China Supreme Court Gets in on the Corruption Game
A former Chinese supreme court vice president was stripped of his membership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for corruption, the CPC disciplinary watchdog said Friday.
Huang Songyou, former vice president of the Supreme People’s Court, was also dismissed from all his official positions, said a statement from the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).
According to the investigations, Huang was found misusing his power to seek profits for concerned people in return for a “huge amount” of bribes, accepting money as presents illegally and living a “corrupt” life, the statement said. (Xinhua)
I’m a little confused. Does rule of law in China take a hit from this because you had a Supreme Court justice taking bribes, or does the case affirm the rule of law because a high-level official was brought down according to anti-corruption rules?
I have to say that I feel encouraged that this seems to be a positive step towards the rule of law in China.
This is something that I would expect to have been swept under the rug and denied and it seems to be a step in the right direction.
Huang Songyou very well may have been a scape goat but it is a positive to at least see that his actions have been rebuked.
Not sure why you think he might be a scapegoat for some reason, but yeah, anytime this stuff is brought out and dealt with publicly, it is a good thing.
I am troubled, though, that this was going on at such a high level. To some degree, it tarnishes some of the significant progress made in cleaning up the judiciary.
What I mean by a scape goat is that it seems like the worst offender is often sacrificed in order to try to isolate the problem.
Now that someone has gone down for corruption, the problem is solved.
This is the mindset that I see a lot in factories, someone gets blamed for a mistake and the owners expect everything to move forward with complete trust as they have “solved” the problem.
Ah. Yes, that’s always a problem with any sort of prosecution. With corruption, it almost always takes at least two to tango, but it’s rare that you can round up and prosecute everyone.
In this case, there are probably other folks involved. They might have been caught as well, I don’t know.
Is the judiciary all cleaned up now? Of course not. In fact, I have slightly less faith in the system than I did before I heard about this story, knowing that something like this was going on at such a high level. On the other hand, judicial corruption does often take the form of individuals with their hands out, and not necessarily an entire corrupt system. I don’t think this should be an indication that the Supreme Court has fundamental problems.
Ideally, under the rule of law, the average Joe and a high court justice should have equal access to due process of law. But in China, it seems that a public official/judge is expected not to violate the law or party rules, and if you do, “the hell with you” becomes his/her punishment.
This is not a bona fade “a positive step towards the rule of law in China”. Why ? If all the cadres there are corrupted, only one of them got busted. It’s not the ‘law’ that takes effect. It could be ‘isolation’ as Matt mentioned. Yes, you follow the process and keep your mouth shut in there, then the Don’s gonna take care of your wife and children. But why sell the Deputy, a high figure. It’s costy. So, the other posibility should not be ruled out- the internal power struggle, in which, ‘law’ is used and ‘enforcement’ is manipulated. In this case, it’s actually a step away from the rule of law.