Mar 12 2008
Beijing creates 5 ’super ministries’
China has announced five new ‘super ministries‘ as part of an effort to streamline a bloated bureaucracy, reducing ministries under the State Council, or Cabinet from 27. The last restructuring was in 1982 from 100 to 61. Will Bo Xilai survive the cut? What do they tell the eliminated ministers who are accustomed to their entitlements and status quo?
One night in Beijing, I went to another night club on Changan Jie with Lin after the Passion at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in the Diplomatic District, his premier spot. He and his partners had just purchased this one not too long ago. They had a situation at hand: a Long Marcher’s daughter’s driver got beaten up in the parking lot when he refused to move the vehicle after repeated warnings. The manager was a chain smoker, ragged face middle aged man. His floor manager was a pretty girl dressed in uniform in her late 20s who knew her way around. The high end night clubs made it their policy that female workers had to purchase their uniform. The tight fit top in light gold coloured looked very elegant on her. Under her right arm, there’s a small pocket for cell phone. Initially, when the Chairman’s name was mentioned, the daughter almost called to apologize. But someone in her camp reminded her that Lin is only the nephew to the Chairman. So the episode escalated to a full diplomatic finesse, according to the pecking order. Neither camp could convince the other that they had higher pedigree. Passion became hot due to a nasty fight (Lin won’t give me the detail). Now another fight was well under way for this new acquisition. Have we had enough PR? Will there be more PR should we continue? .. .. They felt they got enough PR for the money, didn’t need the distraction, might as well fold it, pay the poor guy a visit (not Lin but one of his top lieutenants), all medical bill plus 5,000 yuan, and call it quit, or victory. Out of humanity, they reasoning ‘we did beat the poor bastard to [almost] death’ without conceding that Lin has less pecking order.