Boozy banquets a health hazard to officials

According to CRI, one official is dead and a second is in a coma after drinking excessive amounts of alcohol at boozy banquets.

Jin Guoqing, 47, deputy director of water resources in Wuhan, Hubei province, died following an alcohol induced heart attack during a dinner last week.

Also last week, Lu Yanpeng, a district chief of Zhanjiang in Guangdong province, fell into a coma during a separate drinking session.

According to professor Li Chengyan from Peking University, ritualized drinking is a deeply rooted custom among government officials.

"Drinking with official guests or other officials at alcohol-soaked events is considered part of the job," CRI quotes him as saying.

An unnamed official from Shandong province told CRI that officials would lose face if they did not get their guests drunk. “Refusing to drink is considered disrespectful,” he said.

According to CRI, some officials in China even hire secretaries to be their "drinking assistants" and help consume the necessary alcohol.

"To ganbei each other, or make a toast, is a Chinese way of communication, it is a part of the culture," Li told CRI. "Officials are used to sealing deals and making decisions at dinner tables."

The ganbei culture is not only unhealthy, but also a waste of taxpayers' money, taking up about 500 billion yuan (51.5 billion euros) of public funds annually.

Nevertheless, there is little hope that the custom would change any time soon, Li said.

"It will be extremely difficult to change the drinking culture among Chinese officials unless the government clearly legislates against such behavior."

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