New master's program molds top anti-corruption investigators(3)

Solution to corruption?

Professor He and the students made an agreement from the very beginning, that the students should not give the teachers any presents or buy them dinner. If students and teachers dine out together, the teachers pay their share. The class also designed their own badge to inspire a sense of pride and responsibility in students.

He said that he bears no delusion that the dozens of students who emerge from the group will somehow sweep the country clean of corruption.

It is mostly the Chinese media who dubbed the program as an "anti-corruption master class" and played up the hype. But this goes to show that it certainly captured people's imagination and raised expectations at a time when corruption is rampant.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate announced in March that during the past five years they had concluded 138,000 corruption-related cases and punished 143,000 people.

In October, the Supreme People's Procuratorate is expected to deliver a report on anti-corruption to the top legislative body, which will be the first in 24 years.

Dozens of students each year are a drop in the ocean when it comes to fighting corruption, He admits, adding that a real solution requires structural changes.

He and many other scholars have proposed and called for the disclosure of officials' assets, but so far little progress has been made on this front.

Besides the talent problem, the organizational side of anti-corruption also needs help from its current confusing state.

Aside from the procuratorates, the other two forces involved in anti-corruption campaigns in China are the central discipline and supervision authorities, whose jurisdictions cover the Party and the administrative branch of government respectively.

The discipline and supervision authorities are usually considered the most important forces in fighting corruption. These departments also have more personnel than the anti-corruption officers in the procuratorate system.

"In fact the investigation of senior officials largely depends upon the discipline authorities; and officials above the vice-minister level need to be investigated by the CPC's Central Commission of Discipline Inspection," explained He.

After the Central Discipline Commission finishes the investigation, the cases are transferred to the procuratorate department which verifies the evidence and then prosecutes.

Within the procuratorate system, there are three departments involved in anti-corruption, including anti-embezzlement and bribery, anti-malfeasance and infringement, and prevention.

Professor He has suggested that these three functions be integrated into a single force to avoid repetition and inefficiency, a suggestion which he says the authorities are considering.

Xu Zuoquan, 25, is now in his final year at the master's program at Renmin University. A journalism major from the East China University of Politics and Law, he entered the law school at Renmin University in 2011. Xu chose this major as he wanted to study law, saw an opportunity to join a new program and knew of professor He's fame.

Although he didn't know much about the area when he started, Xu said that the more he learned, the more interested he became.

"I hope to contribute to the anti-corruption campaign considering how serious the situation is," said Xu. "I believe what we learn will prove useful and that we will contribute to the nationwide efforts to stamp out graft."