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Where the truth lies

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-26 07:41

No wonder there is intense dislike of the so-called netizens in public offices. They are too inquisitive, cynical and difficult to satisfy.

When the American company Control Components Inc (CCI) pleaded guilty to bribing Chinese partners, and some of the alleged bribe-takers categorically denied, they suspected - not the Americans, but our compatriots.

When the Chinese partners, mostly public institutions, did so, people were still not assured if all individuals involved in the CCI deals were clean even though their companies had not received the bribe money.

At the same time, other public institutions were silent about the unexpected revelation, where the online critics suspected unspeakable truths.

More than one week after the CCI revelation, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) made up its mind to undertake an official probe.

They again appeared incredulous. It would like letting a father investigate his kids, which is ridiculous, they say. Instead, they wanted to see the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the judiciary step in.

Which is not entirely unreasonable. Yet, at least, they should not have been that ungrateful - the SASAC has been the first to stand out and say something. Until then, we had been wondering if the allegation from the other side of the Pacific would be like a stone dropped into the ocean, causing not even a ripple.

Given that neither the CCDI nor the judiciary is getting involved at this point, we are very interested in the SASAC's probe. Can we see a ripple?

We hope that SASAC can be serious in its investigation, to defend its honor and effectiveness in its management of the executive teams in the nation's key industries.

Related readings:  Big Chinese fish trapped in CCI net  State-owned firms deny bribe claims  Busting the bribe tribe  Bribe cases to be probed

Indeed, accepting bribes from foreign businesses is no small matter. And, we have wondered why our companies and competent authorities appeared so composed in the face of such serious allegations. (We hope it is the result of confidence in their innocence. A clear conscience is a soft pillow).

Yet not everybody is understanding like us. To the netizens, for example, the collective silence appeared more as a sign of a guilty conscience.

Some of the suspects have already declared innocence. That is why we are curious about the pending statement from the SASAC investigators. The SASAC investigation may or may not support the claims of innocence. But SASAC is not a justice department. In either case, a conclusion by the SASAC may be less than sufficient to convince the no-longer-credulous public.

Even the average citizen is still trying hard, though to no avail, to figure out who may have collected the CCI bribes in the name of us Chinese. There is no way to prevent them from being curious about the authorities' conspicuous lack of curiosity about the truth.

So we also hope that judiciary investigations will follow the SASAC probe in due course. The People's Republic of China must answer to the world, as well as to its own people, that our criminal code does cover bribes by overseas entities, and that foreigners' bribes are as bad as any bribes.