Guangdong defies Beijing warning, keeps long holiday

• Source: The Global Times
• [08:34 May 07 2009]
• Comments

By Guo Kai

A “Pandora’s Box” may have been opened in relations between Guangdong and Beijing after the provincial government went ahead and ignored a State Council ban on taking a week’s holiday at May Day, an administrative expert said yesterday.

Despite Beijing’s express warning not to do it, the province allowed civil servants in some offices to take an extra paid vacation on May 4-7 on top of the central government’s scheduled on May 1-3 short vacation, according to a report in Beijing News yesterday.

“Some offices of the provincial government gave civil servants a seven-day holiday,” confirmed an official surnamed Luo from the Guangzhou government to the Global Times yesterday.

That might just be individual behavior, a provincial official surnamed Huang replied to the Global Times yesterday. “My colleagues and I are at work now,” he said.

“It’s a typical example of local governments carrying out countermeasures against measures from the top,” a professor of the China National School of Administration, Wang Yukai, told the Global Times yesterday.

The State Council had issued a statement in March telling local governments to stick to the central government’s existing public holiday calendar, stating firmly “each locality should earnestly implement the existing holiday arrangements, and not presume to make adjustments or make its own arrangements.”

The statement came only one day after Guangdong had announced on March 25 that it had extended its May Day holiday to a weeklong holiday arrangement. Duly warned, Guangdong the next day cancelled the extra holiday.

“They overtly agree to decisions from the central government, but covertly oppose,” said Wang Yukai. “The government’s authority will be harmed, and the administrative system will be in chaos.”

Local governments should obey their superiors in the Chinese government, he said.

“Otherwise Guangdong’s case will cause a chain reaction. Guangdong should carry out a self-examination.”

This year was the second year of shortened holidays since China cancelled the weeklong May Holiday introduced in 1999 to boost domestic consumption.
There was no immediate comment available from the State Council or the National Development and Reform Commission, which drafted the new national holiday calendar.