Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:11:18.213Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Stealing from the Farmers: Institutional Corruption and the 1992 IOU Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

In recent years, sinologists and leaders of the Chinese Communist Party have come to view “endemic” corruption as the “Achilles′ heel” of Deng Xiaoping's reforms. Corruption, they assert, has weakened the Party and threatens to push it into a “life and death” crisis of legitimacy. Such views accord with a conventional wisdom that treats corruption as the episodic and catastrophic variable in a punctuated equilibrium model. In this construct, although it may generate political discontent and mass alienation, corruption lies dormant most of the time and only becomes politically significant when both the stakes involved and the number of officials engaged in corruption reach extraordinary levels, and the regime fails to bring corruption under control, at which point it becomes a factor in mobilizing anti-government agitation.3 Without such crises, corruption's tangible political consequences remain quite limited or at least latent.

Type
Research Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Kristof, Nicholas D. and Wudunn, Sheryl, China Wakes(New York: Times Books, 1994); pp. 188]Google Scholar, 201 and 209; Lieberthal, Kenneth, Governing China(London: W.W. Norton, 1995) p. 267]Google Scholar; Baum, Richard, Burying Mao(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994) pp. 174]Google Scholar and 177; “Jiang gives ‘important speech’ on corruption,” Xinhua, 21 August 1993, in Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report: China,(henceforth FBIS), 23 August 1993, p. 18]Google Scholar; Zongbin, Hou, “Make a determined effort to fight corruption and ensure the sound development of a socialist market economy,” Qiushi,No. 14 (July 1993), in FBIS, 1 September 1993, p. 14]Google Scholar; Yun, Chen, “Work report of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission to the 13th CCP National Congress,” Xinhua, 4 November 1987, in British Broadcast Service Survey of World Broadcasts(henceforth BBCSWB),6 November 1987]Google Scholar; and Peng, Li, “Speech to the National People's Congress,” Reuters, 5 March 1995.]Google Scholar

2. Meaney, Connie Squires, “Market reform and disintegrative corruption in urban China,” in Baum, Richard (ed.), Reform and Reaction in Post-Mao China: The Road to Tiananmen(New York: Routledge, 1991), pp. 124142]Google Scholar; Sun, Yan, “The Chinese protests of 1989: the issue of corruption,Asian Survey,Vol. 31, No. 8 (August 1991), pp. 762782]CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hao, Yufan and Johnston, Michael, “Reform at the crossroads: an analysis of Chinese corruption,Asian Perspective,Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 1995), p. 149]Google Scholar; and Clemens Stubbe Ostergaard and Christina Petersen, “Official profiteering and the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in China,” Corruption and Reform,No. 6 (1991), pp. 87–107.

3. Johnston, Michael, “The political consequences of corruption: a reassessment,Comparative Politics,Vol. 18, No. 4 (July 1986), pp. 459477.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. Nye, J.S., “Corruption and political development: a cost-benefit analysis,The American Political Science Review,Vol. 61, No. 2 (June 1967), pp. 417–127.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar After over 30 years of debate on the definition of corruption and its causes, there is a considerable body of literature on the topic. See inter alia, Scott, James C., “Corruption, machine politics, and political change,” in Heidenheimer, Arnold (ed.), Political Corruption: Readings in Comparative Public Analysis(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970), pp. 459463]Google Scholar; Scott, James C., Comparative Political Corruption(Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972)]Google Scholar; Huntington, Samuel P., “Modernization and corruption,” in Heidenheimer, Political Corruption;pp. 492500]Google Scholar; Friedrich, Carl J., The Pathology of Politics: Violence, Betrayal, Corruption, Secrecy, and Propaganda(New York: Harper & Row, 1972)]Google Scholar; deLeon, Peter, Thinking About Political Corruption(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1993)]Google Scholar; Theobald, Robin, Corruption, Development and Underdevelopment(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990)]CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ben-Dor, Gabriel, “Corruption, institutionalization, and political development: the revisionist theses revisited,Comparative Political Studies,Vol. 7, No. 1 (April 1974); pp. 6383]CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Klitgaard, Robert E., Controlling Corruption(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988). In many cases, these authors are aware of institutional corruption, but do not clearly distinguish it from individual corruption, treating it instead as “collective corruption” or “syndicated corruption,” that is corruption involving groups of officials rather than individuals.]Google Scholar

5. Lu Xiaobo, “Booty socialism, bureaupreneurs, and economic development: a study of organizational corruption in China,” paper presented at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting 1996, Honolulu. Cited with the author's permission.

6. As used herein, institutional corruption is distinct from “bureaucratic corruption” in that the latter term generally refers to corruption by bureaucrats while the former refers to corrupt acts committed by bureaucracies acting as collective institutions.

7. This is not to say that institutional corrupt is unique to the reform period or a direct consequence of the reform. On the contrary, various forms of what I define as institutional corruption existed during the Maoist period.

