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To serve and to collect: the 10 personalities of public service

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The bi-monthly magazine The People's Tribune, run by the Communist Party's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily, is a good place to find more colourful opinions on political issues.

Recently it ran a list of nicknames for 10 different types of mainland cadres. Mostly picked up from other mainland media, they are an indication of how today's cadres treat their careers and do their jobs.

The first category is the 'three-quick cadres' - basically those good at nothing but making cursory decisions, giving swift pledges to their boss, and beating a hasty retreat whenever anything goes wrong without taking responsibility.

Unfortunately, the magazine lamented, there is no shortage of them and their 'hasty decisions' resulted in financial losses of 27.1 billion yuan (HK$32.5 billion) in in 2007 from misconceived projects and wasteful spending.

'Double-expert cadres' are adept at stealing public funds and taking bribes while managing regional economic growth. A typical case, the magazine said, was former railway minister Liu Zhijun, who used to spearhead the mainland's high-speed rail programme.

The third category, 'naked cadres', send their entire families overseas, usually with a lot of cash, with only themselves staying behind, so that they can run away at any minute.

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