Why Corruption is China's Secret Weapon
Вставка
- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Support PolyMatter & watch this video ad-free on Nebula: nebula.tv/vide...
Watch episode 1 of my new Nebula Original series: nebula.tv/vide...
Sources: pastebin.com/M...
A huge part of this video is based on Yuen Yuen Ang’s great book “China's Gilded Age: The Paradox of Economic Boom and Vast Corruption”. If you enjoyed this video, I recommend reading the full book: www.amazon.com... (not sponsored or an affiliate link)
Twitter: / polymatters
Reddit: / polymatter
Email: polymatter@standard.tv
How I Make These Videos: skl.sh/2OW1YQR
Music by Graham Haerther (www.Haerther.net)
Audio editing by Eric Schneider
Motion graphics by Vincent de Langen
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster
Writing & Direction by Evan
This includes a paid sponsorship which had no part in the writing, editing, or production of the rest of the video.
Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com
Video supplied by Getty Images
Maps provided by MapTiler/OpenStreetMap Contributors and GEOlayers 3
Select footage from the AP Archive
As I say in the video, I’m very excited to launch my Nebula Original Series. For a few more days you can watch it for just $12/year with the CuriosityStream + Nebula bundle. This 42% off sale will end soon so get it while you can. curiositystream.com/polymatter
Do you wanna help rebuild the Persian empire? Read my nam*
This is some kind of retarded propaganda
@@cyrusthegreat7030 οπ
any life in China?
Thank you but I use SponsorBlock to remove any kind of annoyance from videos I watch.
The high salary - low corruption theory is completely incorrect if you look at Brazil. Here, politicians make from 10 to 100 times the national average and we’ve got some of the nastiest corruption scandals ever, in every single branch of the public sector you can think of.
High salary - low corruption with accountability. Singapore manage to do that coz it grooms its leaders from young and any corruption scandal means the death of your career anywhere in Singapore. Basically, forced to resign and legal trouble. A lot of corrupt politicians in the early days of Singapore either committed suicide or forced into exile. This sets a precedent to any civil servants that repercussions of corruption are extremely severe.
@@pingdragonify To an extent, Singapore is not a real country, just a middle-size city, the mechnism works in singapore would not work in most countries.
@@taozhang4223 Several million people are large enough for a country. Many European countries do not have ten million people...
Big Carrot needs Big Stick
@@pingdragonify yeah but government spending accounts for 15% of gdp which means 85% of gdp stays in the private sector less government regulations and less taxation is key
China's bureaucracy is something to marvel at. Outside it looks like a highly centralized system, with the premier having absolute power but inside it looks a lot more like a cartel with independent departments rivaling each other.
That sounds a lot like feudalism too really, or absolute power in dictatorships also works similarly in terms of 'apparent absolute power' when they are really bribing all of the right underlings to stay in power.
sounds like working for microsoft.
It works basically identical to imperial China. There's an emperor that rules over everyone, but sometimes the emperor is powerless, there are officials fighting for favours, factions formed within the council, etc.
No, actually this is pretty typical of dictatorships. The leader does act like he has full control over everyhing, but in reality a lot of daily life is quite chaotic, with every public official acting like some mini-dictator in their own right and you depending on their personal feelings more than the law.
This actually sounds like a polycratic system rather than an autocratic system. The nazis had a similar polycratic system were all branches of governments and departments rivalled each over all the time. Of course Hitler was the final decision maker at the end though.
There was a full length interview episode on Freakonomics podcast of Yuen Yuen Ang that I heard last week that really dives much more into the different types of corruption and China's was one of the major studies that is summarized in this video. Very informative if you want to dive more into this topic.
Thank you!
Great recommendation!
Same!
Yeah, I thought this video was inspired by that episode.
While some of what she says is true, she's definitely a CCP mouthpiece. Being a party member is pretty common; most of my educated/rich friends in China are members of the communist party.
The graph at around 1:45 really does not demonstrate any kind of trend you can draw conclusions from. The amount of spread (range) on that X-axis is too little to support the trend line drawn.. You can probably get a better demonstration if you'd pick a random x-variable such as 'amount of rainfall, mm' or 'number of goats'. That's to say, the data doesn't support the premise being made.
It is fine to speculate and to have hypothesis, reasons and such- but to misconstrue a trend when the data doesn't support one.. ah. Otherwise, seems like a good video.
I was about to comment the same thing, I've never seen a worse "trend line" before
That was a shockingly bad plot. I bet the r^2 was essentially 0. And also, they should have used GDP on y axis (dependent) and CPI on x axis (explanatory). And making the units decrease on y axis is confusing.
exactly and from what i understood is that 0 is most corrupt? so there are still quite a few countries who are plenty more corrupt than some countries with larger gdp change. the "gdp change" doesn't even mean it is an improvement lol
unfortunately this is the standard level of quality-assurance you can expect from these "China Bad, No Nuance" channels
Exactly right. I was so stunned that I paused the video to write a comment, but I see that you've already done so. Very strange that nobody in the production team for this thing would have noticed that the script and the graphic don't match up at all. Interestingly, this tells us something about the production process for these videos: assuming that they're made by a team of people and are not a one-man labor of love, the team in question is either (a) too stupid to notice obvious errors or (b) so afraid of their boss that they won't point out said errors. The same dichotomy can be used to think about the endless series of CCP fiascoes that we see, week after week, playing out in China.
What you described is basically how China operated for two thousand years. Public servants have almost always been paid less and given other privilege compensations. It has been this way for many dynasties, it is just that the current government does a better job at maintaining positive feedback.
