Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Anti-Corruption Forever: Discipline and Loyalty

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Organized Loyalty

Part of the book series: Politics and Development of Contemporary China ((PDCC))

Abstract

President Xi Jinping seeks to avoid the fall of the Communist Party. Under his leadership, corruption has been singled out as an existential dilemma and important object of securitization. The implementation of the forceful anti-corruption campaign after Xi’s takeover in 2012 centered on enforcing discipline. After ten years of Xi Jinping’s rule, the anti-corruption campaign is still ongoing, yet over time, however, Xi’s emphasis on loyalty has become stronger. Reclaiming political loyalty has been crucial to achieving Party reform and Party-building inside the Party, the army, the state apparatus, and private companies. Political loyalty in China has both Leninist and Confucian undertones, and as illustrated by Xi Jinping’s speeches, both traditions are invoked by him.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abdul, G. 2022. Hong Kong Exiles in UK Unnerved by ‘Weak’ Response to Beating of Protester. The Guardian, November 3. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/03/hong-kong-exiles-in-uk-unnerved-by-weak-response-to-beating-of-protester (accessed Nov 26, 2022).

  • Bacchi, C., and S. Goodwin. 2016. Poststructural Policy Analysis: A Guide to Practice. New York: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bai, R. 2015. Staging Corruption: Chinese Television and Politics. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, D., and P. Wang. 2020. Just Hierarchy: Why Social Hierarchies Matter in China and the Rest of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, K. 2022. Xi Jinping Is a Captive of the Communist Party Too. The New York Times, October 10. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/10/opinion/china-politics-xi.html (accessed Nov 26, 2022).

  • Buckley, C. 2014. Xi Touts Communist Party as Defender of Confucius’s Virtues, New York Times, February 13. https://archive.nytimes.com/sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/xi-touts-communist-party-as-defender-ofconfuciuss-virtues/

  • Buckley, C. 2022. China’s Communist Party Congress: For His 3rd Term, Xi Jinping Surrounds Himself with Loyalists. New York Times, October 22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buzan, B., O. Waever, and J. de Wilde. 1998. Security: A New Framework for Analysis. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

    Google Scholar 

  • CCDI. 2020. Combine the Strengthening of Top-Level Design and Asking the People; Visiting Professor Dai Yanjun at the Central Party School (把加强顶层设计和坚持问计于民统一起来, 访中共中央党校 (国家行政学院) 教授戴焰军). https://www.ccdi.gov.cn/lswh/lilun/202011/t20201130_230931.html (accessed Nov 26, 2020).

  • Coser, L.A. 1973. The Militant Collective: Jesuits and Leninists. Social Research 40 (1): 110–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coser, L.A. 1974. Greedy Institutions: Patterns of Undivided Commitment. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creemers, R., and S. Trevaskes. 2021. Ideology and Organization: Towards a New Paradigm for Legality. In Law and the Party in China: Ideology and Organization, 1–28. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, G. 2007. Worrying about China: The Language of Chinese Critical Inquiry. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Eckert, P. 2011. Special Report: Cables Show U.S. Sizing up China's Next Leader. 17 February. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wiki-china-xi-idUSTRE71G5WH20110217 (accessed Nov 26, 2022).

  • He Huaihong. 2015. Social Ethics in a Changing China: Moral Decay or Ethical Awakening. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higgins, K.M. 2013. Loyalty from a Confucian Perspective. NOMOS: American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy 54: 22–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, C.K., S. Kennedy, and M. Qiu. 2017. Xi’s Signature Governance Innovation: The Rise of Leading Small Groups. Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies. https://www.csis.org/analysis/xis-signature-governance-innovation-rise-leading-small-groups.

  • Lagerkvist, J. 2016. Tiananmen Redux: The Hard Truth About the Expanded Neoliberal World Order. Bern: Peter Lang.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lardy, N. 2019. The State Strikes Back: The End of Economic Reform in China? Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, S. 2017. An Institutional Analysis of Xi Jinping’s Centralization of Power. Journal of Contemporary China, 26(105), 325–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, C., and M. Prytherch. 2023. China’s New State Council: What Analysts Might Have Missed. March 7. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2023/03/07/chinas-new-state-council-what-analysts-might-have-missed/.

  • Link, P. 1992. Evening Chats in Beijing: Probing China’s Predicament. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacFarquhar, R. 2015. China: The Superpower of Mr. Xi. New York Review of Books. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/08/13/china-superpower-mr-xi/ (accessed Nov 26, 2022).

  • Miller, A.L. 2020. Xi Jinping and the Evolution of Chinese Leadership Politics. In Fateful Decisions: Choices That Will Shape China's Future, Fingar, Thomas and Oi, Jean, C. (Eds.) Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Naughton, B. 2020. Grand Steerage. In Fateful Decisions: Choices That Will Shape China’s Future, ed. Thomas Fingar and Jean C. Oi, 51–81. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nivison, D.S. 1996. The Ways of Confucianism: Investigations in Chinese Philosophy. Chicago: Open Court.

    Google Scholar 

  • OHCHR. 2022. Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/2022-08-31/22-08-31-final-assesment.pdf (accessed Nov 26, 2022).

