Op-Ed Contributors

Raising the bar to punish corruption

By Chen Jieren (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-19 08:04

Editor's note: In order to guarantee fair punishment, the starting point for meting out the death penalty for embezzlement and bribery should be significantly raised and the maximum fixed-term imprisonment stipulate should raised as well.

Last week, courts in Beijing and Chongqing municipality convicted two Chinese officials.

Wen Qiang, former deputy police chief of Chongqing, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of protecting mafia-style gangs, taking bribes totaling 12.16 million yuan ($1.79 million), and owning a huge amount of money and assets he could not justify.

Wang Yi, former vice-president of the China Development Bank, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting 11.96 million yuan in bribes.

Under the country's Criminal Law, an individual taking bribes of more than 100,000 yuan, with the crime defined as "particularly serious", faces the death penalty. As Wang Yi had confessed to his crimes and returned all the money, the court said his death sentence does not have to be carried out immediately.

The verdicts of the two cases are more significant in raising the problem of penalty reform for crimes involving corruption and bribery. The Criminal Law stipulates that embezzlement of more than 100,000 yuan is the starting point for capital punishment. The purpose of setting such a low starting point is to deter officials. But problems emerge once the amount of money a corrupt official takes in bribes exceeds 100,000 yuan.

Zhang Jun, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, once said that the sentence for embezzlement and bribery ranging from 100,000 yuan to 100 million yuan has been treated more or less the same, and in some cases criminals who took bribes of more than 10 million yuan even received less punishment than those who accepted several million yuan less in bribes.

It has been suggested that in order to guarantee fair punishment, the starting point for meting out the death penalty for embezzlement and bribery should be significantly raised, for example, to 10 million yuan. While this seems to be fairer in terms of capital punishment, two problems remain: The term of imprisonment for those who take bribes below the starting point; and the unfair punishment for those who embezzle more than 10 million yuan.

I believe that the crux of the problem lies in the rigidity of non-capital punishment for embezzlement and bribery.

Under current judicial practice, those accepting bribes of less than 100,000 yuan will be imprisoned one year more for every 10,000 yuan they receive. Those who take bribes of more than 100,000 yuan will be jailed one year more for every 100,000 yuan taken, and those who take more than 1 million yuan will be given life sentences or the death penalty with a two-year reprieve. Those who take more than 10 million yuan are likely to receive the death penalty.

However, except for the death penalty, most corrupt people will be able to complete their prison convictions in a relatively short time through avenues such as mitigation and medical parole.

Therefore, China should adjust its system of punishment, at least through special provisions, to raise the maximum fixed-term imprisonment from the current 20 years to 50 years or 100 years. The deterrence through prolonged incarceration can be even more powerful than the death penalty.

In addition, the Criminal Law should stipulate a specific standard for capital punishment over embezzlement and bribery. All the personal property of those convicted should be confiscated as well. This also applies to the property of their family members once it is proven to be part of the corruption. Only by so doing can a sound institution deter corrupt officials.

The author is a news commentator. The article first appeared in Nanfang Daily.

(China Daily 04/19/2010 page8)