Global Policy Forum

The explicit demand put forth by Premier Zhu Rongji in his government report about "it is necessary to resolutely check the tendency of extravagance and waste and advocate on a grand scale pioneering enterprises with painstaking efforts, building the country through working hard and being frugal, and running all undertakings industriously and thriftily" has had a strong impact on [NPC] delegates and [CPPCC] members. Over the last few days, opposing extravagance and waste and advocating building up the country through working hard and being frugal has become one of the hot topics of conversation among the delegates and members attending the "two sessions".

"Even though at the beginning of this century our country announced that the overall living standard of the people in our country had attained a higher level, as compared with the per-capita income in the world this kind of higher level is still at a primary stage. On no account should we overrate the degree of affluence of the Chinese people." When Wu Xiuping, vice-chairman of the China Democratic League and CPPCC member, talked about the prevailing tendency of extravagance in some localities, he felt deeply distressed and disgusted. He said: "At present, the practice of indulging in ostentation and extravagance is regarded as being very 'stylish' and 'classy' and the tendency of waste and extravagance is all the rage. It is time for us to check this kind of tendency, because however big our family property is, it just cannot afford being foolishly squandered away in such a manner."

Many delegates and members loudly appealed: We should never give up the good tradition of building up our country through working hard and being frugal nor forget that a large number of weak and disadvantaged groups such as laid-off staff and workers, underprivileged elements, retired personnel, elements in need of preferential treatment, peasant labourers, distressed peasant households and more all need help, and that the national condition in our country is still and will be at the primary stage [of socialism] for a long time."

A sumptuous banquet can pay for the school fees of countless poor children.

While discussing and speaking about this matter, the members felt very stressed over a string of large figures: At present, our country still has 30 million people who have not yet shaken off poverty, 11 million underprivileged personnel, 101 million itinerant peasant labourers and several million distressed people, etc.

"We should never overrate the level of affluence of the Chinese people," said member Guo Songhai, a professor from the Shandong Institute of Economics. He said: "Our country is a developing country which has a large population and is short of resources. With a per-capita GDP of only 800 dollars, our financial strength is far from sufficient. And this basic national condition determines that we should still bring into play the spirit of waging hard struggles and running all undertakings industriously and thriftily.

Some members pointed out that since last year economic development in the world has slowed down but our country has maintained sustainable and rapid economic development and that some people believe that as our country is affluent now, they can be free with their money and spend without restraint. Some people can spend as much as 10,000 yuan of public funds on a dinner in a high-class hotel, which is equivalent to the tuition and book fees of countless children in poverty-stricken areas.

Many NPC delegates from the grass roots, especially those underdeveloped areas, feel very strongly about this. Han Shangwen, a delegate from Qinghai Province, said: "Although the state implements a western development strategy, poverty areas in the west are still rather big and a considerable number of people are still living a very hard life. Take Xining, the capital of Qinghai, for an example! The minimum living subsidy can only be 150 yuan per month." And Dong Shufang, a female delegate from Dingxi Prefecture of Gansu Province, told reporters that when she saw a course on a restaurant menu called "swallow-wing abalone", she felt extremely perplexed. After being told the exorbitant price of this course, she said with deep feeling: "In the place where I am from, it is very dry for lack of rain. And experts predict that if we cannot bring it under control in a timely manner, we might end up having no water at all in 20 years. Quite a lot of people are still worrying about the future right now!"

The delegates and members felt repugnance towards the phenomena of some localities blindly building so-called "image-engineering projects" and "exemplary engineering projects" in disregard of financial strength and manpower and without giving any thought to the actual effects and the interests of the masses, which have increased the burdens of the masses. Delegate Liang Mingde who has been doing grass-roots work for a long time cited an example: a county with a population of more than 300,000 was designated by the state to be a key county for poverty alleviation and development. Although its yearly financial revenue is only 30m yuan, it spent more than 20m yuan building a 45-metre-wide and 2-km-long "dead-end" road with no connection to other roads but with opulent street lamps installed. A local leader proudly said that this is for creating commercial opportunities and introducing investment by changing its image. He angrily stated: "Some people said that even the money earmarked for poverty alleviation was spent on building the road!"

Recently, Xining City has launched a "campaign to help poor children go to school" and common soldiers and laid-off workers have all donated money in succession to help those poor children who have to discontinue their studies at school. Delegate Han Shangwen said emotionally: "As far as these poor children are concerned, a donation of 1,000 yuan might change their whole life. Just count! A sumptuous banquet can pay off the school fees of how many poor children!"

The well-to-do should not become a reason for living a luxurious Life.

At the beginning of this year, Guangzhou, Shanghai and other places have successively announced their per-capita GDP to have reached 4,500 dollars, of which the per-capita GDP of Guangzhou has reached 4,586 dollars. The most direct feeling of the common people is that they now have more money in their wallets. Nevertheless, the common appeal from the delegates from these economically developed coastal areas is that being well-to-do should not become a reason for living a luxurious life.

