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Flies and Tigers | 抓蝇打虎

Officials warned off jobs in the ‘arts’

Source: Agencies | January 22, 2015, Thursday | Print Edition

THE writing is on the wall for Chinese officials caught up in the latest hotbed of graft and corruption: calligraphy associations.

The written form has long been revered as an art in China, and it was part of the civil service examinations in imperial times.

More recently, inscriptions by the People’s Republic of China’s founding father Mao Zedong can be found at sites across the country and the masthead of the People’s Daily, the Party’s flagship newspaper, is still printed in his vigorous style.

Even official workplaces are sometimes adorned with senior officials’ characters.

But in a warning posted on its website on Tuesday, the Party’s internal watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, urged officials not to seek positions atop provincial art associations.

By doing so, cadres are “stealing the meat off artists’ plates” — and potentially opening themselves up to investigation by anti-graft inspectors, it said.

“In some places, you will see dozens of vice presidents sitting atop the provincial calligraphy association,” the commission said in a notice.

“It’s enough to make one wide-eyed and dumbfounded. What kind of behind-the-scenes profit is motivating officials to use their authority to grab literary laurels? And what kind of secrets are they keeping?” it said.

The commission did not give any specific figures, but positions in calligraphy associations have often been viewed as a particularly lucrative honor for officials — whether or not they actually have the talent to succeed at the painstaking art — as higher ranks are associated with higher prices.

Wang Qishan, head of the discipline commission, said at a meeting on Party discipline last week: “Some officials dashed to the running cursive style of brush writing when they are still poor at the bold-type writing and even took the liberty of framing their (mediocre) artwork to present as a gift.”

Since President Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the Party in late 2012, China has been committed to a wide-reaching anti-corruption drive.

As well as targeting high-level “tigers” and low-level “flies,” the campaign has sought to curtail extravagant gift-giving, banquets and other excesses within the state sector.

“Wise choices should begin now, with cadres deciding on their own to resolutely retire at the peak of their careers,” the commission said.

“Why wait until it is too late to exit the artists’ associations, once the anti-corruption sword is already hanging over your head and the spring breeze of reform has swept away the filth?” it said in an almost poetic tone.

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