Opinion | Cutting salaries of SOEs' big bosses a mere populist move

It's hard not to get the impression that Beijing is seriously taking on state-owned enterprises.

On Monday, President Xi Jinping pledged to "adjust the excessive and unreasonable pay" at SOEs in the first publicised decision of his pet entity, the dire-sounding Central Committee on Comprehensively Deepening Reforms.

State media has been suitably primed. "SOE management paid sky-high sums amid astronomical losses," read one. "Energy enterprises' chairmen paid 30 times a miner," said another, along with a list of which boss is being paid how much.

But beyond the hype, the whole exercise is nothing more than sheer populism. This is best illustrated in the hue and cry over the salary of the country's top bankers that has attracted so much criticism that they are reportedly going to take a pay cut as deep as 50 per cent.

Let's consider the 2 million yuan pay for Jiang Jianqing, chairman of Industrial and Commerce Bank of China. Not much by international standards but quite generous when you consider the fact that he also enjoys the perks of vice-ministerial-level officials and that the bank is sheltered from competition by the state.

The perks basically cover everything that Jiang could possibly need in daily life - a home dinner with business contacts, hair cut, the best medical care … you name it. Understandably, the media has been flogging it hard. Yet the irony is, Jiang's pay was not secretly arranged. It was "designed and decided" by the government.