When night clubs meet officials, it’s bound to be epic! Officials should resist them, but still they fall for them. It’s often the set piece to a tragic fall when decadent cadres are seen dancing and singing with young girls as well engaging in some under-the-table activity.

Just look at what happened to the poor Shanghai officials who were caught on camera during their fun outings. Four Shanghai court officials were sacked last year after a video clip showed them spending a night with prostitutes at a night club.

In order to stave off corruption in Guangzhou, the city’s Discipline Inspection Commission has introduced the “Ten Prohibitions”: ten guidelines on official conduct to hopefully revive the last remaining moral standards in Guangzhou officials, reported the Nanfang Daily on May 7.

One prohibition says that Guangzhou officials cannot enter night clubs or cabarets. Another one for some reason is more specific and says that officials are not allowed to park government cars at golf courses, night clubs or cabarets.

Other prohibitions cover banquets, use of government cars, relationships with businessmen, receiving gifts and kickbacks from attending events, and giving out autographs or calligraphy (润笔费).

Some netizens applauded the detailed and ambitious rules, but most greeted the new rules with skepticism with many dubbing them as “halfway measures”.

刘胜军改革, a columnist for Financial Times’ Chinese edition, wrote on Weibo, “This is attending to the symptoms, but not curing the real disease (治标不治本) .”

我是北腿老爸 commented, “This tells the officials to stop horsing around and start finding an Ernai (a “mistress” in English).”

Another Weibo user named Mia-tendo wrote, “Does this mean the ladies have to go to officials’ houses and deliver the services at their home?”

Another Weibo user Yunzhi杨云志 asked the question that probably got every official thinking: “Not even if they pay for themselves?”

Home page: Shanghai court officials filmed in an elevator at a luxury night club.
Photo credit: Sohu