According to China’s anti-corruption man of the hour, journalist Luo Changping (pictured), economic reforms won’t be enough to curb the country’s corruption pandemic.



His new book examines 120 corruption cases involving high-profile Chinese officials. In it, Luo argues the seriousness of the situation requires a “comprehensive supervisory mechanism encompassing the Party, administration, judiciary, society, and media.”



In a May 17 piece for the newspaper Southern Weekly, Luo likened corruption to terrorism, in that they both “can cause widespread public alarm.” He made reference to a microblog post from July 2011 that enlarged upon the concept of “corruption terrorism.” Left unchecked, the microblogger claimed, the problem could spread to the point where no segment of society is safe.



The post first appeared soon after a high-speed train collision near Wenzhou (Zhejiang Province) in which 40 passengers died. It was forwarded nearly 60,000 times in the months following the crash, according to Luo’s article.



Luo, who is also deputy editor of Caijing magazine, is famous for his recent articles accusing National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) deputy director Liu Tienan of corruption, which helped bring about Liu’s ouster earlier this month.



Luo’s articles on Liu took a year to fact-check, Luo has said. His successful campaign made him a media hero in China but left him “exhausted both in heart and body,” he told the BBC in an email. He called the investigation into Liu “only a breakthrough in one case. There’s no change to the whole system.”

Source: 21CBH (21世纪网)

_____________

Benjamin Kessler is a contributing editor of the FCPA Blog. A version of this post appeared in the China Compliance Digest.

