Corruption does not seem to be fully understood by most people. Yes, using government money to buy luxury goods for your spouse is bad. Yes, using your position and power to receive bribes and kickbacks to make decisions is bad. But corruption is not limited to financial actions; corruption also includes a plethora of other activities as well as an individual’s morals and character.

There are many articles about financial corruption in China. These articles demand greater transparency, justice, accountability, and systemic improvements. Recently, an article discussing corruption and Chinese history was posted at http://scholarsupdate.hi2net.com/news.asp?NewsID=13911. The author discussed the history of corruption attributing to the replacements of many ancient Chinese dynasties and how Mao Zedong saw this and acted accordingly, to be succeeded by Xi Jinping, along with proposing to change the system and not just sack officials. After all, while picking corrupt leaves from a tree will somehow satisfy the population, new corrupt leaves will simply take its place if the tree, water, and soil are corrupt.

Various ancient histories such as the Late Han Dynasty can definitely be reflected to what we can see today as China. But the Mid-Roman Empire can also be reflected to what we can see today in the United States. However, these distinct reflections are falling due to entirely different reasons. Corruption is an inherent evil that taints people starting from birth and will never be fully rid of, but can be controlled and prevented. Just as the United States fought financial corruption earlier in the past century, China is fighting financial corruption. But now the United States is facing a new form of corruption that has taken its roots into the societal and federal system:  political corruption. Not just limited to political ideologies, but also includes ethnicity, religion, social status, geography, etc. A visible result was the recent government shutdown as Tea Party Republicans halted Congress. Just like a tree, these are the leaves of what we can see. Inside the tree, water, and soil there are various forces that root down to ideologies such as religion, isolationism, and ethnic conservatism.

While China might succeed in getting rid of financial corruption, it will only face rampant political corruption as the United States is facing now if it cannot find a suitable competitor. When there is nothing significant left for a country to face, it will seek conflict within itself. Beijing vs. Shanghai; urban vs. rural; scientist vs. philosopher; etc. are already apparent in all levels of society. Politics will always exist to serve groups of peoples’ own self-interests unless there is some form of conflict for the nation to unite against. Just as late-Han Dynasty eunuchs spread and maintained their own greed and incompetence, Roman emperors and politicians lived on past glories had nothing better to do than to fight each other.

As such, if Xi Jinping succeeds in cleaning up the house and China moves towards a more meritocratic, liberal, and transparent nation, it will most definitely become a win-win situation for both China and the United States. This will not only prevent political corruption for both countries, but also engage in healthy competition, in contrast with looming nuclear apocalypses such as during the Cold War. As human history has accomplished so much during the 45 years of that silent conflict, imagine what we could accomplish through mutual understanding, trust, and rivalry between two countries around equal footing that both seek peace and prosperity.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case. Whether China chooses to lower itself to become an ultimate enemy rather than raise itself to become a rival is entirely up to whether China can realize this and how well they can resist mutually destructive conflicts from itself, its closest allies, and conflicting interests.

The United States will inevitably fall through political corruption if there is no suitable rival that can equivalently meet China’s potential. And housing the world’s most destructive armaments, it will not be good when politics go rogue.