8. The term small treasury or coffer refers to banks accounts maintained by public units under false names in order to hide them from higher levels. State Council regulations banned small treasuries in 1986. Guowuyuan guanyu qingli he zhengdun “xiao jinku” de tongzhi (State Council Notice Regarding the Rectification of Small Treasuries), Dictionary of Supervision and Control, 1990, pp. 373–374.]Google Scholar

9. Blecher, Marc, “Development state, entrepreneurial state: the political economy of socialist reform in Xinju municipality and Guanghan county,” in White, Gordon (ed.), The Chinese State in the Era of Economic Reform: The Road to Crisis(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1991), pp. 265291]Google Scholar; Nee, Victor, “Organizational dynamics of market transition: hybrid forms, property rights, and mixed economy in China,” Administrative Science Quarterly,No. 37 (1992); pp. 127]Google Scholar; Oi, Jean C., “Fiscal reform and the economic foundations of local state corporatism in China,World Politics,Vol. 45, No. 1 (December 1992); pp. 99127]CrossRefGoogle Scholar;and Jean C. Oi, “The role of the local state in China's transitional economy,” The China Quarterly,No. 144 (December 1995), pp. 1132–1150.

10. Reuters, 28 August 1993]Google Scholar; Xinhua, 30 August 1993, in BBCSWB,1 September 1993]Google Scholar; Xinhua, 27 August 1993]Google Scholar; South China Morning Post,17 August 1993]Google Scholar; International Business,January 1994]Google Scholar; Kyodo, 2September 1993]Google Scholar; Jingji guanti,October 1993, in BBCSWB,26 November 1993]Google Scholar; Renmin ribao,9 November 1992, in FBIS, 11 December 1993, pp. 4345]Google Scholar; Wenhui bao,5 June 1993, in FBIS, 7 June 1993, p. 32]Google Scholar; Renmin ribao,16 August 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; Jingji cankao,19 May 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; and South China Morning Post,4 July 1993.]Google Scholar

11. In addition to white and green slips, other forms of IOUs were reported during 1992–93. Some functioned essentially like white and green slips. Banks, for example, would hand their customers “yellow slips” or “blue slips” when they were short of cash. Others, however, functioned more like illegal bonds. Underground “banks” and curb market financiers, for example, issued “black slips” carrying high interest rates. Some state enterprises sold “red slips” paying 15 and 20% interest to employees or issued them in lieu of wages and bonuses. Other units, however, issued non-interest bearing “red slips” or “purchase coupons” allowing employees to obtain goods at designated stores when they lacked enough funds to meet their payrolls. Industrial enterprises, meanwhile, resorted to the use of IOUs to pay suppliers when cash ran short. Unfortunately, data on yellow, black or red slips are too limited to allow for systematic analyses of these forms of IOUs. Hongkong Economic Journal,17 June 1993, in Inside China Mainland,August 1993, pp. 39 and 83; Inside China Mainland,September 1993, p. 84; Inside China Mainland,November 1993, p. 83; Zhongguo caiwu bao,27 May 1993, p. 1; Zhongguo tongxun she,19 June 1993, pp. 33–34; Xinhua, 1 May 1993, in FBIS, 3 May 1993, p. 28; and “Bufen nongcun chuxian qi geng pao huang xianxiang” (“In parts of the countryside, farmers cast aside their ploughs and leave behind wasteland”, Liaowang,15 November 1992, pp. 8–9.

12. As revealed during the 1993 anti-san luancampaign, many of the arbitrary taxes and fees collected by local governments and central department had in fact been authorized. As a result, even though many localities violated State Council regulations limiting taxes to 5% of farmers′ previous years income, the fees and taxes were actually legal. In many areas, local governments also find themselves forced to levy taxes in excess of the 5% limit because they simply cannot get by on legal taxes and subsidies from the unitary budget, thus creating a situation where institutional corruption may be driven as much by fiscal need as institutional

13. Misappropriation, particularly by banks, treads a fine line between the improper and the illegal and, therefore, the misuse of power and the abuse of power. Even though they had a certain amount of discretion in using deposits and could make short-term inter-bank loans, banks violated regulations governing the management of procurement funds in several ways. First, the Agricultural Bank was prohibited from using procurement funds to make commercial loans and any inter-bank loan made for the purposes of re-lending was illegal. Secondly, because criminal misappropriation occurs when funds lent out without proper authorization cannot be recovered in a timely manner or if the unauthorized use of funds causes the state financial losses, any bank that failed to recover short-term bank loans in a timely manner was in violation of banking regulations. Thirdly, financial regulations stipulate that banks must report any income generated by inter-bank loans and could be subject to criminal prosecution for tax evasion if they failed to report such income or stashed the funds in unregistered accounts. In the case of procurement agencies, any lending of procurement funds allocated to them by the Agricultural Bank violated regulations stipulating that such funds must be maintained in specialized procurement accounts held by the Agricultural Bank and may not be relent. According to regulations, organizations found guilty of misappropriation can be subject to confiscation of unauthorized funds and fined. Officials may also be held criminally responsible and prosecuted if they were directly involved in the misappropriation of funds or if units they directed engaged illegal acts. See “Zuigao renmin jiancha yuan, Guanyu renzhen chaban danwei xinghui shouhui fanzui tiao an de tongzhi” “Supreme People's Procuratorate, ‘Notice regarding the conscientious investigation of units involved in making or accepting bribes’”), 22 October 1993, in Jiancha shouce,1993 (Procuratorate Handbook)1995, p. 133; An Interpretation of Changes in the Penal Code,1994, ch. 1; Controlling Economic Crime in China,1995, ch. 15; and Guidance for Work on the “Three Clears and One Stop”1994.

