The directive to supervisors: Hold fewer meetings and make them shorter. Cut superfluous paperwork. Don’t burden the “grassroots”—local-level government workers—with cumbersome and unproductive tasks. Stop using phone apps to track staff and bombard them with instructions. Don’t overwhelm them with performance reviews, lest they focus on pleasing their bosses rather than getting work done.
Many local bureaucrats are required to submit weekly, monthly and quarterly reports, sapping their time and energy, according to the official Xinhua News Agency, which took up the campaign. “The job must be done well, but more important, the reports must be written beautifully!” one official said.
Some front-line officials don’t adapt Beijing’s directives to suit local conditions for fear of being punished for missteps, said Li Daokui, an economics professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University and a former adviser to China’s central bank.
“They spend too much energy pretending they are implementing policies,” Li said. “Centralization is good for political decisions. However, for economics, you do need certain kinds of chaos.”
“The Politburo is now signaling to lower-level officials that they will not be punished for taking decisions to support economic growth, even if those later prove misguided—a contrast to its occasional earlier message to ‘strictly observe political discipline,’ ” Christopher Beddor, a China analyst at research firm Gavekal Dragonomics, wrote in a note to clients.