It’s called Lobbying in the west
So it’s legal
Cheers from west Africa
🦅
Holy shit no brother, my wife father also public servant holy hell he got 8000rmb salary and government pay his insurance and give him 3000rmb in card only use if he go to hospital. When he retired he Will get 8000rmb monthly. He is not even managers or high position
Interesting idea. Might help to explain the cycle China seems to be caught in of corruption leads to dynasty downfall leads to a brand new dynasty focused against corruption leads eventually to corruption in order to manage such a large country.
@@Silverhawk100 They cycles are getting shorter and shorter....
Isn't public servant just a normal working class job?
Not to mention China is 5 times cheaper than USA, using dollar to compare the life quality of two completely different economy and country is a really unequal comparison
I mean a phone made in China bought in China will be much cheaper than a phone made in China bought in the US
9:30
- "All corruption is bad. But bad to who, when and how."
- Hu, Wen and Hao: *visibly angered"
Nice
XD
1:47 the X-axis might be a tad broken
"He who wouldn't steal from the state, is he who deprives his family."
- A common saying in Eastern Europe during the Soviet era.
Gross
@@hugoclarke3284 Oh look, an idealist!
Literally every single post-socialist or currently socialist country has this exact mindset.
Could very well define Latinamerica
@@lordumas literally. I get both points
Hi guys - I've seen a lot of pushback against the graph trend line at 1:52. It's taken directly from a book we read called "China's Gilded Age" by a professor of economics named Yuen Yuen Ang. My mistake was to emphasize the trend line, when the relevant data is how much of an outlier China is compared to every other country. I shouldn't have shown the trend line here when it wasn't directly relevant. I encourage anyone still doubtful to check out the book (it really is good) for the full methodology, or even just check out some of Yuen Yuen Ang's talks online where she explains her research with much more context. -Evan
How much does the World Economic Forum pay you to shill and make these videos?
Who cares about the trend line. Everyone with a brain understood that it's a blunder, so there's no harm done. This wasn't your most convincing video, but I love the channel and hope you keep up the good work.
In Russia there is a form of corruption called "blat" which is similar to the win win-corruption you focus on in this video. During the Soviet planned economy times, blat was one of the main ways to circumvent the official distribution of resources. Even though being an illegal way to exchange goods and services, it made the "planned" economy a bit more flexible. Maybe worth looking into that one!
You have no qualifcations in Chinese or Chinese studies either.
@@dann5480 you have to be some conscpiracy no-lifer to even have the WEF enter your mind at any point in your life
@@john_smith_john "conspiracy no-lifer" LMAO you must be an American.
Access money corruption can work for a while and can create huge growth like we see now in China, but it highly encourages monopolies so eventually there's no competition (because all of the access has been bought up). Then the economy no longer expands.
China doesn't have that problem Alibaba and Tencent gets broken up like Styrofoam while Google and Amazon in America have much more political power.
The only monopoly China has and will ever have is the government which comes with its own pros and cons.
we see this in the tech sector in China now. Although they are buying start ups. It will be interesting to see if this really plays out that way. Currently is seems that it is restricted access the will limit the tech sector rather than their lack of competition. The monopoly only resulted in shareholder pressure to find other areas to expand into rather than a halt on expansion. Like their expansion into the so called Xiachen markets. {eye roll}
@@sophisticatedthumb5364 Tech monopolies are DEFINITELY an issue in the US. It's disgusting.
@@calebamore its not just tech monopolies. There's high degrees of corporate consolidation everywhere. Its a real problem since inefficiencies just build up over time
@@calebamore Pharma monopolies in US are stronger than tech monopolies because of involvement of patents of all kinds.
"Paradoxically, this incredible economic growth was made possible by--"
me: skillshare
"--millions of officials..."
Oh
“Paralyzed against their will by an endless cycle of incompetence and corruption,” is a succinct and, so far, historically accurate description of the Philippines.
Interesting theory, and I'm not against it. But some of the data need double check or clarification. For example, "2015, 2% population paid any personal income tax". Personal income tax should be salary/wage income not overall personal income tax if you dig deep enough. Also public servants' income = basic wage + official allowance + unofficial compensation. official allowance > basic wage can be true based on position and location of the city, and these two are big parts. Unofficial compensation on the other hand is only minor benefit.
Would depend on the 'unofficial compensation' no? Non-monetary 'unofficial compensation' could be far more valuable than basic wage and official allowance. The video didn't mention in-party fighting and throwing people under the bus for corruption scandals either.
Also worth noting that's all Citizens not public servants which that formula doesn't apply to
Also, Xi really changed a lot of those. The perks now are a lot less than what they were previously.
@@ruekurei88 ,
Which is where the per day number of corruption cases comes from, the infighting. The entire point of this video was to highlight how official sourced corruption is the carrot and the stick both. You are required to take the bribes offered by everyone, especially your boss, just to survive. This means your bosses know you have done so, and their bosses know you have done so... everyone is quiet about it, as long as you stay in line.
@@ruekurei88 p
Very informative. I'm a civil servant from the Philippines and though my salary isn't as massive, it is at least 20% higher than the minimum wage from the private sector. On my level just being a clerk, there's hardly any corruption (unless you're stealing office supplies.) But when you get to like chief of office levels, who already have significantly higher salaries, that's where I see the corruption come in. Make no mistake, at my level, I know people that handle funds and supply distribution. They can make funds and supplies disappear if they want and no one would notice but they never do. The higher ups, though, they got there because they want to siphon tax payers money for themselves. Sometimes I just ask, what are they going to do with all that money? They already have so much. Aren't their salaries enough?
Wow, as an individual that aspires to work in government, that sucks. By the way, pwede bang magtanong? Paano po ba makakakuha ng posisyon sa gobyerno, kase nais ko po sanang magtrabaho sa gobyerno, kahit nasa mababang posisyon man lang, Salamat po.
