Chinese social media websites erupted in outrage on Wednesday over claims that a provincial official tried to suppress a newspaper report detailing his expensive tastes in luxury accessories.
Microblog users claimed that tens of thousands of copies of a daily newspaper were destroyed on Monday after they carried a report about the senior official in the government of the southeastern province of Fujian.
Users posted the alleged report from the City Times, which claimed that Li Dejin, director of the Fujian provincial communications department, owned a 50,000 yuan (US$7,900) Rado watch and a 15,000 yuan Hermes belt.
The newspaper is based in the southwestern city of Kunming in Yunnan province.
Users of Weibo, the microblogging service of leading portal Sina.com, retweeted the post more than 100,000 times.
They also left thousands of comments calling Li “Uncle Watch” and accusing him of corruption and abuse of power by seeking to suppress the story.