Anti-corruption and integrity popular topics

Author: Editorial Office of Anti-Corruption Guide
Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-13
Features: Should "Sexual Bribery" Be Deemed a Crime? [Editor's Note] "Sexual bribery" has existed for centuries. Nowadays, some unlawful individuals often use female allure to entice and corrupt government officials, while some officials themselves cannot resist such temptations, engaging in power-sex transactions, which have a detrimental impact. As a result, calls for severe punishment have emerged in society. Of course, there are differing opinions. For example, some believe "sexual bribery" falls under bribery crimes, while others consider it merely a moral issue. Opinions vary widely. Here, we organize discussions on different viewpoints to stimulate public reflection. Should "sexual bribery" be a crime? Should "sexual bribery" be a crime? According to Professor Gao Mingxuan of the Law School at Renmin University of China, when the Criminal Law was revised in 1996, some experts at the meeting also proposed adding "sexual bribery" as a crime, but it was ultimately not approved. Some argue that in "sexual transactions," the woman is passive, acting out of employment or coercion. However, not all women act against their will in sexual relations with male officials. As mentioned earlier, many cases involve women acting with deliberate intent. Others claim that "sexual bribery" is a personal relationship and should fall under "moral conduct issues." In reality, "moral conduct issues" refer to improper relationships between the sexes, which merely violate social morals and ethical norms, constituting a moral character issue and falling within the moral domain. "Sexual bribery," however, is entirely different from "moral conduct issues" in nature. The core issue of "sexual bribery" is "power-sex transactions." There are vast differences in motivation, purpose, methods, consequences, and impact between the two. "Sexual bribery" is even more powerful than "monetary bribery." Jin Xiaodong of Nanjing University Law School believes that "sexual bribery" is a form of bribery crime. "Sexual bribery" crime has multiple social harms and persistence. In some cases, "sexual bribery" can yield benefits or demands that "monetary bribery" cannot, with its temptation and harm sometimes far exceeding that of "monetary bribery." Once "sexual bribery" is consummated, it exhibits multiple characteristics of benefiting the briber unjustly and harming society repeatedly. For example, Jiang Yanping used "sexual bribery" to advance her career, succeeding every time. "Power is the best aphrodisiac." It is precisely because powerful individuals are lustful and lecherous that some unscrupulous people exploit "sexual bribery" to achieve their goals, leading to the corruption of power and the massive loss of state assets. "Sexual bribery" also opens the door for other crimes, creating conditions for illegal activities (such as smuggling, tax evasion, etc.) to proceed under the guise of legality, with high success rates, extreme concealment, and difficulty in supervision. "Sexual bribery" already meets all the sufficient elements for. In terms of the object, it violates the integrity of the duties of public officials. Objectively, both the giver and receiver of the bribe use sexual relations as a condition to benefit themselves or third parties, with direct intent in the subjective sense. In terms of identification, it is not enough to look at what the recipient gains in material benefits or needs but also at the losses the state suffers and the harm to society caused by the recipient's actions after accepting the bribe. If it is placed outside the law and exempted from punishment, it would be tantamount to sacrificing judicial interests. If a crime has significant social harm but lacks corresponding punitive measures, the harm will spread rapidly and become uncontrollable. Lenin once said, "Punishment does not lie in its brutality but in exposing every crime and ensuring it faces legal consequences." This is the fundamental purpose of the criminal law in combating crime.
Zhao Dengju, Vice President of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, has stated that "sexual bribery" is equally a crime and that the law should consider including "sexual bribery" as a crime in future revisions. At the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress, 17 representatives, including Zhao Ping, General Manager of Sichuan Zizhong Jingfeng Co., Ltd., jointly proposed a resolution that drew widespread attention. The resolution stated that certain social vices have resurfaced in recent years, with unlawful individuals using "beauty" or hiring so-called "public relations women" to entice and corrupt weak-willed government officials and corporate leaders through "sexual bribery" to gain various unlawful interests and engage in illegal activities, severely damaging social morals and becoming a new form of illegal behavior. Since China's Criminal Law does not currently explicitly define "sexual bribery" as a crime, the resolution proposed that "sexual bribery" be swiftly criminalized and punished to purify social morals and uphold the authority of the law.
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