As the Communist Party of China gets increasingly sensitive to charges of corruption, Chinese officials are having to get crafty to cover their tracks.
Last December, in a celebrated example of 'people power', an official called Zhou Jiugeng fell victim to some eagle eyed netizens after he was featured in an apparently innocuous photo of a meeting of local government officials.
Close inspection of the pictures, however, revealed that Mr Zhou was smoking a very pricey brand of cigarettes Nanjing Jiuwuzhizun which cost 15 a packet and wearing a Vacheron Constantin watch.
Zhou Jiugeng with his expensive watch ringed
As everyone was quick to point out, his official salary as the head of the Real Eastate Administrative Bureau of Jiangning district in Nanjing, was hardly sufficient to cover such luxury items. (Real Estate as China Daily pointed out in an editorial this week following the collapse of an apartment block in Shanghai last weekend is notoriously corrupt sector of government).
Mr Zhou was later sacked as a result of a corruption investigation but, in keeping with the true spirit of modern China, found work as the spokesman for said brand of over priced cigarettes whose sales reportedly went up by 70 per cent as a result of the incident.
The new style with cigarettes on a plate
Now according to these pictures doing the rounds on the Chinese web officials have found a sure fire way to avoid any further mishaps: they put them 'naked' on a plate with the box carefully out of sight. Not that anyone has anything to hide, you understand.
Personally, I think it's all rather inelegant.
Perhaps it's time for the once de rigeur cigarette case for some reason I think of Cary Grant movies and my father's old velvet 'smoking jacket' to make a comeback. Mind you, perhaps best to keep it simple if you're a Chinese government official nothing too silvery or engraved.The inelegance of corruption and cigarettes
As the Communist Party of China gets increasingly sensitive to charges of corruption, Chinese officials are having to get crafty to cover their tracks.
Last December, in a celebrated example of 'people power', an official called Zhou Jiugeng fell victim to some eagle eyed netizens after he was featured in an apparently innocuous photo of a meeting of local government officials.
Close inspection of the pictures, however, revealed that Mr Zhou was smoking a very pricey brand of cigarettes Nanjing Jiuwuzhizun which cost 15 a packet and wearing a Vacheron Constantin watch.
Zhou Jiugeng with his expensive watch ringed
As everyone was quick to point out, his official salary as the head of the Real Eastate Administrative Bureau of Jiangning district in Nanjing, was hardly sufficient to cover such luxury items. (Real Estate as China Daily pointed out in an editorial this week following the collapse of an apartment block in Shanghai last weekend is notoriously corrupt sector of government).
Mr Zhou was later sacked as a result of a corruption investigation but, in keeping with the true spirit of modern China, found work as the spokesman for said brand of over priced cigarettes whose sales reportedly went up by 70 per cent as a result of the incident.
The new style with cigarettes on a plate
Now according to these pictures doing the rounds on the Chinese web officials have found a sure fire way to avoid any further mishaps: they put them 'naked' on a plate with the box carefully out of sight. Not that anyone has anything to hide, you understand.
Personally, I think it's all rather inelegant.
Perhaps it's time for the once de rigeur cigarette case for some reason I think of Cary Grant movies and my father's old velvet 'smoking jacket' to make a comeback. Mind you, perhaps best to keep it simple if you're a Chinese government official nothing too silvery or engraved.The inelegance of corruption and cigarettes
As the Communist Party of China gets increasingly sensitive to charges of corruption, Chinese officials are having to get crafty to cover their tracks.
Last December, in a celebrated example of 'people power', an official called Zhou Jiugeng fell victim to some eagle eyed netizens after he was featured in an apparently innocuous photo of a meeting of local government officials.
Close inspection of the pictures, however, revealed that Mr Zhou was smoking a very pricey brand of cigarettes Nanjing Jiuwuzhizun which cost 15 a packet and wearing a Vacheron Constantin watch.
Zhou Jiugeng with his expensive watch ringed
As everyone was quick to point out, his official salary as the head of the Real Eastate Administrative Bureau of Jiangning district in Nanjing, was hardly sufficient to cover such luxury items. (Real Estate as China Daily pointed out in an editorial this week following the collapse of an apartment block in Shanghai last weekend is notoriously corrupt sector of government).
Mr Zhou was later sacked as a result of a corruption investigation but, in keeping with the true spirit of modern China, found work as the spokesman for said brand of over priced cigarettes whose sales reportedly went up by 70 per cent as a result of the incident.
The new style with cigarettes on a plate
Now according to these pictures doing the rounds on the Chinese web officials have found a sure fire way to avoid any further mishaps: they put them 'naked' on a plate with the box carefully out of sight. Not that anyone has anything to hide, you understand.
Personally, I think it's all rather inelegant.
Perhaps it's time for the once de rigeur cigarette case for some reason I think of Cary Grant movies and my father's old velvet 'smoking jacket' to make a comeback. Mind you, perhaps best to keep it simple if you're a Chinese government official nothing too silvery or engraved.
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