I’ve been asked to give a lecture on anti-corruption policies to a group of Chinese Government officials. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll do it. But, as I thought about the subject, I checked out one measure of the level of corruption in different countries of the world.<\/p>\n
Since 1995, Transparency International<\/a> has published an annual Corruption Perceptions Index<\/strong> (CPI<\/strong>) <\/sup><\/strong>ordering the countries of the world according to “the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians”. The organization defines corruption<\/a> as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”.<\/p>\n The latest poll covers 180 countries. The top three nations – that is, the ones with the least corruption – are New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore (all small, developed countries). The bottom three – that is, the ones with the most corruption – are Myanmar, Afghanistan and Somalia.<\/p>\n The UK is listed at 17th (joint with Japan), while the USA comes in at number 19 – essentially the same as Britain. And mainland China? It is only at number 79. But Hong Kong is 12th and Taiwan is 37th – so the Chinese could perhaps learn something from close to home.<\/p>\n