said, for example, “the Party is at risk of failure for sure unless we punish corruption, especially corruption at the high levels of the Party.” [6]. Jiang Zemin, the former CCP chief, talked about the problem even more often. “Corruption is the cancer in the body of the Party and the state. If we let it be, our Party, our political power and our socialist modernization cause will be doomed.” [8]. He also suggested that “If we do not firmly punish corruption, the flesh-and-blood ties between the Party and the mass would be ruined; the Party would be in danger of losing its ruling status and the Party would suffer self-destruction.” [9].
FIC plays a decisive role in cadre appointment. Consequently, the sale of official positions becomes the primary means of FIC corruption. Most of the corrupt FICs in the Appendix were involved in office selling. For example, Du Baoqian in his 5 years’ tenure as the Secretary of the Lushi County Committee of CCP “sold” 650 positions when handling cadre promotion and redeployment.9 When Du Baoqian was under investigation, his case implicated 80 other country officials, among whom were a member of the Standing Committee of the CCP’s County Committee and deputy-executive of the county, all the Party secretaries and chief executive officers in the county’s 19 townships.10 As a result, the entire county government collapsed. The case about Ma De is another example. Ma, the former Secretary of the Suihua Municipal Committee of CCP, Heilongjiang Province, not only sold but also bought official positions. Implicated in his wrongdoing, several provincial leading officials such as the Deputy Chairman of Heilongjiang People’s Political Consultative Conference and Director of the Organization Department of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of CCP and more than 10 county officials in Suihua City were sacked.11 As illustrated by these cases, the corruption of just one person, the FIC, can implicate many other officials, pollute a government, and paralyze the entire institution. It is therefore safe to say that no other corruption in public office can bring more damage to the whole cadre corps than FIC corruption.
Power overconcentration and FIC corruption
While FIC corruption represents the most destructive kind of corruption, it is probably also one of the most difficult forms of corruption to tackle. FIC corruption is not just a personal malady. A probe into the causes of FIC corruption reveals the defects of China’s political institutions, both formal and informal ones.
The major defect is the overconcentration of power into the hands of FICs. This was corroborated by the statements of quite a few fallen FICs. Hu Jianxue, the former Secretary of the Tai’an Municipal Committee of CCP, Shandong Province, said such “famous” words: “Nobody can supervise us who have been elevated to the position of Party Secretary.&rdquo