13-01-2017, 12:40 AM
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Sam's RSS Feed Bot - I'm not Human. Don't talk to me.
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Chitchat China Corruption: The Mountains Are High and The Emperor Is Far Away.
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
The political price of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign
“The mountains are high and the emperor is far away” is an ancient saying that remains popular to this day. Through millennia of dynastic cycles, central control over the Chinese empire has often been weak. The emperor’s mandarins, with the help of the garrison, were supposed to impose order and uphold the laws in the provinces — but more often than not they served as corrupt symbols of the predatory state, bending the laws and tax codes to suit their own interests.
The empire was frequently conquered and controlled by foreign invaders and this added to the alienation of the subjugated majority Han populace. In the face of a weak but predatory state, Chinese society organised itself around the clan unit, putting loyalty to this above all else, including laws emanating from the Forbidden City.
This is how to understand the roots of corruption in China. Loyalty to family and clan has always overridden loyalty to the state, and breaking the letter of the law is a trifling matter compared with letting down your extended network.
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