Corruption/ Offering a true understanding of China’s corruption landscape

Among the white paper’s key findings is that a startling 35 percent of companies in China pay bribes or give gifts in order to operate. One CFO went to so far as to describe the practice as “an unspoken rule.” Not surprisingly, the problem is more widespread among Hong Kong and foreign-based companies than it is among their domestic mainland counterparts. Companies report the leading reason corrupt payments are offered as “competitive pressure.”

From a geographic standpoint, corrupt payments are most common in the regions where wealth and power are concentrated. In an around Beijing, 43 percent of companies report the need to bribe or give gifts. In the southeast regions of Guangdong, Chonqing, and Shanghai, those figures are slightly less at 43 percent, 39 percent, and 38 percent, respectively. Graft is less common in the north and west, where figures range from 29 to 19 percent.

 New Data: Bribery Is Often 'An Unspoken Rule' In China