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Mix of command and market economies a melting pot for corruption

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'Mainland leaders cannot be faulted for not trying harder to crack down on corruption - they even ordered the execution of several leading officials, including Chang Kejie, a former deputy chairman of the National People's Congress. However, the end result was that the harder they tried, the more officials became corrupt.'

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Wang Xiangwei,

China editor, SCMP

MY COLLEAGUE TOUCHES on an interesting point here. Why is it that almost every day you can read in this newspaper of another central government or corporate official who has been sacked or brought up on charges of corruption?

It certainly isn't because Beijing condones it. Leave alone that people have been sentenced to death for it, almost every day you can also read reports of angry denunciations of corruption and of new initiatives to stamp it out. Yet nothing seems to work.

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My colleague suggests that the solution lies in political reforms to boost government transparency, uphold the rule of law and ensure an independent judiciary and a free press. He then laments the reluctance at the centre to push ahead with these reforms.

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