BEIJING – China has banned nearly 4,000 Communist Party and government officials from joining more than 550 overseas group trips on public expense in the six months to the end of November.
Ma Wen, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, said 830,000 official passport-holders went abroad in that period, down18.9 percent year on year.
“Since the campaign was launched last April, progress has been achieved in curbing overseas trips on public expense in China,” Ma said at a video conference reported by the official China news agency, Xinhua.
Ma warned tough penalties will be meted out to those who fabricate invitation letters to get approval by higher authorities.
Those who prolong the length of stay abroad or increase visiting places without authorisation will also be punished, Ma said.
In December, Chinese authorities disqualified an American university from arranging government-paid training courses.
The Northwestern Polytechnic University, based in Fremont, California, has been found to provide an “unfaithful schedule” for officials from Wenzhou City of east China’s Zhejiang Province.
In November, two officials in east China’s Jiangxi Province were sacked and another was given a disciplinary warning for visiting the US and Canada on public expense when the trip was disguised as a study tour.
