Corruption and Anticorruption in Modern China ed. by Qiang Fang and Xiaobing Li (review)

While students and observers of China may disagree on many things about China, one thing that they tend to agree on is the serious, and continuous, corruption throughout Chinese history, from imperial ages to the reform era. Accordingly, anticorruption is also an important, if not more important, theme that continues to be an issue in Chinese politics. Thus, corruption and anticorruption, both have constituted a lens through which we can understand modern China, including the ruling regimes in different periods, the political elites, the common people, and the underlying cultural identity of the nation. This book covers a topic that has long been of interest to me. Hence, it was a great pleasure to read this book, Corruption and Anticorruption in Modern China, edited by Qiang Fang and Xiaobing Li.

Being a political scientist who studies corruption and anticorruption in contemporary China, I find the historians’ studies in this book fascinating. Under their pen, corruption and anticorruption in modern China become a grand picture dynamically unfolded in front of the readers, linking imperial dynasties (e.g., Han, Tang, Ming, and Qing), Republic China (e.g., Yuan Shikai, Chiang Kai-Shek’s GMD), and contemporary China (e.g., under Mao, Jiang, and Xi) in both a longitudinal and comparative way. Feeling the echo of history, and reconsidering the similarities and differences between the present and the past, one can more deeply reflect the logic of Chinese political institutions. As a famous quote from Kenneth Lieberthal’s book, Governing China, states, “But all long-term observers of this remarkable country (i.e., China) know that there are few places in the world for which the phrase ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’ more aptly applies” (2004, p. xvii).

It also comes as a surprise to see scholars in other disciplines share similar research interests in several specific topics that have been largely understudied, such as corruption fugitives (chapter 8 by Yue Li and Chen Liu), political satire (chapter 9 by Helen Xiaoyan Wu), and political rumors (chapter 10 by Stella Y. Xu). In these chapters, the historians’ documentation and interpretation of the issues, for example, why the problems occurred and their sociopolitical implications, and the authors’ scholarly utilization of the available materials, provide new analytical and methodological angles to think about in my own related research (e.g., Zhu 2021; Zhu, Lu, Shi 2013). Moreover, for the general readership who are interested in the general topic of China, or corruption and anticorruption in China in particular, this book has at least the following merits making it worth reading.

First, this book provides an earnest and timely presentation of historical materials. All contributors skillfully dissect historical materials into analytical stories accessible to general readers. For example, chapter 1 by Qiang Fang sampled sixty-one primary corruption cases involving top Qing officials and classified the politics behind corruption reporting and tackling, which demonstrates the fundamental flaws of the imperial system. In chapter 2 written by Patrick Fuliang Shan, abundant information and analysis about Yuan Shikai’s management ideas and implementations are presented in detail, and readers can reconsider their constructed opinions on Yuan Shikai and the Beiyang period. In chapter 3 by Sherman Xiaogang Lai, historical details conveyed by Chiang Kai-Shek’s wartime diaries are excavated, illuminating how Chiang as the national leader perceived his own political party and the critical historical moments at that time. In contrast, other chapters remind readers of the near past. For instance, chapter 7 by Dongyu Yang, reviewed the corruption and anticorruption in Jiang’s era by studying a case of anticorruption in Shaanxi Province to exemplify the practices at that time. This is also the age when the market economy and the socialist political system were dramatically adapted together, economic opportunities and political resources met, and thus cultivated the hotbed of corruption. The anticorruption practices in Jiang...