China confess-a-kickback websites draw inspiration from India

Reuters

Beijing, 13 June 2011: China’s avid internet users are taking a leaf from India’s anti-corruption drama by opening websites so citizens can confess, sometimes in pitiless detail, to buying off officials. 

 

Chinese people can be disdainful of poorer India, but some have sought inspiration from the anti-corruption anger that has swept the South Asian nation, fanned by the internet. 

 

Several Chinese confess-a-bribe websites, including "I Made a Bribe" (www.ibribery.com), have been inspired by an Indian website "I paid a bribe" (ipaidabribe.com), Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po newspaper reported on Monday. 

 

"Stop seeking improper gains and promote equal competition, and return to us the dream of a fair China," says the Chinese-language front-page of the "I Made a Bribe" website. 

 

"Please reveal your experiences of paying bribes so embezzlement and corruption have nowhere to hide." 

India ranked worse than China in Transparency International’s 2010 survey of perceived corruption, with China 78th out 178 nations and regions counted, and India 87th. 

 

But the tales posted on China’s new anti-bribery websites suggested that residents their have plenty to complain about. 

 

"NO CHOICE BUT TO BRIBE" 

 

China’s ruling Communist Party regularly vows to stamp out corruption, but a long queue of convicted officials also testifies that bribery and illicit enrichment remain common. 

 

On another new Chinese confess-a-bribe website (www.522phone.com), one businessman said he had paid 3 million yuan ($463,000) to officials to win contracts, including taking a planning official on a 10-day tour of Europe. 

 

"Don’t think I’m trying to show off my wealth with this posting," the businessman wrote. "It’s just I’m so toothless and helpless in the face of current-day society." 

 

"We hate corrupt officials, but we’re desperate to be recruited as officials. We hate monopolies, but wrack our brains to get into high-paying employers. We mock bent ways, but then try to pull personal connections to get our own business done." 

 

Other postings on the sites included stories of kickbacks for permission to sell medicine, underhand sell-offs of state-owned mines to cronies, payments of money and cigarettes to pass driving school, and "red envelopes" of cash to doctors to ensure expectant mothers were well treated. 

 

"There’s no choice but to pay bribes," said one message on the "I Made a Bribe" website, which said it was from a teacher who paid off education officials for jobs and promotions. 

 

"Each time you naively assume you can get something done using regular procedures...the result is you find nothing gets done unless you spend money to settle things with them." 

 

None of these anonymous claims could be verified. 

 

The Chinese websites do not specify who is running them and whether they have official approval. In the past, some local governments have tried to use the Internet to encourage citizens and officials to confess to corruption. 

 

China has more Internet users than any other country in the world -- more than 450 million of them -- and, even with censorship, they have already made the Internet a lively forum for airing complaints about corruption. 

 

But the new anti-corruption websites may be too blunt for Beijing to tolerate. Beijing has shut down other, investigative websites used to air corruption claims. 

 

One message on "I Made a Bribe" voiced fears it would be shut by China’s censors. 

 

"China’s national conditions are nothing like India’s," it said. "If the government lets this website continue, this country will have a little hope. If it’s shut, then there’s no hope at all."