Combating corruption
Dec 19, 2014
Lifestyles of the Corrupt and Famous: China
Airs Anti-Graft Documentary
A scene from Episode 1
showing President Xi Jinping arriving at the revolution shrine Xibaipo in
Hebei, July, 2013.
ccdi.gov.cn
China has taken its
antigraft fight to the small screen.
In a four-part
television series broadcast this week, the Communist Party’s corruption
watchdog displayed its efforts to stamp out the problem. It introduced viewers
to government officials confessing to accepting gifts of jade and debit cards,
took them inside luxurious private clubs featuring $6,000 dinners, and aired rare
peeks into the offices of party investigators who revealed they like to
interrogate suspects over holidays and prefer to announce big cases on Fridays.
The primetime show, with
the clunky name “The Party’s Work-Style Construction Is Always on the Road,” was
broadcast by China Central Television. But credits indicate it was underwritten
and coproduced by the party watchdog agency, the Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection.
The program seeks a
return to basic values. “Substance should be an inheritance, like how to be an
official, how to deal with issues, how to govern a country,” says party
historian Li Zhongjie on camera.
Chinese President Xi
Jinping is harnessing state-controlled mass communications and social-media
platforms to spur public support for his anticorruption strategy. Since he took
power two years ago, broadcasts that highlight official corruption increasingly
feature a gotcha approach, sometimes with exposes using hidden cameras or
reenactments, and televised jailhouse confessions.
President Xi, the
husband of a telegenic and popular singer, appears to recognize a photo
opportunity. In the first episode of “On the Road,” Mr. Xi uses a visit to a
Mao Zedong exhibit to stress test his own work against principles set by the party
founder.
“We did it,” Mr. Xi says
to the officials around him as he ticks off Mao’s guidelines like less drinking
and gifting.
Billed as a documentary
shot in 18 provinces, “On the Road” is tinged with propaganda messages.
“A wedding is an
important moment in Chinese life, as well as a merry celebration,” the narrator
says to begin the fourth episode. “But a wedding isn’t merry when it becomes
the stage for competition, and the window for party officials to receive gifts
and build guanxi,” or connections.
Bass drums introduce
vignettes of alleged bribe-taking and overindulging by mostly mid-level
officials at weddings, dinners and tours. One 12-bottle wine dinner cost
$6,000, the program says, basing its evidence on receipts and recollections of
waiters. Once on the case, party investigators arrive to trumpets, and clangs
that sound like slammed prison doors punctuate confession statements.
One of the cases covered
in the program of a named senior official is a former provincial governor, Ni
Fake, whose affection for jade turned into an addiction favor-seekers helped
him satisfy. “My focus changed from work to preparing for my life in
retirement,” says a narrator reading from Mr. Ni’s confession.
In the show, the
antigraft campaign gets an endorsement from Henry Kissinger. “I’m sure it’s
being conducted both from the point of view of preventing in the future what
may have happened in the past, but also to do it in a way that the society can
remain cohesive,” says the former U.S. Secretary of State.
Media analysts say
Chinese editors and producers appear ill-equipped to capitalize on Mr. Xi
personal PR savvy, not least because several well-known personalities from CCTV
and local newspapers have faced corruption allegations themselves.
“Anticorruption has
clearly moved to the top of the agenda. When that happens, it takes over
everything,” says Doug Young, the Shanghai-based author of “The Party Line,” a
2013 book about Chinese media. Still, Mr. Young added, “I think this
particular campaign is unimaginative,” with formulaic coverage of developments.
“On the Road” never
explores the darker side of the series co-producer, the party’s inspection
commission.
While the show goes
inside the commission’s unmarked Beijing headquarters, viewers see little more
than the lobby and a classroom. There’s no hint that the commission, according
to lawyers, interrogates suspects in secret locations, often for months without
lawyers present or a public record.
Few corrupt tigers
appear in the series. Notably missing were allegations against former Politburo
Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, who the party this month accused of of
unspecified corruption and is expected to become the highest-ranking party
official in three decades to face criminal charges. He isn’t reachable.
The Wall Street Journal found that when in
2008 Mr. Zhou oversaw the Ministry of Public Security, the policing agency
funded a multipart drama aired in primetime by CCTV. The series was produced by
Mr. Zhou’s daughter-in-law and lauded law-enforcement work.
–James T. Areddy, with
contributions from Yang Jie
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