Chinese society is oiled by the concept of guanxi (关系) which is the word for uh... it's the like standing you gain through your connections in society. This is why kids of party members routinely drive around beijing in black Audis breaking traffic regulations with impunity because the police can't touch them.

Similarly, if you pass a little something or do the right favours to the right officials, and those officials pass it up the chain, then any sort of building consent or other lawbreaking exercise becomes possible.

At least that's what things were like when I was last there in 2008. I have no reason to believe it has changed significantly since then.

I did a web search:

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025

According to this site, China is in a four-way tie ranked 76 of 181 countries measured in terms of corruption (lower is better). It scored 43 of 100 on their "Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)" (higher is better).

I think the parent post has merit, as China is notably more corrupt than many similarly sized western world countries. (But my afternoon web search is far from authoritative or definitive).