Resting But Not Retired: The Growing Burden of China’s Freeloading Officials

A dead weight upon the national economy and a gross social wrong.
Resting But Not Retired: The Growing Burden of China’s Freeloading Officials
Chinese delegations sleep as they attend the opening session of the National People's Congress, or parliament, on March 5, 2007 in Beijing, China. Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images
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A recent article by a Chinese civil servant lamenting the employment policies that coddle the masses of officials and other state-sponsored personnel as a dead weight upon the national economy and a gross social wrong.

“I feel guilty to those hard-working taxpayers,” the confession says. “They toil from dawn to dusk; why on earth should they have to support us, people who hold the office without lifting a finger, with their hard-earned money?”

The piece, first published in China’s Information Times on April 10, takes aim at the issue of civil servants who, having reached a certain degree of seniority, are reassigned to ornamental positions while continuing to receive full salary and benefits. This status is swallowed up in a Chinese phrase that means “resting but not retired.”

Describing himself as a retired Chinese official from the southeastern province of Zhejiang, the author points to himself as a typical case: for almost a decade, he held an “idle functionaries” position. His salary was 120,000 yuan (about $18,000), nearly three times the average Chinese income.

At the core of the matter is a set of state employment policies that consign older officials to “second-line positions” in order to open those jobs to younger personnel. But according to the author, his subordinates—who did not have such covetable employment—were not afforded such treatment and continued to work full schedules.

The author concludes the piece by noting that he refrained from speaking out until he was officially retired so as to be free of people talking behind his back. “This is a guilt that I have hidden at the bottom of my heart for years. I will never be happy if I do not speak it. Should I offend anyone by this, I cannot attend to that matter.”

Juliet Song
Juliet Song
Author
Juliet Song is an international correspondent exclusively covering China news for NTD. She primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus," covering U.S.-China relations, the Chinese regime's human rights abuses, and domestic unrest inside China.