Combating Corruption: the Hong Kong Experience

• Author: Hui Wing-chi
• Pages: 240-256

HUI (DO NOT DELETE) 2014/7/7 8:48 PM

240 TSINGHUA CHINA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 6:239

COMBATING CORRUPTION:

THE HONG KONG EXPERIENCE

HUI Wing-chi*

Abstract

Corruption is a universal phenomenon and no society is devoid o f it. Although the world is not

short of ideas on how to tackle corruption, the Hong Kong experience is frequently quoted as

an epitome of success. Anti-corruption efforts have succeeded in Hong Kong because of the

establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (“ICAC”) in 1974. Over the

past 40 year s, the ICAC has devoted itself to anti-corruption work, turning a pervasively

corrupted place to one of the most corruption-free places in the world, and successfully upheld

Hong Kong’s core values of fairness and probity. ICAC’s success is attributed to

indispensable factors wh ich can be interestingly summed up in the acronym – ICAC, where I

stands for independent status, C for comprehensive and long -term strategy, A for adequate

resources, and C for community support.

Keywords: ICAC, anti-corruption, integrity, Hong Kong experience

I. INTRODUCTION

Hong Kong suffered from pervasive corruption in the 1960s and

1970s. Bribery was regarded as a necessary evil and a way to get

things done. The timely establishment and effectiveness of the

Independent Commission Against Corruption (“ICAC”) in 1974

contributed significantly to the development of “clean government”1

and, as a result, Hong Kong has changed from a place where

corruption was once a way of life and penetrated almost every thread

of society to one of the most corruption-free places in the world.2

Hong Kong has achieved spectacular success in overcoming flagrant

corruption.3 In recent years, Hong Kong has consistently been rated

as one of the least corrupt territories in the world on the Corruption

Perceptions Index.4

This paper aims at summarizing the Hong Kong experience in

combating corruption, particularly efforts of the ICAC and the

factors contributing to its success. While the corruption problems in

1 I. Scott, Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption: The Evolving Model, in A

GLOBAL HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN CORRUPTION 401 (Graycar & R. Smith eds.,

2011).

2 Choi, J. W., Institutional Structures and Effectiveness of Anticorruption Agencies: A Comparative

Analysis of South Korea and Hong Kong, 2 ASIAN J. POL. SCI. 195 (2009).

3 MELANIE MANION, CORRUPTION BY DESIGN: BUILDING CLEAN GOVERNMENT IN MAINLAND

CHINA AND HONG KONG 2 (2004).

4 The Corrup tion Perceptions Index is an annual measurement assessing th e perceived extent of

corruption. It is compiled by Berlin-based Transparency International and based o n expert ratings and

surveys of business people.

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2013] COMBATING CORRUPTION 241

other parts of the world may be different, it is believed that many

corruption problems stem from common causes and may be

eradicated by similar approaches.

II. HONG KONG’S ANTI-CORRUPTION EXPERIENCE

Hong Kong has a long history of tackling corruption but its

anti-corruption efforts work because of the Independent Commission

Against Corruption (“ICAC”), which was set up on 15 February

1974 after the enactment of the Independent Commission Against

Corruption Ordinance (“ICACO”). The establishment of the ICAC

marked the advent of a new comprehensive strategy to eradicate

corruption and it “has changed much in Hong Kong that many

regarded as unchangeable”.5 Today, the ICAC is not only an

anti-corruption enforcement agency per se, but also an institution

spearheading and representing integrity.

The ICAC was an outcome of both evolution and revolution. It

was not a product invented overnight. Its establishment came after

several decades of government efforts to develop stricter and more

severe legal measures against corruption.

A. Anti-Corruption Work Prior to the Establishment of the ICAC

Corruption was an endemic feature of colonial rule in Hong Kong

for well over a hundred years. Beginning in 1858, various attempts

were made to counter corruption.6 During 1858–1897, the bribery of

civil servants in Hong Kong was a misdemeanor under the Common

Law. The June 1897 gambling house scandal, which involved the

police, soiled the reputation of the Civil Service as a whole and

moved the legislature to enact the first law against corruption, the

Misdemeanours Punishment Ordinance (“MPO”) in 1898. The MPO

defined a bribe as “any fee, perquisite, reward or gratification,

whether pecuniary or otherwise, not payable or receivable by law”

and made bribery an offence for both the person offering a bribe and

the civil servant accepting it. However, the MPO was ineffective

because it was applicable only to the civil servants and its definition

was restricted to bribery only.7 Nevertheless, “in pre-1941 Hong

Kong corruption was not in any sense a serious social problem” as “it

did not give rise to great public concern, prolonged debate,

5 Ambrose Y.C. King, An Institutional Response to Corruption: The ICAC of Hong Kong, in HONG

KONG: DILEMMAS OF GROWTH 115 (C.K. Leung, J.W. Cushman & G. Wang eds., 1980).

6 See QUAH JON S.T., CURBING CORRUPTION IN ASIAN COUNTRIES: AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM? 237

(2011); see also Scott, supra note 1.

7 H.C. Kuan, Anti-Corru ption Legislation in Hong Kong – A History, in CORRUPTI ON AND ITS

CONTROL IN HONG KONG: SITUATION UP TO THE LATE SEVENTIES 15 (Rance P. L. Lee ed., 1981).