Corruption and Critical Citizens in China from 2002 to 2019

• In Event: The Politics of Corruption and Anti-corruption in China

Abstract

The paper examines the correlation between the worsening corruption and the growth of critical citizens in China from 2002 to 2019. It adopts a two-dimensional measurement of regime support. One dimension is trust in the Communist Party of China, and the other is acceptance of the principle that only one political party shall hold office. The study employs K-means clustering to identify three groups of citizens, treating the two dimensions as equally important feature vectors. Regime supporters trust the ruling party and accept one-party rule. Ambivalent individuals have mixed attitudes. Critical citizens distrust the ruling party and reject one-party rule. The five waves of the Asian Barometer survey conducted from 2002 to 2019 show that the number of critical citizens grew slowly but steadily. Multivariate analysis shows that respondents who observed more widespread corruption among local government officials were more likely to be critical citizens. The paper argues that political corruption in China may prompt people to reflect on the inherent defects of the one-party system and foster acceptance of a multiparty system.

Author

• Lianjiang Li, University of Hong Kong