Government & Golf Don't Mix

Well, that’s what I choose to take away from this corruption story, anyway:

Chinese government officials have been ordered to relinquish their membership of a private golf club in the wealthy city of Wenzhou after internet criticism.

The Wenzhou Golf Association (WGA) charges 398,000 yuan (£37,500) for membership – about 40 times the average annual income of farmers in Zhejiang province, where Wenzhou is located.

The WGA was launched on Monday and included a number of local officials, such as a vice mayor as honorary chairman and a deputy secretary-general of the city government as the chairman, according to the Chinanews service.

It’s bad enough that government officials are running around with gold rolexes, yachts, German cars, and multiple mistresses, but now they are playing golf. You gotta draw the line somewhere.

Under China anti-corruption law, government officials are not allowed to hold positions in social organizations of this kind. Bona fide charitable groups, maybe OK; golf clubs, uh uh.

Moreover, yeah, it sort of looks bad that the dues for this club are 40 times the average income of farmers in that province. It’s fine for real estate developers to flaunt it, but government officials should at least have the courtesy to be smart and hide their money in offshore accounts.

Eh, who are we kidding? None of these guys actually paid these dues anyway. One article I read stated that folks online questioned whether the officials actually paid. Sounds like some rather naive young Netizens out there.

However, this is the best bullshit excuse I came across when taking a look at this scandal. Laughed out loud at this one:

“Having top leaders on the membership list is important to promote golf, although most of them would only serve as nominal leaders in the club,” said an anonymous official from the municipal sports federation in an interview with 21st Century Business Herald.

He also said golf had been included as an event in the Olympics and the provincial sports competition, which is why local authorities want to support its development.

I think the Central Government should just pass a “No golfing, no boating” rule and be done with it.