"We should not forget that ours is still a developing country which is still at the primary stage of socialism. This is the basic national condition of our country." Delegate Xue Quanrong, secretary of Baoshan District of Shanghai Municipality, remarked.

He cited a string of data to reporters: Although China's total GDP has outstripped the key marker of 10,000bn dollars, ranking 6th in the world, its GDP accounts for only 3.6 per cent of the total GDP in the world with the United States accounting for 32.6 per cent. And China's per-capita GDP is less than 900 dollars, which is hardly one fifth of the per-capita GDP in the whole world. Many delegates said that along with the increase in the people's living standards, some people believe that a small fortune means security and they become conceited and complacent and have no intention of making progress. Some young people, including quite a number of local cadres, believe that as times have changed and the era of pioneering new undertakings with painstaking effort is now over, they can just cast away the "old tradition" of thrift and plain living now.

Ma Guining, national labour model and delegate of the 7th, 8th and 9th NPC, said: "The fact that Premier Zhu devoted a lot of space in his report to expounding this issue indicates that the tendency of extravagance and waste has become quite commonplace. He believed that at present the phenomena of extravagance and waste do not just occur in some local governments. Some large-scale enterprises also "spend money like water", "throw away money like dirt", indulge in extravagant eating and drinking on public funds, and buy high-grade consumer goods and services. Some enterprise leaders believe that as their enterprises can attain good effectiveness, it does not matter if they spend more money. Therefore, from time to time they spend tens of thousand yuan or even over a hundred thousand yuan on a single festive occasion.

Member Wu Xiuping said: "In the government work report, while mentioning the achievements of last year's economic and social developments Premier Zhu used the wording "they are not easily won", which indicates the developments and achievements of ours were really won through pioneering undertakings and painstaking effort. At present, the external environment is complex and the situation is changeable, it is more necessary to firmly master the main development line, actively forge ahead, and truly grasp and work in a down-to-earth manner. On no account should we cast away the virtue of working hard and being thrifty because society and economy have become developed and at no time should we forget to count every cent and make every cent count in daily life."

Putting the fetters of law on those committing extravagance and waste.

"Working hard and being thrifty is the virtue of the Chinese nation and those people who get rich through working hard should be the most respectful." Delegate Peng Fusheng proposed that we should regard working hard and being thrifty as the foundation for the country and vigorously advocate the style of working hard and plain living in the whole society. "Just like it was proposed by the premier in the government work report, it is necessary to advocate on a grand scale pioneering undertakings through painstaking effort, building up the country through diligence and thrift, and running everything diligently and thriftily and create an excellent atmosphere of advocating industry and thrift and making earnest efforts and seeking truth in the whole society."

Member Li Lijun, deputy director of the Supervision Department of Hunan Province, said: "One of the important reasons for failing to stop the practice of extravagance and waste in spite of successive bans lies in some defects in the current management system of administrative revenue and expenditure. The government work report has integrated vigorously checking the tendency of extravagance and waste in establishing a government work style and severely criticized some grass-roots leaders fond of indulging in ostentation and extravagance for putting feathers in their caps and adding colours to their so-called administrative achievements. These cadres have long consigned to oblivion the very basic government policies like the welfare of the common people and the improvement and rise of people's living standards."

He believes that we should strive to cut down expenditure; in fields such as production, construction, circulation and more, we should vigorously reduce costs and expenses; and all offices, enterprises, and institutions should also count every cent and make every cent count and ban unnecessary expenditure. Delegate Duan Weiyi believed that it is necessary to use "strong medicine" to check this tendency of extravagance and waste and let those cadres attempting "to seek officialdom through figures and administrative achievements" to have "no official posts to take and nowhere to go".

The delegates and members proposed that while strengthening guidance and positive education and encouraging the vast number of leading cadres to wage hard struggles, it is also necessary to adopt legal means to restrict them. Delegate Bao Yizhi from Qinghai said: "Both corruption and waste are extremely big crimes. For those who commit corruption, at present we can use legal means to punish them; but it seems that we do not yet have any relevant laws and regulations to restrict the phenomena of waste. Some people even spent more than 10m yuan on building 'bean-curd dreg engineering projects' or 'face engineering project' [meaning works undertaken in thanks to a leader who has favoured or given face to it] without any practical use. A town or township government can build themselves an impressive-looking building but it is the common people who have to pay for it. And this person can 'gracefully' assume no responsibility at all." Therefore, delegates and members proposed that it is necessary to set up an administrative system for investigating and assigning responsibility for violations as soon as possible, let the service counterparts of governments to appraise the performance of governments, regard the results as a kind of reference for assessing the performance of governments, and set up a credit rating and assessing system to examine all areas. "Only by perfecting the mechanism can we succeed in effectively checking this unhealthy tendency."

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