/former-china-statisticschief-gets-life-for-corruption-idUSKBN18R15C 18 October 2017.
