Beijing official sacked over lavish 1.6m yuan wedding

China sacked an official for “extravagant waste” after he spent an estimated 1.6 million yuan (HK$2.02 million) on a lavish, three-day wedding for his son, state media said on Tuesday, the latest move in a crackdown on profligate lifestyles and graft.

Ma Linxiang, a deputy village chief from the Beijing suburb of Qingheying, hosted the estimated 250-table wedding at a convention centre that was part of the main 2008 Beijing Olympics venue during the week-long National Day holiday last week, newspapers reported.

Ma told the Beijing News that the wedding was hosted by both families, and that he “couldn’t stop” the bride’s family from splurging on the venue as well as a troupe of performers that included two celebrities famous for their own lavish wedding.

A branch of the ruling Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog fired Ma for waste and discipline violations, adding that while it had not found any abuse of public funds, it was investigating, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Since taking charge of the Communist Party late last year and the reins of state in March, President Xi Jinping has called corruption a threat to the party’s survival and vowed to go after powerful “tigers” as well as lowly “flies”.

Xi has sought to address growing public anger at the illegal or unethical behaviour of party officials, especially those with flamboyant lifestyles which they could not possibly afford on low government salaries.