Most interesting news items from China and India in recent times seem to be concerned with corruption. A recent high-profile scandal in China was over milk. During the Beijing Olympics, investigations revealed that melamine — a chemical used in plastics and in fertilizers — was used in milk to falsely raise its protein count, thereby adversely affecting the health of nearly 300,000 children and killing almost a dozen.

It also transpired that Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu, in which New Zealand’s Fonterra Group owns a large stake, manufactured more than 900 tonnes of adulterated powdered milk. Expectedly, the Chinese government was livid as the scandal followed others in China’s food and drug industries. It therefore launched a campaign to show the world that Beijing was serious about eliminating the problem.

More than a dozen corrupt middlemen have been put on trial for endangering public health to maximize profit. The communist party’s central commission for discipline inspection issued its “annual broadside to government and party officials” on December 29 to remind them “about bribes and malfeasance”.

Combining ingenuity and imagination, the Chinese have focused on “illegal business deals” before the New Year. In fact, each new year, the China’s corruption circular takes up a different theme: in 2007, it targeted “sight seeing tours at public expense”; in 2006, it concerned “bribes through wedding or funeral gifts”; the officials were cautioned about “gambling overseas” the year before.

The Chinese juggernaut against corruption appears credible, although an element of vendetta can never be ruled out. However, what does matter is the end result. Current reports estimate that 1,51,000 government officials have been penalized till November 2008 on various bribery charges, of whom 4,960 happen to be senior functionaries.

India too can boast of an equal quantum of corruption and the country’s media are full of such reports. In one instance, an expelled cadet returned to the Indian Military Academy with the help of fake papers. On another occasion, a Mumbai income-tax official, out on bail, was held on bribery charges. In 1993, corrupt customs officers had ensured the safe landing of RDX in the vicinity of Mumbai. The situation in India, like China, is grim. However, unlike China, India seems to be disinterested in weeding out this menace.

On December 10, 2008, Transparency International had put India in the top- five most corrupt countries’ list, along with Russia and China. Indeed, India’s national security has been compromised on account of the danger posed by corruption. Unlike Russia and China, India is not a homogeneous state. Numerous fault lines run through it, threatening the nation’s integrity and sovereignty. India will not be able to deal with the twin scourges of terrorism and corruption if it were to be run by a weak and vacillating government.

Hence, it is time India learnt a few things from China, their mutual dislike and distrust notwithstanding. At least four suspects who went on trial in the tainted milk scandal could be given the death penalty. Some Indians are against capital punishment; so detention can be employed as a deterrent to show that India, like China, is committed to end corruption.