Senior Hebei official suspended during rudeness investigation

A senior official from Pingshan county of Shijiazhuang, North China's Hebei province, was suspended from his post for investigation on Tuesday over simply and rudely responding to reporting information from the masses.

A post on social media showed Yin Huiqiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Pingshan County Committee and also the head of the county's Political and Legal Affairs Committee, responded "gun", or "piss off" in English, to a citizen, surnamed Guan, who tried to report problems related to demolition compensation on Sunday.

The incident drew widespread attention online over the weekend and both the Party committees of the county and Shijiazhuang instantly responded and criticized the incident.

The Shijiazhuang Party Committee on Tuesday said it had decided to suspend Yin's post. Two investigation teams were set up to further investigate Yin's problems and the problems reported by Guan, and the investigation results would be released to the public in a timely manner, it said.

The released screenshot of the message online showed Guan sent a message to Yin at 1:38 am on Sunday and wanted to report multiple issues, including the compensation for the demolition of her house. Guan made a self-introduction and attached several news links in the message. Yin made his response at 8:05 am on the same day.

A statement issued by the county's publicity department on Monday said the county's Party committee attached great importance to the incident after noticing the online post and promptly carried out an investigation.

The statement said the preliminary investigation found that after noticing the message from a stranger, Yin only saw a web link and mistook it for a telecom fraud message, and made an improper response.

On Monday, personnel from the county had contacted Guan and explained the incident. The Standing Committee of the CPC Pingshan County Committee also held a meeting and seriously criticized Yin's behavior. The committee also asked involved departments to investigate and verify the problems reported by Guan, the statement said.

Guan said Yin had called her by phone and apologized to her on Tuesday, and Yin explained that he noticed the message at midnight, and there was only a web link composed of some numbers and letters, without any introduction, so he thought it was a fraudulant message.

However, Guan said she does not accept his explanation because her message included a self-introduction, reported problems and reasons and attached three web links.