MCLC: extravagant banquet exposed

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: extravagant banquet exposed
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Source: The Guardian (4/25/13):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/25/china-official-sacked-extravaga
nt-banquet

Chinese official sacked after 'citizen journalists' expose extravagant
banquet
Video and pictures of lavish dinner emerge after campaigners gatecrash
event hosted by Communist boss in Jiangsu province
By Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing

Zhang Aihua did what he could to appease the outraged mob that burst into
his private party, shocked as they were to witness tables strewn with rare
Yangtze river fish and imported wine. He knelt on a table, picked up a
loudhailer, and begged for forgiveness.

As the Communist party boss of an industrial zone in Taizhou City, in the
south-east of Jiangsu province, Zhang probably knew that this revelation
of official profligacy would cost him his job. "I was wrong tonight.
Please forgive me. I'll do anything if you let me go," he pleaded,
according to state media.

But his pleas went unheeded. When Zhang was fired on Monday, he became the
latest victim of president Xi Jinping's frugality and anti-corruption
drive – an effort fuelled in no small part by an exasperated public set on
exposing the country's extreme wealth gap with mobile phone cameras and
microblogs.

Lavish party food."I was outside and saw a lot of people, so rushed up to
see what the commotion was," said Jia Hongwei, a web forum administrator
in Taizhou who captured the video
<http://video.sina.com.cn/p/news/s/v/2013-04-21/153762330565.html> at the
industrial park's "entertainment centre" where Zhang was hosting at least
20 colleagues and investors around three well-stocked tables.

Jia's video shows a rambunctious flow of people cascading through narrow
hallways and blowing past a smattering of helpless police officers in
white safety helmets. The camera hones in on plates of mostly-eaten fish –
poisonous pufferfish, long-tailed anchovy and largehead hairtail,
according to onlookers – as well as top-shelf bottles of Chinese rice
liquor and Australian Yellowtail wine
<http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2013-04-23/082426918623.shtml>.

Jia said that locals would often witness a steady flow of luxury cars
streaming in and out of the complex, alerting them to the extravagance
within. They learned of Zhang's banquet from an unidentified
whistleblower. "Every room in the centre had a banquet, and each banquet
included abalone and other expensive dishes," Jia said.

Jia stopped recording when he left at about 8pm. Yet three hours later, he
was sent a photo of Zhang kneeling on the table, face contorted in
distress, a loudhailer in his right hand. He posted both the photo and
video online that night, and they quickly gained traction on Sina Weibo,
China's most popular microblogging service. Taizhou officials began
investigating Zhang over the weekend.

Zhang paid for most of the meal, which cost more than £700, state media
cited an unnamed whistleblower as saying – well over the spending limit on
official banquets imposed by central authorities last year.

Since Xi launched his anti-corruption drive in November, scores of
officials have been sacked for malfeasance, sales of luxury goods have
plummeted nationwide and high-end restaurants have reported dismal
returns. Yet some analysts say that the drive has simply pushed lavish
official banquets and venal gift-giving underground
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-11/china-rebound-at-risk-as-xi-curbs
-officials-spending.html>.

Steve Tsang, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of
Nottingham, said that the central government may only tolerate the breed
of citizen journalism that took down Zhang as long as it dovetails with
the party's priorities. "I think if and when they are seen as crossing a
line, and are focused on challenging the party, or party rule, that would
be a different matter," he said. "I think the clampdown would be quite
tight."