Two costly, government-funded tourism music projects in central and southwest China have drawn widespread public and official condemnation for misspending public funds, emerging as a high-profile test case for a new national campaign aimed at reshaping how Chinese officials measure effective governance.
The first project, overseen by Hubei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism in partnership with the local Hubei College of the Arts, carried a 3 million yuan ($440,000) price tag to produce a single tourism promotion song. The second, in Sichuan’s Zhaojue County — a region that emerged from extreme poverty only recently and still relies almost entirely on higher-level government transfer payments to cover its annual fiscal expenditure — allocated 1.49 million yuan to create and promote three similar music productions.
An official investigation into the projects found multiple critical flaws in their planning and approval. Neither initiative underwent rigorous assessment of their potential public outreach impact, and both reflected a growing problematic trend of officials chasing trendy vanity projects rather than addressing grounded, practical public needs. The review also found that the agencies behind the projects violated central government directives calling for tighter controls on public spending, a rule that requires party and government bodies to set an example of cost-cutting and fiscal prudence.
Officials further noted that the decision-making process for both projects lacked due rigor, with final approvals driven heavily by subjective preference rather than data-driven, community-centered analysis. These two cases, the official statement emphasized, are not isolated incidents: they are emblematic of a broader, systemic issue in how some local officials evaluate and pursue professional performance.
The public criticism of these ill-conceived tourism projects comes on the heels of a party-wide study campaign launched by the Communist Party of China Central Committee in late February 2026, focused on entrenching what the party frames as “a correct understanding of what it means to perform well”. The campaign, scheduled to run through July, is designed to root out misguided governance approaches that lead to wasteful vanity projects, hidden fiscal risks, unnecessary burdens on local communities, and erosion of public trust in government.
This performance-focused framework serves as a core guiding principle for officials nationwide, stressing that effective governance should be measured by tangible improvements to public well-being and long-term sustainable outcomes, delivered through thoughtful decision-making and concrete on-the-ground action — even when those benefits do not materialize immediately. This latest initiative marks the continuation of the party’s ongoing efforts to strengthen internal self-governance, following a 2025 campaign focused on reforming official conduct.
Party analysts and policy experts agree the campaign arrives at a pivotal moment for China. As the country enters the first year of its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), a key developmental stage on the path to achieving basic modernization by 2035, the success of the plan’s long-term goals depends entirely on how officials interpret and implement policy priorities.
Li Zhiyong, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, explained that practices like ignoring local economic and social conditions, blindly following trendy project types, and prioritizing quick, visible results over long-term foundational work could create major barriers to progress over the course of the five-year period.
Wang Junwei, director of the Academic and Editorial Committee at the Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee, echoed this view, noting that officials must balance a focus on short-term visible achievements with investment in less visible, foundational work that lays the groundwork for sustained long-term development. This balanced approach, Wang emphasized, is essential to maintaining steady national progress.
The official statement outlining the findings of the tourism project investigation stressed that all future policymaking must center public well-being, improve the efficiency of public expenditure, and enforce strict disciplinary measures against wasteful spending. “Every yuan of public funds should be directed to the most pressing needs, so that people can see and feel tangible, meaningful improvements in their daily lives,” the statement concluded.