Sex, Gluttony and Golf: Chinese Communist Party's Deadly Sins

China's ruling Communist Party has adopted new rules on clean
governance and discipline, according to state media

AFP 
China's Communist Party has banned its members from "extravagant eating and drinking", engaging in "improper sexual relationships with others" and playing golf, state media reported Thursday.

The ruling party's Political Bureau adopted new rules on clean governance and discipline earlier this month, the official Xinhua news agency said, describing the measures as "a moral ethical code that members must abide by".

Party members were already barred from "keeping paramours and conducting adultery" but the new rule on sexual activity was stricter, Xinhua said.

Hmmm. I wonder what is included in 'improper sexual relationships'? Is this an attack on homosexuality? I don't hear the western media screaming yet?

Playing golf and excessive eating and drinking were explicitly listed as violations of discipline for the first time, it added.

OK, excessive eating and drinking I can probably live without, but 'no golf'! This could destroy the Communist Party from within!

The regulations -- which apply to everyone in the 88-million-strong Communist Party -- also forbid forming cliques within the party and nepotism.

I'm surprised that there are only 88 million Communists in China; I thought it would be 10 times that number. I believe that if you want to work and advance in any government position, you probably have to be a Communist.

Since ascending to the party leadership in 2012, President Xi Jinping has launched an austerity drive and a sweeping crackdown on corruption, with thousands of officials falling from power.

China's Communist Party has 88 million members (AFP Photo/Liu Jin)

But critics of the campaign liken it to a political purge targeting Xi's opponents.

Spending on luxury goods and in high-end restaurants has plummeted amid the crackdown, with government officials intimidated by high-profile corruption prosecutions.

The document did not detail punishments for violating the new rules, but the party maintains its own feared internal disciplinary system, which operates without judicial oversight.

Party discipline superseded criminal law, Xinhua said.

The Communist Party has long had an ambivalent relationship with golf, which is a lucrative opportunity for local authorities and a favoured pastime of some officials, but is also closely associated with wealth and Western elites. 

This is Communist paranoia. They see anything western as an attempt by western powers to destroy China, including western religion. Wherever Communism exists, or has ever existed, paranoia is/was extremely prevalent.

Central authorities ordered a nationwide moratorium on new golf courses in 2004, but development continued as revenue-minded local officials went their own way, even offering tax breaks for operators of new courses in places such as Hainan province.

The number of courses in China has grown from fewer than 200 at the time of the ban to more than 600 this year, according to Xinhua.

Look-out PGA, Abbotsford's Here

Adam Hadwin

Forgive me a little self-indulgence as I brag a bit for a couple of great guys from my city.

Last year there were only 5 Canadians on the PGA Tour; this year, 2014/15, there are eight. Two of them are from the city of Abbotsford, British Columbia, where I live.

Congratulations to Adam Hadwin, who won the most money on the Web.com Tour (which feeds the PGA), and thereby won full-exemption for this year. On the Official World Golf Rankings, Adam moved from 622 at the end of 2013 to 170 today.

Nick Taylor

A big congratulations goes to Nick Taylor, who barely made the Web.com Tour for 2014, then barely made the playoffs, then barely made enough money to get his limited PGA Tour card.

On just his 4th tournament as a PGA member, Nick won the Sanderson Farms Championship, becoming the first Canadian-born player to win a PGA event since Mike Weir in 2007. As a result of that win, Taylor now gets a 2-year exemption, meaning he will not have to qualify for any PGA event for two years. Nick ended 2013 at 718 on the OWGR and has jumped to 210 today.

Roger Sloan

Both men are from Abbotsford, and, most likely played a lot of golf at Ledgeview one of the toughest courses I have ever played with its long, narrow fairways and frequent side-hill lies. For duffers like me, it's a monster. For young guys like Nick and Adam it's great training ground.

The third graduate from the Wen.com Tour to the PGA is Roger Sloan, from Calgary, Alberta. They join Graham Delaet, David Hearn, Mike Weir, and Trinidad-born Canadian Stephen Ames, who was actually the last Canadian to win a PGA event which he did in 2009.