信阳市的“禁酒令”在国外引起广泛关注，美国《纽约时报》于2008年3月8日进行了新闻报道。

　　《纽约时报》记者吉姆•雅德利在报道中说：

      作为700多万人口的信阳市，实行禁止公务人员工作日中午饮酒的“禁酒令”已引起全国广泛关注，很多地方也来效仿。

　　李斌，一名墩实而认真的当地干部，受信阳地方党委政府委派，带领三个督查小组中的一个一直执行着一项特殊任务。他们推开信阳中级人民法院一间办公室的门，拿出酒精测试仪，对几名工作人员说：“吹一下。”去年以来，李斌带领他的督查小组都是像这样，突击检查了信阳市很多单位，一但查到公务人员工作日中午饮酒，都毫不客气地进行严肃处理。

　　王铁，中国共产党信阳市委书记，估计6个月下来综合算帐节约600万美元。

　　但有白酒协会称信阳市的“禁酒令”违法。“中国的公务员法没有规定公务员喝酒的问题，”律师康银中(音)说到，“中午喝酒与否，这是公务员的权利。如果一个公务员没有因中午喝得烂醉如泥而影响其下午工作，公权力就没有法定理由干涉他的生活。”

　　王铁书记说，信阳的“禁酒令”这项地方政策经得住考验，实行以来得到很多人、很多方面的大力支持。他仅拿出《人民日报》记者发表的文章，该文章说信阳的“禁酒令”应予肯定，值得推广。 “在中国，每个人都知道公款吃喝是个大问题，消除腐败应从‘禁酒’等具体内容抓起，一个问题一个问题解决。”

　　酒文化在中国根深蒂固，主人客人如果不多饮酒，大家就觉得不够热情，没有面子；反之，喝得多就高兴，沟通交流就方便多了。一名美国商人谈到他的经历，一次他看到6个人吃自助餐还喝了3瓶白酒。他自己也曾连续中午、晚上陪酒，甚至早餐也得陪着喝。《中国先生》作者蒂姆在书中对中国的宴请喝酒作了很有意思的描述，虽然喝后脸红肚子粗，有的很难受，有的甚至想方设法吐出来，但很多人好像还是很喜欢喝酒。

　　有时，白酒话题也会使会谈气氛活泼起来。1974年，基辛格在纽约宴请邓小平时提到中国的茅台酒，说：“如果我能喝茅台酒，一定会解决很多问题。”邓小平回应到：“如果是这样，我回去后一定增加茅台酒产量。”

　　今天，虽然白酒在中国的酒类市场扮演主要角色，但其全国产量却呈下降趋势，很多人选择黄酒、啤酒，或者戒掉白酒。一白酒经销商说，他在信阳的白酒销量下降了百分之二十，虽然受到“禁酒令”的影响，但他还有希望继续做，“因为还有别的人喝白酒。”

　　王铁书记相信，信阳“禁酒令”不仅仅是为了节约政府开支和提高工作效率，更重要的是转变工作作风，也使大家有个解脱。他说很多公务人员中午不情愿喝酒应酬。一位不愿透露全名和职务的史先生说：“大部分人赞同这项决定。以前中午也不想饮酒，但如果不喝又怕客人不高兴，气氛不热烈。确实是无耐。”

　　与此同时，违反规定者还要在当地报纸电视等媒体曝光。今年1月份，中国中央电视台就跟随李斌先生的督查小组，暗访拍摄，曝光处理了一个地方官员。

　　就在上周，60岁的李斌先生和美国《纽约时报》记者一起突击暗访了信阳市中级人民法院、市建设委员会等单位。路上，李斌先生对记者谈到，违反规定喝酒的人有多种借口，诸如家乡来了一个好朋友、家里有重要的事情、医生说喝两口没问题等等，“我说‘我们不管有什么借口’。”在市建委，一工作人员惊讶地问：“你们是谁？”在信阳市中院，吹酒精测试仪的法官很紧张。当天检查了20人，没有发现违反规定的。只有别的一处例外，当时有几个老人在喝酒，老人解释说不用测试了，“我们原来在上班，现在都退休了。”

附：《纽约时报》报道原文

Got a Mint, Comrade? Chinese Ban Liquid Lunch

Du Bin for The New York Times
Officials on special assignment for the Xinyang Communist Party conducted surprise breathalyzer tests on city police officers.

