Chinese Official Fired After Son Holds 3-Day Long, $260,000 Wedding

A Communist Party village official in a Beijing suburb has been sacked by the party’s discipline inspection commission after reports of his son’s three-day wedding emerged in local media outlets, prompting public criticism over the lavish affair, reported Xinhua News on Tuesday.

A Communist Party village official in a Beijing suburb has been sacked by the party’s discipline inspection commission after reports of his son’s three-day wedding emerged in local media outlets, prompting public criticism over the lavish affair, reported Xinhua News on Tuesday.

Ma Linxiang, the deputy chief of the Qingheying Village Committee, had hosted a 250-table wedding last week at the National Convention Centre, which had been part of the 2008 Beijing Olympics; and local event planners had estimated the cost to be around 1.6 million yuan ($260,000), according to Xinhua.

Although Ma has insisted that he only spent around 200,000 yuan ($32,660) for the wedding, with the rest paid by his daughter-in-law’s parents, the Communist Party chose to fire him as the extravagance of the celebration ran counter to the party’s strictures.

Ma told state media that he had been aware of the party’s rules against public displays of extravagance but said that his new in-laws had wanted to splurge on the celebrations.

[quote]”I’m a village official, I know all about the party’s rules and what you should not do, but the bride’s family insisted and I couldn’t stop them,” he told Xinhua, describing the bride’s family as wealthy business people from the eastern province of Jiangsu.[/quote]

Since taking charge of the Communist Party late last year, China’s President Xi Jinping has launched a crackdown on luxurious spending, as public anger grows over the illegal or unethical behaviour of some party officials.

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Though the discipline inspection commission found no evidence that Ma had used public funds for the wedding, it stated that the extravagance of the celebration ran counter to the party’s rules and damaged its image, the report said.

Additionally in China’s pervasive culture of corruption, weddings and other major family events often are a front for bribe-taking in the form of lavish gifts.

On Sina Weibo, China’s most popular social network, many users also expressed support for the government’s decision to sack Ma, with some saying “such slugs [corrupt officials] must be removed from office”.

[quote]“If you are going to hire celebrities and have a motorcade of luxury cars, don’t be surprised when you get caught,” added one Weibo user.[/quote]

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Besides the ban on extravagant events, the Communist Party also banned their officials from driving luxury cars last year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to tackle official corruption by going after what he has called powerful “tigers” as well as lowly “flies”.