Xinyang

Xinyang (; Postal map spelling: Sinyang) is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Henan province, People's Republic of China, the southernmost such administrative division in the province.

Recent history

At the beginning of 2007, the government of Xinyang implemented a new policy designed to reduce corruption and government spending. Any government employee caught drinking on the job would be immediately fired. Within six months of the implementation of the policy, government spending on business meals had been drastically reduced by more than 42 million dollars, <!-- Dollars? !--> enough to build up to 50 elementary schools. However, as government officials of Xinyang released the information in the third quarter of 2007, there was much more public outrage than praise that such a huge amount of public funds had been wasted. As the news was reported elsewhere, people in other areas began to demand that their own local governments do the same.

In February, 2008, an independent audit revealed that the majority of the income of local restaurants from 2005 through 2007 had come from government officials spending public funds to eat out under the guise of a "reception fee", an administrative cost. After the reform in 2007, all local restaurants have experienced a reduction of income of at least 70%. This audit only further enraged the public not only locally, but all over China, leading to demands for further reforms to check corruption.

Geography and......

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