14. Nongchanpin liutong tizhi gaige yu zhengce baoxian (Reform of the Agricultural Commodities Circulation System and Policy Safeguards), 1992, pp. 152166.]Google Scholar

15. Ni Chengwei and Huang Jianping, Caizheng yu jinrong gailun (An Introduction to Public Finance and Banking), 1990.]Google Scholar

16. ribao, Jingji, 5 September 1991, p. 2 and Jean C. Oi, State and Peasant in Contemporary China: The Political Economy of Village Government(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), ch. 8.]Google Scholar

17. Hebei ribao,16 February 1993, p. 2.]Google Scholar

18. Nongmin ribao,17 July 1989, p. 1]Google Scholar; Zhongguo shang bao,26 November 1992, p. 1]Google Scholar; Henan ribao,16 February 1993, p. 2]Google Scholar; Jinrong shibao,12 November 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; and Fujian ribao,16 July 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

19. In 1989, for example, wholesalers in Yucheng prefecture, Shanxi, defaulted on 6 million yuanin debts owed to grain bureaus in Zaoyang county, Hubei, because the Industrial Commercial Bank lacked sufficient cash to transfer funds to the bureaus′ accounts held by the Agricultural Bank. Local banks in Jiangling county, Hubei, on the other hand, refused to issue procurement loans to the grain bureaus because the local branch of the Industrial Commercial Bank owed the local branch of the Agricultural Bank 28.70 million yuan,the Agricultural Bank owed the Industrial Commercial Bank 7.57 million yuan,2.48 million yuanwas tied up in inter-bank loans between various branches of the Agricultural Bank, and 11.58 million yuanwas tied up in inter-bank loans between various branches of the Industrial Commercial Bank. Nongmin ribao,17 July 1989, p. 1]Google Scholar; Fujian ribao,16 July 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; and Nongmin ribao,17 July 1989, p. 1.]Google Scholar

20. Zhongguo tongji nianjian 1993 (Statistical Yearbook of China, 1993).]Google Scholar

21. Terry Sicular, “Redefining state, plan and market: China's reforms in agricultural commerce,” The China Quarterly,No. 144 (December 1995), p. 1034]Google Scholar; Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1993;and Nongmin ribao,31 January 1994, p. 3.]Google Scholar

22. China Daily,8 December 1992, in FBIS, 8 December 1992]Google Scholar; Nongmin ribao,12 March 1993, in FBIS, 1 April 1993, pp. 3940]Google Scholar; Nongmin ribao,17 August 1993, p. 3]Google Scholar; Jingji ribao,3 October 1993, p. 2]Google Scholar; and Jinrong shibao,29 December, 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

23. Jinrong shibao,29 December, 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

24. Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1993,p. 627.]Google Scholar

25. Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1994,p. 231.]Google Scholar

26. Jingji ribao,31 August 1989, p. 1.]Google Scholar

27. China Daily,8 December 1992, FBIS, 8 December 1992]Google Scholar; Nongcun jingji (Rural Economy),No. 1 (1992), pp. 68]Google Scholar; Xinhua ribao,1 June 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar;Liaoning ribao,6 August 1993, p. 3]Google Scholar; Jinrong shibao,12 November 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; Jingji ribao,3 October 1993, p. 2]Google Scholar; and Jinrong shibao,30 January 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar. Even where governments did not default, rising subsidies consumed an increasingly large share of local finances. In 1991, price subsidy payments equalled 32.53% of local revenues in Jilin, 26.53% in Heilongjiang, 29.48% in Anhui, 26.84% in Jiangxi, 21.24 % in Hubei, 18.31% in Hunan and 16.72% in Sichuan, compared to an average of 14.81% for all provinces. Zhongguo caizheng nianjian (Public Finance Yearbook of China, 1992),pp. 916–919.

28. Jinrong shibao,30 January 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar and Henan ribao,16 February 1993, p. 2.]Google Scholar

29. Nongmin ribao,16 January 1989]Google Scholar; Xinhua (wire service), 20 January 1989]Google Scholar; Renmin ribao,23 January 1989, p. 1]Google Scholar; and Nongmin ribao,19 December 1988, p. 4.]Google Scholar

30. Economist Intelligence Unit, Business China,25 September 1989; South China Morning Post,6 December 1989]Google Scholar; Nongmin ribao,17 July 1989]Google Scholar; Renmin ribao,9 November 1989, p. 2]Google Scholar; Hunan ribao,20 November 1989, p. 2; Xinhua (wire service), 12 December 1989]Google Scholar; Xinhua (wire service), 13 November 1989]Google Scholar. In some villages in Henan, procurement bureaus paid for close to 60% of their purchases with IOUs. Nongmin ribao,20 July 1989, p. 1.]Google Scholar

