BBC News, 8
October 2013
 |
| China's leaders have warned officials not to flaunt excesses that stoke public anger |
Related
Stories
A village
official has been sacked in China over a lavish wedding for his son that cost
1.6m yuan ($260,000;£160,000), state media say.
The wedding
lasted three days - luxury cars ferried guests around and well-known
entertainers kept them amused.
Ma
Linxiang, deputy head of a village on Beijing's outskirts who hosted the
wedding, said the bride's family had paid for most of the ceremony.
China's
leaders have warned officials not to flaunt wealth amid public anger.
The wedding
extravaganza took place during last week's National Day holiday, the Beijing
News reported.
Marquees
were erected for 210 tables, and some of the celebrations were also held at a
convention centre - which had been a 2008 Beijing Olympics venue, the newspaper
said.
The local
Communist Party discipline inspection commission in Chaoyang district, where Mr
Ma's village is located, removed him from his post on Tuesday, the state-run
Xinhua news agency reported.
The
commission found no evidence that Mr Ma had used public funds for the wedding,
but it believed that the extravagance of the celebration ran counter to the
party's rules and damaged its image, the report said.
With
official corruption rampant in China, major family events like weddings have
become a front for taking bribes in the form of gifts, correspondents say.
'Not aware
of costs'
Mr Ma told
state media that his wealthy in-laws footed the majority of the bills for the
wedding and that he was unclear of the total costs.
The wedding
was estimated by local event planners to have cost 1.6m yuan, according to the
Beijing News.
But Mr Ma
said that he only paid for the two days of festivities in his village that cost
200,000 yuan, and that he received a fraction of that back in gifts, the
newspaper said.
Chinese
President Xi Jinping has vowed to tackle official corruption by going after
what he has called powerful "tigers" as well as lowly
"flies".
The sacking
of Mr Ma has received widespread support from users of Weibo, China's version
of Twitter.
On the most
popular, Sina Weibo, many users expressed support for the government to
investigate Mr Ma, with some saying "such slugs [corrupt officials] must
be removed from office".
Other users
have asked how a village deputy chief could manage to have so much money.
"There must be something dodgy behind it," one user said.
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