CAMBRIDGE, England -- The past few weeks have been sad ones for the supporters of the still young democratic process in South Korea. It has been alleged that a web of corruption surrounds the presidency of Kim Dae Jung, winner of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. While no one has, yet, suggested that the president himself is guilty of corruption, the accusing finger has been pointed at his three sons, his wife and his private Asia Peace Foundation think tank. It is the usual story: The allegations are of influence peddling and abuses of power.
Meanwhile, in Japan, hardly a week goes by without some senior politician being accused of, or found guilty of, corruption. The political system itself seems corrupt. After Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka started to address corruption in her ministry, she was fired in late January. The fact that the construction industry in Japan accounts for a larger share of the gross domestic product than in any other country in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development is often put down to corrupt links between politicians, bureaucrats and construction contractors.
In China, a constant flow of high-profile corruption cases, sometimes seems to involve the whole governments of some cities, such as Xiamen and Shantou. The respected Bank of China is currently facing up to corruption among some of its branch managers, in China and abroad, who have defrauded the bank of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. The government is currently congratulating itself over a reduction of capital flight from an average of almost $20 billion a year over the period 1977 to 1999 to "only" $5 billion last year. Even that lower figure far exceeds the contributions to China from taxpayers in OECD countries in the form of aid.