Providing staff welfare is not corruption

In a recent joint circular, the General Offices of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, the country's Cabinet, said Party, Communist Youth League and labor union activities should be organized to ensure employees get their welfare benefits and are treated in accordance with relevant State regulations.

With Spring Festival just three weeks away, the circular comes at the right time, because many employers have slashed almost all the normal benefits employees previously enjoyed for "safety concerns", fearing they could be interpreted as corruption and thus affect their political career. For example, employers have more or less stopped distributing low-priced moon cakes among employees for Mid-Autumn Festival; they have also stopped giving employees desk calendars and diaries for the New Year. Some employers have reportedly even put in place very rigid and complicated procedures for reimbursing employees' transport and communications allowances.

At a crucial point in China's ongoing anti-corruption campaign, one can understand why managers of working units do not want to risk their political future by providing ordinary employees extra welfare for fear of being accused of indulging in "corruption" or "misusing" public money.