 By JIM YARDLEY

Published: March 8, 2008
XINYANG, China — Li Bin, a barrel-chested retiree on special assignment for this city’s Communist Party boss, strode down an empty hallway of the Xinyang Middle Court in search of bureaucrats. He rattled locked doorknobs and barged into offices without knocking. A court officer retreated in red-faced terror.

The ban in Xinyang has been watched all over the country.
The booze squad had arrived.

“Blow,” ordered one of Mr. Li’s young subordinates a few minutes later as he pressed an alcohol monitor to the lips of a nervous Communist Party functionary.

The target of Mr. Li’s midafternoon sting last week was not just tipsy cadres but a ritual that many Communist Party officials have long considered a part of their job description: the hours-long, alcohol-soaked midday banquet (usually paid for with public money). For the past year, Mr. Li and other investigators have swooped into government offices in this grimy city of seven million people to catch civil servants partaking of the liquid lunch. One violator was fired on the spot.

With Beijing trying to rein in official corruption, the campaign in Xinyang, in Henan Province, might seem like comic relief. But public disgust with official privilege is so palpable that the campaign has attracted national attention, spawned imitators in other cities and offered a tantalizing hint at how much China’s liquor industry profits from the thirst of Communist Party officials.

Wang Tie, the Xinyang Communist Party chief and architect of the crackdown, estimated that the policy saved his government almost $6 million in six months. Local restaurants have reported sharp drops in profits. Last month, the Henan Alcoholic Drink Industry Association, a trade group alarmed at losing its best customers, challenged the policy as a violation of the legal rights of civil servants.

“The country’s Civil Servant Law doesn’t require civil servants to refrain from drinking during their lunchtime,” argued Kang Yinzhong, a lawyer for the trade group, according to state media. “Drink or not, it is the civil servant’s right. Public power has no legal ground to interfere in a civil servant’s life if he or she doesn’t mess up their afternoon work.”

Mr. Wang, the party chief, said the policy could withstand any challenges, and he proudly provided a positive editorial from People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s authoritative newspaper. “Everyone knows there is a problem in China with cadres eating and drinking on public funds,” Mr. Wang said. “It’s a big problem, and to deal with corruption you’ve got to start with issues like this.”

Mr. Wang, who is getting fan mail, added, “We wanted the cadres to have energy for work.” Indeed, service is not always a priority for government workers after a few hours of slugging down shots.

“Sometimes you’ll go to the civil affairs bureau after lunch and they are sleeping or playing cards,” said one Xinyang taxi driver. “Sometimes you can’t even find anyone.”

Drinking on the job is hardly unique to China, but ritualized drinking is deeply ingrained in China’s business culture. Restaurants usually offer private banquet rooms, some with lounge areas, flat-screen televisions and private bathrooms. Tables are often set with specific glasses for beer, wine or baijiu, the fiery Chinese liquor that lubricates nearly every banqueting experience.

A banquet is considered a mandatory exercise for welcoming guests on official business. Hosts will lose face if a guest is perceived to be uncomfortable or having less than a jolly time. By this same logic, one way to ensure good feelings and build rapport is for everyone to drink. And, often, drink very heavily.

“It’s like a form of communication between people,” offered Zhu Xiaojun, general manager of Jigongshan Baijiu, a distillery in Xinyang. “It would be disrespectful to not drink with a guest.”

