Corrupt 'flies' must be swatted

In recent feedback to Tianjin municipality, the central inspection group pointed out the problem of "corruption by flies", or lower-level officials, which provoked comments from Chinese media outlets. Being often used together with "tigers", which refers to senior officials involved in corruption, "flies" might not make as much illegal gains but are equally destructive for being many in number and their graft rampant. The ongoing anti-corruption campaign vows to "both hunt tigers and swat flies".

Flies are not necessarily better hidden than tigers. Actually, ordinary people have more chance of encountering them in daily life, and their corruption is often in the name of human relationships or social customs. It is this ambiguousness and poor law enforcement that has sheltered many flies.

China Youth Daily, July 13

The key to fighting rampant corruption lies in strict enforcement of the law rather than heavy punishments. From the successful experiences of various nations and regions, it could be concluded that "zero-toleration" to graft is indispensable in building a clean government.

Xinhuanet.com, July 11

It will be impossible for the central leadership to win the public's trust without swatting the flies. A thousand flies are worse than one single tiger because they cause heavier losses and destroy people's confidence in the Party and government.

Cjn.cn, July 10

A research team has claimed corruption might have something to do with certain parts of the brain, so it might be possible to cure that with medicine in the future. There used to be similar notions, such as preventing corruption through education or changes in human nature and they all failed.

Actually, human kind has long found the right way to curb corruption, namely putting limits on power, and this has been successfully applied in many countries; why waste time and energy on pointless suggestions?

Chinanews.com, July 11

The central inspection team is making a good move by focusing on officials at lower positions because they are not less destructive. Without supervision, flies can also grow into tigers and what we need is to prevent them at first step.

China Business Journal, July 12