Official media reiterates position against bureaucracy, waste
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E-mail Xinhua, April 10, 2013
Official media outlets in China have reiterated the country's position against officials' bureaucracy and unscrupulous waste of government funds.
The People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC), published a front page article in its Wednesday edition stating that the CPC leadership's requirements to reject such vices have been effectively implemented by local governments with bureaucratic meetings being shortened and public spending on extravagant official banquets slashed.
The article also quoted scholars, including Zhu Lijia, a professor and anti-corruption expert with the Chinese Academy of Governance, and Dai Yanjun, a professor of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, as saying that supervision must be tightened to ensure that such requirements will be observed on a long-term basis.
In December, the CPC leadership pledged eight measures to improve Party work style and reject extravagance and bureaucracy, in a bid to win the trust and support from the people.
On another occasion, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called on all Party organs and members to keep a frugal lifestyle and make determined efforts to oppose ostentation and reject hedonism and extravagance.
In a survey conducted by China Youth Daily and published in the newspaper's Tuesday edition, 52 percent of respondents spoke positively about the campaign, but over 91 percent voiced their concern that the repressed practices of extravagance and waste may rebound as the crackdown loosens.
Since the government-funded extravagance is a deeply-rooted problem in officialdom, simple requirements and regulations without teeth may not effectively eliminate it if there is no fundamental change in relevant systems, the newspaper quoted Wang Jingbo, a professor from the China University of Political Science and Law, as saying.
If the campaign turns out to last only a short period of time, the public's trust and confidence in the government will be impaired, Wang said.
According to the newspaper's survey, over 71 percent of respondents said strict scrutiny of every expense of public funds is the most effective way to stop officials from abusing taxpayers' money.
They also recommended efforts such as legislation to outlaw such practices, serious punishment and better transparency in governments' budgets and accounts in dealing with the problem. Endi
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