Party secretary sacked after leading tour group overseas

By Tom Qian  |   2009-2-23  |     ONLINE EDITION

A DEPUTY Party secretary in Guangdong Province has been sacked for leading a 13-member tour group to South Africa, Turkey and Egypt at public expense.

The Party committee of Zhaoqing City in the southern China province also asked Tan Rigui to quit as director of Duanzhou District, China News Service reported.

Tan led the group tour in February 2007 but the Zhaoqing Party Disciplinary Committee investigated the trip after a video of the holiday was posted on Websites.

The committee has asked all the members of the tour group to accept responsibility and share the cost.

China stopped nearly 4,000 Party and government officials from joining 550 publicly-funded trips in the six months to the end of last November.

Two officials in east China's Jiangxi Province were sacked and another was given a disciplinary warning in November for visiting the United States and Canada at public expense disguised as a study tour.