Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than China? (Update)

Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner. On last week's episode, I interviewed Dan Wong, an author and close observer of China, about his new book, Breakneck, China's Quest to Engineer the Future. That conversation reminded me of another good conversation we had about China a few years back with the political scientist Yuan Yuan Ang. So I thought it might be worth revisiting that episode.

It is called, Is the US Really Less Corrupt than China? We have updated whatever facts or figures needed updating. Once you're finished, let us know what you think. Our email is radio at freeconomics.com. As always, thanks for listening.

The best way to understand China's political system is that it is a corrupt meritocracy. If I were to ask you to point to another corrupt meritocracy, maybe it's even one where you and I are both located at the moment, what would you say? I think it's more complicated in this country. Corruption in China is still of an illegal form. But corruption in this country has become so legalized and institutionalized, it's hard to say that it's corrupt.

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