Vibrant Chinese dining suffers from heavy-handed austerity control: state media

China’s ongoing austerity campaign has been taken too far at some local levels, People’s Daily has warned, a month after Beijing launched its latest belt-tightening push.

In a commentary published on its website on Tuesday night, the party mouthpiece said that while curbing corruption and extravagance was necessary for the austerity campaign, it should not come at the expense of a citizen’s daily life or local economies.

“When implementing, some localities have ‘layered on restrictions’ – equating ‘prohibiting illegal dining and drinking’ simply with ‘banning all eating and drinking’,” the commentary said, referring to a common situation in China in which higher authorities impose additional or even stricter requirements at every level, leading to excessive or overzealous implementation.

“This behaviour is also a form of lazy governance and a variant of formalism, causing businesses to lose customers and dimming the vibrancy of people’s everyday lives,” it said.

Beijing launched an austerity push in March in an effort to improve the ruling party’s image, combat corruption and cut wasteful spending. It urged officials to “get used to belt-tightening” and show “strict diligence and thrift”.

New measures announced last month included 20 major changes related to official work meals, the use of government cars, inspection tours and other spending. For instance, expensive dishes, cigarettes and alcohol are banned at work meals, and extravagant decorations for official reception venues are prohibited.

In recent weeks Beijing has sent eight central guidance teams to reinforce the message during inspection tours around the country. The graft-busting Central Commission for Discipline Inspection began releasing details of occasions of excessive drinking by officials – including some who died from consuming too much alcohol – as a warning.

  

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