if they sees him as the guest, it would be shocked to see he is asking to pay. The host of dinner won't be happy if they allow guests to pay. Part of culture. I

if they sees him as the guest, it would be shocked to see he is asking to pay. The host of dinner won't be happy if they allow guests to pay. Part of culture. I won't read too much into it, especially in Beijing. Of course, in rural areas, the chief could be king. Still, many times they have to pay for the meals, the only difference is that they are allowed to have a tab. The corruption is not taking free meals from restaurants, it is actually using government funds to pay for these meals. He will go to jail if the restaurant owner reports him if he does not pay for many times.