Asian Art

Corruption in China

Corruption has been a significant problem in the People's Republic of China. Like other socialist economies that have undertaken economic reforms, such as post-Soviet Eastern Europe and Central Asia, reform-era China has experienced increasing levels of corruption. In Transparency International's 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, China ranked 76th out of 182 countries, with a score of 43 out of 100. Public surveys on the mainland since the late 1980s have shown that corruption is among the top concerns of the general public. According to Yan Sun, Associate Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York, it was cadre corruption, rather than a demand for democracy as such, that lay at the root of the social dissatisfaction that led to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Corruption undermines the legitimacy of the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government, adds to economic inequality, undermines the environment, and fuels social unrest. Since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, corruption has not slowed as a result of greater economic freedom, but instead has grown more entrenched and severe in its character and scope. In popular perception, there are more dishonest CCP officials than honest ones, a reversal of the views held in the first decade of the reform and opening up period of the 1980s. Chinese political scientist Minxin Pei argued in 2007 that failure to contain widespread corruption is among the most serious threats to China's future economic and political stability. He estimated that year that bribery, kickbacks, theft, and the waste of public funds cost at least three percent of GDP. By the 2000s and early 2010s, corruption had grown to be an extensive problem, impacting government administration, armed forces, law enforcement, healthcare and education. CCP cadre corruption in China has been subject to significant media attention since CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping announced his anti-corruption campaign following the CCP's 18th National Congress, which was held in November 2012. Many high-ranking government and military officials have been found guilty of corruption because of this campaign. According to analysts Neil Thomas and Wang Shengyu, the campaign also led to an overall decrease in petty bribery and open embezzlement.

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See also

• ▸Chinese garden
• ▸Gulf War
• ▸Amoghavajra

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