The Paradox: Corruption Against Corruption

I. Introduction: The Essence of Politics Beyond Anti-Corruption

Anti-corruption is often perceived as a moral purge or an administrative tool. Yet, upon deeper reflection, it becomes clear that anti-corruption efforts frequently fall into a vicious cycle of “wildfires that never burn out.” This is because we fundamentally misunderstand the nature of politics.

Politics, at its core, is the enterprise of producing order. Corruption, then, is not merely individual misconduct but the systematic erosion of that order. When we focus solely on repairing this erosion—punishing corrupt officials—we overlook a critical blind spot: We scrutinize whether the order is being damaged, but rarely question whether the very production of order is itself the greatest corruption.

If the architects of order seize power by breaking the rules—through violence or usurpation—the order they produce is genetically flawed. Thus, the real question is not whether officials keep their hands clean, but whether the sovereign’s power itself is legitimate.

II. The Myth of Sovereignty: From Territory to Publicness

To address this, we must redefine sovereignty. Sovereignty is not inherently tied to territory, nor is it sacred by default. Its sole source is publicness: the ability to continuously and fairly produce public goods and order.

Whether a state, tribe, or corporation, any entity that sustains this publicness earns functional sovereignty. Legitimacy arises from trust—trust built through the production of order, not the invocation of divine right or territorial control. We must not invert cause and effect, using the rhetoric of “sacred sovereignty” to mask the absence of publicness.

III. Historical Divergence: “Execute the Hook Thief, Ennoble the Usurper”

The reality we face is a global politics filled with “unqualified sovereigns” who rely on violence to maintain rule. This dilemma has deep historical roots.

Ancient Chinese philosophers exposed the absurdity: “Execute the hook thief, ennoble the usurper.” A petty thief faces the death penalty, while those who steal entire nations become lords. This reveals the moral black hole at the heart of power: de facto control is conflated with legitimacy.

Regrettably, China never resolved this paradox. Lacking universal or procedural justice, its political legitimacy has oscillated between violence and the “Mandate of Heaven”, never establishing a mechanism—like ancient Greece or Rome—to transform violent conquests into legal order through institutions, contracts, and civic participation.

IV. The Core Problem: Facticity ≠ Legitimacy

This historical “legitimacy deficit” is the root of today’s global governance crisis. The greatest lie in international politics is the assumption that de facto control equals legitimacy.

Consider a robber who steals a fortune. His possession is a factual state, but it does not grant him legal ownership. Similarly, the Chinese Communist Party’s claim to sovereignty is a modern “usurper’s dilemma”:

• Illegitimate origins: Its power stems entirely from revolutionary violence and civil war.
• Lack of confirmation: It has never formalized its authority—no peace treaty with its rival (the Republic of China), no universal free elections to secure the consent of the governed.

It is merely a violence-sustained state masquerading as a legitimate sovereign on the global stage.

V. Global Contagion: The Race to the Bottom

The existence of “unqualified sovereigns” in international politics sets a disastrous precedent, eroding moral standards in global and domestic governance.

When a nation’s highest authority is built on “theft” (violent seizure without confirmation), how can it morally constrain lower-level “theft” (corruption)?

• Trickle-down corruption: If the sovereign itself is the ultimate “thief” (seizing power without consent), then petty corruption is merely an extension of that logic.

Worse, the international presence of such illegitimate sovereigns dilutes the moral authority of sovereignty itself. It’s a case of “bad money driving out good.” When regimes that seize power by force enjoy the same privileges as democratically elected governments in international organizations, the moral weight of sovereignty is undermined. This not only sustains illegitimate regimes but also corrupts the domestic politics of legitimate states, forcing them to abandon principles for pragmatism and destabilizing their own governance.

VI. Conclusion: Governance as the Ultimate Anti-Corruption

Thus, we must rethink anti-corruption. In a system where sovereignty itself lacks legitimacy, anti-corruption is merely an internal purge or stability tool—it can never eradicate corruption, because the root cause lies in the illegitimacy of power’s origins.

The true solution lies in returning to governance itself:

• Rebuild legitimacy: The international community must reject the myth that “facticity equals legitimacy.” All political entities should be required to confirm their power through formal, documented processes—peace treaties, constitutional contracts, or free elections—to transform “de facto control” into “legitimate ownership.”
• Produce order: The goal of politics is to establish transparent, participatory processes that clarify the boundaries of power.

When politics returns to its essence—producing order—and when sovereigns are held accountable, corruption, as a byproduct of disorder, will naturally diminish. This is the ultimate path to ending corruption.