China Society Issues (Part two): Wasteful practices squander China's wealth

China has been described as the largest poor country in the world, and at the same time, the most wasteful. This is true. The evidence is everywhere: people showing off their wealth, competing for material goods and wasting resources. Plates and plates of food are dumped without even being touched.

The country's expenditures are so out of balance that it has become a "super waster." In 2004, funds spent on vehicles for public officials surpassed 408 billion yuan (US$52.7 billion); 300 billion yuan (US$38.7 billion) was spent on eating and drinking; and another 300 billion yuan went for cadres' overseas travel expenses. These three categories alone consumed more than one-third of the national budget.

In Guangdong province, one official banquet reportedly cost 50,000 yuan ($6,400), not counting the free gifts which included Rolex watches for the guests. In the provincial capital of Guangzhou, the city government owns 172 vehicles for the use of 177 officials; the city's Science and Technology Bureau spends 158 million yuan ($20 million) per day; and its Industry and Commerce Bureau paid as much as 25,000 yuan ($3,200) for each of its desktop computers, according to a report in the New Express News.

The basic standard of cars provided for public officials include the Hyundai Sonata, Volkswagen Jetta, Honda Fit and even the Toyota Land Cruiser. Even well-to-do citizens cannot afford this type of car, which are paid for with public funds but treated as private property.

The fourth burden on the public purse is homes for officials. In Zhunger County, Inner Mongolia, a state-designated poverty-stricken area, the local government built nine villas for its leading cadres. In Puyang County of Henan province, both county government leaders and the heads of state-owned enterprises used public money to build mansions, the largest with an area of 600 square meters (6,400 square feet).

Even more serious is the wasteful approach to construction projects. There are huge numbers of needless "achievement projects" -- built to boost the prestige of local governments -- as well as projects that are suspended, postponed, or built according to the wrong specifications.

Chinese buildings last an average of only 30 years. By repeatedly building, tearing down and building again, China has become a world leader in construction waste. As an example of such folly, on February 12th, an 18-year-old stadium in Shenyang, Liaoning province was demolished to make way for a shopping mall. Neither the stadium's fame -- as the place where China won its first and only World Cup qualification, in 2001 -- nor the objections of football fans could save it.

There are innumerable examples of "black holes" in state investments. To mention just a few, the city of Xiang Fan in Hubei province invested 4 billion yuan ($500 million) in a chemical industry project without any outcome. The government of Heilongjiang province invested 560 million yuan ($72 million) in the Mudanjiang Gas Project, but due to irrational construction and chaotic management, the project had to be suspended. In Jilin province, the government invested several hundred million yuan in a chemical project, but after it was completed, its products could not be sold and 40,000 workers were laid off.

The Chinese people are among the world's most diligent. We are diligent, but not affluent. Waste has become the No.1 killer of China's wealth.

In order to curb this extreme wastefulness, I suggest revising the article on power abuse in the criminal law to make it applicable to heads of state-owned enterprises. Also, I suggest that an article prohibiting the waste of public funds be written into the criminal law. There should be detailed regulations proscribing the abuse of power and the wastage of public funds.

To curb waste, citizens must have avenues through which to report and expose it, including the media. The government needs laws and procedures protecting and encouraging ordinary people to report to the authorities concerning the misuse of public funds. Any citizen who has evidence of abuse of power, corruption, or misuse of public funds should be able to sue the guilty parties.

An accountability system should be established. Information concerning the expenditures of public bodies, including state-owned enterprises, should be made available to citizens through the Internet. Only the institution of procedures to ensure transparency and accountability can put a stop to this serious problem.