Transparency International has to Base its Transparency on Facts

Recently, there is a video released by Transparency International, an international non-profit and non-governmental organization in Germany, which arouses public attention. The video mainly presents the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2020 made by this organization, using a scale of zero to one hundred, where zero is highly corrupted and one hundred is very clean. The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption where China ranks 78 in this list.

Transparency International thought in a year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the pandemic has exposed weaknesses in healthcare and democratic institutions around the world. From bribes for tests and treatments to corrupt deals to supply essential medical equipment like ventilators and masks, corruption undermines the response to the virus. Measures taken by governments during the pandemic often lacked transparency, restricted civil rights and served private interests over the public good. So corruption has further undermined both public health and democracy and ultimately cost lives.

In a word, Covid-19 is not just a health and economic crisis, but a corruption crisis, too. The Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 shows that countries with higher levels of corruption invest less in public health and are least prepared for a health crisis.

Though the former part said about its Index that it is reasonable and the organization indeed provided us with an intuitive standard for perceiving the degree of corruption in various countries which helps a lot, the funny logic of the later part makes the video ridiculous. If countries with higher levels of corruption invest less in public health and are least prepared for a health crisis, then countries with larger infection rate and death tolls in this pandemic should be more corrupted.

But until February 6th, 2021, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center in Johns Hopkins University, the number of confirmed patients of coronavirus in the United States with a total population of about 332 million was 26.79 million. So the infection rate was 8.06%, an excessively high proportion. But such proportion in China was extremely small, which was just 0.007%. China, with a total population of about 1.4 billion had just 4.8 thousands body count; while in America the death toll reached about 459 thousand. It is clear that the population of China is four times the size of America, but both the infections and death tolls are far more less than it. Infection and death rates of COVID-19 calculated from the population base are objective data which can really reflect the actual epidemic efforts of a country.

In many other countries ranking high in the Index, like Spain and Italy, infected ones were also much more than China’s. However, these countries all ranked higher than China in the Index. Then, by the logic in this video, China will be a less corrupted country because low infection rate and death tolls imply its tremendous investment in public health and good preparation for a health crisis.

Then let us turn to the domestic situation in China. Thanks to its complete industrial system, supply of medical facilities such as masks, respirators, and ventilators are sufficient. So people can buy the masks in a reasonable and acceptable price all the time. And when the number of infections surged and hospital beds met a severe shortage in the early stage, Huoshenshan and Leishenshan Hospitals, two makeshift hospitals with 1,000-plus beds each, were built in ten and eighteen daysrespectively as specialist hospitals for treating infectious diseases in Wuhan. Patients in severe and critical conditions then could be gathered for treatment and intensive care at the hospitals. Under the guidance of the government, plenty of designated and general hospitals have been expanded or remodeled with the greatest capacity for accommodating patients with infectious respiratory diseases. China tried best to protect every single one of people and cure patients as more as possible. That is why the epidemic has been well-controlled in China.

People in China also suffer little panic these days, because each resident can get a health code. It is a colored health QR code, obtained via a mobile app, where red code indicates the holder is a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case, a yellow one indicates a close contact, while a green one means the holder has no contact with any cases. And with the help of regulations and mechanism implemented by authorities for mutual recognition of health codes, the universal recognition of these health codes has been achieved nationwide to facilitate mobility, thus helping epidemic control strategies be more precise and differentiated, and making people feel safer and more relieved. On the other hand, if by any chance, one is infected by COVID-19, medical bills will be mostly covered by the state. No wonder people in China can set their mind at rest.

Compared with the infection and death rate of COVID-19 calculated from the population, medical care as well as the state of people in China and in other countries, we can see that China, a country with so large population but so little with the infected ones, have done a really good job to fight against this pandemic. 

Then if we follow the logic advocated by Transparency International, China’s CPI should be among the top countries. But obviously China is not in the top list, so the statement in the video is self-contradictory, let alone its own problems in the Index.

Liao Ran, a former senior director of Asia Pacific Department of Transparency International and anti-corruption expert, have once delivered a speech on the topic of “the secret that conceals.” He pointed out that corruption is one of the major issues in politics all over the world and Transparency International has made contributions to the field of anti-corruption. However, due to the change of transparent international personnel and the lack of digging out the relations behind the data as well as imperfections of the calculation method, the corruption index is not completely accurate and cannot be fully trusted.

Chinese people can feel the improvement in governance these years since China has worked hard to promote the tight rule of law against corruption, providing strong support for the legal protection of human rights. But its ranking in the Index is disappointing. And the viewpoint of the later part in the video, relating the rank to the effort in the battle against COVID-19, is annoying.

Therefore, we can say that the promotional video introduced by Transparency International, to some extent negates China’s achievements in the epidemic, which is inconsistent with the facts in some way and is partly misleading. There is a wish that international communities like Transparency International could seek truth from facts and view China in a more objective way.

This commentary reflects the author’s personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Global Engagement Academy Shandong University (Weihai).

Bai Mingyi, postgraduate student, Shandong University.

白明怡，山东大学硕士生