world's drunkest government tries to kick bottle

Xi's campaign against boozing cadre seems to be hitting some bottom lines, says Caixin. The piece includes this lovely little detail:

As a chaser, that same month the Central Military Commission said military officials should not drink alcohol when they visit subordinate units.

Especially not 2nd artillery. Also, this:

"The government agencies and the military can buy 30 percent to 50 percent of some high-end baijiu makers' annual production," an executive at a distillery in the southwestern province of Guizhou said.

This is usually looked at through the lens of corruption/extravagance and I'm sure a lot of the fancy booze is circulated round the gift economy for a long time before being consumed but as I've said before having a government which consumes up to half the grain alcohol produced in China is a pretty major problem in itself. It's just after midnight over there, on Saturday morning. I dread to think what state a plurality of the Communist Party's in right now. (via)

Comments

[Alex]

This may also explain some of the odder cyberwar stories. Whoever it is who tasks the Unit was pissed and thought it would be fun to go after Wired magazine.

[dsquared]

Screenplay idea! As you imply, whatever the role of baiju in the bribe economy, in steady state the consumption has to equal the production, or there will be a stock pile-up somewhere.

... but maybe there is a massive stock buildup!! In a warehouse, somewhere in a back alley in a suburb of Beijing. And a comedic assortment of criminals and ne'er-do-wells find out about it and resolve to steal it. Somewhere between "The Italian Job" and "Raiders of the Lost Booze"

[Phil]

Somewhere between That Sinking Feeling and Whisky Galore, alternatively (or additionally). Somebody should definitely make this, if only for the sake of using "Get a blooming move on" over the cheeky Chicom geezers' amazing getaway. Or preferably many different cheeky Chicom geezers, making separate and independent amazing getaways - as I understand it the CPC really is the self-preservation society.

[Richard J]

They're all pickled, at any rate.

[The History of Oblivion is continuing to impress, BTW, and I'm not even onto the 20th century yet. It's interesting how bang on the money the predictions about the effects of prohibition were [1] when the topic of banning the opium trade first was seriously considered in the late 19th century.]

[1] Albeit with the very heavy caveat that the people saying this were those participants in the British Empire most directly benefiting from this trade.