Fighting corruption is one of the top priorities of the Communist Party
of China (CPC) and the Chinese government. People resonate to this priority, as
reflected in the cooperative, outspoken and effective anti-corruption stance of
the ever vigilant and active netizens.
In December 2010, the State
Council formally issued the anti-corruption white paper: "China's Efforts
to Combat Corruption and Build a Clean Government". And the
anti-corruption campaign will be a key issue on the agenda of the 18th National
Congress of the CPC, which begins on Nov. 8.
During the past decade, the
Central Commission of Discipline Inspection of the CPC processed about 700,000
corruption cases. It will expose many more cases and prosecute many more
people. Corruption must be checked and not allowed to contaminate and corrode
CPC members and government officials.
Generally, fighting corruption
requires trained eyes for telltale signs of corrupt practices. One key thing to
look for is public officials' relation (possession, use and dissemination of or
access) to luxuries, be they goods, services or both. In fact, succumbing to
the lure of luxuries has become a key element of corruption in China.
Accordingly, China's
anti-corruption agencies are educating and training agents about luxury goods
and services to better fight corruption. Netizens are also playing their part
in fighting corruption by being alert to the lure of luxuries to corrupt officials.
A recent example, widely reported
on the Internet, shows how netizens and official anti-corruption agencies are
cooperating. Looking at photographs, some netizens noticed that Yang Dacai, a
senior Shaanxi province work safety official, had a repugnant smirk on his face
while inspecting the site of a tragic transport accident. Checking other
photographs of Yang, they identified that he sported 11 luxury watches on
different occasions, which he could not afford given his level of income as a
civil servant. This exposure led to official investigations, which found Yang
guilty of corruption. He was sacked on Sept. 21, 2012.
Yang's public display of luxury
products is a case of inappropriate "conspicuous consumption", a
socioeconomic phenomenon of "wasteful and lavish consumption to enhance
social prestige". Yang did not have to wear his pricey watches in public,
but he was driven by vanity and a false sense of social prestige to do so. Many
corrupt officials like Yang indulge in conspicuous consumption to gratify
themselves with illegally earned money.
It was Thorstein B. Veblen, a
Norwegian-American sociologist and economist, who coined the term
"conspicuous consumption" in his book "The Theory of the Leisure
Class" in 1899. The term describes the socio-economic reality of the then
nouveaux riches in the United States, who, after acquiring sudden wealth, spent
extravagantly on material excesses purely to show off and match the much envied
lifestyle of the long-established rich. It was a case of showing off "new
money" to "old money" to gain self-esteem.
By the 1920s, conspicuous
consumption had become the prevalent culture in the US. F. Scott Fitzgerald
fictionally documented this wayward 1920s culture in his celebrated novel
"The Great Gatsby". The novel is about corruption rooted in personal
moral failings. It is about the corruption of people seeking social prominence
through conspicuous consumption. In the value-neutral scholarly words of
Veblen: "to gain and hold the esteem of men is not sufficient merely to
hold wealth and power. The wealth and power must be put into evidence."
In separate scholarly and
literary works Veblen and Fitzgerald both documented a universal condition of
human weakness: Humans need to bolster self-esteem through ostentatious display
of wealth and power, often through socially unacceptable means. This universal
human condition has been present throughout history and across geographical
boundaries. The verdict that "socially unacceptable means" must be
eradicated is universal. The ways to eradicate them, however, are less
universal, and are largely particular to a society.
In 30-odd years of reform and
opening-up, China has lifted millions of people out of poverty and is moving
toward achieving the ancient ideal of a "moderately prosperous"
(xiaokang) society. Along the way, many people have become rich, sought social
prominence or indulged in "conspicuous consumption", and many
officials have wallowed in corruption. Being wealthy, seeking social prominence
and even indulging in "conspicuous consumption" are, to various
degrees, acceptable, but being corrupt can never be acceptable.
Realistically, given human
nature, corruption in Chinese society today is like a cancerous pain, to snip
it now will bring enduring joy, China has to remove the malignant growth in the
best possible way.
China is fighting corruption and
conspicuous consumption in three ways: formally, informally and culturally. The
formal ways are documented in the State Council's 2010 anti-corruption white
paper, and include systemic reform, enforcement of laws and regulations,
education and international cooperation. The informal ways include creative
contributions from people, for example, anonymous netizens.
On the cultural front, however,
appeals should be made to the traditional social values of frugality and moral
rectitude, long found in the practices of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism.
Appeals also should be made to the modern spirit of Lei Feng's service to the
people. This spirit combines values of traditional Chinese culture and
contemporary socialist values. The three ways are interconnected.
China has to be patient in its
fight against corruption, though, for as the country moves toward realising a
"moderately prosperous" society, the novelty of being wealthy will
wear off, self-esteem will be less dependent on conspicuous consumption and
corruption will be under greater control.
The author teaches philosophy at Montclair State University, US.
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