The cutbacks include not replacing official cars until they are 10 years old or have done 100,000km (over 62,000 miles), and no government or rental cars for business trips to destinations along the high-speed rail system.
The set of rules, published on the city’s official website last week, also call for government assets to be used in flexible ways, including renting out or auctioning idle land and housing, and sharing the assets between agencies and regions.
All conference rooms and public services facilities should be shared between offices by the year-end, and some car parks and outdoor bathrooms should even be open to the public, according to the directives.
Suggested energy-saving measures include choosing electric vehicles where possible for new or replacement official cars, launching a photovoltaic project, and cutting waste – including in cafeterias.
“Living within tight financial constraints is not a temporary measure or expedient, but a principle and guideline that needs to be adhered to in the long term,” the CCDI said on its website in January.
Officials should lead by example, Xi told the national legislature in 2019. “The party and government take the lead in living a tight life, with the purpose of enabling the people to live a good life,” he said.
The city of Beijing said in February that government assets must be used in flexible ways. It also called for careful budget reviews and energy-saving measures, though it did not offer details.
Guangzhou, a manufacturing hub in southern China, has called to reduce the size and duration of conferences, with preference given to online meetings. It has also urged spending cuts, however small, including those related to document printing, and issuing pens and notebooks to staff.
Hunan in central China is among the provinces to have reined in expenses in recent months. It has pledged to cut office renovation fees by 40 per cent this year, along with 10 per cent cuts for expense accounts.
In southeastern Fujian, the education bureau in Changting county aims to “resolutely eliminate” the “personal use of public resources” – such as using office supplies to print test papers and workbooks for the children of employees.
“[We should] resolutely wipe out the prolonged practice of sitting around and brewing tea in the office,” the bureau added in a notice to all faculty and staff in April.
Fujian is one of the country’s major tea-producing regions and has a strong “tea culture”.
