以薪养廉 (yixin yanglian): Keep clean with decent salaries

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has issued documents to increase civil servants' salaries nationwide, which is connected with income distribution reform, fiscal reform and, in particular, the anti-corruption campaign.

International practices show that when officials' salaries are significantly lower than the average, it's prone to result in corruption. These officials are more likely to abuse power for rent-seeking or look for a second job to make up for their low salaries.

In Hong Kong and Singapore, civil servants' material needs can be well satisfied by their salaries, thus they seldom risk violating the laws.

Civil servants on the Chinese mainland deserve decent salaries. But there are other problems to be solved, too.

Authorities should balance income gap within the civil servant system, pay more attention to grassroots civil servants' livelihoods. The salary system for civil servants should be straightened out to eliminate public suspicion that a "high salary won't curb corruption".