A state of contradiction: Medical corruption and strain in Beijing Public Hospitals

Chinese public healthcare is a system fraught with problems, of which the most observed is pervasive criminality among medical professionals. We argue that the main reason for medical crimes and corruption stems from the contradictory requirements of the state for hospitals to pursue socialist values for care while demanding they adopt capitalist motives for profit. In other words, the crimes and the corruption are structural failures of the system itself, and not about the morality of 'bad' doctors as such. The study uses in-depth interviews with eighty-nine individuals and participant observation at four sites to obtain its data set. We find that the mentioned contradiction creates many conflicts in hospital work environments and doctors require the use of deviant strategies to survive. This deviance comes from a collective strain that is imposed on professionals to conform to specific behaviours. Addressing the problems in the system requires making its message and policies coherent by allowing for the possibility that 'socialism with Chinese characteristics' may not be as agreeable as the Party has hoped.