@@rickv9180 Mag apply ka muna ng csc eligibility. Every year lagi may vacancy sa gov dahil marami nag reretire. Pero kailangan csc certified ka para mag apply. Yung test sa csc every year din yun. Ewan ko lang ngayon dahil may covid kung ano na scheduling nun pero 3 years ago may test sila every year.
Certain jobs and positions naturally draw in certain people.
You need a certain amount of greed and lack of insight of your own desire to go after those positions. For us normal people the stress and responsibility is not worth it
Greed is endless. When you get some, you start to want more.
After they're died it might be burn with them lol wishful thinking 😅 guess who will have them, the relatives..
Been watching your channel for many years. Having studied China, you make great points. I think something that gets missed in the discussion is how unique China''s system is in how it functions. Not many would care to understand how land managemenet bureaus can basically pay for their staff's rent as a form of compensation, provided enough tax is retained. The US civil servants meanwhile don't get paid very well in DC, but private sector firms that deal with the government will hound them with salaries upwards of 4x what they made on the inside, often with less benefits overall but the salray is enticing. Quite the difference, imo.
Covered around 10:40
@@Justgoodvids not really
You know that reminds me, this doesn’t get talked about much either. The Chinese government owns ALL the land in China. All the “personal” land is basically leased from the government. It’s a massive source of income for the government. However, there is a special case for farmers that can own their personal farmland that they’ve had since before the PRC took over China and they get this special farmer ID(?) that’s different from the normal ID most Chinese receive and the difference is basically proof that they own the land they have. Oh and only one farmer ID is issues per the land that farmer owns. Like say you own a piece of land, you get a farmer ID but your family won’t and when you pass away, whomever you want to receive the land gets their ID “upgraded” to farmer ID (typically the eldest son).
This WAS the way China worked before Xi Jing Ping came to power. The direction of the party has now in the past 5 years headed towards a more traditional communist regime. Hence why polymatter could only use data from 2015 and before. China is now headed for a great collpase especially after the pandemic, with significant wages decline across almost all sectors. Housing is now stagant meaning that local governments who rely upon land sales to generate their taxes are now effectively broke and many has not paid any salary since december 2021. There are many many more indications, but please keep in mind that this polymatter video is accurate ONLY for years up and until maybe 2016 and does not reflect the current state China is in. The past 5 years (especially since pandemic) is a whole different story.
@@inthelight4671 😆😂Lmao Stop dude Let me guess Gordan chen Fake if
China is such an incredibly fascinating country. Almost every part of it, especially today, is so different from the West, it's amazing. And the fact that it also happens to be the most populous nation on Earth only intensifies the importance of studying and understanding China. There are so many stories to be learned from here.
Just wish it was a democracy
@@DyslexicMitochondria your username made me click on ur profile. Ur channeI is a hidden gem broo
shame the CCP and china is actually a fascist technocracy. without any real communist priniciples anymore, and ethnic cleansing. we've ended up with a more pragmatic nazi germany with a billion people willing to be brainwashed. hopefully one day, we'll figure out how that happens.
Huh? Go and collect your 50c, you earned it. 🤣
Soon to be 2nd most populous country.
Population decline in China will hit them HARD. SO HARD HAHA
Having just taken the AP comparative politics test and the AP statistics test I’ve had to look at a lot of data and find trends in it but I have 0 clue how you find that trend line from your graph at 1:46
Same, I found it extremely weird. Doesn't seem like their are enough datapoints through the X-axis to justify that trendline. The data points are mostly narrowly distributed between 0-2. Maybe the line is correct, but the visuals are really off.
oh no why remind me i have been suppressing this memory
RIGHT! Didn't even want to watch after that. Set the stage for a confirmation bias-based argument
probably just used excel, its a completely useless line as it doesn't describe or show anything that the data points haven't already
It’s a regression line and perfectly normal
"Those who harm corporate interests are sinners" sounds like a line from a really cringeworthy dystopian sci-fi flick.
The fact that people watch videos on a heavily regulated media platform and undoubtably take it as true is the ultimate cringeworthy dystopian sci-fi flick.
Muse lyrics
Seems to me it is in force in every capitalist country - which is why environmentalists go to jail/get censored/blocked/lobbied against for protesting about water theft, pollution, overfishing, agrotoxins, etc.
I really like most of your videos and you often bring original and good points but be careful on this one. It feels like your whole video relies on the graph shown at 1:45 but this graph actually doesnt tell us anything. First because it uses the Absolute change in GDP which doesnt mean a thing when we want to compare every country together for that specific analysis and also this is really not significant as a trend. It could as well only be noise. I recreated the graph with the relative change instead of the absolute one and there's not much here either. I don't usually care that much about those types of mistakes as I do not expect every youtubers to be Experts in statistics but since this the main "reason" of the video is to prove that China goes against the trend (while there is actually no trend), I felt like you had to be aware of that so that you become more careful in your next videos
Otherwise I really enjoy your content, keep it flowing!
You can not make any reasonable trend claims based on the data shown at 1:44, much less project that trend across the range shown in that x-axis
Excel is going to excel at something
Yea I looked at that and was fully baffled. A lot of the data points just seem incomplete as well, as if they weren't meant to have data on the x attribute.
Not only that but he assumed causation on a few other points aswell.... overtime thus guys videos get worse or maybe I'm less retarded now
that trend line for CPI against GDP is terrible, there are many things to say against china, but that doesn’t make it alright to misrepresent data
1:43 uhh is there an issue with the graph? The dots don't show that trend line at all.
polymatter often misrepresent data to fit his narrative
One of the earlier comments mentioned that this is how China has been operating in the last 2,000 years. Actually, it is quite true. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, every court appointed official was given a relatively modest salary. However, he is also expected to conduct his work using this salary (e.g. pay the salaries of public servants under him, carry out his day-to-day administrative duties, etc). As such, the salary is never enough. As a result, corruption occurs. It should be noted that by the Late Qing dynasty, there were even guidelines on corruption (陋规 or ugly rules) that were widely practiced (i e. how much money to take for what type of favours).
