A new book looks behind Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign

It sounds like an incredible book. I will certainly check it out. It fits well with my experience of China well - a place where Guanxi (關係）trumps all else. People fear it, hate it, but also aspire it. It's also interesting that how unlikely this book is. I've been in the West for more than 20 years, but I don't plan on speaking ill of China at all. Kudos to the author.

Another book that I really enjoy that seem to be of the same ilk: confession of an economic hitman

Related thread (6 days / 288 comments):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28439448 ("Missing businesswoman urges ex-husband not to publish book critical of China (npr.org)")

I read this book, it was truly jaw dropping to see the "Guanxi" system at work.

From what I could tell, there is a whole system of unwritten rules about how different political factions could collect their "percentage", how these factions compete with each other and eliminate each other and so on.

In a way, it is efficient because everyone who matters (i.e. princelings who control the CCP) has an incentive to "play the game". It is efficient because there are no nasty courts to slow you down, you don't have to deal with the lowest bidder nonsense - it all comes down to connections. The party credibility and the need hold power serves as a very powerful check on the system to prevent the system from becoming too blatantly corrupt and keeps the system going.

But if you aren't someone who matters - i.e. a princeling, you will be forever on the outside looking in.

The actual book on Amazon:

Red Roulette: An Insider's Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today's China https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982156155

I bought a copy after reading about it last week on HN [1]. Still halfway through it, but really enjoying the story.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28439448

Archive Version: https://web.archive.org/web/20210912041701/https://www.econo...

This book has fun anecdotes of elite graft, which is entertaining but not particularly useful for those interested in mechanisms of PRC corruption. Guanxi is just age old political patronage networks with Chinese characteristics, it's mundane not revelatory. The seminal book / academic for those interested in understanding PRC corruption systematically is Yuen Yuen Ang, China's Gilded Age: The Paradox of Economic Boom and Vast Corruption. The TLDR metaphor compares corruption to drugs, there are different types of corruption, with different effects. Chinese elite exchange-corruption discussed in the book is likened to steroids that boosts growth [0]. There's a reason why PRC is the only country where increased corruption is correlated to increased growth, as posited by Yukon Huan, World Bank director for China. But ultimately, drugs have harmful side effects that will eventually catch up to the body-politic, hence the anti-corruption drive. The useful takeaway from review:

>In some aspects, Mr Shum’s book supports Mr Xi’s diagnosis of China’s ills. It describes sleaze that largely predates Mr Xi’s elevation as party chief in 2012. Since then, the Xi era has witnessed an anti-corruption drive that has seen more than 1.5m officials punished. Mr Xi himself grumbles about foot-dragging officials who put parochial interests first.

...

>It argues that Mr Xi’s anti-corruption drive is as much a campaign to consolidate power as a sincere attempt to reform a rotten system.

Note "sincere attempt". Xi's anti-corruption and power consolidation doesn't have to be mutually exclusive or contradictory. Xi didn't start with 1.5M political enemies, there's no reason to be so comprehensive except sincere need to tackle a widely recognized issue. There's good reason to want to consolidate power if Xi has to step on so many toes. Frankly, a problem as large as PRC bureaucratic corruption in the 2010s can't be tackled without centralizing power.

[0] https://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Yuen-...

I remember William F. Buckley, Jr. once saying something like, "The question is not whether an elite will rule, but which elite will rule."

Whenever some high-ranking CCP member is said to be doing something anti-corruption, it has to be understood that it really means anti-opposition. There's nothing going on about anti-corruption in the CCP; they're all utterly, irredeemably corrupt to the core, a big part of why someone even ascends to a high position in that organization. It's corruption beyond the wildest dreams of most people, like basements full of gold bars and such.

This is so incredibly obvious it’s amazing that anyone would think otherwise.

Say what you want about western government but I’d much rather anger the US government as a US citizen than anger the Chinese government as a Chinese citizen. In China I’d be extremely concerned about my family arrested, arbitrary trials, forced medication with debilitating drugs, bullet in my head, etc.

In America we may let the Sacklers buy their way out of prison but I prefer this to the fear, violence, illegitimacy, and madness of communism. You don’t appreciate the rule of law and equal justice until you are on the wrong side of power.