SHANGHAI, China: Government workers in China requested 85 percent of bribes in the country that were reported to an international Web site that tracks corruption, a U.S.-based anti-corruption group said Tuesday.
BRIBEline's first country-specific report outside the U.S. focuses on China, where 6 percent of the almost 150 bribe requests reported were for amounts of more than US$500,000.
Corruption is a huge but sensitive issue in China, especially in Shanghai, where the city's former Communist Party boss was sentenced in April to 18 years in prison for his role in a wide-ranging pension fund scandal.
The Chinese government has announced several public anti-corruption campaigns in recent years.
Calls to the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention were not answered Tuesday.
BRIBEline — the Business Registry for International Bribery and Extortion — was set up in 2007 by TRACE International, a nonprofit membership association that helps companies combat bribery. It has the support of the World Bank and other groups, including retail giant Wal-Mart.
The BRIBEline report on China was based on 148 reports made to the BRIBEline Web site in the year between the site's launch and June 30. The number was smaller than expected, but almost as many reports have come in since June 30 as BRIBEline gets more well-known, TRACE founder Alexandra Wrage said.
The Web site, available in English, Chinese and other major languages, allows people to anonymously report bribe requests made of them and describe the country, the person asking for the bribe, the amount and the general circumstances involved.
The site doesn't ask if the bribe requests — more than half of them between US$101 (690 yuan) and US$5,000 (34,000 yuan) — were paid.
Of the reported bribe requests in the China report, 11 percent were made by police officers and 11 percent were made by a member of the judiciary, the BRIBEline report said. Government officials made up another 38 percent.
"I find it a little distressing that the police and judiciary are near the top in almost every country," Wrage said.
She said she hoped to be able to discuss the report with Chinese officials.
The China results were announced Tuesday on the sidelines of what's being called the first-ever China Summit on Anti-Corruption.
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BRIBEline's first country-specific report outside the U.S. focuses on China, where 6 percent of the almost 150 bribe requests reported were for amounts of more than US$500,000.
Corruption is a huge but sensitive issue in China, especially in Shanghai, where the city's former Communist Party boss was sentenced in April to 18 years in prison for his role in a wide-ranging pension fund scandal.
The Chinese government has announced several public anti-corruption campaigns in recent years.
Calls to the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention were not answered Tuesday.
BRIBEline — the Business Registry for International Bribery and Extortion — was set up in 2007 by TRACE International, a nonprofit membership association that helps companies combat bribery. It has the support of the World Bank and other groups, including retail giant Wal-Mart.
The BRIBEline report on China was based on 148 reports made to the BRIBEline Web site in the year between the site's launch and June 30. The number was smaller than expected, but almost as many reports have come in since June 30 as BRIBEline gets more well-known, TRACE founder Alexandra Wrage said.
The Web site, available in English, Chinese and other major languages, allows people to anonymously report bribe requests made of them and describe the country, the person asking for the bribe, the amount and the general circumstances involved.
The site doesn't ask if the bribe requests — more than half of them between US$101 (690 yuan) and US$5,000 (34,000 yuan) — were paid.
Of the reported bribe requests in the China report, 11 percent were made by police officers and 11 percent were made by a member of the judiciary, the BRIBEline report said. Government officials made up another 38 percent.
"I find it a little distressing that the police and judiciary are near the top in almost every country," Wrage said.
She said she hoped to be able to discuss the report with Chinese officials.
The China results were announced Tuesday on the sidelines of what's being called the first-ever China Summit on Anti-Corruption.
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