Officials seeking 'meat' or 'broth' to be punished in line with law

ZOU PING, former vice-mayor of Nanchong in Southwest China's Sichuan province, was recently sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption and other crimes. Between 2003 and 2013, he took 24.2 million yuan ($6 million) in bribes in exchange for helping people obtain land and promotions. He also asked 27 employees in 23 departments to help him bribe 230 officials with 1.5 million yuan to get himself promoted. He became "famous" in Peng'an county, where he was posted as county head, for openly telling then county Party chief, "You eat meat, and we get the broth", when the latter criticized corrupt officials. Comments:

The exchange of money and power is open in Peng'an. Zou succeeded in getting promoted from a county head to vice-mayor by bribing superior officials and continued his corrupt activities for 10 years. This means the government's supervision and promotion systems are defective. The decaying of governance at the grassroots level cannot be checked by investigating individual cases. Thorough systemic reform based on the rule of law is needed to do that.

Guangzhou Evening News, Aug 26