Anti-corruption push targets lavish graves
China plans to rectify and punish violations of funeral regulations for Party members, such as unapproved types of burial and the purchase of oversize tombs, in the nation's latest effort to combat corruption.
Party members should take the lead in promoting environmentally friendly funerals and should act as practitioners of funeral system reforms, according to guidelines released Wednesday by nine ministries - including the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance.
Party members are also urged to exhort close family members and colleagues to follow the guidelines. Those who violate funeral rules - including deceased Party members - will be corrected and punished, said an anonymous official in charge of issuing the guidelines, according to the MCA website.
"Many graves for officials are several times larger than the national standard of no more than 1 square meter. Plus, many have luxury decorations, and in some cases, a luxurious grave can serve as a bribe," Yang Genlai, a funeral management expert with Beijing Social Administration Vocational College, told the Global Times.
Ji Jianye - a former mayor of Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption - once bought a 150 square meter grave for 500,000 yuan ($76,550), less than the market price, The Beijing News reported.
Another prominent problem is officials taking advantage of their power to throw lavish feasts at funerals and collect large sums of money, Yang said.
The State Council in 2013 began to ban officials and Party members from holding extravagant funerals to collect money. It also encouraged Party members to donate their bodies or organs after death.
However, the guidelines did not specify how Party members involved in violations would be punished, Yang said, adding that even detailed rules about punishment may not effectively resolve the situation if the government fails to crack down on commercial behaviors involved in such violations.
"Many cemeteries welcome the profit and celebrity that officials' purchases of luxury tombs bring, and some companies will also establish cemeteries for deceased local officials to gain fame," Yang said.
The Beijing News quoted an employee of a cemetery in Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi Province, as saying that some officials purchased luxury tombs but did not carve their names on the tombstones for fear of being known publicly.
China's promotion of ecological funerals is in a preliminary stage beset by insufficient relevant facilities, low public acceptance and the prominence of problems like oversize graves, the guidelines added.
The guidelines for the first time define ecological funerals to include sea burials, burial or scattering of ashes at the bases of trees, and storage of ashes remains in boxes or urns.
