The spirit level

The Chinese are drinking more

Boosting their CVs

LI JUN, a construction worker from Shandong, sips a large bottle of Yanjing beer as he squats on the pavement and shares a lunchtime bag of noodles with a colleague. On such a hot day the beer quenches his thirst, he says; the alcohol will not affect his work because he is resting while he drinks. Many of his fellow workers are also enjoying a bottle.

Until recently social norms favoured moderate consumption. Most people quaffed only with meals; solitary boozing was rare. Few women drank and young Chinese mostly abstained. Biology encouraged moderation, too. About a third of the population finds it hard to metabolise alcohol. Those affected rarely drink.

Consumption still looks tame by international standards. Intake per person is around half that of Germany or France, according to the World Health Organisation. But the countrywide statistics hide a grimmer picture. More than half the Chinese population is teetotal. Those who do drink often do so to great excess. Male Chinese drinkers down far more than Japanese ones, and almost as much as notoriously sozzled British, Australian or Irish boozers. Binge-drinking is prevalent and high-risk drinking has reached “epidemic proportions” in China, reckons Hao Wei of Central South University in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province.

In China drinking with clients and colleagues is now seen as vital to career advancement; some job adverts even call for “good drinking capacity”. One study found that civil servants had a far higher incidence of alcohol-related liver diseases than the population at large.

Traditions such as toasting at banquets encourage excess; drinking games are played by middle-aged men rather than university students. That is why Chinese people drink more, and more often, as they get older, whereas in Europe and North America consumption peaks by the early 20s. Worryingly, young Chinese are now taking to drink, too, often without food. Women are also upping their intake.

The state has taken some action in response. Drink-driving cases fell by nearly 40% in the two years after May 2011, when the government started to clamp down and increase penalties. President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive has quashed lavish banquets.

But the government has done little to promote public education. Other countries have curbed drinking by increasing tax on booze. In 2006 China lowered its already paltry liquor tax. Its health services and professionals are poorly equipped to deal with alcohol-related problems, says Yilang Tang of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. There are no national guidelines on responsible drinking and the minimum drinking age is ambiguous. Rules relating to the sale, consumption and advertising of alcohol are weak or ill-enforced. As Central South University’s Mr Hao puts it: “Alcohol can be bought anywhere, at any time, by any person.”