The State Council’s 4th Honest-Politics Working Session

The State Council held its fourth honest-politics working session (第四次廉政工作会议) recently, on which, according to Xinhua News Agency, chief state councillor Wen Jiabao made an important speech, reports the Beijing Times (京华时报). Wen pointed out that this year, the work for incorrruptible and self-disciplined cadres needed to be earnestly strengthened, and that all kinds of monetary gifts, stocks and bonds, vouchers, or prepaid cards etc. needed to be treated as actual incomes. The practice of receiving cards with credit balances in their users’ favor, or shopping cards, had intensified among cadres. The use of such cards for bribery needed to be prevented by further administrative steps (有关部门要尽快研究提出治理措施，进一步完善管理制度，从源头上有效防止利用商业预付卡行贿受贿).Wen’s speech also addressed other forms of illegal involvement of cadres in business transactions, such as public tenders or wasting public money on business trips. Banquets should be limited to three dishes and one soup (三菜一汤).  This year’s National People’s Congress (NPC) plenary session  and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, 中国人民政治协商会议) reportedly set a good example by the three-dishes-one-soup limit, or so China Youth Daily (中国青年报) was told by NPC spokesman Li Zhaoxing (李肇星).

Tags: accountability, business, China, Communist Party of China, corruption, government, image, negotiations, propaganda, rule of law, state capitalism, Wen Jiabao, 满意度调查