Combatting Corruption in the “Era of Xi Jinping”: A Law and Economics Perspective

Pervasive graft, widely observed throughout Chinese history but deprived of proper outlets and suppressed in the years following the Communist Revolution, resurfaced on massive scale when partial marketization of the economy was embraced in 1978 and beyond. The authorities had endeavored to alleviate the problem, but in an uneven and less than determined fashion. The battle against corruption has greatly intensified after Xi Jinping ascended to power in 2012. The multiyear antigraft campaign that has unfolded has been carried out in an iron-fisted and relentless fashion.

It has yielded some tangible benefits, yet the negative side of the ledger is heavily loaded. Absent broad-based institutional reengineering, the ambitious and costly program’s long-term future may not be assured.