Marxism and meal plans: cadres tackle weighty issues at China’s top party school

Chinese government official James Zhang is on a health kick. At the staff canteen, the 45-year-old piles his plate with salad and two hard-boiled eggs for lunch.

Zhang has lost 15kg (33 pounds) since March last year. He jogs 5km (3.1 miles) every second day, maintains a healthy diet and keeps track of his calorie intake like a professional nutritionist.

Like many others in Chinese officialdom, Zhang used to be overweight due to lack of exercise, an unhealthy diet, smoking and drinking.

“My BMI has dropped from near 30 to 24 in the past year,” he said, referring to his body mass index

– a person’s weight divided by the square of their height – which is now in what is considered the healthy range.

The turnaround is not because he had a mid-life crisis, but the result of six months spent in Beijing last year at the Central Party School, where China’s next generation of leaders are trained.