Chinese officials told to set frugal example

BEIJING, Sept. 6 -- A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official has urged Party members to maintain a frugal lifestyle for the upcoming festivals and set an example against profligacy for ordinary people.

Speaking while visiting north China's Tianjin Municipality on Friday, Wang Qishan, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said, "The style of the Party and the government is closely related to and interacts with that of communities and the masses. Highly infectious hedonism and extravagance exists among Party members and also the public.

"Decadent styles have polluted our festival culture in recent years with the sending of increasingly extravagant gifts such as mooncakes and hairy crabs, drifting further away from our frugal virtues."

Wang's comments came ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional mooncake-eating occasion that falls on Sept. 19 this year, and the National Day Holiday in early October, when celebratory gift-sending and feasts are norms.

He also noted a competition for ostentation that is prevalent in Chinese society when it comes to high-end consumption and weddings, adding that such behavior "has been in place for a long time" and is hard to correct.

According to Wang, frugality has been a traditional virtue in the long history of the Chinese nationality, and hedonism should curbed as the country has only just achieved basic living standards and a moderately prosperous society.

The senior official encouraged officials to take the lead in promoting good virtues and to voluntarily subject themselves to the supervision of the public and the media.

"Our Party must resort to strict self-management and the shaping of proper styles in order to change the concept and social traditions of ordinary people and promote healthy development of social norms," Wang said.

He also urged disciplinary departments to strictly expose and punish any violations of these principles.