Anti-graft academic proposes amnesty for corrupt officials

Government officials should be given “conditional pardons” for corruption charges if all bribes are repaid and accounted for, according to an academic at Beijing’s top training school for the Communist Party's anti-graft cadres.

“People want indefinite sentencing and feel there must be severe punishments,” said Li. “However, doing so will only generate greater resistance towards the fight against corruption.

Li also argued that it would make little sense adopting a zero-tolerance “never forgive” principle to fight corruption as this would only increase the number of corruption cases and create more resistance to anti-corruption.

Given the average corruption case’s incubation period of roughly nine years, stricter indictments would only lead to an over-accumulation of unsolved cases, Li added.

“[A pardon] reduces the likelihood of those who are already prone to corrupt practices to commit more acts of corruption…this will be done in exchange for their support for political reform.”