China county’s local debt snowballs after it hires army of civil servants, despite paltry yearly salaries of US$2,300

Expansion of part-time workers has weighed heavily on the unnamed county’s already-strained fiscal budget at a time when local-level debt has become an outsized concern across China, says state media

Temporary workers make merely a fraction of what full-time civil servants make in their ‘iron rice bowl’ positions

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One of China’s poorest regions includes a mountainous part of Sichuan province (pictured). Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:00am, 2 Dec 2023Updated: 11:44am, 2 Dec 2023

In a rare acknowledgement of the regional financial struggles facing one of China’s most destitute regions, state media has reported on the crushing fiscal pressure resulting from overstaffing.

The report by China Comment, a fortnightly current-affairs magazine affiliated with Xinhua, a Communist Party mouthpiece, explored how the continuous expansion of government workers has taken a toll on local-level finances.

The report was based on the magazine’s recent visit to an unidentified county in the mountainous Wumeng region, which covers more than two dozen poor counties in southwest China’s Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

The disclosure came as Beijing has been scratching its head over how to deal with the level of snowballing debt owed by local authorities, which has forced many of them to cut construction budgets or downsize their general spending.

The recruitment process for most temporary personnel lacks central oversight

China Comment magazine