Corruption in the real world, addicted to the online world: Observation of the "35-year-old phenomenon" of cadre corruption
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the anti-corruption struggle has won an overwhelming victory, but a few young cadres "go astray as soon as they set foot on the official career", and the "35-year-old phenomenon" of corruption is embarrassing.
General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the opening ceremony of the training course for young and middle-aged cadres at the Central Party School (National School of Administration) in the spring semester of 2022, emphasizing that young cadres are the hope for the development of the party and the country. Anti-change line of defense.
New characteristics of corruption among young cadres
Zhang Yuanhuang, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University, conducted a big data analysis based on all criminal judgments and rulings published by the China Judgment Documents Network from 2014 to 2018. It was found that among the 753 state-owned enterprise cadres who were clearly aged for corruption crimes in the relevant year, 39 were The following accounts for 12.75%, of which the youngest is only 25 years old.
Banyuetan's investigation found that, different from corruption in other age groups, the corruption of young cadres has some common characteristics.
Corruption in the real world, and the pursuit of "stimulation" in the virtual world.
During the investigation, what puzzled the investigators the most was the motives of some young cadres for corruption and the whereabouts of the stolen money.
Some young cadres are corrupt in the real world in order to satisfy their distorted pursuit of virtual worlds such as online games, online gambling, and online live broadcasts.
According to the introduction of the disciplinary inspection cadres, Zhang, a financial officer born in the 1990s in a business district management office in a western city, was addicted to watching live webcasts and embezzled more than 1.8 million yuan in public funds in order to reward his favorite webcasters.
The administrative level is generally not high, but the amount involved is not necessarily small.
Few of the young cadres involved in the case are department-level or department-level leading cadres, and most of them are department-level or stock-level cadres who are in charge of demolition, finance, etc. in the organs and streets, but the amount involved is often shocking.
From 2015 to the end of 2018, Tang Mou, deputy head of the "post-1985" personnel department of the Public Security Bureau of a southern city, took advantage of his position to add the names of 23 relatives and friends to the salary table of auxiliary police officers, and embezzled more than 2 million yuan of public funds by falsely collecting wages. .
Young government employees with "temporary status" have become weak areas in corruption governance.
Some young government employees are not cadres in the true sense, but they hold a certain amount of public power and deal directly with the masses and enterprises. They have also become a group with a high incidence of corruption.
A post-1990s government employee of the Safety Supervision Bureau of a city on the eastern coast, after only 3 years of working, he and two other colleagues have been involved in corruption of more than 300,000 yuan in 3 months.
"The corruption of young cadres is 'scattered', although it is not easy to cause 'collapse corruption', but its harmfulness should not be underestimated." Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Public Policy Research Center of Peking University, believes that the corrupt behavior of young cadres is mostly concentrated at the grassroots level. It directly affects the grassroots people's sense of gain in anti-corruption work.
Internal and external incentives cause the defense line to fall
Reporter Banyuetan's investigation found that some young cadres' inherent lack of ideals and beliefs and acquired degeneration are the internal reasons for them to fall into the quagmire of corruption, while "corruption and erosion" and the weakening of supervision are the external incentives.
Degradation of ideals and beliefs: easily influenced by consumerism and money worship, and want to get promoted and rich.
"Some outstanding college students' career plans are to be in politics, but at the same time their life goal is to 'make a lot of money'." A grassroots case investigator told Banyuetan reporters that some young corrupt cadres behaved shockingly when they were investigated. After the meeting is over, you can go home.
Hou Jinxiong, director of the Scientific Research Department of the Party School of the Chongqing Municipal Committee, believes that in terms of intergenerational characteristics, "post-85s" and "post-90s" cadres mostly travel from home to school and then to government offices, and they are more susceptible to consumerism and money worship during their growth. Waiting for the influence of the ideological trend, seeing others driving luxury cars and living in bungalows, it is easy to feel unbalanced.
"Corruption and erosion" at the grassroots level: a few hundred yuan "favorable fees" and a few words of "language bribery" can easily break the psychological defense line.
Yang Shangdong, director of the Supervision Law Teaching and Research Office of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, said that corruption of young cadres mostly occurs at the grassroots level. In grassroots law enforcement departments and other positions that deal directly with individuals and enterprises, "micro-corruption" is widespread.
Tang, the head of the "post-85" animal husbandry and veterinary station in a township in a city in the west, accepted millions of yuan in bribes.
According to the investigators, Tang has the power to distribute subsidies for pig farms within his jurisdiction, and he has also become a target of hunting by business owners.
In his confession, he wrote: "I was not a high-ranking officer, but I was carried away by the praise of 'Tang Director' and 'Tang County Magistrate', and my career was going well, so I relaxed my vigilance against their hunting. "
Oversight is weakening layer by layer: "no one finds, no correction, no supervision" leads them to sink deeper and deeper.
The work focus of the Discipline Inspection Commission is often concentrated on supervising high-level leading cadres, and young cadres are at the grassroots level, and the supervision department pays relatively little attention.
Wang Mou, a "post-90s" township stock-level cadre in an eastern city, tossed and turned at night when he first misappropriated public funds due to online gambling, feeling "possessed by the devil".
But the first embezzlement of public funds was not found, which greatly enhanced his fluke.
In just two years, Wang misappropriated public funds more than 80 times and more than 12 million yuan by taking advantage of his position.
A reporter from Banyuetan found that many young cadres were corrupt with small amounts of money, and some young cadres even embezzled public funds hundreds of times before they were discovered.
The "small" corruption has not been discovered and corrected in time, which has contributed to the fluke and led them to sink deeper and deeper.
Closely follow the intergenerational characteristics and strengthen regulatory measures
In response to the "35-year-old phenomenon", experts and grass-roots cadres suggested that we should focus on not daring to be corrupt, not being able to be corrupt, and not wanting to be corrupt, and to introduce supervision and management measures based on the intergenerational characteristics of young cadres.
——The sinking of party discipline supervision promotes "don't dare to be corrupt".
Xin Ming, a professor at the Central Party School, believes that "micro-corruption" at the grassroots level is the main source of corruption among young cadres.
Ren Jianming, a professor at the School of Public Administration of Beihang University, suggested that special governance should be carried out on "small and micro corruption" in key areas such as corruption in state-owned enterprises, corruption in medical and health care, and corruption in real estate transactions.
——Block corruption loopholes and promote "no corruption".
Yang Shangdong suggested that by improving the bidding mechanism, strengthening collective decision-making and other means, reduce the influence of individual factors on the specific operation of market entities, and fundamentally reduce the space for corruption.
Zhang Yuanhuang believes that we should consider increasing the crackdown on bribery, so that "micro-corruption" bribers pay more.
——The education port is moved forward to promote "don't want to be corrupt".
A number of discipline inspection cadres suggested that the education and guidance of young cadres should be strengthened to make them more conscious of not wanting to be corrupt.
Strengthen the understanding of young cadres' performance "outside of 8 hours", and timely detect young cadres who are addicted to online games, online gambling, extravagant consumption and other abnormal states, especially listen to the opinions of cadres' service objects and grass-roots units, and treat young cadres who may go astray. Cadres corrected in a timely manner.
Source: "Ban Yue Tan" Issue 6, 2022
Banyue Talk Reporter: Zhao Yufei and Zhou Wentao