A few days ago the Financial Times had an article with the startling title, “Beijing arrests ‘White House’ party chief.” Well, not having kept up on the news recently as I’d like to (with the exception of the Euro 2008 results), I just had to find out what that was all about.

Seems a Party Chief in Anhui province wanted to emulate the power – not so much the democratic ideal, I expect – that the White House in the United States represents. So he built one, a White House with Chinese characteristics. As this is outside the bounds of the spirit and policies of the Communist Party, he got busted.

“The detention of Zhang Zhi’an, Communist party chief of Yingquan district in Fuyang, Anhui province, came less than two weeks after a report in the Financial Times about his overseeing of the construction of a lavish government office, modelled on the US Capitol building and referred to by locals as the “White House’.”

And check out the lovely use of the word “sybaritic” in the article. A lonely and not oft-used bit of vocabulary that deserves a revival. Hat-tip to whoever translated the government’s policies from Chinese to English.

Enjoy…