New | ‘Make it short!’: reports of verbose official’s dressing down censored
Articles about party boss's rebuke by a top leader for his wordy speech removed from internet
Censors have deleted reports of how an official was publicly upbraided by one of the mainland’s top leaders as he was about to launch into a long, pre-prepared speech.
“Make it short!” Wang Qishan, the head of the mainland’s anti-corruption watchdog, was reported as telling the official at a panel meeting at the National People’s Congress.
Wang had just given a speech about supervising the work of the Communist Party when the Jilin province party boss Wang Rulin responded by referring to prepared notes.
“How could you have such a long, printed response when you didn’t know my speech? Wouldn’t you say this is formalism? No need for you to read that anymore,” Wang is reported to have said.
Formulism is party jargon referring to officials who strictly ahere to style and ceremony rather than substance and is one of the “undesirable work styles” the government has vowed to stamp out.
The comments during the meeting on Monday were reported by the China Business Journal and the Hong Kong-based Sing Tao Daily and were picked up be several media outlets.
