Chinese officials won’t give up high life

Many hide ‘secret sumptuousness’

BEIJING — Faced with a strict edict to embrace austerity, China’s officials have had to resort to ever more creative ways to lead the high life. Xi Jinping, China’s new president, has repeatedly warned that the graft and gluttony of the country’s freespending officials could bring down the Communist party.

But trying to stop a Chinese civil servant or army boss from living like a prince on public money seems at times to be as difficult as nailing jelly to a tree. On Tuesday, the front page of the People’s Daily, the party mouthpiece, lamented a new trend of “secret sumptuousness.”

“Instead of going out to high-end restaurants, (officials) are now eating in private clubs,” it said. “We constantly hear reports that officials are going to secret saunas disguised as farmhouses, disguising their Maotai (one of China’s most expensive drinks) in mineral water bottles, and hiding Panda cigarettes (which cost over $100 a pack) in Red Pagoda packets ($1.50). Is this deep-rooted habit of dining out on public funds so hard to change?”

Less than two weeks ago, Xi told the Politburo that some Chinese officials are now “abusing power and becoming morally degenerate” and that everybody should “look into a mirror, straighten their clothes, take a bath and cure their disease.” According to Xinhua, the official news agency, a yearlong campaign will again try to stamp out bad behaviour.

Sales of expensive liquor, Swiss wristwatches and Louis Vuitton handbags have all dipped recently. But in the past few weeks, there has been plenty of evidence to suggest Chinese officials are not living like monks.

In the northern city of Harbin, one street has been renamed “Corruption Alley” because of its cluster of opulent restaurants. Outside, journalists discovered that many of the cars had masked their licence plates to hide their government registrations.