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Too many officials swill at public trough
By Shanxi Evening News |
March 14, 2012, Wednesday
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EDITOR'S note:
On March 10, a top legislator said China now has 10 million public servants, compared with 6 million only four years ago. On March 12, the State Administration of Public Service rebuked the legislator, saying that China now has 6.89 million public servants.
Whichever is correct, it's blatantly clear to everyone that China simply has too many "big hats" (da gai mao, meaning official hats) - a big burden on taxpayers.
Here is what the legislator, Liu Xirong, actually said:
"In economic hard times, many countries would first of all cut the number of public servants, but here in China, who dares to trim whom?... China had 6 million public servants four years ago, but now we have 10 million - a whopping increase of 1 million every year... Supervising 100,000 officials is one thing, but supervising 10 million is quite another... Some foreigners couldn't understand why China would discipline more than 100,000 officials every year, until I explained to them that China has too many officials - after all, you clean away more mud from an elephant than from a pig."
Liu is a vice chairman of the law committee of the 11th National People's Congress. He is formerly a vice chairman of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.
Following are three press commentaries on this issue.
CHINA has too many public servants, and they cannot feed themselves unless they are served by the public.
In the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-9 AD), there were 7,945 people for every one official. The ratio was 2,927 for 1 in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and 911 for 1 in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). And today, it's about 40 for 1.
Too many "big hats" are a public ill, a public pain. They eat into public happiness. China cannot solve the problem of over-staffed officialdom unless it realizes the potential crisis from having to feed so many official mouths.
On March 10, a top legislator said China now has 10 million public servants, compared with 6 million only four years ago. On March 12, the State Administration of Public Service rebuked the legislator, saying that China now has 6.89 million public servants.
Whichever is correct, it's blatantly clear to everyone that China simply has too many "big hats" (da gai mao, meaning official hats) - a big burden on taxpayers.
Here is what the legislator, Liu Xirong, actually said:
"In economic hard times, many countries would first of all cut the number of public servants, but here in China, who dares to trim whom?... China had 6 million public servants four years ago, but now we have 10 million - a whopping increase of 1 million every year... Supervising 100,000 officials is one thing, but supervising 10 million is quite another... Some foreigners couldn't understand why China would discipline more than 100,000 officials every year, until I explained to them that China has too many officials - after all, you clean away more mud from an elephant than from a pig."
Liu is a vice chairman of the law committee of the 11th National People's Congress. He is formerly a vice chairman of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.
Following are three press commentaries on this issue.
CHINA has too many public servants, and they cannot feed themselves unless they are served by the public.
In the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-9 AD), there were 7,945 people for every one official. The ratio was 2,927 for 1 in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and 911 for 1 in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). And today, it's about 40 for 1.
Too many "big hats" are a public ill, a public pain. They eat into public happiness. China cannot solve the problem of over-staffed officialdom unless it realizes the potential crisis from having to feed so many official mouths.
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