31. Jingji ribao,11 January 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

32. Jingji ribao,16 January 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

33. China Daily,8 December 1992, in FBIS, 8 December 1992.]Google Scholar

34. Xinhua, 8 January 1993, in FBIS, 12 January 1993, pp. 38–39.]Google Scholar

35. “Agriculture: new problems,” China News Analysis,No. 1483 (15 April 1993), p. 3.]Google Scholar

36. Henan ribao,18 January 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

37. Hunan Regional Service,31 December 1992, in FBIS, 13 January 1993, pp. 4243.]Google Scholar

38. Xinhua ribao,5 January 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

39. Henan ribao,16 February 1993, p. 2.]Google Scholar

40. Hubei ribao,8 January 1993, p. 1 and Nongmin ribao,10 June 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar

41. Jingji ribao,10 October 1993, p. 7.]Google Scholar

42. Hubei ribao,3 January 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar and Hunan ribao,9 January 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

43. Nongmin ribao,11 April 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

44. If hidden IOUs were included, the total may have been around 15 billion yuan.Based on drops in grain procurement between 1991 and 1992, and assuming a protected price of 500 yuanper ton of grain, the value of unpurchased grain would have been close to 5 billion yuan.This figure is, however, only a rough and, therefore, uncertain guess. Procurement data from Zhongguo shichang tongji nianjian 1993 (Statistical Yearbook of Chinese Markets, 1993),p. 211.

45. Zhongguo shang bao,26 November 1992, p. 1]Google Scholar; South China Morning Post,6 December 1989; Guizhou ribao,2 August 1993, p. 7]Google Scholar; and Fazhi ribao,13 June 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

46. South China Morning Post,23 January 1996.

47. Nongmin ribao,23 January 1993, p. 1. In one area of Hubei, however, it was the state that fell victim to IOUs after forgers cashed 200,000 yuanof fake “cotton purchase deferred payment slips.” Hunan ribao,19 January 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

48. Guizhou ribao,23 September 1993, p. 2.]Google Scholar

49. Jiangxi ribao,13 January 1993, p. 2.]Google Scholar

50. Jinrong shibao,30 January 1992, p. 1 and Zhongguo gaige yufazhan baogao: Xinde tupo yu xinde tiaozhan (1992–1993) (Report on China's Reform and Development: New Breakthroughs and New Challenges),pp. 117–120.]Google Scholar

51. In 1992, the Agricultural Bank allocated 241.5 billion yuanin loans for the purchase of agricultural commodities, an increase of 12.80%. Jinrong shibao,30 January 1993, p. 1.

52. Based on data in Zhongguo jinrong nianjian, 1992. (Banking Yearbook of China, 1992),p. 531, and Zhongguo jinrong nianjian, 1993,pp. 409 and 456.

53. Zhongguo nongcun jinrong tongji nianjian, 1993 (Statistical Yearbook of Rural Finance in China, 1993),p. 63.]Google Scholar

54. Data on procurement loans from Zhongguo nongcun jinrong nianjian, 1993,p. 42. Data on production from Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1992, p. 362 and Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1993,p. 368. Data on prices from Zhongguo shichang tongji nianjian, 1993,p. 454.]Google Scholar

55. Renmin ribao,23 April 1993, p. 4.]Google Scholar

56. Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1992,p. 147; Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1993,p. 147; and Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1994,p. 142.]Google Scholar

57. Jingji ribao,11 January 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

58. Chinese Central Television Network,29 December 1992, in BBCSWB,6 January 1993.]Google Scholar

59. Reuters, 28 August 1993; Xinhua, 30 August 1993, in BBCSWB,1 September 1993; Xinhua, 27 August 1993; South China Morning Post,17 August 1993; International Business,January 1994; Kyodo, 2September 1993; Jingji guanli,October 1993, in BBCSWB,26 November 1993; Renmin ribao,9 November 1992, in FBIS, 11 December 1993, pp. 43^15; Wenhui bao,5 June 1993, in FBIS, 7 June 1993, p. 32; Renmin ribao,16 August 1993, p. 1; Jingji cankao,19 May 1993, p. 1; and South China Morning Post,4 July 1993. During the 1993 crackdown on illegal loans, banks in Hunan, Sichuan, Jiangxi and other unnamed inland provinces allegedly recalled 20–30 billion yuanfrom Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan. South China Morning Post,1 August 1993.]Google Scholar

60. Zhongguo gaige yufazhan baogao,p. 118. Based on circumstantial evidence, it would not be unreasonable to assume that postal bureaus also misappropriated some of these funds and diverted them to unauthorized expenditures and investments or “lent” them to the bank at premium interest rates.

