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Chinese officials can’t get any respect these days. And they probably don’t deserve a pay bump, either. That was the sharp reaction of at least 20,000 internet users who body-slammed a suggestion made last week by a representative to China’s annual “Two Sessions” that the salaries of government officials need to increase. He Xiangjiu, a delegate from the China Writers Association to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was the one who made the proposal. “Most junior-level civil servants work diligently with an intense workload,” He argued, “but they have a particularly low monthly salary, not unlike the income of migrant workers.” Proponents of a pay raise have argued that making officials’ salaries competitive with the private sector would help China attract better-qualified civil servants while also reducing incentives for corruption–especially if those salaries are publicized. Indeed, low salaries are one of the chief complaints officials have when asked to comment on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption push. But it’s still a tough sell to a skeptical citizenry in China. Many Chinese believe that the official salaries earned by bureaucrats are meaningless, because, in their view, even the well-paid ones loot public money and use government funds for personal use. Many critics of He’s proposal wondered why more money should be given to immoral cadres intent on supplementing their incomes anyway. | 
