China sacks officials for overseas holidays disguised as study tours

NANCHANG, Dec.10 (Chinese media) -- Two officials have been removed from their

posts and one more given a disciplinary warning in east China's Jiangxi Province

for being implicated in or foreign holidays disguised as study tours earlier

this year.

Jiangxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist

Party of China (CPC) announced the punishments on Tuesday.

In accordance with a decision made by Xinyu City CPC Committee in Jiangxi,

Liu Zhongping was ousted from the dual posts of Party secretary and Chief of the

Office for Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs of Xinyu City.

Also ousted was Liu Qun, a deputy of Liu Zhongping's office, who was on an

11-member delegation to the United States and Canadain April. Liu Qun also

received a serious warning within the Party.

Also punished was Xu Dongchun, chief of the administration for Xiannu

(fairy maiden) Lake scenic area in Xinyu City, who was also on the trip. Xu was

given a warning within the Party.

A spokesman of the CPC Jiangxi Provincial Commission for Discipline

Inspection said the Liu's office fabricated the delegation's agenda to get

approval by higher authorities, prolonged the delegation's trip against rules,

and taking kickbacks while buying air tickets for officials.

Other members of the overseas study tour delegation were told to write

self-examination papers and repay the bills for the sightseeing that were paid

from public funds. Air tickets kickbacks illegally held by Liu's office were

confiscated.

The spokesman Tuesday also pledged tightened supervision and auditing over

funds used for overseas business trips in the future.

The scandal first surfaced late last month on the Internet as a netizen

wrote an article under the pseudonym "Chimeiwangliang 2009", claiming officials

in Xinyu, and Wenzhou, another coastal city in east China's Zhejiang Province,

used public money to pay for overseas travel to Las Vegas, Niagara Falls and

other resorts.

In the Internet article, the author said he or she found a bag containing

documents and receipts from the official's trips. The bag was believed to be

accidentally left by a travel agent on a subway in Shanghai.

According to photos of those documents, the Xinyu government paid at least

335,880 yuan (49,142 U.S. dollars) for 11 officials from the city's transport

and education bureaux, among others, to go on a 14-day tour in April of this

year.

The article said the purpose of the trip was to "observe human resources

management" in Canada and the United States. However, officials only visited

tourist attractions such as Stanley Park in Vancouver, Niagara Falls, the United

National Headquarters in New York, the Statue of Liberty and Las Vegas casinos.

The article went on to say officials bought four invitation letters for

international travel at a price of 11,520 yuan.