MCLC: Xi's new austerity

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Xi's new austerity
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (3/27/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/world/asia/xi-jinping-imposes-austerity-m
easures-on-chinas-elite.html

Elite in China Face Austerity Under Xi’s Rule
By ANDREW JACOBS 

BEIJING — Life for the almighty Chinese government official has come to
this: car pools, domestically made wristwatches and self-serve lunch
buffets.

In the four months since he was anointed China’s paramount leader and
tastemaker-in-chief, President Xi Jinping has imposed a form of austerity
on the nation’s famously free-spending civil servants, military brass and
provincial party bosses. Warning that graft and gluttony threaten to bring
down the ruling Communists, Mr. Xi has ordered an end to boozy,
taxpayer-financed banquets and the bribery that often takes the form of a
gift-wrapped Louis Vuitton bag.

While the power of the nation’s elite remains unchallenged, the symbols of
that power are slipping from view. Gone, for now, are the freshly cut
flowers and red-carpet ceremonies that used to greet visiting dignitaries.
This month, military officers who arrived here for the annual National
People’s Congress were instructed to share hotel rooms and bring their own
toiletries.

“Car-pooling feels so good because it provides a way to bond and chat with
each other while saving money and increasing efficiency,” one senior
military official told the People’s Liberation Army newspaper.

Not everyone has been so embracing of the change. Last Tuesday, the
country’s top disciplinary body dismissed six functionaries, including a
neighborhood party chief who spent $63,000 to entertain 80 colleagues at a
seaside resort, and a county official who marked the opening of new
administrative offices by throwing a feast for 290 people.

The crackdown appears to be real, as far as it goes, which may not be very
far. After a year of scandal that led to the toppling of a member of the
Politburo, Bo Xilai, and numerous reports of widespread official
corruption, Mr. Xi’s highly public campaign seems aimed at curtailing the
most conspicuous displays of wealth by people in power. He has done little
to tackle the concentrations of money and power in China’s state-directed
economy that have allowed numerous members of the Chinese elite and their
extended families to amass extravagant fortunes.

Some analysts note that even a modest first step toward reducing
corruption, a proposed regulation that would require top officials to
disclose their personal assets publicly, appears to be stalled,
highlighting the elite’s resistance to real change.

Wu Qiang, a political science professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing,
expressed cynicism about the moderation campaign, saying it distracted
attention from the kinds of political reform necessary to make government
more accountable and transparent. “More than just restricting people’s
eating habits, we need to restrain the party’s power, otherwise this is
just political farce,” he said.

Even so, Mr. Xi has garnered attention and some praise for his eight-point
guide for official conduct, which he issued in January. Mr. Xi warned that
his administration would swat both “tigers and flies” in the
anticorruption drive, which he said was vital for winning back public
trust.

“If we don’t redress unhealthy tendencies and allow them to develop, it
will be like putting up a wall between our party and the people, and we
will lose our roots, our lifeblood and our strength,” Mr. Xi said.

Mr. Xi’s campaign even has a new catchphrase, based on his vision of
gastronomic self-restraint: “Four dishes and a soup.”

So far, most victims of the frugality drive have been purveyors of the
good life: high-end caterers, abalone wholesalers, five-star hotels and
makers of Yellow Pavilion cigarettes, the $300-a-carton brand coveted by
up-and-coming bureaucrats.

The ripple effects have reached all corners of the economy. First-class
airline ticket sales have dropped by a tenth in recent months, and luxury
goods dealers have reported a 20 percent to 30 percent decrease in sales.
Moutai, the $600-a-bottle gut-searing grain alcohol that is an omnipresent
intoxicant at official banquets, has also seen its growth slow recently.

The China Cuisine Association said that 60 percent of restaurants surveyed
last month had experienced a drop in reservations, with
government-sponsored banquets down by nearly a third compared with the
same period last year.

Shen Danyang, a Ministry of Commerce spokesman who in normal times
champions consumer spending, seemed to relish this particular slowdown.
During a news conference last month, he noted that sales of shark fins had
dropped more than 70 percent, and sales of edible swallow nests, the main
ingredient of a $100-a-bowl delicacy, were down 40 percent.

To ensure compliance, government investigators have descended on
restaurants to comb through receipts in search of large tabs suggesting
abusive spending. “Even the big bosses are staying away from fancy
restaurants and switching their expensive European wristwatches for
Chinese brands until things calm down,” said one administrator from
China’s southwestern Yunnan Province.

Those who sell cigarettes and alcohol say the drop in business has been
painful. “I don’t know how much longer I can survive,” said Li Liuyuan,
the owner of a liquor store close to a number of government offices in
Beijing, who is going to give over half his business space to a fruit
salesman.

Not surprisingly, the campaign is winning high marks from a citizenry long
disgusted by the outlandish spending and other acts of arrogance. “It
awakens the faith of the masses,” said Wang Yukai, a professor at the
Chinese Academy of Governance.
In the meantime, restaurants like Xiang E Qing, a chain once popular with
government employees, have been left to figure out a way to survive.

At the headquarters for China’s armed police, where two branches of the
restaurant face each another across a courtyard packed with
government-issued Audis, business was down by a third, restaurant
executives said. The drop in revenue prompted the company to mothball one
of the two restaurants, cut prices on some dishes and start offering
half-size dishes to show the company’s dedication to Mr. Xi’s moderation
credo.

To drive home the point, LED screens at the entrances to the restaurant’s
35 private dining rooms admonish patrons to “Order according to your
needs.”

Waiters, whose salaries are partly based on commissions, have seen their
salaries drop by a third, forcing many to quit. But many remaining
employees say they support the new frugality. “I’d rather see our tax
dollars being spent on the poor than paying for government banqueting,”
Cui Fei, 24, said, standing in a nearly empty dining room one recent
afternoon.

Those on the receiving end of socially obligated self-indulgence are also
feeling some relief. One entrepreneur, who dines almost nightly with
government officials and business associates and did not want to be
identified as a result, said such invitations had dropped by half.
“The nightly drinking takes a serious toll,” the entrepreneur said,
expressing no regret at forgoing the mandated Maotai toasts.
But old ways die hard.

In its investigation into continued abuses, the state-run Xinhua news
agency denounced “double-dealing officials who chant frugality slogans but
secretly hold extravagant banquets.”

Xinhua also discovered a new catchphrase popular among government
officials: “Eat quietly, take gently and play secretly.”

Jonathan Ansfield contributed reporting, and Shi Da contributed research.