All the students at Luolang Elementary School in southern China, know the key rules: Do not run in the halls. Take your seat before the bell rings. Raise your hand to ask a question. And oh, yes: Salute every passing car on your way to and from school.

Education officials promoted the saluting edict to reduce traffic accidents and teach children courtesy. Critics, who have posted thousands of negative comments about the policy on China’s electronic bulletin boards, beg to differ. “This is just pitiful,” wrote one in a post last year. Only inept officials would burden children with such a requirement rather than install speed bumps, others insisted.

In China, where many local officials are less than well-trained and only the party can eject them from office, local governments’ dubious edicts are common enough that skewering them has become a favourite pastime of China’s web users. Even the state-run media join in, although they rarely report who was behind the rules.

Often, the skewering gets results. In April, one county in Hubei province in northern China drew nationwide ridicule after officials ordered civil servants and employees of state-owned companies to buy a total of 23,000 packs of the province’s brand of cigarettes every year.

Departments whose employees failed to buy enough cigarettes or bought other Chinese brands would be fined, the media reported. County officials said the increased revenue from the cigarette tax would buoy the local economy. After several weeks of embarrassment, Gongan County officials posted a short message on the government’s website that read: “We have decided to remove this edict.”

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