Economic crimes committed by village heads, the lowest-ranking officials in China, have increased in recent years creating new challenges to anti-corruption endeavors, according to a law expert.

Wang Jianxin, from the Law School of the Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics in eastern China, recently completed a survey of village officials' abuse of power and related economic crimes.

Wang Jianxin said that amid campaigns against corruption by high-ranking officials, corrupt grassroots officials have increased in quantity. Such cases involved bribes valued at thousands, tens and even hundreds of thousands yuan (from US$240 to US$1.2 million).

The economically developed eastern province of Zhejiang reported 55 cases of embezzlement by village cadres in 2003. Haidong Prefecture, in Qinghai Province in the northwest, reported seven cases involving 11 village heads investigated and prosecuted between 2002 and 2003. Five years earlier there were no such crimes reported at village-level in the region.

Song Yexian, former party head of Longgang Village in eastern China's Anhui Province, was recently sentenced to three years' imprisonment for illegally dividing 31,000 yuan (US$3,735) in public funds with other village committee members. Song's crime also included bribery valued at 10,000 yuan (US$1,205).

Song was an orphan brought up by the villagers and honored as "No.1 village head" in Anhui for his outstanding achievements. He led the community in setting up a village-owned company, and made his village rank first in the province in terms of overall strength for six consecutive years.

Prior to this, Jin Mingchi, committee head of Dali Village in Zhengzhou, capital of the central province of Henan, embezzled 2 million yuan (US$240,964) in public funds. Another case involving 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) in state-owned capital was reported in southwest China's Guizhou Province. The money was appropriated by village committee members.

Wang Jianxin said corrupt village officials accumulated wealth through various illegal means. These included making fraudulent claims, illegally taking compensation money for land use and funds for construction projects, and selling off public properties.

Though their ranks were low, the money they embezzled was as much as their high-ranking peers. The punishments these corrupt lower officials receive were not light, said Wang Jianxin, with prison sentences ranging from several years to decades.

The rapid increase in village-level corruption was ascribed by Wang Kaiyu, a researcher at Anhui Academy of Social Sciences, to the patriarchal behavior of the grassroots officials and their almost unlimited power to exploit villagers' poor awareness of the law. Wang Kaiyu said absence of a supervision system for village committees also contributed.

At present, no special organs have been established to supervise the daily work of village committees, nor an audit system, said Wang Kaiyu. No other efforts have been made to audit village work.

Central government's support for agriculture and farmers has brought about great changes in villages nationwide, and has made more funds available for appropriation of farm land and infrastructure construction.

Wang Kaiyu said the corruption not only affects village-level democracy, but also erodes the relationship between cadres and the masses. In some richer villages, more and more farmers resorted to bribery to win elections. As the officials are close to the people, their corruption can trigger conflict and hence exert pressures on social stability, Wang Kaiyu argued.

Wang Jianxin called for rules to be enforced and supervision systems established to plug regulatory loopholes. He suggested that money and books should be managed by different people and that all expenses should be scrutinized.

To connect village officials' income with villages' revenue would also be an effective way to prevent corruption, other experts suggested. They said the State should enact a preventative law.

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2005)