Not all corruption was due to personal greed. There are also well known cases of corruption for good reasons. If I recall correctly, one member of the royalty, Prince Zaize, was overseeing reforms but as the court did not have enough money, he had to raise his own. So he had a rule where any court official who needs to meet him has to pay a bribe. If you don't pay, you don't get to meet him and will not be able to fulfill your administrative duties. But Prince Zaize would take every cent that was given to him and put it into the imperial coffers so that he can carry out his reforms.
Another well know case is Zeng Guofan. One of his subordinates wrote in his diary that he would only take 20 taels of silver even though he is entitled to take hundreds of thousands of taels. Zeng just took the extra that he needed for his family to get by.
Surely you are not suggesting that modern day Chinese civil servants are expected to cover work expenses? Though propaganda will often sing their selfless praise. Most civil positions are decently paid. One interesting area is teachers, who are held in high esteem and are often offered bribes by parents hoping to get their children ahead in private tutoring etc, unlike say in the US, where primary/secondary teachers are underpaid and overworked, often paying for supplies out of pocket.
good comment. i wouldn't say the last 2,000 years though, more like the last 700. still its a very long time, to shape the identity of a nation.
I mean, this is just universal. Like businesses, if they really care about production, should not be paying fixed salaries, but instead salaries that heavily weight towards evaluation which determines bonus. This is the point of middle managers, not lounging around and sending useless emails and hanging kindergarten-esque motivational quotes on the walls.
One could make the case that politicians grossly overpaying themselves is corruption in itself, I say this as a Singaporean.
formalize or legalize corruption, not necessarily Singapore, but any country that allows campaign finance
Regarding the statement at 12:16 about "millions of officials using public funds to play blackjack in Macau": While the general spirit of the statement is correct, if this guy really knew anything about Chinese people, he'd know that the kind of official who's going to Macau to gamble away public funds is going to be playing baccarat.
It's not like his audience knows what baccarat is.
@@youtubesucksbutts what’s that
lol, you know since 2015, Macau businesspeople actually worried that mainland's anti-corruption agency has stopped that from happening so much that they are worried their income will drop.
ok boomer
Serious problem at #2:00 because *there is no trend line*. Nothing about this data cluster shows any kind of obvious correlation. Sure, you can pretend there should be one, and run the numbers, or PCE, or SVM, or any other classifier, but this is a text book example of a data set where trying to force a trend means you're trying to make the data tell your story, instead of the telling the data's story.
This channel has terrible bais.
Love your videos PolyMatter, but the graph at 1:49 is NOT convincing. I would hardly call that a decisive trend.
Not much of a trend, just an outlier.
I am from Shanghai and I gotta say this guy explains this so well.
Bullshit!
@@ChrisJu3 chill bruh
Bureaucrats and civil servants are extremely wealthy everywhere in Asia with a notable exception of Japan. In Japan, it used to be the case in the high growth era but the economic downturn means all businesses are offshoring. Perks and corrupt compensations for Japanese civil servants are quite low. As a result, many Japanese public employees of all tiers have been engaging in fraud as they can no longer receive tributes from businesses. Only lucky ones, who are overseas bureaucrats in China and Vietnam, earn a lot of money as Japanese executives from the practice of akumadari.
your videos are so pleasing, the animations, the drawings and graphs it’s all perfect. your content is amazing and one of my favourite accounts on the platform !!!
Do you wanna help rebuild the Persian empire? Read my nam*
Yeah! As a geopolitical youtuber myself I agree POLYMATTER is an amazing channel but he should cover a more vast variety of topics.
Video is blocked like it's being censored can hear the audio
The graph on this one is wrong tho. That 'trend line' is really no trend at all, as several comments have already pointed out.
Agreed on all except graphs. They're absolutely horrendous. Basically breaks every rule there is in making a good graph. Moreover he completely makes up trends as evidenced in this video
Corruption in US is less cuz it's not called corruption, it's called "legal lobbying"
True, but China is something else. At least we aren't an authoritarian regime.
US corruption is not nearly as bad as China's. We don't have leaders literally stealing public funds.
Your getting the types of corruptions confused. The corruption in China and Russia is literally officials siphoning away the states money for personal use. The corruption in the US comes in the form of PACCs , lobbying, and worst of all insider trading
Soon insider trading will be banned and atock ownership will be banned for politicians in office. That would fix the USes minor corruption issue.
@@carlogaytan7010 yes you are.
You have two political parties that are fundementally the same.
You are a police state.
Policies decided based on affluent interests, undemocratic
Media controlled entirely by rich
Rich control government
CIA and military with absolute authority
Sounds like such a liberal haven ..🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@carlogaytan7010 Yeah instead you're just under the oppression of rich people and corporations.
At least the government theoretically has obligation to take care of its people but the free market is all about profits and margins.
That trend line at 2:00 is not very trendy
Gift giving for favors is something that is just baked into Chinese culture that has very ancient origins. You don't give a gift without expecting something in return and you don't receive a gift without being expect to return the favor.
As a Chinese, I am not sure whether the 80 bucks a month is a reliable number. Personally speaking, this number might be a lot higher these days. And public employees, as far as I know, get various allowance monthly or yearly. For example, meal allowance, or transportation allowance or accomodation etc. Also, just put forward one example. The cafeteria in public units(事业单位) is heavily subsidized so the expense for meal is much lower than in the outside market. For example, a typical lunch with 3 dishes might just cost under 10 RMB or 1.5 USD. Things are much complicated in reality, but you definitely point out sth.
