THE TRANSACTIONAL NATURE OF CORRUPTION IN CHINA: INVESTIGATING CHANGING CORRUPTION TRENDS IN THE 2010S

Abstract

This thesis explores changing corruption trends in China in the 2010s and through doing so, assesses the effectiveness of Xi’s anti-corruption campaigns on improving the state of Chinese corruption. This is significant because the examination of changing patterns of corruption has been an important area of study in mainstream literature since the start of market transformation in China. Moreover, the current literature lacks nuance in its handling of changes and continuities in corruption during Xi’s era, preferring to study the motivations, policies and impacts of the anti-corruption reforms in isolation. By utilising the definitions of economic and non-economic corruption from the Chinese Criminal Law and key findings from Ko and Weng’s study of 1998 to 2007 corruption trends, this paper investigates how corruption patterns have changed in the 2010s through two periods of study: 2008 to 2013 and 2013 to 2017. The results can help formulate more potent anti-corruption strategies and predict the future trajectory for corruption in China. Official statistics from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the People’s Court will be used. The findings show that Xi’s anti-corruption campaigns have reduced overall levels of economic and non-economic corruption, and curbed the intensification of bribery through decreasing its frequency and severity. However, transactional corruption remains at heart the most serious type of Chinese corruption thus far. Despite encouraging results from Xi’s campaigns, this study points towards cautious optimism for the future state of Chinese corruption given some recent troubling developments in anti-corruption reforms.