Fighting corruption key to improving governance

China widely seen as an example to emulate

Martin Sieff, a senior fellow of the Global Policy Institute in Washington and the American University in Moscow

There is no contesting the enormous scale and seriousness of China's anti-corruption drive, but the coverage it has received in the United States is strikingly different from that in most of the rest of the world.

The tone of coverage in the US has largely been set－predictably－by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and these bastions of the Wall Street establishment have been predictably hostile.

They first dismissed the anti-corruption campaign as cosmetic window dressing and not to be taken seriously. Then, when even US pundits had to admit the seriousness and moral commitment of the program, they claimed it would weaken the central government and local administrations throughout the country. Now these so-called experts are confronted with the clear evidence of thousands of malefactors being punished. So they have switched to a new line that the program will likely backfire and undermine China's image and standing around the world and they suggest it is making the government weaker, not stronger. This line is not allowed to be seriously challenged and debated in the mainstream US media.

However, across Asia and Africa, the coverage has taken a very different form. In India, which suffers from endemic bureaucratic corruption and inefficiency, the media is covering the process closely with far less judgmentalism. Many of the reports are tinged with respect, and even envy.

In African media outlets, the tone of respect is accompanied by increasing fascination. The domestic economies of many sub-Saharan nations have enjoyed immense benefits from the unprecedented flood of Chinese investment in energy infrastructure and agriculture over the past 15 years. Now China is seen as an example to emulate in tackling the scourges of government incompetence and corruption that have been two of the greatest hindrances to growth and prosperity in the half century since these countries secured independence from colonial rule.

The idea that the anti-corruption campaign is somehow undermining China's standing in the world is ludicrous. On the contrary, the campaign is boosting the image of China because it sets a positive and even inspiring example to so many countries whose populations and even government officials have despaired of making headway against such an endemic problem.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's dramatic repudiation of the United States as a military and economic role model and mentor during his state visit to China in the past week should be seen as a harbinger of more such dramatic statements and switches public standing by other global leaders in the coming months. It is no coincidence that Duterte is currently fighting the scourge of organized drug gangs and cartels and has been repeatedly chided by US President Barack Obama and his administration for doing so.

China has already risen to the status of a global economic power. It should come as no surprise that it is setting new examples and pioneering new solutions for some of the appalling problems that US economic and governmental practices have manifestly failed to master both at home and around the world.