China’s workers have long been known for putting in long days at the office, but they now face a new set of responsibilities: studying the writings of President Xi Jinping.

Implying that this is another straw on the camel's back, and that Xi Jinping thought is being forced down the throat of (office) workers.

CCP

telling on themselves

Under Xi, the world’s second-largest economy has taken a turn towards greater ideological purity based on the party’s Marxist-Leninist roots

nice

and his own cult of personality.

Has it though? Seems like another case of assuming that Xi Jinping personally and arbitrarily decides what the party line is without any input from others.

While communist ideology may not immediately seem relevant to banking or international finance and trade, China’s banks and state-owned enterprises are closely entwined with Beijing and subject to heavy oversight and influence.

Regulating finance is relevant to communism?? Impossible!

Carsten Holz

Looked him up. Princeton alumn now at a Hong Kong university. His schtick seems to be openly criticizing China for how you can't openly criticize China. Have China Scholars All Been Bought? (2007)

How do bankers and executives feel about these study sessions?

Most evidence about how employees feel about studying Xi’s ideology is anecdotal – but there are some indications that the trend has not always been welcome.

"We don't really have any damning evidence here, but we found some guy who doesn't like it."

While the study sessions may be time-consuming, more concerning for bankers and executives is Xi’s parallel campaign for “common prosperity”, the Hong Kong-based analyst said. The tenet of Xi Jinping Thought, which calls for greater economic and social equality, can in practice mean steep cuts to the salaries of high-performing employees, sapping morale, he said.

“The preoccupation with the leader’s dogma directly and negatively affects the open exchange of ideas and the free-spirited innovation that drives economic growth,”

I'll just quote a bit of Roland Boer's Socialism with Chinese Characteristics:

...one of the roadblocks for those unfortunate enough to have been raised in a Western liberal context is the absence of any serious attention to the thought of political leaders. Even if such a leader has written and published anything of substance—a rare occurrence indeed in the West—such material is of interest to only a few for the sake of what passes as ‘political analysis’. Indeed, the task of such analysis is to ‘cut through’ or ‘look behind’ the rhetoric that has been carefully crafted by professional ‘spin doctors’. It is assumed that such an approach is ‘critical’ and ‘objective’, but in doing so of course it becomes an ideological prop of the Western liberal system itself. In light of such assumptions, it should be no surprise that there are in Western contexts very few serious engagements with any communist leader’s thought when a Communist Party has been in power.

Those familiar with the communist tradition have a somewhat different perspec- tive. In this case, the thought of the Party’s general secretary is crucial, especially works that mark a new step in the development of Marxist theory in light of changing circumstances. Of course, to focus on an individual leader may seem a little strange for a tradition that emphasises the collective as the foundation for a fully-rounded individual, let alone the collective role of urban and rural workers. The answer is obvious: the general secretary’s work is never an isolated occurrence, but arises from a collective leadership, and especially from periods of intense study and debate. Think of Mao Zedong’s study circle in Yan’an in the 1930s, from which the landmark studies on contradiction and practice arose, or the late-night discussions of Deng Xiaoping’s comrades as they sought to plot a path for the Reform and Opening-Up. These actions did not take place in a vacuum, for they were part and parcel of intense debates with the Communist Party itself.