61. Renmin ribao,12 June 1993, p. 5.]Google Scholar

62. Renmin ribao,10 April 1993, p. 1.Jinrongshibao,15 January 1993, p. 1SouthChina Morning Post,13 November 1993; Jinrong shibao,1 January 1993, p. \;Nongmin ribao,10 May 1993, p. 3; Nongmin ribao,17 June 1993, p. 1; Sichuan ribao,8 January 1993, p. 1; Nongmin ribao,1 January 1993, p. 1; Anhui ribao,20 June 1993, p. 38; Nongmin ribao,9 January 1993, p. 1; and Jinrong shibao,18 October 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

63. Nongmin ribao,18 December 1993, p. 1 and Jingji ribao,11 May 1993, p. 7. According to officials in Honghu city, Hubei, only a third of the funds promised them by the provincial government were ever received, even though the provincial-level bank claimed to have authorized the loans. Nongmin ribao,10 January 1993, p. 1. Xinhua ribaoalso charged that over two-thirds of the funds allocated for procurement in several Subei counties flowed to other areas. Xinhua ribao,10 February 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

64. Jingji cankao,19 May 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

65. Jinrong shibao,10 January 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

66. Henan ribao,16 February 1993, p. 2.]Google Scholar

67. Wenhui bao,5 June 1993, in FBIS, 7 June 1993, p. 32.]Google Scholar

68. Jingji cankao,19 May 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

69. Xinhua ribao,1 June 1993, p. 7.]Google Scholar

70. Henan ribao,16 February 1993, p. 2.]Google Scholar

71. Renmin ribao,16 January 1989, p. 1.]Google Scholar

72. Nongmin ribao,20 July 1989, p. 1.]Google Scholar

73. Nongmin ribao,7 July 1989, p. 1.]Google Scholar

74. Nongmin ribao,16 January 1989, p. 1.]Google Scholar

75. Henan ribao,16 February 1993, p. 2.]Google Scholar

76. Nongmin ribao,17 July 1989, p. 1.]Google Scholar

77. In 1992, legal interest rates could run as high as 10.37% for loans to individual households engaged in commerce and industry. Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1992,p. 671. By simply borrowing procurement funds at the discount rate of 7.74% and then lending them out to individuals, a procurement agency or local government could make a minimum profit of 2.63% or much more given curb rates between 20 and 40% in 1992 (based on interest rates reported for red slips and black slips) depending on their willingness to take risks.

78. ribao, Nongmin 11 April 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; ribao, Nongmin 25 January 1994, p. 2]Google Scholar; and ribao, Nongmin 23 October 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

79. South China Morning Post,4 July 1993.

80. Renmin ribao,19 November 1992, in FBIS, 11 December 1992, pp. 43–45.

81. Nongmin ribao,14 September 1994, p. 1.

82. Jinrong shibao,1 October 1993, p. 1 and Hubei ribao,3 October 1993, p. 2.

83. Jingji cankao,8 August 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar and Fazhi ribao,22 November 1993, p. 3.]Google Scholar

84. Jingji ribao,25 October 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

85. Renmin ribao,17 May 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

86. Jingji ribao,3 October 1993, p. 2.]Google Scholar

87. Jinrong shibao,12 November 1993, p.l.]Google Scholar

88. Henan ribao,16 February 1993, p. 2.]Google Scholar

89. Fazhi ribao,26 October 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

90. See Ningxia, 28 September 1993, p. 1 ;Renmin ribao,15 April 1993, p. l,17June 1993, p.30 ;Jinrongshibao,12January 1993, p. l,22January 1993, p. 1,30November 1993, p. 1;Nongminribao,HDecember 1994, p. 1, 18 June 1994, p. l;Jingjiribao,30Ma.y1993, p. 2; Fazhi ribao,22 August 1994, p. \;Guangxi ribao,19 September 1993, p. l;NeiMenggu ribao,28 August 1993, p. 1,8 January 1993, p. 1; Fujian ribao,30 November 1993; Dazhong ribao,7 October 1993, p. 2, 6 January 1993, p. 1; Xinhua ribao,10 January 1993, p. 1, 30 May 1993, p. 1; Sichuan ribao,3 January 1993, p. 2; Nanfang ribao,12 January 1993, p. 1; Hubei ribao,3 January 1993, p. 1, 12 June 1993, p. 1; Shanxi ribao,15 January 1993, p. 3; Liaoningribao,9January 1993, p. 1,16January 1993, p. 1,19January 1993, p. 2;Jilinribao,15 January 1993, p. l,6December 1993, p. 5;Gansuribao,14January 1993, p. 1,26January 1993, p. 1, 1 February 1993, p. 1; Zhejiang ribao,10 May 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

91. Nanfang ribao,19 September 1993, p. 2]Google Scholar; Guizhou ribao,16 January 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar, 23 September 1993, p. 2; Yunnan ribao,10 January 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; Fazhi ribao,20 April 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; Jingji ribao,8 April 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

92. Hubei ribao,6 January 1993, p. 1; Zhongguo shang bao,26 November 1993, p. 1; China Central Television,17January 1993, inFBIS, 12February 1993, pp. 29–30. Reversing the IOUs was, however, only possible in the short term because it simply shifted the debt over to the supply and marketing co-operatives, who ultimately would need cash to buy inputs from wholesalers. Even the practice of treating IOUs as a form of cash, which was reported in various localities, worked only so long as all purchases and sales remained local. Similarly, allowing farmers to use IOUs to pay their taxes simply transferred the debt to local governments, thus leaving them in the red and unable to meet their financial obligations. Hubei ribao,8 January 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

