Opinion | Wining and dining just another hard day at office in China

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Hard labour? Dipping into a hot spring eight times a day can't be good for anyone, not just government officials. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:17pm, 20 Dec 2012Updated: 10:08pm, 22 Dec 2012

Despite all the perks of being powerful, life as a senior government official in China isn't always easy. A day in the office is stressful for many of these busy bureaucrats.

Take fallen Chongqing top cop Wang Lijun for example. It was recently revealed in a Southern Metropolis Weekly expos é that he spent his days watching himself on television, selecting and approving photos of himself for media and designing uniforms for the police.

A self-proclaimed expert in arts and architecture, Wang juggled all this, of course, with a much-publicised anti-mafia campaign that he was so serious about that he had once considered firing a bazooka for cameras during a police raid on a gang hideout.

With the year coming to a close, government officials face bigger workloads as party superiors begin to make their annual “work inspection visits” to townships and counties.

One official in Inner Mongolia who headed propaganda works claimed that in a single day, he had to receive more than eight groups of visiting party officials and host them at the local hot spring and spa, Xinhua News reported on Thursday.

The official said he was so busy accommodating his colleagues at the spa that on one occasion, “he barely had time to change” and instead, waited in the hot spring to greet the next visitor group.