Beijing Letter: Revival of conspicuous consumption a sign of shift in Chinese policy

Irish Times

23-05-2025

It was about nine o'clock in the evening, the air was warm and the pavements busy with after-dinner strollers when I saw it for the second time, a bright yellow Ferrari cruising past with the hood down. The first sighting was a couple of weeks ago in a different part of the city and in the days in between I spotted a purple Lamborghini and a vast, black Maybach close to where I live.
Such cars were once a common sight in
Beijing
and the underground car parks of the city's expensive apartment blocks are still full of them. But for the past few years, as
Xi Jinping
's anti-corruption drive cast a harsh light on conspicuous consumption, their owners have tended to keep them out of sight.
Since its launch in 2012, the anti-corruption campaign has targeted millions of people, most of them Communist Party members and including high-ranking officials. In the first three months of this year alone, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection initiated 220,000 cases and last year saw 462,000 people disciplined.
The campaign is celebrated in numerous television dramas, such as Anti-Corruption Storm, which features an all-star cast playing discipline inspection cadres confronting corrupt elements. It has not ended corrupt practices and bribery remains widespread but the campaign has had a dramatic impact on the public behaviour of officials.
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Among the early casualties were some of
China
's golf clubs, more than 100 of which were shut down for planning violations and other regulatory issues. The anti-corruption inspectors saw exclusive golf clubs as hotbeds of hedonism that offered a fertile breeding ground for cronyism and graft.
There is no formal ban on party members playing golf but they are not allowed to join or even to enter high-end, exclusive, private members' clubs, including golf clubs. Golf has featured in a number of high-profile anti-corruption cases, some of which involved officials getting free club membership and playing during working hours.
The focus on boosting economic activity is visible at street level too with pop-up markets appearing in Beijing's affluent corners and a slightly more indulgent official attitude to nightlife and parties
The game's reputation was such that some clubs dropped the word golf from their name, rebranding themselves as sports and recreation centres or as eco-parks. And many golf clubs have struggled to regularise their planning status, leaving them vulnerable to being closed down to make way for a new development favoured by the local authorities.
Private clubs report a shift in the atmosphere in recent months, however, and the Chinese Golf Association has authorised more tournaments in 2025 than in previous years. Over the past few years, professional tournaments in China have struggled to secure sponsorship and publicity but the state-run media outlets are now championing the sport.
'For golf to thrive in China, a shift in public perception is crucial. It is essential to reframe golf from a niche luxury activity to a legitimate professional sport with broad appeal,' Global Times wrote recently.
The rehabilitation of golf and the return of Ferraris to the streets of Beijing come amid a sustained government effort to stimulate domestic consumption. This has seen interest rate cuts, an easing of lending rules and a succession of trade-in schemes for household appliances and other goods.
The focus on boosting economic activity is visible at street level too with pop-up markets appearing in Beijing's affluent corners and a slightly more indulgent official attitude to nightlife and parties. It has helped to lift the mood in the capital, despite enduring economic difficulties and job losses in the private sector.
China this week passed a private economy promotion law aimed at boosting the role of the private sector, which is already responsible for more than 60 per cent of the country's economic output. The law promises fair market competition that is meant to allow private companies to compete with state-owned enterprises on a more level playing field.
The new law also addresses a surge in the extrajudicial arrest of entrepreneurs and the seizure of their assets by cash-starved local governments. This has seen police cross provincial boundaries to arrest businesspeople on trumped-up charges of corruption or tax evasion as a pretext to extract cash and assets from them.
Entrepreneurs have long complained privately that Xi prioritises national security and social stability over economic growth. But a combination of
Donald Trump
's
trade war
and the threat of deflation in China means that the key to security and stability lies more than ever in strengthening the economy.