2024-03-31 02:50:00
The picture shows the second plenary session of the 14th National People’s Congress held in Beijing on March 8, 2024. (Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)
[The Epoch Times, March 31, 2024](Interview and report by Epoch Times reporter Li Yuanming) Recently, many provinces in mainland China have introduced specific plans to “live a tight life”, including “repairing old equipment and reusing old ones”, and the service life of official vehicles must be Over 8 years old, bring your own water bottle to meetings and other measures. Expert analysis believes that the CCP governments at all levels are indeed out of money, but they have always used corruption to support officials, and they do not rule out using this as a show; officials are unwilling to live a tight life, and they will plunder the people.
According to news on the website of the Ministry of Finance of the Communist Party of China on March 28, the Ministry of Finance recently issued a notice urging all regions and departments to adhere to tight conditions and not relax. The notice emphasizes strictly strengthening the management of “three public affairs” funds; controlling general expenditures, significantly reducing forums, festivals, exhibitions and other activities; strengthening budget constraints and implementation supervision; strict expenditure management; strengthening budget performance management; strict financial discipline, etc.
Since the beginning of this year, provincial government affairs bureaus in Inner Mongolia, Hunan, Beijing and other places have introduced specific measures to “tighten life”.
According to Lu media reports, recently, the Hunan Provincial Government Affairs Work Conference issued “Ten specific measures to implement the requirements of party and government agencies accustomed to tight living conditions”, and proposed that “the maintenance of office buildings must ensure safety and basics.” In 2024, the province The maintenance funds for office buildings at this level will be reduced by 40%; in addition to safety reasons, the renewal of official vehicles must also meet the conditions of a service life of more than 8 years and a driving mileage of more than 250,000 kilometers. Those that can still be used should continue to be used.
The Beijing Municipal Administration of Government Affairs has also previously announced the introduction of 19 specific measures, and also proposed to “give full play to the role of public property warehouses in adjusting surplus and filling vacancies, and coordinating resources, and strive to increase the number of warehoused assets and the number of transferred assets by more than 50% year-on-year.”
Recently, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Administration Bureau issued the “Implementation Plan for Further Implementing Important Requirements for Accustomed to Tight Living”, proposing that office equipment such as desks, chairs, computers, and printers should adhere to the principle of “repair and reuse” and recycle them from public warehouses. All adjustments for use must be made from the public warehouse.
The Epoch Times recently learned that Guangdong has recently issued a “Notice on Strictly Implementing Economy and Combating Waste,” requiring all street party and government agencies, all public institutions, and all communities to “implement various requirements for living a tight life into daily routines and form a normal state.” , Save if you can. Among them, bottled water will no longer be placed in daily street meetings, and participants can bring their own water cups; there are water dispensers in the meeting rooms, but disposable paper cups will not be provided.
The CCP uses corruption to support its officials and will not sincerely live a tight life and does not rule out putting on a show
Li Yuanhua, a former professor at Capital Normal University, said in an interview with The Epoch Times that the CCP itself has a huge bureaucracy, and it will definitely need money to operate it. Coupled with its various squanderings, it can save very little. The government really has no money now because many of its original sources of revenue are gone.
Li Yuanhua said, “The Chinese Communist government used to rely on land sales, but now real estate has basically exploded, so the biggest revenue source for local governments is gone. Now private enterprises, state-owned enterprises, including foreign enterprises are all in recession, so taxes cannot be collected. They have gone bankrupt, and some local governments have sold the tourism rights of the Leshan Giant Buddha for many years because the local governments have no money.”
“The central government also has no money. In 2022 (Prime Minister) Li Keqiang held a meeting of regarding 100,000 people (officials at all levels across the country) and said, ‘Raise your own children by yourself.’ The central government does not have emergency money.” But Li Yuanhua pointed out that the government It is true that there is no money, but it does not rule out that there are people who are showing off and responding to the above call to “save”. In fact, the most important system of spending money has not been solved, and irrelevant savings are useless.
Liu Shaochun, former deputy director of the Forestry Bureau of Junshan District, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, also believes that local governments will not be bent on living a tight life with the central government. “This decadent and evil rule needs the maintenance of the bureaucratic class. If you make the cadres so miserable and work so hard, and if you really make the cadres live a tight and hard life, then all the cadres will be laid to rest. It is very afraid of not serving it and not safeguarding this regime.
“So it can only support officials through corruption. “No matter how poor it is, it cannot impoverish cadres.” It can only shout and sometimes put on some shows for the people to see. It will not really be implemented, just like the Chinese (Chinese Communist Party) anti-corruption, it will not be implemented. Those who truly fight corruption do so selectively, in order to eliminate dissidents and for political needs.”
The secret of the bus is transferred from the open account to the secret account
Liu Shaochun told The Epoch Times reporter that the CCP’s three official expenditures (public consumption, public travel and public transportation) are an expense that shocks the world. The CCP officials’ right to use cars is inherited from the feudal society’s use of official sedans. Once an official becomes an official, he cannot live without the sedan chair. This is one of the benefits of being an official.
“The bus reform has been revised several times. Why can’t it be changed? Because it (the Chinese Communist Party) must win over these bureaucratic classes. Among them, bus services are a welfare for the bureaucratic class, and they are an important piece of cheese that cannot be moved.” He said.
According to reports, when control was not strict in the past, officials competed with each other to buy off-road vehicles with good safety performance. A unit needs to be equipped with several buses, some are equipped with a fleet of dozens of buses, and some are equipped with a logistics support bureau. Later, party leader Xi Jinping stipulated that cadres of a certain level should only ride in a certain brand of car. For example, department-level cadres are required to only ride in the Crown, which is originally a low-key luxury, but the interior decoration and configuration are very luxurious, resulting in huge consumption.
Later came the monetized subsidies. After the reform, the work unit auctioned off the buses, sold them to well-connected people at a low price, and then rented them out to leaders in disguise. The car subsidy has been paid together with the salary, and the car rental is still paid for by the public. In the past, public transportation might be used as a financial expense, but now it cannot be used as a financial expense, but can only be used as project funds under various names.
Regarding the requirement of 280,000 kilometers of travel and eight years of use, Liu Shaochun expressed disapproval, “Leaders really like to run. They go to and from work, their children go to and from school, and they also travel. This car is actually his private car. They go to the provincial capital for meetings and visits. The leader runs several times a week. It is not unusual to run 50,000 kilometers a year. But he keeps maintaining it, changing the best tires, oil, and engine. This car is always in the best condition. .”
He bluntly said that the repair would be a huge hole, and the cost of repairing the office building was the same. “He (the official) tried to figure out how to do projects, projects, and expenses. Originally, the office building might be put to good use, but he said it was leaking here and repaired there. Procurement with public funds is very expensive, and it can be repaired for 10,000 yuan. There’s nothing I can’t buy without thirty thousand yuan for official business.”
Analysis: If the CCP is really out of money, it will plunder the people
In recent years, local financial funds have been difficult, and salary cuts have occurred in many places. The Party and government agencies of the Communist Party of China have repeatedly proposed that they should “get used to living a tight life.” During this year’s two sessions, Lan Fo’an, the Minister of Finance of the Communist Party of China, said that “governments at all levels must get used to living a tight life.” This is not a “temporary need” but a “long-term solution.”
An insider in a department in Guangdong told an Epoch Times reporter earlier that the situation has changed now that year-end bonuses have been cancelled, and many places are already good at paying out wages on a regular monthly basis. All subsidies, including subsidies given to enterprises, are in arrears, and the government has no money. “Now we just need to keep the basics and pay the monthly salary normally, and nothing else will work.”
Reporters inquired and found that as early as the two sessions in 2020, former Finance Minister Liu Kun told the media that the central government had reduced non-urgent and non-rigid expenditures by more than 50%, and only guaranteed rigid expenditures such as wages.
Since last year, individual employee medical insurance accounts have “shrunk” significantly. A retired civil servant in the system in Shandong told reporters that medical insurance was reformed once more in February this year. Originally, personal accounts were worth more than 300 yuan or more than 500 yuan a month. Now, those under 70 years old are 100 yuan a month, and those over 70 are 125 yuan a month. Outpatient services can be reimbursed, but there is a base. No reimbursement will be made if the amount is less than 500 yuan in a year, and only 65% will be reimbursed if it exceeds 500 yuan.
A netizen said, “What I know is that four years ago I posted regarding living a tight life, and it is getting tighter now.” “Everyone who relies on the financial system must understand that if you can keep your job and your income does not decrease, or if it decreases less, you will be better off. Be grateful.” “I understand, I really have no money this time.” “When they start to get really tight, they will be ready to starve to death.” “After so many years of “reform and opening up,” they have to live a tight life once more. “
Shandong netizen “Fei Wancai” said that when he retired, the only child was given more than 20,000 yuan per hand, but now it is 100 yuan per month, saying he has no money.
Guangdong netizen “Spring Breeze Buddha” said that the central government’s tax sharing is too much. Look at the grassroots front line. Salaries cannot be paid. Where is the motivation?
Zhejiang netizen “Ping Pingwu Qi” said that the system is undergoing organizational reforms and downsizing. If a position can be filled by civil servants, public servants, corporate editors, or temporary recruiters, then it will be more likely to be a job with high hiring costs.
Netizens are talking regarding salary cuts, no wages, and loss of jobs. (Screenshot from Weibo)
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