从商业许可、合同到法律诉讼，腐败对一切工商业活动都会产生不利影响。
腐败意味着工商交易经常涉及隐蔽的价格、竞争的变质和为贪图便利在不顾及质量的情况下选择经营伙伴等。如果腐败猖獗，最终也无法保证得到公平审判和其他纠正不良行为和欺诈的法律措施。
为此，建立摒弃腐败，尊重法治并对当事各方一视同仁的强大的独立司法体系具有极为重要的意义。
全世界两个最大的经济体，美国和中国对腐败采取了截然不同的态度。
根据华盛顿（Washington）产权联盟（Property Rights Alliance）对125个国家对工商业产生影响的法律和政治环境进行的排名，美国排名第14，中国排名第52。
在美国，司法具有独立地位，不受行政（市长、州长和总统）首长的控制，法庭对案件的审理也不受政治左右。
与此相反，根据2017年度美国人权报告（2017 United States Human Rights Reports） ，中国法官无法独立行使司法权力，经常就未审定的案件接受政治指导，其中包括政府和中国共产党对如何裁决发布的指示。
在一个国家拥有众多企业的国家，大型企业都接受中国共产党高层党员的管理或指令，缺乏司法独立对与政治无涉的投资方造成了损害。人权报告指出，甚至人们在与强大实体的诉讼中获得胜诉的情况下，法庭对政府部门、国营企业、军事人员和某些中共党员等强大的特殊实体的裁决也无法得到执行。
在美国， 总检察长和特别检察员 从事打击政府腐败的工作。但人权报道指出，在中国，腐败往往对法庭裁决产生影响，因为防止司法腐败的保障十分含糊，执行工作软弱无力。
司法独立和保障政府防止腐败的强大机制都很重要，否则会导致交易失败，合同违约，工商业批产等现象。世界最大的经济体如何解决这些问题是工商繁荣的核心。
The effect of corruption on business
In business, corruption can affect everything from licenses to contracts to lawsuits.
Corruption means that business deals often contain hidden prices, competition is not what it seems, and partnerships are chosen for the sake of expediency rather than quality. And, ultimately, if corruption is rampant there is no sure way to get a fair trial or other legal redress for abuse or cheating.
That’s why it’s important to have a strong, independent judicial system that roots out corruption, respects the rule of law and holds all parties equally accountable.
The world’s two largest economies, the United States and China, take radically different approaches to corruption.
Consider a ranking of 125 countries’ legal and political environments that affect business: The United States is 14th, while China is 52nd. The ranking is from the Property Rights Alliance, a Washington group.
Predetermined outcomes
In the United States, the judiciary is independent. That means that it is not controlled by the executive branch (mayors, governors or the president), and court cases are not determined by politics.
By contrast, the 2017 United States Human Rights Reports found that in China, judges do not “exercise judicial power independently.” In fact, the report found, “judges regularly received political guidance on pending cases, including instructions on how to rule, from both the government and the CCP [Chinese Communist Party].”
In a country where the government owns many of the businesses, and high-ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party manage or direct large companies, this lack of judicial independence hurts investors who are not politically connected. The Human Rights Reports found that even where people won rulings against powerful entities, “court judgments often could not be enforced against powerful special entities, including government departments, state-owned enterprises, military personnel, and some members of the CCP.”
In the United States, inspectors general and special prosecutors fight against government corruption. But in China, the Human Rights Reports found, “corruption often influenced court decisions since safeguards against judicial corruption were vague and poorly enforced.”
Judicial independence and strong government safeguards against corruption matter because deals go bad, contracts get disputed, businesses go bankrupt. How the world’s largest economies address these conflicts is at the very heart of doing business.
