New Chinese leader Xi Xinping (C) has warned the country's leadership to scale back ostentatious behavior.
Beijing - Hold the shark's fin soup. Cancel the elaborate pre-Chinese New Year parties.
Those are some of the new directives from Beijing now being relayed to government officials across China.
"We used to get together
for a big banquet before the New Year holidays," a local official told
me last week. "No more. Even in obligatory official banquets, we are
also banned from serving dishes like sharks fin, bird's nest and all
that stuff."
And who is telling you that, I inquired.
"The Number One," he replied, nodding his head.
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In the past four decades
that I've lived and worked in China, dining has always been a big part
of my social and professional activities. In China, like anywhere, one
of the best ways to know people and conduct business is to share a meal.
I have enjoyed sharing
luscious -- and not necessarily expensive -- meals with Chinese friends
and associates. I particularly love dumplings, Peking duck and spicy
Sichuanese food.
I have also eaten and
drunk my way through many of the government's traditional 12-course
banquets, which sometimes left me dyspeptic and dizzy.
In that sense, at least,
it's good news that Beijing is slashing the bureaucrat's entertainment
budget and scaling back on ostentatious banquet binges.
It's about time.
But not all in China are pleased.
Many restaurants, shops,
spas and recreation centers that have largely banked on
government-sponsored spending sprees -- especially during holidays --
are hurting badly.
"Our business is down
this year," Tony Chang, a Beijing restauranteur, told me. "Many of our
usual customers from government agencies have canceled their Chinese New
Year banquets. We're down by nearly half."
Wang Lisheng, an
employee at a "recreation village" in suburban Beijing, recalled
receiving over 30 groups of customers from state-owned enterprises in
January last year. As of last month they have only had a few individual
customers.
Famished wolves will never become vegetarians.
Weibo user
"What has been affected is not just the food business," wrote the Southern Weekly newspaper
in a commentary entitled "The Disappearing Evening Banquet." "The
banquet has created a complete chain, and all the other related
industries will be affected if the banquet shrinks."
But some do not think the changes will be lasting.
"This is what officials
usually do after they take up office," wrote a micro-blogger on Weibo,
China's micro-blogging site. "The society will relapse in three years,
and then those officials will be even more greedy and corrupt to
compensate for what they lost. Famished wolves will never become
vegetarians."
This, analysts say, may
be just a "new guard, new policy" scenario. "Xin guan shang ren san ba
huo," a new broom sweeps clean, so says the the Chinese saying.
Since Xi Jinping, 59, took over as the paramount leader of China in November, he has rolled out a raft of decrees aimed at changing the leaders' "working style."
"Compared with their
predecessors, the new leaders seem to show more sophistication,
confidence and ambition," said Wenfang Tang, a political science
professor at the University of Iowa. "They want to give unscripted
speeches and hold shorter meetings. They call for the realization of
'the Chinese dream' or China's renaissance."
Xi has pledged to curb ostentatious displays among officials. Last week he ordered a ban on television advertisements selling bling.
He has also banned the unnecessary use of red carpets and banners
during meetings. He has even threatened to scrap sacrosanct perks, like
the road-clogging motorcades and traffic controls arranged for leaders.
"Such a working style
must first start with the members of the Politburo," read a statement of
the Politburo, the Communist Party's top policy-making body, issued
just two weeks after Xi's ascension.
"If you want people to
do something, then do it yourself first; if you don't want somebody to
do something, then certainly do not do it yourself."
Analysts say the statement reflected Xi's desire to win back trust in the government.
In China now, perhaps for the first time, the risk of not reforming is higher than the risk of reforming. Xi Jinping knows this.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, author
The recent cost-cutting reforms, analysts say, are meant to remind officials to stick to business and cut back on the perks.
"Xi's directive to
officials to improve their work style and decrease their pomp and
privileges is a challenge to the system, resonating with public anger
and giving voice to public frustration," said China analyst and author
Robert Lawrence Kuhn.
The list of public
grievances is long, including rampant graft and corruption,
environmental degradation and the growing gap between the rich and the
poor.
China this week approved sweeping income distribution reforms to make state-owned enterprises and the rich pay more in taxes.
The government pledged to double the average real income of urban and rural residents by 2020 from the 2010 level.
Many Chinese cities are
poised to increase workers' minimum wage -- in southern Guangdong
province, as much as 14% starting in May -- to put more disposable
income into the hands of more Chinese. The goal: to boost domestic
consumption and narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.
Will Xi's gambit work, and will it last?
It's too early to say. Still, analysts give Xi credit for trying.
"For Xi to do so much so
quickly to differentiate the new generation of leaders from the
previous one is quite startling, unprecedented in a one-party political
system that claims no-surprise, long-term continuity as a virtue,"
explained Kuhn.
He says Xi has no choice but to back change.
"Reform is change, and
change is risk," he explained. "But in China now, perhaps for the first
time, the risk of not reforming is higher than the risk of reforming. Xi
Jinping knows this."
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