93. For a discussion of state-farmer conflicts during 1983–85, see Kelliher, Daniel, Peasant Power in China: The Era of Rural Reform, 1979–1989(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992)]Google Scholar, ch. 5 and Zhou, Kate Xiao, How the Farmers Changed China: Power of the People(Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996), ch. 4.]Google Scholar

94. In addition to the examples cited above, procurement agencies cheated farmers by claiming that commodities were substandard and forcing farmers to accept lower prices. Individual cadres sold supplies of subsidized fertilizer and diesel on the black market, embezzled procurement funds, forged receipts, engaged in profiteering by buying grain at low fixed prices and then reselling it at higher market prices, and stole shipments of grain outright. “Nong yong chaiyou, ni zai hu huan shenme?” (“Farm diesel, to whose call do you listen?”), Liaowang,2 August 1993, pp. 2023]Google Scholar; Renmin ribao,19 January 1987, in BBCSWB,27 January 1987.]Google Scholar

95. Institutional corruption continued during the clearing process. In Anhui, for example, local governments misappropriated funds or inflated the amount of outstanding IOUs. In other areas, local governments grabbed a share of the repayment funds by having banks transfer them to village governments, which then stripped off a healthy percentage in irregular fees and “village deductions” or as repayment for contrived debts. Others gave farmers “material purchasing tickets” instead of cash for their IOUs. When stores refused to accept these tickets, farmers complained that the government had “drawn pictures of food to ally their hunger.” Other localities collected farmers' promissory notes and then pocketed repayment funds, leaving the farmers holding “invisible grey slips.” Even after they received additional funds from the central bank, local authorities in some areas continued to default on payments. In Hunan, the Linli county branch of the Industrial Commercial Bank failed to hand over 970,000 yuanof funds allocated by the provincial bank for the purpose of settling IOUs, while the local finance bureau diverted 1.50 million of the 2.20 million yuanprovided by the People's Bank. Hubei ribao,June 1993, p. l;Xinhua,8 January 1993, in FBIS, 12 January 1993, pp. 3839]Google Scholar; Henanribao,29January 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar;Nongmin ribao,15February 1993, p. 3]Google Scholar;Nongmin ribao,15 February 1993, p. 3]Google Scholar; Jingji ribao,10 October 1993, p. 7]Google Scholar; Hunan ribao,5 October 1993, p. 7]Google Scholar; and Hebei ribao,29 January 1993, p. 1.]Google Scholar

96. Nongmin ribao,17 January 1993, in FBIS, 5 February 1993, pp. 1416.]Google Scholar

97. Although rural households' per capital income from farming was approximately the same in 1990 and 1991 as it had been in 1985 (taking into account inflation), falling terms of trade pushed rural incomes to 95% of their 1985 levels in 1990 and then 85% of their 1985 level in 1991. Based on farm income: Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1994,p. 276 and Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1992,p. 306. Rural price index: Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1994,p. 231. Agricultural terms of trade: Andrew Wedeman, Bamboo Walls and Brick Ramparts: Rent Seeking, Interregional Economic Conflict, and Local Protectionism in China,Ph.D. dissertation, University of California Los Angeles, 1994; ch. 2.

98. South China Morning Post,29 August 1993.

99. Jingji ribao,16 December 1993, p. 1; Nongmin ribao,3 August 1992, p. 1.]Google Scholar

100. Nongmin ribao,26 January 1993, p. 1, 1 February 1993, p. 3, 19 March 1993, p. 1, 28 March 1993, p. 2,4 May 1992, p. 3; Hubei ribao,7 June 1993, p. 1,6 January 1993, p. 1, 20 January 1993, p. 1, 6 January 1993, p. 1; Fazhi ribao,1 April 1993, p. 1, 20 March 1993, p. 1; Renmin ribao,23 May 1993, p. 1, 11 July 1993, p. 2; Jingji ribao,19 February 1993, p. 5,5 September 1993, p. 2; Zhejiang ribao,21 April 1993, p. 1; Fujian ribao,10 May 1993, p. 7.]Google Scholar

101. Data on the size of China's “floating population” and its growth are uncertain. The most widely cited estimates indicate that by 1990 some 35 million rural residents had migrated to coastal cities. In early 1992, observers put the number at 50–60 million. The following year, the floating population was estimated at between 70 and 100 million, with the lower figure more commonly cited. Based on these figures, whereas between 15 and 25 million rural residents joined the floating population in the two years between 1990 and 1992, between 20 and 50 million did so in 1993 alone. Other sources also indicate an increase. According to the Minister of Agriculture, 50 million rural residents moved out of farming in 1993, double the 24 million who did so in 1992, while the number of farmers migrating out of Jiangxi rose from just 200,000 in 1991 to 3 million in 1993. Solinger, however, puts the total at between 60 and 80 million in 1990, a figure that suggests most of the growth occurred in the 1980s, well before either the decline in farm income discussed above or the 1992 IOU crisis. Solinger, Dorothy J., “China's urban transients in the transition from socialism and the collapse of the Communist urban public goods regime′Comparative Politics,Vol. 27, No. 2 (January 1995), pp. 127147]CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “China's transients and the state: a form of civil society?” Politics &Society, Vol.21, No. 1 (March 1993), pp. 31123]Google Scholar; Xinhua, 23 January 1993. The Guardian,22 February 1992; Los Angeles Times,25 September 1993; International Herald Tribune,30 June 1994; and Xinhua, 22 July 1995.]Google Scholar

