Beijing among biggest losers in corruption ranking

China is among countries that tumbled the most in a global corruption ranking as it displayed widespread or increased levels of bribery, graft and opacity, Transparency International said.
China fell to 100th place on the list, down from 80th last year, the watchdog group said in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index. Turkey slid to 64th place from 53rd in 2013. Egypt and Afghanistan gained in the ranking, which places the least corrupt countries at the top.
“Economic growth is undermined and efforts to stop corruption fade when leaders and high level officials abuse power to appropriate public funds for personal gain,” Jose Ugaz, the chairman of Berlin-based Transparency International, said of corruption worldwide in an e-mailed statement.
China’s decline in the ranking comes even as President Xi Jinping places fighting corruption at the top of his political agenda since taking the helm of the Communist Party in 2012.
Denmark and New Zealand, the usual frontrunners, topped the list again in 2014. Somalia and North Korea were perceived to be the most corrupt at the bottom of the ranking.
The ranking, a composite index that draws from 12 surveys, has become a benchmark gauge of perceptions of a country’s corruption and is used by analysts and investors. The index grades a country on a scale of zero to 100, the latter being the least corrupt. Denmark scored 92 points, Somalia eight.
With 74 points, the U.S. ranked 17th. The U.K. scored 78, placing it 14th on the list. Russia ranked 136th with 27 points. Turkey had 45 points, and China had 36.
Transparency International offered a contrasting view of China, where Xi has vowed to net both “tigers and flies,” parlance for cadres from the top to bottom ranks of the party.
At least 75,000 of the 86 million members of the Communist party have been investigated in Xi’s nationwide campaign, with 27 percent punished, according to the South China Morning Post. Among the most prominent are Zhou Yongkang, a onetime member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee that rules China, and Xu Caihou, former Central Military Commission vice chairman.
In July, Xi’s campaign went beyond China’s borders, with the Fox Hunt campaign targeting corrupt officials who have fled the country. So far, 288 suspects have been detained, the Ministry of Public Security said Nov. 18.
China needs to do more, Transparency said. Even with the prosecutions, “too many corruption cases take place behind closed doors and the manner in which people are prosecuted needs greater transparency,” the group said. Patrick Donahue, Bloomberg