Will the new rules banning government officials from squandering public money on banquets and pretentious activities work to the satisfaction of the general public? Will they be able to shift officials' attention to the problems that residents urgently need them to solve?

The country's new leaders undoubtedly expected that the answers would be in the affirmative when they endorsed these rules immediately after they took office.

They set a good example by not sealing off the roads for their convoys and by not displaying flowers at the sessions of the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee and their local meetings. The immediate efficacy of the rules was shown by the plunge in revenues for some luxury hotels and restaurants.