Bit worried about the graph at 1:59... On the available data you should absolutely not be projecting across the X axis like that. It makes it look like you haven't study stats at all
I'll be honest. This was quite good. As an Indian I see quite a lot of parallels.
Lol
Though Id still prefer low corruption.
I'm from a Latin American country, and I see a lot of parallels as well. Guess that being not corrupted is rather the exception, not the rule.
Outcome is very different
Odd name for an Indian.
Not really because in India when corrupt officials take money from infrastructure projects the project just halts and stops progress but in China the corrupt official makes sure the project will be constructed on time.
I am so fucking glad people are calling out that awful "trendline" lol
polymatter often misrepresent data to fit his narrative
@@sleepyjoe4529 ohh too bad. That data interpreration really ruin the vids credibility in my eyes.
I remember that corruption was secret weapon that saved a state at one point, and that was Syria in 2011. because the people in power both had stakes in political surviaval of government AND most of them knew each other or were connected to each other, it was possible in those times where one doesnt know where things will go, to bypass official hierarchies (for example military or political hierarchy) and react quickly and make sure that those tasked with things did not buckle.
Also, the corruption and resource control ("free" apartments for officer) assured that army officers stayed loyal. and without officers the common soldiers can't rebel.
What is with the graph at 1:56, does he think we are stupid? 🤣🤣
Looks like he completely smooshed the scale of the graph, probably put it through Excel and then left it as is.
polymatter often misrepresent data to fit his narrative
Good thing the US isn’t corrupt! We just call it lobbying😇
That corruption vs growth trendline is a joke lol
That must have an abysmal R^2 value
Should be a vertical line
Hey @PolyMatter I expect a bit more from you when it comes to the chart at 1:53. It's extremely disingenuous to say that the graph shows a negative correlation between corruption and GDP. You should know that's now how statistics work.
There are plenty of studies showing negative correlation between corruption and GDP growth…however this graph doesn’t make sense to me
Agreed. Polymatter often uses graphics that might look pretty to the average uninformed person but the conclusions he draws are mostly incorrect or flat out misinformation. Kind of pathetic that we have to call him out more than once on this.
Being from China and educated in the US, I think this video has offered a very valuable view into how differently the Chinese systems work. Of course this system is far from perfect, and a lot of the merits of a typical democracy are missing here. But at least this video is really trying to understand how and why things are done differently here, instead of vehemently pointing a finger or vilifying this system merely on the basis that it is an 'authoritarian regime'.
Actually Chinese civil servants are paid relatively high wage depending where they live now. Take one of my friend as example. She made around $15000 per year and she worked at a county located in West area of China, hence relatively underdeveloped parts without Starbucks and stuff. And it is not a low wage there. And civil servants of Shenzhen or Suzhou have much more pay grade. Their wages can be high as new employees (both university graduates) of Huawei. And their wage is much higher than the ones in BYD, the electric car company.
Enlightening perspective, though.
"The exchange" is not considered as corruption for me. Everyone knows about it and is makes up the year-end awards of them... Mostly done by underdeveloped areas, since their government cannot get enough tax...
Corruption of the ones who has bigger power is the real problem. Civil servants are my friends and families and they don't make excessive money. But elites in power has the best stuff.. and treat everyone as tools. I always wonder: if Bo has great number of money, what about the others?
This guy’s obsession with China (next to wendover’s obsession with airplanes) is one of the most bizarre phenomenons on UA-cam . Lol
This is nothing, China uncensored is the worst
@@warringfinger967 china uncensored is basically funded and operated by a cult called falun gong
it's because china is a bizarre phenomenon in this world
I swear this is just pure capitalism with a different name
it is
What are you talking about.
Do what the US does
In China the government controls the billionaire, that's why they capitalism leads to collective prosperity.
In USA billionaires control the government, that's why only rich get richer and rest of society has same purchasing power as 20 years ago...🤣
Hi PolyMatter,
I am from the Philippines and our election just finished yesterday.
I want to tell you we will not be "paralyzed against our will by an endless cycle of incompetence and corruption" anymore.
That's all, Thanks
Kwim
I am from India 🇮🇳 . Polymatter is an US sponsored propaganda machinery . They want to portray all of Asia as having non foolproof systems . They tie Autocratic government in Iran 🇮🇷 with religion , Democratic government in India 🇮🇳 with slow growth , Communist China with Corruption induced growth and Philippines 🇵🇭 with incompetence. Trying hard to prove that West is all well and East is all worse .
@@s9ka972 Wow thank you, now I don't feel so bad.
@@kwimmie Philipines is a nice country . It takes time to grow , what's wrong in that . None of us colonise or loot wealth from other nations like US or British .
@@s9ka972 America never had colonies. And America certainly isn't rich from running the Philippines for a couple decades if that's what you mean.
Me, Mexican, also hope that my country’s corruption would translate to economical power.
No you don't want that, this economic growth comes with the suffering of a lot of people. For example, if a company wants to build a factory, but the land is too expensive, then they would bribe the official and the government would requisit some farmer's land and sell it with a very low price, leaving the farmer little compensation. Yes the factory is built and economy becomes better, but the farmer surely won't like it.
@@znco180 and you think mexico instead doesn't have this? lol
@@znco180 it is corruption of theft then. Using money to influence and commit theft
That graph at 2:00 doesn't show the suggested trend line at all?? In fact it shows no statistical relevancy between corruption and GDP at all! Am I the only one who noticed that? Edit: I was so dumbfounded by the "TREND LINE" he slapped on top of that graph that I couldn't wait to read the comments before writing something lol. Now that I see all the other comments I'm kind of embarrassed but super happy everyone else pointed it out too. WORST CORRELATION EVER
This sounds amazing for businesses and horrific for the population. The given examples like days where businesses are exempted from normal regulation oversight sound like worker, environmental, and consumer nightmares.