102. See Thomas P. Bernstein, “In quest of voice: China's farmers and prospects for political liberalization,” paper presented to the University Seminar on Modern China, Columbia University, 10 February 1994. Cited with the author's permission. Also see Perry, Elizabeth J., “Rural collective violence: the fruits of recent reforms,” in Perry, Elizabeth J. and Wong, Christine (eds.), The Political Economy of Reform in Post-Mao China(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985), pp. 175192 for a discussion of unrest in the early reform period.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar

103. “Hearing of the Joint Economic Committee.” Federal Information Systems Corporation,30 July1993; South China Morning Post,2July 1993; UPI,15 April 1993;South China Morning Post,26 June 1993; and Zhengming,1 March 1993, in FBIS, 10 March 1993, pp. 1415. According to Bernstein, farm protests occurred in Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shanxi, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and Henan. Bernstein, “In quest of voice,” p. 18. He also asserts that in many cases it was the combination of IOUs and excessive taxes that triggered demonstrations. Thomas P. Bernstein and Dorothy J. Solinger, “The peasant question for the future: citizenship, integration, and political institutions?” paper presented at the Conference on “China and World Affairs in 2010,” Stanford University, April 1996.]Google Scholar

104. AFP, 26 August 1993, in FBIS, 26 August 1993, pp. 2425]Google Scholar; South China Morning Post,3 April 1993, in FBIS, 5 April 1993, p. 47; Ming bao,17 December 1993, in FBIS, 17 December 1993, p. 36]Google Scholar; AFP,19 June 1993, in FBIS, 23 June 1993, p. 25; Yangcheng wanbao,30 May 1993, in FBIS, 21 June 1993, pp. 61–64; Nanfang zhoumo,24 September 1993, in FBIS, 27 September 1993, pp. 29–33; Kyodo,30 November 1992, in FBIS, 30 November 1992, p. 55; Xinhua, 30 November 1992, in FBIS, 30 November 1992, pp. 5556]Google Scholar; South China Morning Post,6 February 1993, in FBIS, 8 February 1993, pp. 46–47;Zhongguo xinwenshe,31March 1993, in FBIS, 31 March 1993, p. 55; AFP, 1November, 1992, in FBIS, 9 November 1992, pp. 2728.]Google Scholar

105. Kyodo,24 November 1994 and China Focus,1 December 1994. In Renshou, excessive local taxes, which had reached 20% of farm incomes by the autumn of 1992, led to a series of demonstrations beginning in January 1993 and culminating in a riot involving 10,000 farmers the following June. In June 1994, tax protesters allegedly seized control of the town of Sijihong in Hunan. Xin bao,10 June 1993, in FBIS, 11 June 1993; China Focus,1 September 1996; and Renmin ribao,10 November 1995.]Google Scholar

106. Zhengming,1 September 1993, in FBIS, 10 September 1993, p. 40.]Google Scholar

107. See Zhongguo shang bao,26 November 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; Renmin ribao,26 October 1993, p. 5]Google Scholar; and Reuters, 7 December 1993.]Google Scholar

108. O'Brien, Kevin J., “Rightful resistance,World Politics,Vol. 49, No. 1 (October 1996)]CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lianjiang, Li and O'Brien, Kevin J., “Villagers and popular resistance in contemporary China,Modern China,Vol. 22, No. 1 (January 1996), pp. 2861]CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and O'Brien, Kevin and Lianjiang, Li, “The politics of lodging complaints in rural China,The China Quarterly,No. 143 (September 1995), pp. 756783.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar

109. bao, Renminfayuan, 21 March 1995, p. 1]Google Scholar; ribao, Renmin, 23 June 1993, p. 3]Google Scholar; and ribao, Fazhi, 16 August 1993, p. 2. According to the South China Morning Post,rural residents attacked post offices in Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shaanxi, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces. South China Morning Post,2 July 1993. The official China Dailyreported in Nanching prefecture, Sichuan, 60% of rural post offices were attacked and seven postal workers injured during the first weeks of 1992. China Daily,19 February 1993, in FBIS, 19 February 1993, p. 48.]Google Scholar

110. Traditionally, debts ought to be settled before the new year.

111. Xinhua, 28 December 1992 in BBCSWB,6 January 1993.]Google Scholar

112. Jingji ribao,28 December 1992, pp. 1–2.]Google Scholar

113. Dangdai,15 April 1993, in BBCSWB,22 April 1993.]Google Scholar

114. South China Morning Post,29 June 1993, in FBIS, 28 June 1993, and Zhongguo xinwen she,6 July 1993, in FBIS, 7 July 1993, p. 35.]Google Scholar

