China's central government has publicly criticized various local authorities for engaging in fiscally imprudent spending. This criticism is part of an ongoing campaign aimed at guiding officials toward adopting a more 'correct' view of political performance.

China’s central government has publicly criticised several local authorities – including a relatively poor county in Sichuan province – for “imprudent” fiscal spending for the first time in an ongoing campaign urging officials to adopt a “correct view” of political performance. Among those named was a county in the southwestern province of Sichuan once ranked among the country’s poorest. Zhaojue county was said to have used transfer payments from higher-level governments to fund three tourism...