Chinese officials ‘taking lavish displays, banquets and secret sauna parties underground’

Chinese officials ‘taking lavish displays, banquets underground’

BEIJING — China’s top newspaper warned yesterday that some government officials were finding ways around President Xi Jinping’s graft-busting instructions to be frugal by taking banquets and other lavish displays underground, including hiding liquor in water bottles.

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BEIJING — China’s top newspaper warned yesterday that some government officials were finding ways around President Xi Jinping’s graft-busting instructions to be frugal by taking banquets and other lavish displays underground, including hiding liquor in water bottles. Mr Xi has made battling pervasive corruption a top priority of his administration, warning the problem is so severe it could threaten the party’s survival. But despite his repeated admonitions for officials to practice frugality and stop wasting public funds, some people still have not got the message or are finding ways around it, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, People’s Daily, reported.

“In some places, the use of public money for eating and drinking has switched from high-end hotels to private venues and places of business … which has become known as ‘low-key luxury’,” the paper said. Cases had come to light of “saunas in farmhouses” and “maotai being put in mineral water bottles”, it said, in reference to the expensive spirit traditionally drunk at banquets. “These ways of pulling the wool over people’s eyes is typical of not following instructions and not stopping what is banned,” the commentary added. This phenomenon has reminded the party of the need to strictly enclose power “in the fence of supervision” and “the cage of regulation”, it said. There has been little progress to get officials to publicly disclose their assets, and the party has given no indication it will establish a fully independent judicial body to tackle corruption. Most cases of graft that have come to light have involved lower level officials with little real power.

China officials holding secret sauna parties: state media

POSTED: 02 May 2013 9:31 AM
Chinese officials have been holding secret sauna parties and hiding their alcohol in plastic water bottles as they seek to get around a crackdown on extravagance, state media reported Wednesday.

BEIJING – Chinese officials have been holding secret sauna parties and hiding their alcohol in plastic water bottles as they seek to get around a crackdown on extravagance, state media reported Wednesday.

“Constant reports of saunas held at farm houses” were evidence of a growing culture of “low key extravagance” that was damaging the new president’s anti-corruption campaign, the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party said.

Officials have been filling mineral water bottles with expensive liquor and storing luxury cigarettes in boxes belonging to cheaper brands, the report said.

China’s new leaders have stressed austerity as they try to rein in extravagant feasts and luxury spending, with newly-installed President Xi Jinping vowing to crack down on corruption among high- and low-ranking officials.

Xi has said that corruption could lead to the Communist party’s downfall, and it often incites public anger, with 50 percent of Chinese ranking official graft “a very big problem”, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

The recent campaign has driven some officials away from expensive hotel restaurants, but has led others to hold covert feasts in private clubs or even government canteens, the People’s Daily said on its front page.

China has no laws requiring officials to publicly disclose their assets, creating greater opportunities for graft.

Critics have argued that party controls over China’s media and courts limit the effectiveness of anti-corruption campaigns, which have often been announced by Chinese leaders in recent decades.