Many of the growing number of foreign business executives in China would probably welcome some disrespect. Baijiu is distilled from sorghum and other grains, has the clarity of vodka or gin but contains far higher alcohol levels than most spirits. It is served in shots and its taste has been compared with rubbing alcohol or diesel fuel. Toasting is customary and can sometimes take on the bonhomie of hazing.

Du Bin for The New York Times
The ban has cut into sales of baijiu, the liquor that is a staple at Chinese banquets.

“When there are six people and you see three bottles of baijiu waiting on the buffet table, start eating and start eating fast,” said one American businessmen in describing his survival strategy. He said he once faced baijiu at consecutive banquets for lunch, dinner and breakfast.

Banquet war stories are legion. Tim Clissold, author of “Mr. China,” a memoir about doing business in China, described an evening banquet with a Chinese mayor that featured course after course of exotic food: cow’s lung soaked in chili sauce, goose stomachs, fish lips with celery, goat’s feet tendons in wheat noodles, ox forehead, turtle casserole and, finally, deer’s penis. Round after round of baijiu toasts followed until the banquet ended and Mr. Clissold staggered from the table.

“I’ve never met anybody, even at the heights of alcoholic derangement, prepared to admit that they actually liked the taste,” Mr. Clissold wrote of baijiu. “After drinking it, most people screw up their faces in an involuntary expression of pain and some even yell out.”

Baijiu does usually enliven conversation. In 1974, Henry Kissinger played host in New York to Deng Xiaoping and commented on the powers of Maotai, the most famous brand of baijiu.

“I think if we drink enough Maotai we can solve anything,” Mr. Kissinger said.

“Then when I go back to China, I must increase production of it,” Mr. Deng responded.

Today, baijiu remains a major player in China’s alcohol market, but nationwide production has steadily declined as rising prosperity has brought more alcoholic choices, like wines, beers and other spirits. A younger generation of business executives in cities like Beijing and Shanghai is more likely to eschew baijiu. Many prefer the golf course to the banquet table as a setting for doing business.

At the Jigongshan Baijiu distillery in Xinyang, Mr. Zhu said baijiu was a tough business with more and more brands competing for a slowly declining number of customers. He estimated that the Xinyang crackdown had cost him about 20 percent of his sales. Mr. Zhu described officials as an important segment of his customer base but remained hopeful.

“Most people can adjust their drinking to drink more at night,” he suggested. “Maybe two bottles instead of one. Or they can drink more on the weekends.”

Mr. Wang believes that his crackdown will not just save money and improve work performance but also liberate government officials from unwanted cultural expectations. He said many bureaucrats considered lunchtime drinking an onerous obligation. “A lot of people agree with the decision,” said one city official, Mr. Shi, who refused to provide his full name. “They felt obligated to drink at these lunches. If they didn’t, they would be accused of not treating their guests warmly.

“But,” he added, “it was tiring.”

Meanwhile, the inebriation inspections have become news media sensations. Three special alcohol SWAT teams make random checks on the city’s 120,000 officials and civil servants. Offenders are usually reprimanded or shamed by accounts in local newspapers and television reports. In January, a reporter from China’s state television network, CCTV, followed Mr. Li’s team and filmed him catching an inebriated ranking official. Mr. Li fired him.

Last week, Mr. Li, 60, took a reporter from The New York Times on a surprise visit to the Middle Court and the city’s construction commission. He said violators were quick with excuses: a good friend in town; a special family occasion; even a shot or two on doctor’s orders.

“I say, ‘We don’t care,’ ” Mr. Li said.

At the construction commission, a startled secretary said, “Who are you?” when Mr. Li’s team burst into one office. At the Middle Court, several offices were locked and empty, leaving open the possibility that their inhabitants were off drinking and not planning to return.

At the end of the day, Mr. Li’s team tested about 20 cadres and nary a one tested positive. He made only one exception when a roomful of older men shooed him away.

“We’re old bosses,” one of them said, explaining why they were not subjected to the test. “We’re retired.”来源：纽约时报 作者：叶中林