CHINA has set out to revamp the overheated concert business, especially those organised in the name of charity, by punishing officials who have pocketed money from these activities and tightening related rules.
This week, two officials in the central Hunan province were reportedly punished for trying to make off with more than one million yuan (HK$888,000) raised during two charity concerts by Hong Kong pop stars, Sally Yeh and George Lam, last July.
Earlier this month, the official People's Daily carried an investigative report revealing similar malpractices by Chinese organisers in a charity concert starring another Hong Kong pop idol, Andy Lau, in the southwest city of Chongqing.
These scandalous reports prompted the Government to act.
Not only are concerned officials punished, in the Hunan case one was sacked and the other expelled from the Chinese Communist Party, the Government promptly asked local government to keep strictly to regulations and prepare corresponding measures for better control.
One of them, according to the Hong Kong China News Service, is that there is only one authorised organiser in each city to avoid swindling.
And regulations concerning commercial concerts starring Hong Kong and Taiwan artists, drafted by the Ministry of Culture, stipulates plans on the time, place, frequencies, duration and programmes of performances, have to be deliberated and must get advance approval.