According to a recent survey conducted by The Beijing News among 100 government officials across China, 92 percent said that their non-salary income had declined in 2013 and more than 80 percent of them reported a drop in attendance at dinners covered by public funds.

Yushantang, a luxury club in Beijing's Beihai Park, suspends business on January 15, after the local government ordered the closure of all private clubs and high-end entertainment venues in public parks. [By Luo Xiaoguang/Beijing Review]

While many job hunters in the country consider civil service a "golden rice bowl," 93 percent of the respondents said that "benefits from such a job may no longer be what many people have expected."

This gap between perception and reality largely results from the ongoing anti-extravagance campaign that is being carried out nationwide.

In December 2012, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee issued explicit requirements on how Party members should improve their working practices in eight areas so as to get rid of excessive red tape, extravagance and corruption.

To further support their efforts, the Party initiated a "mass line" education campaign in June 2013, with the aim of strengthening ties between the people and the Party, while weeding out undesirable work practices such as formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.

After the campaign was launched, the CPC issued a series of detailed policies aiming to regulate the use of public funds and officials' personal behavior in various fields.

In a conference on plans for the second phase of the "mass line" education campaign on January 20, President Xi Jinping, also General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, urged the Party to show tenacity in promoting frugality and curbing extravagance.

Ren Jianming, Director of Beihang University's Clean Governance Research and Education Center, said that continuous action undertaken by the central authorities during the past year or so have revealed the top leadership's determination to fight extravagance. "As signs indicate, the campaign will go even deeper in 2014," he said.