The Dark Side of Business with Chinese Characteristics

Corruption has often been defined as the use of authority for private gain, with authority frequently assumed to be defined as official authority. Private actors, including corporate officers, can also exercise the authority granted them by a firm or other organization for improper private gain. Not only can private parties engage in corrupt transactions with public officials, they may also engage in corrupt transactions with other private parties, thus creating a form of “private corruption” that has been largely ignored, even though the presence of private-to-private corruption likely contributes to both private-to-public and public-to-public corruption. Evidence exists, in fact, of extensive inter-business in China and hence the presence of a corporate “culture of corruption.