Xi Jinping's guidelines to cut back extravagance go into effect

Expensive meals and showy official trips are being banned across the country as local authorities scramble to conform to Communist Party chief Xi Jinping's call to streamline the bureaucracy and cut waste and extravagance.

At least 17 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, have rolled out detailed guidelines to follow through on Xi's "eight rules" on official behaviour, according to People's Daily, the party's mouthpiece. Authorities in the rest of the country, including Chongqing, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Tianjin, have all pledged to do so soon.

The rules adopted by the new 25-member Politburo early last month appear aimed at appeasing mounting popular anger over an avalanche of social ills, with official corruption and injustice among the top public concerns.

Measures subsequently adopted by central and local governments have generally received loud applause, although they have been mostly concerned with controlling cadres' behaviour, rather than limiting their almost unbridled power, as many in the public would desire.

Like Xi's rules banning red carpets, empty speeches and traffic controls during officials' trips, local authorities have promised to reduce ostentation. Authorities in Anhui, for instance, said provincial leaders must spend a month visiting grass-roots areas every year. Top officials in Jiangsu and Gansu were required to spend at least 60 days on inspection trips.

In Beijing, the retinues of top officials during trips within the municipality were restricted to no more than five city-level officials, plus a maximum of three district- or county-level officials. They have also been banned from attending unnecessary public events and ceremonies.