The Portrait of a Patriotically Alcoholic "Olympic Host" -- In China, a
Patriotic Death Reeks of Alcohol

The New York Times

March 14, 2008

In China, a Patriotic Death Reeks of Alcohol

By JIM YARDLEY

BEIJING ― No place in China has a tougher policy against official
drinking than Xinyang, a decaying city of seven million people in Henan
Province where the Communist Party chief has banned civil servants from
drinking even one sip of alcohol at lunch.

Of course, dinner is another matter.

When Guo Shizhong, a family planning official in an outlying area of the
city, died of a brain hemorrhage on Feb. 27, local officials
posthumously recognized him as an “Excellent Party Member,” presented
him with a merit award for dying with “honor on post” and began a
propaganda campaign extolling ordinary people to learn from his example.

“We should learn from his spirit of working hard, and we should make
efforts to be a good party member like him,” the propaganda campaign
exhorted.

What the officials did not mention was that Mr. Guo had died not on the
job but at a karaoke bar after an evening of drinking with other
officials. This week, Orient Today, a newspaper in Zhengzhou, the
capital of Henan Province, reported that hospital records indicated that
Mr. Guo’s drinking had been so excessive that it had contributed to his
death.

And so the same propaganda officials who fashioned Mr. Guo as an
exemplar of Communist Party values have found themselves enmeshed in a
delicate public relations exercise: damage control. On Thursday, they
announced that Mr. Guo’s posthumous awards had been rescinded.

“We honored him due to his hard-working attitude and excellent
achievement,” said Mr. Hu, a propaganda official who gave only his
surname. “We didn’t know the situation of how he died.”

Mr. Guo’s story has rocketed around the Chinese Internet and prompted
online discussions not only about official drinking, but also about the
practice of lavishing honorariums on dead party officials, deserved or
not. Such honors bestow benefits on an official’s family, but can also
send a message that the late official should be considered beyond
reproach ― and investigation.

Some online commentators have contended that these posthumous awards
serve as bureaucratic blocking devices to conceal corruption. In
February, an irate police official killed a deputy party secretary in
the city of Hohhot. Within days, local officials had designated the dead
official a “revolutionary martyr.” Yet reports quickly surfaced linking
the official to corruption, setting off a torrent of online criticism.

The current Regulation on Honoring Revolutionary Martyrs was approved in
1980, when many Chinese were still wearing Mao suits. Last December,
Personnel Minister Yin Weimin said efforts were under way to revise
regulations for the government’s award system.

For the past year, Xinyang has undertaken a high-profile campaign to
stop civil servants from drinking at lunch. Special teams with breath
monitors make spot inspections at government offices, and more than 200
local officials have been reprimanded, shamed in the press or fired.
Local liquor sales and restaurant profits have dropped sharply.

Mr. Guo, 46, worked as director of family planning in Xin County, an
outlying jurisdiction under the administrative authority of the city of
Xinyang. Fu Yang, a propaganda official in Xin County, said Mr. Guo and
some colleagues had been working long hours on the night of his death.
They went to dinner to relax and socialize. Mr. Fu said county officials
had planned to honor Mr. Guo before he died and that news media reports
had overemphasized the role of alcohol in his death.

Still, no one seemed eager this week to take credit for honoring Mr.
Guo. City officials in Xinyang blamed county officials for approving Mr.
Guo’s awards without their knowledge. But there was one thing they did
know, emphatically:

“What we are positive is that Guo Shizhong did not violate the liquor
ban,” a city official told The Beijing News on Thursday, “because it
bans drinking at lunch.”

Huang Yuanxi contributed research.