It's corruption that helps the GDP yes, but this video clearly ignores who it harms.
This type of corruption is pretty much common even in a developed world. Just look at Japan with their "Zaibatsu", South Korea with their "Chaebol", and the US with their "lobying system in their bureaucracy". It is a corruption driven by pragmatism instead of morals. The problem with this type of corruption is, this is going to cause the rise in power of the plutocrats and may cause a 😘bussines monopoly.
@@cakapcakep241 Ya, I'm familiar with both actually though the Zaibatsu have been largely replaced by the Keiretsu which don't have quite the iron grip.
And yes, bussiness monopolies tend to cause tragedy of the commons issues among a variety of other social problems.
This is a country that trades the lives of its people for any level of gain, so it is to be expected.
China went from top 10 poorest country in the world to no. 2. It's been good for the population.
@@elmohead The same tactics that took China out of an agrarian economy aren't the ones it needs as an advanced technological superpower
How is this 'communism,' exactly?
This is the Chinese traditional governing system for thousand of years, not something new to CCP.
Throughout the history, many low/middle government positions can be "purchased", and it is expected
that those in position have to provide a pre-determined amount of contribution to central government.
The remaining is the "benefit" to be kept by these bureacrats.
It is more like a franchise system where territories are assigned. Those in position of power have
to ensure that they can squeeze out as much as possible without killing the golden goose.
CGPGrey actually did a good video on this called Rules for Rulers and even stated that Corruption isn't inherently evil, but simply a tool used for those in power.
2:17 "By doing no other country has managed to do so"
Cough Cough *South Korea* Cough Cough
Yeah interestingly that south korea Corruption perception index still good despite they have huge corruption scandal couple years ago.
Cost of living in China is much cheaper than other countries, so being paid less than say the US, is not really a problem.
The graph at 1:45 is perhaps the worst possible illustration of the concept you laid out, making it harder to believe whatever follows. The chart at 5:40, which I'm assuming shows the number of China's politicians and public workers, does not at all take into account that they have x28 and x48 times the amount of people that South Korea and Texas have, New York should also be labeled as New York City.
It's the same misinformation tactic used by the West when they show China's current overall polution but not per capita or historical total. It's using data in a disingenuous way in order to trick the public into thinking a certain way.
"Made no mistake, all corruption is bad"
**ZOOMS INTO IKEA**
14:04 The success of the Chinese economy despite rampant corruption is all well and good. But ultimately access corruption will still result in the exploitation of Chinese citizens, as the desire of corporations are placed above their needs. Its gonna be interesting what happens when China's shrinking workforce drives up the price of labour for these corporations. Will they be able to pay local governments or unions to "access" skilled workers?
Funny how communist china is actually more capitalistic than western world based on what this video describes
@@alfaseeds13 ikr
@@alfaseeds13 in this context china sounds like the most capitalistic country on earth
It's not exploitation though. China lifted its citizens off the poverty line. In the 50s, China was top 10 poorest country in the world. Now it's no. 2.
I have to say that the CPI vs GDP change graph shows no correlation.
i learned a lot about corruption and its many forms in general in this video. However, the premise of the video of explaining how China beat corruption was not eligible.
this guy dont really understand the situation of china
I am 39 years old, have been on UA-cam for over a decade, watch 5+ hours of UA-cam each day, and you create the most mind blowing videos I have ever seen.
Oh fuck, it's the Emperor of UA-cam.
Read tge book or her podcast for more nuance/information. If objective truth is important to you...
Clearly PolyMatter doesn't understand the corruption level in China well enough.
China is a big country. The corruption level is not the same in every part of the country.
just like what PolyMatter said at the beginning of the video, less corruption will help economy to grow.
This is absolutely true.
In China the corruption level in the south east part is much lower than the other parts.
that's why all the capital and talents went to the south east part of China, and the economy in those provinces are growing like crazy.
However, due to the severe corruption level on parts like north east part of China, no capital or talents want to be there.
as a result the provinces in the north east part of China have a very low growth.
since most of the talents and capital in China actually have a low corruption level environment (south east part of China) to conduct their business, the economy of China as a whole is growing rapidly.
and of course, if China can solve the corruption problems in other parts of China, it's economy will grow even faster.
The narrative of the video is not clear or complete. After Mao's era, China's corruption levels cannot be that high because it deals corruption severely, mainly through long prison sentences and with capital punishment. Corrupt individuals can be publicly denounced by the people and dealt with by the government authorities. It is not like Russia or Africa where corruption is normalized or the US where corporate interests and lobbyists owns all the politicians. China's growth is attributed to planning and not associated with corruption.
PolyMatter is created by some kiddo who stayed in their mom's basement and source everything from the internet so it's obvious he/she/they can't get anything right as all their information were modified from their limited sources.
7:05 Problem with paying civil servants an astronomical amount is that they will continue to ask for more. This model that is spoken of is the same in Hong Kong and having lived there, I can say it's more of an 'open corruption' situation. Goverment workers have up to 2.x times that of people in the private sector, the work they do is little yet the pay is great. There is a reason why Anti-Corruption departments (ICAC) exist. Hiring talents from the market also reduces the pool available to the private sector and could put strains on the economy or the affected industry as a whole in doing so. Also it may be considered in some cases that sums that are used to fuel high governmental wages may be comparable to what is lost during actual corruption, the same sum comes out of the tax payers pocket but it is distributed among more people, that is all thats different.
1:48 There is absolutely no linear correlation here though.
Higher salary alone is not enough to decrease corruption. We all know greed breeds more greed, it is never enough. There needs to be harsh punishment for those convicted of corruption and adequate enforcement.
