Ann Listerud
On June 26 this year, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) issued a set of five case studies of corporate fraud that the court described as commonplace and a high priority for regulators to investigate and prosecute (STCN, June 27). In the opening paragraphs, the SPC says that these fraudulent cases appear in both private and state-owned enterprises, signaling that even companies owned and managed by local governments are not exempt from prosecution.
Three days later, the PRC’s financial regulatory bodies issued a co-signed guiding opinion on reducing financial fraud and implementing more comprehensive punishment for those caught in the act (MEE, July 17). Once again, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are called out alongside privately owned ones. The opinion was signed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Finance, the People’s Bank of China, the Financial Regulatory Bureau, and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. On July 17, the State Council put its seal of approval on the statement and reissued it alongside a call for all provinces, ministries, commissions, and institutions that it oversees to carry out the contents of these opinions.
Amid coverage of attempts by Xi Jinping’s administration to tackle corruption within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the implications this could have for the PRC’s military ambitions, this latest dive into institutional corruption aimed at SOEs has received less international coverage. Though the latter does not directly affect the country’s military capabilities, the anticorruption campaign will have a huge effect on civil society and has long term implications for the PRC’s domestic stability and its prospects for research and development.
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