Editorials

Corruption conundrum

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-17 06:36

The United States Department of Justice has intensified its investigation into the Control Component Inc (CCI) bribery case and has been nailing more Chinese firms, but its Chinese counterparts have been silent.

Apart from the judiciary, there are a host of agencies under the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the government that can intervene. Yet none seems to have done so.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC is waiting for "more specific" information on the suspected violators to decide whether to start a probe.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (ASAC) set up a special panel last year after the first list of suspected bribe-taking Chinese enterprises was released. But nothing has been heard either from the ASAC or its panel since then.

Instead, the onus of investigating the case has been given to the suspected enterprises themselves. The outcome: A couple of the enterprises have said none of their officials had received any bribe from CCI, with one saying it never had any business contact with the US company. The others have not even bothered to respond.

The US Department of Justice has named dozens of Chinese bribe-taking enterprises on its latest list. The suspected firms say they are innocent. So, what is the truth?

The public wants the "competent authorities" to speak up. And there are a thousand reasons for them to do so. Either they do that, or they issue a statement saying taking bribes from overseas companies is not a crime, not even a moral issue.

(China Daily 07/17/2010 page5)