Travel by bike, bring your own cup: China imposes frugal life on public servants

livemint.com:

When China’s Communist Party put officials on notice that they must get used to tightening purse strings for years to come, the response was swift. At least 21 provincial-level governments trimmed their budgets for official vehicles this year. The governor of Guizhou province pledged to cut his administration’s operating expenses by 15%.

An official in the central province of Hunan urged colleagues to become “red housekeepers" who honor the party’s revolutionary roots by ensuring cost-efficient governance. No penny was too small to pinch. One statistics bureau in the southern province of Yunnan told staff not to set thermostats below 26 degrees Celsius, or 79 degrees Fahrenheit, in the summer.

Authorities in Inner Mongolia said government agencies should minimize the purchase of new equipment by repairing and reusing items such as desks, chairs and computers. The southwestern city of Yibin asked officials to print routine documents on lower-quality paper. China’s local government finances have been creaking under heavy debts for years, but three years of zero-tolerance efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic depleted state coffers in many areas.

China’s post-Covid economic hangover and slumping property market exacerbated the problem by driving down land-sale revenues that many localities depend on. In recent months, two major credit-ratings firms downgraded their outlooks on China’s credit rating to negative from stable. The scope of the belt-tightening reflects the extent to which China’s new economic realities have reverberated across the country.