Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 6th: Recently, the Office of the Special Working Mechanism for Combating Formalism at the Central Level to Reduce Burdens at the Grassroots Level, together with the General Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, reported on three typical issues of rectifying formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots. The details are as follows:
1. Cangzhou City, Hebei Province has failed to correct statistical falsification and other fraudulent behaviors, and the problem of data falsification is more prominent in some counties. From 2025 to 2026, in promoting investment promotion and e-commerce industry development, Cangzhou City set excessively high growth targets and frequently conducted notifications and dispatches. Some counties falsified data to complete tasks, and relevant municipal departments "only assessed but did not verify" the completion of indicators. In order to complete the task of attracting investment in projects from outside the province, Suning County requires local companies to suddenly introduce small-amount equity participation from shareholders from outside the province at the assessment node. Some shareholders from outside the province only paid 1,000 yuan in registered capital, with a shareholding ratio of 0.02%. From 2025 to August 2026, the county used the above method to falsely attract 17 projects from outside the province. In order to complete the task of developing the e-commerce industry, Qingxian County instructed some e-commerce companies to falsely report statistical data, and fabricated cash flow and other voucher materials on behalf of the companies. Four of the five e-commerce companies above the designated size were randomly inspected and reported falsely. From January to August 2026, online sales were more than three times false.
2. The false packaging project in Kundulun District, Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region applied for an ultra-long-term special treasury bond project, and the approval and supervision of the relevant departments was a mere formality. In May 2024, Kundulun District of Baotou City, knowing that the renovation and acceptance of gas pipeline networks in 15 residential areas had been completed, acquiesced to relevant companies to forge feasibility studies, preliminary designs, safety risk assessments and other materials, and packaged the above-mentioned completed projects into new projects to apply for the 2024 ultra-long-term special national debt project for the construction and renovation of urban underground pipeline networks, violating the relevant requirements that completed projects are not allowed to declare "double" construction funds. Relevant departments at the urban and municipal levels did not carefully check the project application materials when reviewing the project application materials, and did not find any obvious fraud problems. As a result, the false project was reported at all levels and received 39.08 million yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds. There was no on-site verification during the investment review, and the project was allowed to open bidding and enter the "construction" process. In September 2025, in order to complete the fund payment progress requirements, 22 million yuan in treasury bond funds were illegally allocated without reviewing the forged project supervision information of the construction unit.
3. The assessment of Heilongjiang Branch of China Post Group Co., Ltd. was deviated from reality, and its subsidiaries systematically inflated operating income in order to complete assessment tasks. In recent years, the Heilongjiang branch has focused on scale over efficiency in strategic performance assessments, set excessive growth targets, raised assessment requirements at every level, and frequently reported rankings on relevant indicators on a monthly or even daily basis. City and county branches have inflated operating income in order to complete assessment tasks. From 2024 to August 2026, in order to complete the assessment indicators of mailing business income, branches in various cities across the province illegally gave customers postage discounts in the name of "agency fees" when conducting international mailing business. However, when calculating operating income, they were charged in full at the original price. Through this "low income, high income" method, the income was inflated by 87.72 million yuan. From 2024 to 2025, in order to complete the express service income assessment indicators, local branches in various cities converted the commodity sales revenue into express service income against the plan, and the express service income was inflated by more than 19 million yuan.
Among the above-mentioned problems, some places fail to implement the requirements of the Party Central Committee to prevent and punish statistical falsification, and equate development with grasping data, leading to fraud at the grassroots level in order to complete tasks; some places falsely package projects to defraud funds, and approval and supervision levels fail, and there is a risk of loss of financial funds; some state-owned enterprises formulate assessment indicators that are deviated from reality. Targets were overloaded and decomposed at each level, and subordinate enterprises systematically inflated operating income in order to complete assessment tasks. This exposed the gaps in the implementation of the "Several Provisions on Rectifying Formalism to Reduce Burdens at the Grassroots Level" by some local and state-owned enterprises. The "six rectifications" were ineffective. Typical problems reported at the central level were copied and rectified.
Party committees (party groups) at all levels must thoroughly study and implement the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party, persist in promoting comprehensive and strict governance of the party, effectively assume the main responsibility of rectifying formalism and reducing the burden on the grassroots, conduct in-depth research and analysis of the work situation and tasks of rectifying formalism in their regions, departments, and units to reduce the burden on the grassroots, and continue to deepen and implement the rectification work. The central and state agencies and departments must give full play to the role of "wind vane" in style construction, adhere to the "blade facing inward", and proactively investigate and rectify outstanding problems in this industry, system and field. The special working mechanism for rectifying formalism at all levels to reduce the burden on the grassroots should focus on key areas and prominent issues, continue to deepen the "six rectifications", grasp the typical cases and the current situation, and inform the public, strengthen problem rectification, and continuously consolidate and expand the effectiveness of the work of rectifying formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots.
