时间：2022-10-04 08:39:58
Zhou Shaoqiang， former Party sec- retary at a State-owned enterprise（SOE） in Zhuhai， Guangdong Province， picked exactly the wrong moment to show off his refined taste in wine. At a feast hosted by Zhou at a local private members club in early January， the 12 bottles of vintage French wine on the table struck something of a contrast with strict austerity measures introduced by China’s top authorities less than a month earlier.
Unfortunately for Zhou， one of the 16 other officials at the table took a photo of the feast and posted it on WeChat， a popular instant messaging app in China. The picture， captioned“Hangover worries after 12 bottles，” showed a bleary-eyed Zhou behind an array of empty bottles. The photo soon went viral， infuriating China’s netizens， including a wine specialist who estimated the total value of the bottles to be around 80，000 yuan （US$12，800）， equivalent to the annual income of a Chinese whitecollar worker.
The disciplinary inspection commission， the Party’s anti-corruption arm， launched a probe into the case， and revealed the cost of the dinner （not including the wine） to be 37，517 yuan （US$6，000）. The sum was large enough to cause Zhou to be removed from his post in early February.
SOE bosses and government officials around the country have been erring on the side of caution since the launch of the “eight rules and six bans，” a set of regulations issued at the end of last year by Xi Jinping， the new Party general secretary who took office early November， which demand that officials at all levels be more frugal with taxpayers’ money. Lavish official dinners， extravagant receptions and even overly flowery speeches have been banned.
Big Chill
The new rules have brought a chill to various industries that facilitate government ostentation， such as conference hotels， and dealers of cigarettes， liquor， tea and even flower bouquets.
December and January， in the run-up to the new calendar year and Chinese New Year， are normally the busiest months of the year for conference hotels in China， as most government departments and SOEs tend to host lavish celebrations and dinner parties. In the past， it was so difficult to book a venue at a confer- ence hotel that reservations for January often had to be made six months in advance.
Zhang Hong， marketing director at a major conference hotel in suburban Beijing， said that more than 70 reservations had been cancelled in January this year， resulting in losses of 20 million yuan （US$3.2m） for the hotel.
Root Causes
Huang Weiting， a researcher specializing in anti-corruption efforts with the Party central committee journal Qiushi， suggested the “eight rules and six bans” have yet to dig at the roots of dinner-table extravagance.
“We need to plug the leak in the system，”said Huang.
There are a variety of factors that fuel banquet extravagance. Firstly， the detailed expense ledgers of government entities are rarely made public they draw up and execute their budgets under little scrutiny.
Even more problematic， government officials rarely believe there is anything wrong with throwing a lavish banquet while corruption is illegal， squandering public money， at least technically， is not. Besides， whenever a large local engineering project is due to launch， local officials come to Beijing to lobby， and showing central government officials a good time is often an important part of this， according to Huang. This means expensive feasts， premium liquor and cigarettes.
Many business deals are struck at the dinner table， and regional governments are keen to set up their representative offices in Beijing in an effort to maintain good relations with central government ministries.
“In other cases， officials looking for a promotion are keen to treat visiting superiors to dinner，” Huang said.
In the aftermath of the fine wine scandal in Zhuhai， all the diners， including the dismissed Zhou Shaoqiang， were made to split the dinner bill.
The “eight rules and six bans” may do little to combat the root causes of dinner-table extravagance， but one group of diners certainly learned one thing： next time they sit down to an official meal， they’ll likely switch off their cell phones before the wine is served.