Chapter 11 Chapter 9 Officials' "Private Life" Comes into Anti-corruption Sight

Supervising the "private life" of officials should be an important part of the fight against corruption, both in terms of reality and from the perspective of public governance. On August 24, 2009, Wang Huayuan, former member of the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and former secretary of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, was expelled from the party and public office for serious violations of discipline and law.Prior to this, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection launched an investigation into Wang Huayuan.After investigation, Wang Huayuan violated the regulations by accepting huge gifts; using the convenience of his position to seek benefits for others, he and his relatives received huge sums of money; he gambled abroad many times;

Most of the recently "sacked" officials, like Wang Huayuan, have been accused of "corruption of life", which is regarded as the details of the lives of leading cadres have been included in the entire anti-corruption system. Judging from the actual situation, it is not a "secret" that some officials' lives are corrupt.In our country, there is such a popular jingle-"The red flag at home does not fall, but the colorful flags flutter outside". Many experts interviewed by the reporter believed that leading cadres, as the "image spokespersons" of the party and the government, lived a corrupt life that not only tarnished their own image, but also damaged the prestige of the government among the people.Supervising the "private life" of officials should be an important part of the fight against corruption, both in terms of reality and from the perspective of public governance.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the issue of "life style" has always been the "high-tension line" of leading cadres.However, in recent years, due to the fact that most of the evaluations of officials are based on "heroes based on political achievements", there is no effective supervision on the "private life" of officials, so that some officials hang around in sensuality, keep lovers, "second wives", and even prostitutes... As my country's anti-corruption struggle continues to deepen, the "private life" of officials has once again been included in the entire anti-corruption system by the central government.In fact, among the series of officials who have "fallen from the horse" in recent years, there are not a few who have been accused of "corruption of life"——

On June 11, 2006, Liu Zhihua, deputy mayor of Beijing, was dismissed from his post due to his corrupt life. On January 21, 2009, Liu Zhihua was finally sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.This is the first high-ranking official convicted of corruption in life in the new era of anti-corruption in my country. Corrupt officials who live in such a corrupt manner can list a long list, such as Cheng Kejie, Chen Liangyu, Li Jiating, Wang Baosen, Hu Changqing, Sun Shanwu, Du Shicheng, Pang Jiayu, Chen Shaoji, Xu Zongheng, Li Zhen, Mu Suixin, Ma Xiangdong As well as Li Jizhou, the former deputy minister of the Ministry of Public Security, Wang Shouye, the former deputy commander of the navy, Jia Yongxiang, the former president of the Shenyang Intermediate People's Court, and Liang Fuquan, the vice president, Xu Qiyao, the former director of the Construction Department of Jiangsu Province, Zhang Zonghai, the former director of the Propaganda Department of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee, Song Pingshun, former chairman of the Tianjin CPPCC, and others.

According to reports, Professor Wu Changzhen, the main person in charge of the drafting expert group for the revision of the Marriage Law, found that more than 60% of official corruption was related to having mistresses, and 95% of the corrupt officials investigated had "mistresses." On June 23, 2007, Liu Xirong, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, also revealed at the report meeting on the construction of a clean and honest government in Chongqing: "Among the provincial and ministerial officials investigated and dealt with nationwide last year, 7 were handed over to the judiciary, and 6 of them had a life style. problem." He said that to prevent officials from "fire in the backyard", this is also an anti-corruption position that deserves attention.A number of interviewed experts believe that if officials, as figures of public power, live a corrupt life, it will not only bring down the whole social atmosphere, but also seriously damage the prestige of the government among the people.At the same time, it will inevitably induce the occurrence of other crimes by officials.

"What is the moral value of the whole society and what is the orientation of life? Officials set an example and take the lead to set an example." Professor Qi Shanhong, a doctoral supervisor at Nankai University, said in an interview with reporters. Their words and deeds have a social demonstration effect, so the same life corruption is far more harmful than the latter. It is particularly worth noting that life corruption is often closely related to work corruption, and work corruption is often accompanied by life corruption , while life corruption may either catalyze work corruption or be a manifestation of work corruption.”

"As far as the actual income of officials is concerned, if they want to pay huge personal expenses once their lives are corrupted, they can only find power to rent out, which also induces other crimes." Doctoral supervisor of Peking University School of Government Administration Professor Li Chengyan pointed out, "It can be said that corruption in life is an important catalyst for the emergence of most corrupt officials." In early January 2007, Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, emphasized at the Seventh Plenary Session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection that eight aspects of good atmosphere should be vigorously advocated among leading cadres.One of them is: "Live a decent life, have a healthy taste, be ethical, respect conduct, pay attention to cultivating a healthy life interest, and maintain a noble spiritual pursuit."

"These eight aspects are closely related to the economic life of officials, and basically cover the main aspects that are most likely to breed corruption." Li Chengyan analyzed, "This fully shows that the central government has included the details of officials' lives into the anti-corruption vision." In this context, the central government has forcibly intervened in the "private life" of officials by reporting their personal circumstances. During the Spring Festival of 2007, officials above the deputy division level must accept a census on their marriage and family affairs related to foreign affairs, involving three levels: the official himself, his children, and his spouse.

