China’s infamous business drinking culture is a tradition that has been dying a slow death. That is until now, as a recent prohibition announcement from the provincial government looks set to put the practice into a very early grave.
The Jiangsu Provincial Government’s General Office announced an outright drinking ban, pertaining to all government offices in Jiangsu, excluding the Foreign Affairs Office. The buying of alcohol with public funds and the drinking of alcohol at luncheons and dinners is hereby subject to prohibition in Jiangsu province.
“This is going to be a hard habit to break. Business drinking is so entrenched into Chinese society that it’s very hard for people to refuse”, Nanjing local, Jing Jing, told The Nanjinger. “Even though the government use of the money was a secret, everyone knew about it. At least this way things become more transparent”.
Up until this point, placing blame has been kept in a floating grey area of the law that saw the action of using public money for the purchasing of high-end liquor or cigarettes by party officials as neither legal nor illegal. The Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission now hopes to clear up said grey area by utilising a tax-control invoice system in order to locate exactly where public funds end up.
“Except for the reception of foreigners, in accordance with relevant regulations, the drinking of alcoholic beverages at all provincial-level official and business receptions is prohibited; provincial Party and government agencies and institutions strictly prohibit the use of public funds to purchase various alcoholic beverages”, revealed Sina News.
It has been reported that just before the recent Dragon Boat festival, supervisors responsible for overseeing government affairs in Nanjing, Lianyungang and Nantong, organised visits to hotels, shopping malls and “other places” in order to conduct “unannounced checks of the use of public funds for the purchase of high-end ‘bai jiu’ and food”.
Elsewhere, the director of a flood control and drought relief centre in a city affected by the country’s current bought of wet weather was caught after he “repeatedly purchased cigarettes and alcohol illegally”. The official is said to have been severely warned of the possibility of dismissal.
