This is a useful post, but it errs inso far as it implies that reducing the power of the CCP and going to a more liberal model would reduce corruption. This has not been the case in the West, where there is also a symbiotic relationship between politicians and business and finance.
This doesn't change by making what is fundamentally unethical legal, and corruption is also invited by a double standard of justice, lax oversight, and penalties that do not deter but rather are booked as another cost of doing business.
The difference in the West is that a democracy is not a meritocracy and therefore, many Western political leaders are not competent.
If China becomes more liberal, corruption will not necessarily decrease but competence may. Thinking otherwise is believing the myth.
Where status, power and wealth are involved, corruption is always an issue, and the high stakes attract those that are corrupt or corruptible. And, as the post points out, the question boils down to who is going to police the police.
As a matter of fact, both Presidents Xi and Putin have appointed independent investigators and many cases have been reversed for prosecution, even of high officials.
Yuen Yuen Ang | Professor of Political Economy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
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