Officials across China are avoiding dining out to “play safe”, as the country’s latest austerity drive spirals into an overbearing campaign of excessive control like many similar ones before it.
Several officials interviewed said that the lifestyle change, even if temporary, was largely prompted by the ever-shifting local austerity measures, which could be even more stringent than the regulations originating from the central state and party bodies.
An official in southwestern Sichuan province…
