Six anti-corruption principles

The anti-corruption drive has gained momentum across China since late 2012 under the country's new leadership, which has repeatedly reiterated its zero tolerance toward graft and promised to severely punish every corrupt official found guilty. The central leadership's determination has indeed taken the anti-corruption campaign one significant step forward, but to achieve the desired results, greater efforts need to be made to formulate a specific anti-corruption plan with real teeth.

As a special prosecutor working with South Korea's Public Prosecutor's Office, I have spent years investigating corruption cases, including the illegal wealth accumulated by two former presidents, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo. When The Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption was established in 2002 to facilitate the fight against corruption, I put forward six principles to be followed to enhance the effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts, which I believe can also be applied to the ongoing anti-corruption campaign in China.

Principle No 1 is to give priority to curbing top-level corruption. Corruption that occurs at the leadership levels takes many forms, such as the buying and selling of official positions and the collusion between officials and the business circles, which can distort the decision-making process and thus extend a very negative influence on society.

The magnitude of top-level corruption is difficult to estimate given its elusive nature. Even if the perpetrators and their corrupt behavior face the risk of being exposed, they are often covered up during the investigation process, and continue to remain unknown to the outside or even get off lightly if exposed. In some cases, the hands of the anti-graft body are tied when it comes to revelations of top-level corruption, as it might involve international relations, the military, major enterprises and other areas of concern pertaining to classified information and national interests.

Nevertheless, corruption is corruption, which cannot be justified for whatever reasons. Once exposed, top-level corruption will make people feel betrayed, considering their high expectation of, and trust in, the top leadership, and that is why the exposure of such corruption can cause an outburst of public outrage, and worse, inflict severe damage upon the credibility of state authority. China will never succeed in its efforts to combat corruption and build a clean government if top-level corruption goes unpunished.

The next principle is to maintain the independence of the anti-corruption agency, and the key lies in excluding the interference of the political arms in the functioning of the anti-graft body. If the anti-corruption body is subject to political manipulation, it will be capable of only paying lip service to the anti-corruption agenda. Therefore, if the independence of the existing anti-graft agency cannot be guaranteed or has been compromised, it must be replaced with a new one.

The third principle is to remove the bad apple, and remove it fast in case it spoils the whole barrel. This calls for more than just the establishment of a penalty system, which is necessary, but without fully implementing a zero-tolerance policy toward corruption, the anti-corruption campaign will be reduced to just empty talk. Equally important is to ensure that severe punishments, including permanent dismissal, confiscation of all wealth illegally gained and imprisonment, are imposed on each offender, as the perceived risks of punishment can act a deterrent against corrupt behavior.

The fourth is the principle of transparency. Corruption usually takes place and becomes rampant where the flow of information is blocked or difficult to access; where greater value is attached to the moral conscience of public officials than to their duty to act in the public interest; where the whistleblowing on corruption is likely to invite retaliation instead of investigative efforts; where rules are too complicated and work procedures are difficult to perform. Simply put, lack of transparency is a hotbed of corruption, and it is vitally important for the Chinese government to press ahead with the anti-corruption campaign while striving for transparency and "governing in the sunshine".

Fifth, the fight against corruption should be realized in a top-down way, as it is impossible to carry out the campaign through relying only on the determination of the central leadership. Nor is it realistic to expect that some institutional efforts or one-off crackdowns can cure the disease, especially considering individual greed and asymmetric information are two key contributors to the high level of corruption. Systematic efforts are needed to promote clean governance among the public and mobilize the whole society in the fight against corruption.

Last but not least is to extend the crackdown on individual "tigers and flies" to groups of tigers and flies. The Chinese saying goes that do not do any bad thing no matter how insignificant it appears to be, as the constant repetition of even the minor mistakes will eventually lead to one big misstep entailing heavy cost. Likewise, corruption starts small, but it becomes rampant if the perpetrators do it again and again and, at some point, they are inclined to share their illegal gains with their associates and corruption behavior is taken for granted.

The expansion and consolidation of such a network of corruption makes both internal and external supervision difficult, and that is why the ongoing fight in China should not be targeted at individuals alone.

Kim Sung-ho is a guest professor at the school of law, Korea University