2008 Assessment

This peer-reviewed country report includes:

Integrity Indicators Scorecard: Scores, scoring criteria, commentary, references, and peer review perspectives for more than 300 Integrity Indicators.

Reporter's Notebook: An on-the-ground look at corruption and integrity from a leading local journalist.

Corruption Timeline: Ten years of political context to today's corruption and integrity issues.

Country Facts: Statistical context for each country.

China shows a small overall improvement from 2007 due in part to a new access to information regulation, which helped bolster citizen access to ombudsman reports and auditing records. Our lead researcher cites a "freer" internet where some criticisms of government are allowed to remain, but at the same time journalists continue to work in a threatening atmosphere where they risk imprisonment for collaboration with foreign media outlets. China lacks a legal framework for regulating political financing due to the fact that political party expenditures are "covered by the central government" and businesses typically do not influence politics through donations, but rather through personal contacts. The national ombudsman is connected to the ruling party and whistle-blowing regulations are disregarded in practice, providing very few outlets for citizens or civil servants to voice their concerns.