China’s state-run funeral industry has become a fresh target for the country’s anti-corruption investigators, with a string of cases across the country in recent months.
In the latest case, Communist Party disciplinary investigators in Huainan, Anhui province, announced on Friday that they had detained Zhang Duo, from the Panji district funeral home for “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law”.
The watchdog did not elaborate on Zhang’s alleged offences but the phrase is a euphemism for corruption.
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Most of China’s funeral parlours are managed under the direct supervision of civil affairs authorities, and are monopolies with a reputation for opaque pricing and substandard services – which in turn is fertile ground for corruption.
Zhang’s detention came three months after disciplinary authorities in the neighbouring city of Wuhu launched corruption investigations into Jiang Junsheng, the director of its municipal funeral service administrative office, as well as into Jiang’s deputy, Ren Yongsheng, according to Shanghai-based online news portal The Paper.
Staff at the municipal funeral centre in Benxi, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, were also the targets of disciplinary action in May, after customers accused them of asking for illegal tips, according to a report by provincial party mouthpiece Liaoning Daily last month.
Across the border in Jilin province, Lu Wanjun, former party secretary and director of the Huinan county funeral home, was stripped of party membership and job in May for charging families for services that were never provided. Lu was handed over to criminal prosecutors and will face trial.
Dozens of civil affairs bureaus – from Wanzhou in the southwest to Qidong in the east – have called meetings to try to rectify the “irregularities in the funeral industry”.
The meetings dovetail with President Xi Jinping’s call in January to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the top political disciplinary and anti-corruption body, to fight corruption that directly affects the people.
About 258 billion yuan (US$36 billion) was spent on funerals and associated services such as tombs in 2020, according to a report by Chinese investment bank Citic.
A 2015 investigation by state news agency Xinhua found that many funeral homes were making extra money selling overpriced urns and funeral clothes for the deceased, and the civil affairs officials in charge of the operations were taking a cut of the sales.
In 2015, the former director and former deputy director of a funeral home in Guangzhou were found to “partnered” with a paper coffin supplier over seven years, pocketing more than 250,000 yuan in bribes each.
Some funeral homes were also found to have given out fake cremation certificates, while allowing the deceased’s family to bury the body, a traditional practice now banned in most parts of the country because of the limited available land.
The Xinhua report said a few staff members at the Yinan county funeral home in Shandong province used straw, quilts and plastic to make fake corpses for cremation, helping more than 60 families to obtain fake cremation certificates, and receiving more than 200,000 yuan in bribes.
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