Responding to the economic downturn, the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council have jointly issued a circular on stopping travel abroad using public funds.
The two departments have raised seven requirements in the circular which aims to maintain the Chinese government's good image with the general public, lead the Chinese people to deal with difficulties brought by the global financial crisis, and promote the construction of a stable and harmonious society.
The seven requirements are: officials at various levels should take a lead and be self-disciplined in carrying out the relevant regulations of the central government and they must not organize or attend events abroad with public funds, or make traveling abroad a perk for government employees; expenditure and the number of people for overseas trips should be controlled; the supervising department should carefully fulfill its duties; units that are sending groups to travel abroad should be responsible for group they send; travel agencies and agencies are not allowed to contact, purchase letters of invitation or prepare a false agenda for a group or team that wants to travel out of China; the inspection and auditing bodies at various levels should attach great importance to cases of traveling abroad with public money and severely punish those involved in these cases; and the system of going abroad for public business should be reformed and improved.
