SUN WUKONG Throwing the book at corruption
By Wu Zhong, China Editor
HONG KONG - Vice President Xi Jinping emerged as a dark horse to be the future
successor of President Hu Jintao at the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) 17th
National Congress in 2007. With the succession due to take place at the party's
18th Congress in 2012, now is the time for him to establish his own identity.
He could start with problems facing officialdom. As the supreme leader, Xi will
inevitably have to deal with issues like corruption, nepotism, regionalism,
bureaucracy and other forms of misconduct that are officially categorized as
"unhealthy tendencies".
On May 13, Xi delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the
spring semester at the Central Party School, the party's top training center
for senior officials - Xi is its president. In the speech, he called on senior
officials to read more books.
Senior officials must "love to read books, read good books and be good at
reading books", he said.
"Under the conditions of the New Era [China's reform and opening-up], leading
cadres, to keep improving themselves and withstand all kinds of tests, must
persist in reading and studying to strengthen their ideals and faith, improve
their political qualities and ethical morality ... If they do not keep reading
and studying, their knowledge will become outdated and their thinking rigid,"
he said.
He said senior officials are not keen on reading because many of them are too
busy with leisure activities, public relations or daily affairs.
The saying that "knowledge is power" aside, if senior officials devote more
time to reading, they inevitably would have less time to engage in misconduct.
In the process, they may become more self-disciplined. But why should senior
officials devote more time to reading books? Xi's belief is that after reading
they would toe the party line more conscientiously, with strengthened faith in
the party's ideals.
In Confucian tradition, learning and reading were pursued to first serve one's
self interests - the goal was utilitarian. It is true that Confucianism
encourages learning and reading, but in China's dynastic history, learning was
used to pass exams and become an official to enjoy power and a better life.
The practical purpose for one to read and learn during China's dynastic history
was illustrated in the poem "Encouraging Learning" by Song dynasty emperor Song
Zhenzong (968-1022):
Read, read and read, there is a golden house in
the books;
Read, read and read, there is one thousand zhong [an ancient unit of
measurement] of grain in books;
Read, read and read, there is a beautiful girl in the books;
A Confucian scholar studying hard could gain much through passing
exams and becoming an official. The goal of learning then was selfish. Today,
many parents cite this message to encourage their children to study hard at
school.
If they were fortunate and became officials, many if not all Confucian scholars
would abandon the pursuit of learning to enjoy whatever benefits their
positions could bring them. So much so that the four Confucian classics, the
must for the official exams, are often known as "bricks" to knock open the door
to officialdom.
In the early 1990s, China began to resume the traditional practice of
recruiting civil servants through exams. Only those who had higher education
were allowed to participate in the exams. Therefore, as a whole, China's civil
service today is quite well-educated.
Some prominent officials are known to be fond of reading books. Premier Wen
Jiabao, for example, likes to cite quotations from Chinese and foreign writers
and thinkers. It is said that he keeps a copy of the Meditations by the
Roman philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius on his bedside table. Guangdong party
secretary Wang Yang, also a Politburo member, once recommended Thomas L
Friedman's The World is Flat to his subordinates. Now the current
Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai, former minister of commerce, wants every
official to read five books about economy and finance.
But if Xi wants more senior officials to read books, he may need to give them
some motivation. For example, promotion exams could be set up. Still, it is
rather idealistic to assume that officials can become more self-disciplined
simply through reading books and resist the temptations of "unhealthy
tendencies".
There is no shortage of examples of well-educated officials becoming corrupt or
committing crimes. In October 2005, then vice governor of Henan province Lu
Debin, who earned a PhD in the United States in the 1980s, was convicted of
hiring hit-men to kill his wife after she discovered that he had a concubine.
It is clear that in the fight against "unhealthy tendencies", bookish officials
are less important than a sound rule of law, transparent systems of selecting
and appointing officials, and effective supervision of the operations of
government and the behavior of its officials.
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