Jan 28th 2010 | BEIJING | From The Economist print edition
How to represent your hometown in style
(Illustration by S. Kambayashi)
FOR fans of Sichuan food in Beijing, there is no better place for authentic fare than the Chuan Ban restaurant, housed in, named after and operated by Sichuan province’s “capital representative office”. Your correspondent has never been seated there without a wait.
Every Chinese province and most large cities operate such Beijing offices. So too do thousands of city, district, county and town governments; others are run by big firms and even civic associations. But their days are numbered, at least for the estimated 5,000 offices run by smaller governments and entities. Outlook Weekly, an official news magazine, this week reported on a central-government plan to shut the lower-level representative offices down within six months.
The offices’ jobs include lobbying the central government on finance and policy issues, helping visitors from home, or reining in those in Beijing to protest, petition or otherwise make mischief.
They are also in the business of lavishly entertaining local officials when they visit Beijing. Many house restaurants and fancy guesthouses. Outlook reported that the offices spend a combined 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) a year. But since that is based on 2001 statistics the true figure is probably far higher.
The government’s main concern, however, appears to be corruption. Under China’s hierarchical bureaucracy, sub-provincial governments have little legitimate business in Beijing. Financing and policy matters are meant to flow through the provincial government. So any favour the lower-level offices might try to curry is likely to be illicit.
The offices have been involved in a series of corruption scandals in recent years. In 2002 the director of Hebei province’s office was sentenced to life in jail. Another scandal involved the spending of almost $100,000 on fewer than 800 bottles of liquor.
The fiction of Wang Xiaofang, once the private secretary to a deputy mayor of Shenyang, a large city in China’s north-east, has further besmirched the offices’ image. After the execution of his boss for corruption in 2001, Mr Wang went on to publish an influential series of novels called “Beijing Office Director”. His fictional accounts of the shenanigans in representative offices rang all too true. In 2006 the Communist Party’s corruption watchdogs launched a review of the representative-office system.
Closing the offices may not be so simple. Decision-making in China is very centralised. Many local officials will be tempted to maintain their lobbying operations, even if they have to reorganise them as companies. And many will hope to stay in business by using the connections and influence they have been cultivating over the years in Beijing. Friends in high places and gourmet local cooking can be a potent combination.
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