115. South China MorningPort, 22 March 1993, in FBIS, 23 March 1993, and SouthChina Morning Post,29 June 1993, in FBIS, 28 June 1993.]Google Scholar

116. China Daily,19 March 1993, in FBIS, 19 March 1993, p. 18.]Google Scholar

117. South China Morning Post,2 July 1993, and Los Angeles Times,31 July 1993. Zhu later denied having made such threats, saying rather tongue in cheek that: “Wantonly cutting off heads is a violation of human rights and against the law. If this appears in the press and is noticed by people outside China, I'll get in a lot of trouble.” Los Angeles Times,1 April and 27 July 1993.]Google Scholar

118. Xinhua, 13 July 1993;Ming boo,8 July 1993, in BBCSWB,10 July 1993; and Renmin ribao,12 July 1993, in BBCSWB,17 July 1993.]Google Scholar

119. Xinhua, 30 September 1993, in BBCSWB, 1October 1993.]Google Scholar

120. Reuters, 30 January 1994]Google Scholar; China Daily,26 February 1994; Xinhua, 19 November 1994]Google Scholar; and Reuters, 20 November 1994.]Google Scholar

121. Reuters, 28 August 1993]Google Scholar; Xinhua, 30 August 1993, in BBCSWB,1 September 1993;Xinhua, 27 August 1993]Google Scholar; South China Morning Post,17 August 1993; International Business,January 1994; Kyodo,2 September 1993; and Jingji guanli, October 1993, in BBCSWB,26 November 1993. The 15 August deadline was later rolled back to 15 January 1994 after bankers convinced Zhu that funds tied up in real estate projects could not be recovered quickly. Nevertheless, the central bank claimed to have recovered a total of 72.7 billion yuanas of 15 August.]Google Scholar

122. bao, Wenhui, 15 July 1993, in BBCSWB,16 July 1993.]Google Scholar

123. See “San qing yi cha” gongzuo daoyao (Guidance for the “Three Clears and One Check”),1994, and Xin Zhongguo fan fubai tongjian (Review of Anti-Corruption Efforts in the new China),1993.

124. See Abueva, Jose Veloso, “The contribution of nepotism, spoils, and graft to political development,” in Heidenheimer, Arnold(ed.), Political Corruption: Readings in Comparative Public Analysis(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970), pp. 534539]Google Scholar; David H. Bayley, “The effects of corruption in a developing nation,” in Ibid.pp. 521–533; Colin Leys, “What is the problem about corruption?” in Ibid.pp. 31–37; Leff, Nathaniel H., “Exonomic development through bureaucratic corruption,The American Behavioral Scientist,Vol. 8, No. 3 (November 1963)]Google Scholar; Rose-Ackerman, Susan, Corruption: A Study in Political Economy(New York: Academic Press, 1978)]Google Scholar; Smelser, Neil J., “Stability, instability, and the analysis of political corruption,” in Barber, Bernard and Inkeles, Alex (eds.), Stability and Social Change(Boston: Little, Brown, 1971), pp. 729]Google Scholar; and Tilman, Robert O., “Emergence of black-market bureaucracy: administration, development, and corruption in new states,Public Administration Review,Vol. 28 No. 5 (September/October 1968); pp. 437444]CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The China field also includes a numbexr of scholars who argue that corruption represents an rational response to politically induced irrationalities, particularly economic irrationalities. Barbara Sands, “Decentralizing an economy: the role of bureaucratic corruption in China's economic reforms,” Public Choice,No. 65 (April 1990), pp. 85–91, and “Market-clearing by corruption: the political economy of China's recent economic reforms, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics,Vol. 145, No. 1 (March 1989), pp. 16–126; Cheung, Steven N.S., “A theory of price control,Journal of Law and Economics,Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 5371]Google Scholar; Fung, K.K., “Surplus seeking and rent seeking through back-door deals in mainland China,American Journal of Economics and Sociology,Vol. 46, No. 3 (July 1987), pp. 299317]CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Liew, Leong H., “Rent-seeking and the two-track price system in China,Public Choice,Vol. 77, No. 2 (October 1993), pp. 359375.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar

125. Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1994,p. 277; Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1993,p. 306; and AFP,29 December 1992, in FBIS, 29 December 1992, p. 55.]Google Scholar

126. According to China Daily,as of late 1993, local governments owed teachers 1.40 billion yuanin back wages, including 556 million yuanin Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Gansu, Heilongjiang and Shaanxi. China Daily,18 December 1993, in FBIS 20 December 1993, pp. 16–17; ribao, Hubei, 13 November 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; ribao, Hunan, 1 September 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; ribao, Sichuan, 30 December 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; ribao, Nei Menggu, 10 December 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; bao, Renmin zhengxie, 5 October 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; ribao, Gansu, 4 October 1993, p. 1]Google Scholar; Heilongjiang ribao, 16 December 1993, p. 3]Google Scholar; and Renmin ribao,23 August 1993, p. 3.]Google Scholar

127. The regime has, for example, been battling the “three disorders” since the mid-1980s, with major campaigns undertaken in 1990 and 1993.

128. Euromoney,1 August 1993.]Google Scholar

129. Ibid.