It is paradoxical -like many things that happen in this immense nation- that the country that has the largest golf resort in the world (Mission Hills Shenzhen, very close to Hong Kong) is also the one that prohibits its 88 million civil servants from practicing this sport.
This is what the all-powerful Communist Party of China (CPC) has decreed in order to prevent “corrupt practices” by state workers, all of whom are members of the party. In spite of the fact that capitalism has been continuously installed in the Asian giant, its authorities have insisted on making gestures that do not make their fellow citizens forget the theoretically communist essence of the country. It is necessary to look for ‘enemies of the people’, and one of them has turned out to be golf, that ‘bourgeois’ sport which apparently does so much harm to good Marxists.
Since he came to power in 2013, the country’s president and general secretary of the CCP Central Committee, Xi Jinping, has been leading a forceful campaign for the cleanliness and exemplarity of public workers. Dozens of them have been investigated or imprisoned for failing to comply with some of the criteria, to which some more have now been added.
The government is annoyed by repeated reports of bribes or the high standard of living of bureaucrats, including large banquets, which have angered citizens. Xi Jinping wants these people to be or appear to be morally blameless and with modest habits.
Chinese officials will not only not be allowed to play golf, they will also not be allowed to succumb to gluttony. The CCP includes these two actions in the catalog of corrupt practices of state workers, just as it has toughened sanctions against “improper sexual relations”.
The new regulations state that Communists are prohibited from “obtaining, keeping or using membership cards for gyms, clubs, golf clubs and various other types of consumer cards, or entering private clubs.”
Caution or expulsion
If caught, CCP members can receive a reprimand or be expelled, depending on the severity of the violation. The new rules do not explain why golf clubs were banned, but these establishments are often seen by the Chinese public as places where officials go to cut shady deals.
In September, local media reported that at least 60 employees of official companies were punished for using public funds to play golf.
And earlier this month, a deputy mayor in the southeastern province of Fujian was dismissed for belonging to a golf club and playing golf during working hours.
Prohibited fields
The offensive against golf goes back a long way, since the Chinese authorities banned the construction of new golf courses in 2004. However, this ban has not been respected and the official media claim that the number of golf courses in China has tripled, increasing by around 400 since then, totaling around 600 at present. There are 70 such sports facilities on the outskirts of Beijing alone.
Many local authorities have promoted the development of golf courses as a tourist attraction. Environmentalists warn that these facilities have damaged ecosystems.
Last March, Chinese authorities shut down 66 illegally built courses, allegedly as illegally as the other 300 or so courses also built under a government ban in force since 2004, just as the 20th anniversary of China’s first golf course, opened in 1984, was being celebrated.
According to Dan Washburn, author of the book “The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream”, some senior officials have not given up golf, but play under fictitious names.
Chinese officials should also be very careful if they are married and not faithful. The CCP has also modified the text of a previous clause prohibiting adultery and mistresses.
It now notes that members of the movement are prohibited from “inappropriate sexual relations with others that may have bad repercussions.”
The tightening of rules regarding the behavior of government workers has had an impact on the luxury goods market in various parts of the world.
Earlier this year it was reported that during the first quarter of 2015 casino revenues in Macau, the former Portuguese colony turned Asian gambling capital, had fallen by 37% compared to the same period a year earlier.
BBC South Asia editor Jill McGivering said at the time that the Chinese Communist Party has always banned gambling, but until before the recent anti-corruption campaign many officials went anyway to Macau casinos to gamble, often spending their winnings there on luxury goods.
Xi Jinping has warned that there will be social unrest if the problem of corruption and perceived privilege within the Communist Party is not addressed.
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