  • Pei, M. 2015. China’s Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay. Harvard: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramzy, A. and C. Buckley. 2019. ‘Absolute No Mercy’: Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims. New York Times, November 16. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html (accessed Nov 26, 2022).

  • Rothstein, B., and A. Varraich. 2017. Making Sense of Corruption. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Saich, T. 2015. Reflections on a Survey of Global Perceptions of International Leaders and World Powers 2014. https://ash.harvard.edu/files/survey-global-perceptions-international-leaders-world-powers.pdf (accessed Nov 26, 2022).

  • Shin, Doh Chull. 2012. Confucianism and democratization in East Asia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shirk, S. 2022. Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Transparency International. 2014. Five Reasons Corruption Is Getting Worse in China. https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/five-reasons-corruption-is-getting-worse-in-china (accessed Nov 24, 2022).

  • Transparency International. 2017a. https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/china (accessed Nov 24, 2022).

  • Transparency International. 2017b. https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017#table (accessed Nov 24, 2022).

  • Tsai, W.-H., and W. Zhou. 2019. Integrated Fragmentation and the Role of Leading Small Groups in Chinese Politics. The China Journal 82: 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsang, S., and H. Men, eds. 2016. China in the Xi Jinping Era, 17–40. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2014. The “Invisible Hand” and the “Visible Hand”. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, 128–130. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2017a. Secure a Decisive Victory in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Strive for the Great Success of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, October 18, 2017. http://en.qstheory.cn/2021-12/24/c_692748.htm (accessed Nov 17, 2022).

  • Xi, J. 2017b. Enhance Party Conduct, Uphold Clean Government, and Fight Corruption. In The Governance of China II, 175–184. Part of the speech at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2017c. Observe Discipline and Rules. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China II, 164–171. Part of a speech at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, January 13, 2015. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2017d. Be a Good County Party Secretary. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China II, 151–163. Speech at the meeting with a class of county party secretaries at the Central Party School. January 12, 2015. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2017e. The Four Consciousnesses and the Authority of the Central Committee. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China II, 207–210. Main points of the speech at a meeting for criticism and self-criticism of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee. December 26–27, 2016. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2017f. Meet the Standards for Party Members. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China II, 211–213. Points Raised at a Party Branch Meeting in his Capacity as an Individual PARTY Member. August 13, 2017. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2020a. Strengthen Commitment to the Four Consciousnesses, the Four-Sphere Confidence, and the Two Upholds. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China III Speech at the First Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, October 25, 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2020b. Strengthen Party Self-Governance as an Ongoing Mission. In The Governance of China III, 584–596. Part of the speech at the Second Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. January 11, 2018. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2020c. Initiative and Resolve in Reinforcing the Party's Political Foundations. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China III, 114–123. Xi Jinping’s Speech at the sixth group study session of the Political Bureau. June 29, 2018. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2020d. Strengthen Discipline and Scrutiny over the Exercise of Power. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China III, 632–637. Main points of the speech at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. January 13, 2020. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2022a. Make Further Progress in Party Self-Governance. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China IV, 638–643. Main points of the speech at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. January 18, 2022. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2022b. Reinforce Our Party’s Political Foundations for Unity and Solidarity. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China IV, 56–57. Part of a speech at the second full assembly of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, November 11, 2021. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2022c. Self-Reform: The Second Answer to Breaking the Cycle of Rise and Fall. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China IV, 629–633. Part of the speech at the second full assembly of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xi, J. 2022d. Provide Sound Legal Guarantees for Socialist Modernization. Part of a speech at the Central Conference on Law-based Governance, November 16, 2020. In Xi Jinping: The Governance of China IV, 329–346. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xinhua News Agency. 2013. Xi Jinping Inspects the Navy’s Sanya Headquarters, Encouraging Officers and Soldiers to Keep in Mind and Sacrifice for Realization the Goal of a Strong Navy (习近平视察海军驻三亚部队时勉励官兵 牢记强军目标献身强军实践). 12 April. http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2013/0412/c64094-21107967.html (accessed Nov 26, 2022).

  • Walder, A.G. 2020. China’s National Trajectory. In Fateful Decisions: Choices That Will Shape China’s Future, ed. Thomas Fingar and Jean C. Oi, 335–357. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wedeman, A. 2012. Double Paradox: Rapid Growth and Rising Corruption in China, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wedeman, A. 2020. Anticorruption Forever? In Fateful Decisions: Choices That Will Shape China’s Future, ed. Thomas Fingar and Jean C. Oi, 82–106. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, G. 2023. The Rise of Xi Jinping’s Young Guards: Generational Change in the CCP Leadership. May. https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/rise-xi-jinpings-young-guards-generational-change-ccp-leadership.

  • Zhang, H. 2022. China Punishes 4.7 Million People in Decade-Long Anti-Graft Campaign. Global Times, June 30. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202206/1269498.shtml (accessed Nov 26, 2022).

  • Zhao, D. 2015. The Confucian-Legalist State: A New Theory of Chinese History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Johan Lagerkvist

Authors
  1. Johan Lagerkvist
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johan Lagerkvist .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Lagerkvist, J. (2023). Anti-Corruption Forever: Discipline and Loyalty. In: Organized Loyalty. Politics and Development of Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40037-7_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation