| Submit your comments on this article |
| China-Japan-Koreas |
| China's bloated army of 46m bureaucrats worries ruling elite |
| 2005-03-09 |
| China now has 46 million government bureaucrats, new statistics revealed yesterday, a number almost as great as the entire population of England. While the country is used to outdoing the rest of the world for sheer numbers, the explosion in officialdom is alarming its ruling Communist Party. Its excessive and corrupt bureaucracy was regarded as one of the principal causes of the decline of imperial rule. Yet there are now 35 times as many people on the government payroll, even as a proportion of the population, than at the time of the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911. Corruption aside, today's civil servants are also expensive, requiring official cars, holidays masquerading as training sessions and receptions. All in all, the cost to the nation, before salaries, amounted to £50 billion, according to state media. The figures were disclosed by Ren Yuling, a delegate to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a parliamentary advisory body. "The contingent of bureaucrats in China is expanding at an unprecedented speed," he said. A separate study showed that the average cost of an official car was eight times that of using taxis. Only a third of all journeys were on government business — the rest were for personal use by the official or his driver. Yesterday's disclosures were not the great step forward in parliamentary accountability they might appear. They fit squarely with a drive by the new party leadership to assert greater control over local government, where most of the bloated ranks of officials are to be found. The prime minister, Wen Jiabao, believes that exploitation and extortion in rural areas are damaging his attempts to portray himself as a "man of the people". They also explain an upsurge in popular protests on issues ranging from illegal land development to taxation. Hu Jintao, the president, has his own reasons to take on local officials. He is trying to make his mark by distinguishing himself from his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, a number of whose supporters in the provinces were tarnished by corruption scandals in the 1990s. The move comes as some overseas economists and analysts are re-evaluating China's notorious corruption, suggesting that it may have played a positive role in the country's economic growth. Officials who profit on business deals are more likely to encourage investment, according to the argument, with the practice of bribing customs officials to overlook import tariffs reducing the costs of trade by up to half. Ok, but then there are the losses due to stolen product, the bookkeeping "errors", the new taxes, the rivals financed by the bribed officials using stolen formulas and processes, the excess costs on raw materials... what was that total cost again? |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #10 I was chatting with one of my foreigner friends at the bar, and he said, "can you imagine what the Chinese would be like if they were efficient?" We both shuddered at the idea and took another sip of the crappy local KK beer. |
| Posted by: gromky 2005-03-09 6:43:54 PM |
| #9 ha! Good luck trying to fire even one of them. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-03-09 9:54:11 AM |
| #8 Old cycle in play. Empire, corruption, revolt, consolidation, empire, corruption, revolt, consolidation; repeat over numerous centuries. The problem for those in power is that with modern technology, everything is just sped up. |
| Posted by: Thrainter Cliling3962 2005-03-09 9:49:50 AM |
| #7 Clean-up on isle 5 ... Uh, Zhang Fei, doesn't "it's the central government that is bloated and corrupt, not the locals" directly contradict the article stating that the corruption is local? And really, Zhang Fei, you shouldn't be giving THEM hints on how to improve. :P Wait, isn't the central government diverting to Guangdong as well? Or did something happen (read: Hong Kong) to make Shanghai more "pliable"? (Methinks that the Cantonese-Mandarin divide had something to do with this, is that true?) |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2005-03-09 9:22:43 AM |
| #6 If China is anything like my experience in India, then most of these bureacrats are more interested in their title than in their salary. Getting them into more productive roles, even with more money, will be difficult if they perceive a "step down" in any fashion. |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2005-03-09 9:21:08 AM |
| #5 The central government also keeps on coming up with new ways to screw up domestic electronics producers, by coming up with stupid indigenous standards that nobody wants and that add to production costs. First they need to fire the morons with puffed-up titles who work in these ministries. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-03-09 9:08:00 AM |
| #4 The irony here is that it's the central government that is bloated and corrupt, not the locals, who try to attract new investment by competing with each other via tax incentives and infrastructure improvements. The central government leeches off the developed provinces and directs tens of billions of dollars a year towards Shanghai and Beijing, where China's mandarins have their power base. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-03-09 9:04:05 AM |
| #3 Bring in the emergency kit of Nested Parentheses and we will eliminate this (an)archy. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-03-09 8:25:29 AM |
| #2 Lefties-Socies-Commies then, can be summed up, amongst other labels, as Regulated anti-Anarchy Anarchists. Can Anarchists = Government/Regulation, ...etc. - Now you know why LISA SIMPSON keeps losing and going to therapy!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2005-03-09 6:40:49 AM |
| #1 Communism by defin is an -ism of the weak and wannabe - true or pure Leftism is akin to ANARCHISM, NOT UTOPIANISM OR EVEN SOCIALISM. Leftists-Socialists and ultar-Left Commies are self-alleged "RIGHTISTS" [see DAN RATHER] because perennial prioritized Socialist-Big Govt. deficit spending and deficit maintenance won't allow them to afford otherwise. Russia is Communism-centric, and China still per se Communist, cuz they know the Clintons are for them - they like the anti-US agendists are waiting for America to be discredited and ult suborned to their -ism, MOSTLY FROM WITHIN, ala "America is making too many 'mistakes' or 'errors' to risk it NOT being over-regulated" with Big-g-g-er Govt and Betty Crockercrat-ism or PC "Protectionism"!? Commies are REGULATORS, GOVERNMENTISTS, and BUREAUCRATIST now, boyz, NOT "SOCIALISTS", "UTOPIANISTS", or even "LEFTISTS" for the time being!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2005-03-09 6:32:57 AM |