Chinese officials’ binge drinking takes its toll
In the last two weeks, two senior Chinese officials have been hospitalized for binge drinking, one of them fatally: Jin Guoqing, a district deputy director of water resources in Wuhan, the capital of central Hubei province, fell unconscious while entertaining guests at an official banquet last week and died on the way to the hospital, ...
In the last two weeks, two senior Chinese officials have been hospitalized for binge drinking, one of them fatally:
In the last two weeks, two senior Chinese officials have been hospitalized for binge drinking, one of them fatally:
Jin Guoqing, a district deputy director of water resources in Wuhan, the capital of central Hubei province, fell unconscious while entertaining guests at an official banquet last week and died on the way to the hospital, the official China Daily said.
Hospital records indicated the 47-year-old’s excessive drinking triggered a fatal heart attack, the English-language newspaper said.
Also last week, Lu Yanpeng, a district chief in southern Guangdong province, fell into a coma after drinking heavily while having dinner with a local Communist Party chief. Lu was rushed to a hospital, where he remains unconscious, the paper said.
"Drinking with official guests or other officials at alcohol-soaked events is considered part of the job," Professor Li Changyan of Peking University was quoted as saying. Li said banquets are a mandatory exercise in welcoming VIPs and are usually covered by government funds.
I’d be curious to see some data — though I suspect it would be near impossible to come by — on the relationship between quality of governance and alchoholism among government officials. The fact that this level of excess is tolerated — and in some cases even encouraged — is not a promising sign for the Communist Party’s professionalism.
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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