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Death penalty won't deter corruption
Source: Xinhua |
March 15, 2012, Thursday
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WILL China cleanse itself of corruption if everyone found to have embezzled 500,000 yuan (about US$78,900) or above were executed?
The answer was yes in the eyes of Zhao Runtian, Party secretary of Heze City, Shandong, who made the death penalty proposal on March 12 to the fifth session of the 11th National People's Congress that ended yesterday.
The answer was no in the eyes of Zhou Yuhua, president of the Higher People's Court of Shandong. "Execution is useless if you catch only one out of every 100 corrupt souls," Zhou said.
While Zhao's proposal won applause, it would probably not deter corruption. In reality, most corrupt officials are never caught. It was often through disgruntled mistresses or hapless thieves that we have got some corrupt officials.
Two things must be done to keep corruption at bay. One is to have zero tolerance of corruption - you are caught even if you have embezzled only 1 yuan. Another is to clean our culture of corrupt habits. Corruption is not a patent held by officials, many ordinary people practice corruption every day. For example, doctors and teachers are all prone to corruption in the form of taking bribes from patients or students.
The answer was yes in the eyes of Zhao Runtian, Party secretary of Heze City, Shandong, who made the death penalty proposal on March 12 to the fifth session of the 11th National People's Congress that ended yesterday.
The answer was no in the eyes of Zhou Yuhua, president of the Higher People's Court of Shandong. "Execution is useless if you catch only one out of every 100 corrupt souls," Zhou said.
While Zhao's proposal won applause, it would probably not deter corruption. In reality, most corrupt officials are never caught. It was often through disgruntled mistresses or hapless thieves that we have got some corrupt officials.
Two things must be done to keep corruption at bay. One is to have zero tolerance of corruption - you are caught even if you have embezzled only 1 yuan. Another is to clean our culture of corrupt habits. Corruption is not a patent held by officials, many ordinary people practice corruption every day. For example, doctors and teachers are all prone to corruption in the form of taking bribes from patients or students.
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