7:00 Brazil also tried that tactic- each Congressman/Senator gets around 30 times the monthly minimum wage, plus an absurd amount of perks, and that didn't work at all- they just want more and more. and more. It's a matter of culture and of having real risk of going to jail and staying there, which is lacking here.
1:48 did something go wrong animating that graph? It doesn't really look like there's much of a downward trend at all, and more like corruption generally has very little impact on change in absolute GDP
He's trying to manipulate viewers... that's all he does anymore
@@xerogue Yeah.
Maybe it's time for us to find a better UA-cam channel.
Just verified the graph for myself.
It seems to be a similar deal with what I found, although one thing I do notice is that the graph in the video is missing the US which has an even higher change in absolute GDP than China, and a CPI of 67/100.
A trend line like this is produced (and it ends pretty much on the US on the right side of the graph), but it really has a very poor predicitive power with an R^2 of 0.017
It's also not so surprising that started out with a high GDP and also have large populations will also have a large absolute GDP increase.
And why are we using CPI data for 2021 but GDP data from 1995-2016?
Everything about this just screams wanting to find something that's just not there.
@@nienke7713 I mean it wasn't really necessary to go through all that effort but yea i mean it is a useless graph lol
To be honest, I’m surprised that China HASN’T just allowed covid to run rampant through the population. The CCP’s efforts to date certainly aren’t out of some concern for the welfare for their citizens. Strict commitment to the idea that “the party knows best” seems to overrule all other options
if you look at taiwan the land of freedom now, they are dealing with 50 thousands new cases everyday. that makes you rethink china's approach to the virus.
Your theory is based on a false assumption, that the virus can be contained and it's dangerous.
@@leezhieng which is expected like the rest of the world has experienced, except for their status as an island which delayed it. It is inevitable because the virus will not go extinct
@@john_smith_john its also because if they fail, they might risk being overthown, CCP, despite all the believe, have the power because the people allow them, there was and always be a threat that could easily replace them
@@vivelarevolution2835 Not really, they simply hold every vector of force in the country and nothing less than a full-blown revolution on a national scale can remotely threaten their rule, and that is exceedingly unlikely in the current political climate.
I had to have a chuckle about your use of Singapore as an example... there's a big semantic difference between a "corruption perception index" and a corruption _reality_ index.
Corruption is the evil that slowly kills you
Piling on to the crowd bashing the graph around 2:00, beyond the trend line being awful, the axes are backwards. If you want to know how corruption affects gdp growth then the axes should be switched.
It’s akin to “Permit Opium Trade” in HOI4.
Ah yes, a fellow ginger enjoyer
Trickle-down economics but the money actually flows down Regan would be so proud
What you are saying is that government workers in China work on commission. Which might not be a bad idea.
Also that same transactional corruption is what has allowed ghost towns, abandoned construction, some percentage of permeation of garbage quality/counterfeit in every industry including construction.
Corruption can also be either outright coverups or when after an incident with a bunch of victims, upper classes circlejerk payments, keeping the majority of revenue to the company, while the actual people receive pennies if anything.. almost like class bias.
Position of power enables abuse, not just financial, but coverups and sadism; position of power can come not just from having a high job position, any feeling of superiority is enough: "social status", having a group on your side, physical or intellect is also just a tool, etc.
isn't that not technically corruption but an effort to inflate those "objective metrics" they need to get a promotion?
Check again on those so called ghost town, they are more mostly occupied now. And those shody stuff are created on demand by the buyer, china make what you can pay
if you look back at those "ghost town" most of them have been occupied. it's of course a ghost town during constructions time.
Exactly what I am thinking about. Corruption is more than just bribery, it is an abuse of power that's in favor of states and governments.
I would like to provide an insider's expose.
The corruption problem is so intense that even the locals are familiar with it.
During the lockdown and siege, all the government supplies were littered with corruption, many companies paying money so that the government would use their supplies instead of others.
This resulted in an ongoing famine in Shanghai.
The regression at 2:00 should have used percent real GDP growth instead of absolute real or nominal GDP growth. It also seems like the regression should have used average CPI score as the independent (x) variable and growth as the dependent (y) variable. The graph seems to have been directly taken from "China's Golden Age," so you probably want to better check graphs given by sources. Also if that meant to say "China's Gilded Age," as in the book mentioned later in the video, I would not be too sure that there is nothing else misleading in the book.
He took it directly from the book "China's Gilded Age" (2020) by professor Yuen Yuen Ang, published by Cambridge University Press. See page 4 (for example, you can see it in the Amazon preview).
You should have also explained how all this corruption could backfire on the CCP and lead to its inevitable collapse.
"10% GDP growth year on year" as claimed by the CCP.
Take that with a pinch of salt.
These videos are just SO GOOD
Do you wanna help rebuild the Persian empire? Read my nam*
You always cover very interesting topics, highly captivating
The title of this video tells the truth. The Chinese Communist Party has been deliberately exporting Corruption to the whole world for many years..
This video remind me of CGP Grey's Rules for Rulers video. The civil servant in this video is the keys under the main keys. "Corruption is the tool of power" quotes by Grey really match with this video theme.
This basically a video summary of Yuen Yuen Ang so I would really recommend people read her book if they’re interested in more on the topic
Would like to hear an explanation for what happened in the GDP/CPI graph
For starters, what are they? I'm assuming GDP is in % but i have no idea what CPI is.
Did something go wrong with the x graph or is it supposed to be like that? And in what way did you extrapolate that trend line? The change in GDP increases just as much on high (low?) levels of corruption as the opposite, although more countries with high corruption seem to be stagnant in GDP I suppose. Did you look at this and felt this was an accurate portrayal of the info?