The Civil Servant Disciplinary Regulations, which came into effect on June 1, 2007, also involve the "private life" of civil servants in many ways-those who take care of their lovers will be given punishments ranging from warnings to dismissal or dismissal.In addition, refusal to undertake the obligations of support, upbringing, and upbringing, abuse and abandonment of family members, and behaviors that seriously violate social morality are all included in the punishment. For a period of time thereafter, many localities also issued relevant regulations one after another, targeting the "private life" of officials one after another.However, these measures did not achieve the expected effect of curbing the spread of corruption in the "private life" of officials.

According to the interviewed experts, corruption in the lives of officials is difficult to curb. There are not only internal factors such as derailment in their worldview, but also external factors such as social atmosphere pollution and insufficient power supervision. "In recent years, my country's anti-corruption has mainly been in the economic field. Therefore, when selecting officials in many places, as long as they have outstanding political performance and no economic problems, they are 'informal' in life, and they also turn a blind eye and close one eye. An investigation of life style." Li Chengyan thinks.

During the interviews, the reporter also found that many localities seldom ask questions about officials' "life style", and some even use the protection of officials' personal "privacy" as an excuse to relax the supervision of officials' "private life", and even put officials' "private life" in the public domain. There is a vacuum, and the right to privacy has become a shield for corruption for many officials. "The issue of supervising officials' private life has been raised for a long time, but so far it has had little effect." In Li Chengyan's view, "Although some regulations have been issued in some places, officials are required to monitor their marriage and family affairs related to foreign affairs. declaration. However, these regulations are either not mandatory or enforceable, and the ban becomes a dead letter, or remains on the shelf, which does not help at all.” Qi Shanhong also has doubts about the effectiveness of the current policy.He believes that the corruption of some officials' lives has become an important motivation for their other crimes, but it is rarely seen from the changes in marriage.In addition, even if it is reflected in marital changes, it is only controlled internally by the organization, lacking openness and transparency, so that many real internal causes of marital changes are lurking. The reporter's investigation also found that in the past, the problems of corrupt officials were exposed, including keeping lovers, sexual bribery, etc., which were hardly exposed through self-reporting.On the contrary, those "top leaders" who have power over one side will weave "safety nets" for themselves by virtue of their power and upper-level connections while suppressing the prosecution. "Punishment of corrupt officials still lacks a real deterrent." Du Liyuan, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongsheng Law Firm, said in an interview with reporters. In order to 'degenerate life', they did not rise to the legal level to pursue corresponding responsibilities, thus indulging the officials' behavior." To prevent officials from corrupting their lives, sunlight is also a "preservative".The interviewed experts believe that only by expanding the power of public supervision, putting officials' "private life" under the supervision of the media and the public, and increasing punishment, can the problem of corruption in officials' lives be effectively curbed. "To curb the corruption of officials' lives, we must not only rely on monitoring within the system, but also rely on the power of the people." Yin Yungong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said bluntly in an interview with reporters. To ensure that public power can be effectively checked and balanced. At the same time, mechanisms such as reporting, inspection, and punishment must be improved through legislation and other channels, so that the "private life" of officials is under the full monitoring of the mass media and the public. responsibility." "Currently, the personal situation reported by officials is only controlled internally by the higher-level organ, which greatly weakens the supervision." Qi Shanhong said, "We should increase the verification of the personal situation declared by officials to ensure the authenticity of the materials declared by officials. Officials who falsify, conceal and fail to report should be severely held accountable once they are verified. The personal information declared by officials should also be disclosed to the public and accept the supervision of the society and the media.” Many interviewed experts believe that corrupt officials need to use privacy as a shield to protect themselves, and combating corruption needs to break the false umbrella of privacy.Officials are public figures, not all private information should be disclosed, but at least the personal privacy related to the image and "quality" of officials should be disclosed and supervised, such as personal marriage, property status, employment status of spouses and children, major social Relationships, etc., are included in the vision of organization and mass supervision, so as to restrain the integrity and self-discipline of officials.Privacy such as personal hobbies, eating habits, family chores, and life patterns should be protected. In this regard, some foreign practices are worth learning from.In the United States, the private life of officials is one of the focuses of media attention.Ubiquitous supervision forms a huge constraint on the behavior of officials.In Israel, in order to improve the moral standards of officials and enhance the transparency of public affairs, the "Third Eye" organization, which supervises the government, was established among the people to expose the illegal behavior of officials and is committed to improving the integrity of the government and its staff.In South Korea, there is no room for any flaws in the education, property, family members, and social relations of officials, and they are open to the public to accept supervision. Once officials violate the "red line", the consequences are quite serious. In response to the current situation of lack of punishment for officials' corruption in their lives, Du Liyuan suggested: "We should formulate and improve an enforceable accountability mechanism through legislation, clearly define corrupt behaviors in officials' lives, and pursue corresponding legal responsibilities according to the seriousness of the circumstances. .” "The evaluation mechanism for officials can be reformed so that the supervision of officials' private life can achieve twice the result with half the effort." Li Chengyan suggested, "Mobilize all the masses to participate in the supervision, mobilize the power of public opinion to participate in the supervision, so that ordinary people and service objects have the right to supervise and evaluate officials. power, and evaluation opinions affect officials' performance evaluation. Only in this way, some officials will have scruples about their indulgence in 'private life'." In the interviews, the interviewed experts generally believed that the introduction of the "official property declaration system" should be accelerated.Because this is the core of the anti-corruption early warning system.In addition, institutionalized arrangements should also be made for the education of officials and the self-education of officials to strengthen execution.