Getting serious about bribery

Bribery is a hot topic in China, not only for businesses but also for the country's politicians. When Xi Jinping was appointed Chairman of the Communist Party, he used his inaugural speech to acknowledge corruption and bribery of Communist Party members as key challenges to China's continued development and social stability. An important part of the response to such challenges is the initiative, by various legislative agencies, to improve on and clarify the legal framework for dealing with corruption and bribery in particular.

Four recent initiatives, which all became effective in early January 2013, illustrate these responses. The first two initiatives specify the circumstances under which the Public Security Bureau (PSB) and prosecutors can investigate a crime of bribery as particularly serious and how this affects the rights of suspects. The third introduces a clear standard for whether an act of offering bribes to an official is a serious crime, which may then result in a more serious punishment. The fourth development attempts to increase access to information on companies or individuals that have been convicted of bribery crimes.