The x axis is GDP change over 2 decades (1995 - 2016) in percentage but the largest value is 1100% which make everything else really small thus they clump together like that. CPI is Corruption Perception Index which basically a corruption ranking of country. I have no idea why he choose this graph, it makes no sense.
it's a pragerU graph.
What would’ve happened if Bo Xilai became president of China? That’s a fascinating alternative universe.
Well bo xilai is actually neo maoist, i don't think it is better than xi
Maybe worse. Xi is an incompetent uneducated dictator, but Bo is an ambitious and talented one. Bo is much more capable of inflicting damage to the western and China itself.
@@王萨戈耳 you clearly have no idea lol, xi is graduated fron tsinghua university, that's the top university in china and the most harder to get in (far harder than havard)
Terrible, as authoritarian as Xi Jinping is atleast Xi was a proggresivist or even liberal in terms of economics unlike Bo Xilai who are popular among CCP's Maoist faction who highly despised the economic reforms and capitalism.
More or less the same, probably more aggressive foreign policy due to his personality.
a Chinese friend told me: a good ruler makes sure the system does not change for generations - long enough for everyone to understand and thus exploit the system. If we all know the rules and how it works then we are able to adapt to that way of life.
Hence corruption is a word used to bad mouth somebody else's system.
Im not Chinese.
Next video: Corruption: The U.S.' not so secret weapon
I approved payment for a us subsidiary co in china in the early 2000s. we had consultants who managed our government relations because you couldn't do it without kickbacks and the constant entertainment of officials. This was done openly as normal operations in Chinese businesses. FCPAct meant we couldn't touch this but had to turn s blind eye to operate. In 2018-19 i again worked there and the entertainment part was completely gone and the kickbacks were done in secrecy that left foreigners completely out of the loop. The change was jaw dropping
2 main points I feel the video failed to explain:
1) Accountability - 2 government offering contract to build bridges. 1st takes so much money from the successful bidder that bidder failed to construct the bridge, that corruption is an obstacle. 2nd takes some money from the bidder but build still gets built to specifications, that corruption is just another cost of business. Bidding process can be competitive in both government, but the outcome is different cos there is a consequence for not completing the bridge.
2) Public resource transfer to private hands increases efficiency. Contract, permits and raw resource can be converted into more valuable products via private sector. This transfer is just another cost of business. As long as it is kept in check, corruption actually improve economic efficiency. Key factor in China is that she values stability. Officials knows bribery can only be successful if the underlying jobs gets done. If they hinder too much, they risk getting caught.
Every government spends money, issue is if the money spent will be able to meet its political objectives. Corruption is just how effective the translation is. If money was spent but achieve no goals, it’s high corruption. If money was spent but achieve goals, it’s Low corruption. Thing with China is even if this translation efficiency is low(aka high corruption), the market efficiency increment from public to private hands makes up for it to achieve initial goals set out.
Stability is the highest political objective in China, hence the system must work. If it does not work, someone will be brought in to replace you.
You got this very right. A lot of East Asian economic miracles were built on some healthy dose of corruption, basically your 2nd point. It accelerates the process at which public resources transfer to the private sector for completing actual work, instead of being caught in red tape (reason why Western nations with low corruption are so inefficient at doing infrastructure). This makes it very efficient to use government spending to drive GDP growth. That's how Japan, South Korea, Taiwan to name a few achieved miraculous economic growth in the 20th Century. It's not the fairest way but the fastest way to lift a developing nation out of poverty. Corruption becomes a problem when the nation no longer needs constant infrastructure projects but instead rely on domestic consumption for economic growth. At that point corruption only increases inequality and its cost becomes more of an obstacle.
"The government should train and direct the people in their acquisition of political knowledge and ability, thereby enabling them to exercise the powers of election, recall, initiative, and referendum." - Sun Yat-sen 🇹🇼
The graph at 5:43 is completely non-representative and no conclusions should be drown from it.
1) 50,000,000 of Chinese bureaucracy - is it number of employees, administrative costs, some other measure? No matter if it is voiced or not, the units of measurement must be displayed
2) As the measures are in absolute numbers, the comparison is only valid if it against the countries of the similar size/population/GDP (depending on chosen measure)
3) Why there is countries (China and SK), part of country (Texas), and cities (LA) on the same graph? As the supposed goal is to compare Chinese bureaucracy to those of other countries, only countries should be depicted.
4) New York seems to actually be New York City (as its X-ace value is closer to LA than to Texas)
that trend line is damn near 90 degrees to the actual line the dots make.
china really isnt the only country that "weaponized" corruption, lobbying is literally legal in the US lol.
even China has more accountability than the US. it still defines corruption as illegal and does often times take action against it. meanwhile in the US lobbying is protected and no action is ever taken against it.
2:05 umm I don't thank that's a reasonable trend line
Lol that "trend line" must have an R^2 of like 0.05
How well or not, China's bureaucrats 'govern' has been an existential concern since at least the Zhou Dynasty. It is no different for the current one, the CCP, who only differ from the prior ones in how the figurehead comes to power.
only small amount of murder each change over? before there was less I think. I don't really see core differences. Just the time period/tech different.
@@GJ-oo2xw Prior dynasties from the Qing backwards chose the figurehead (Emperor) via descent (Imperial Family). So far, the CCP has not. But who's to say that Emperor Xi doesn't try to do that as well.
I love your videos. They are so informative and pleasant to watch. Keep up the good work:)
Yes! I am a fellow journalist on UA-cam and the research by polymater is next level.
How does a country be corrupt AND eliminate extreme poverty at the same time? Not possible
I love this! David Friedman was the first person I ever read, talking about corruption in this way.
One way to summarize it is states with low state capacity (particularly capacity to raise revenue) outsourcing the state capacity to its civil servants.