Corruption impacts funeral trade in high-profile cases

Corruption has added fuel to the skyrocketing price in the funeral and interment sector, as two cases exposed during recent disciplinary inspections have received widespread attention.

A single cinerary casket with a price of 358 yuan ($52) ended up being sold for 966 yuan at a funeral parlour in Jiangling county, Hubei province, according to China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News, a newspaper under the country's top anti-graft authority.

After an inspection led by local county-level commission for discipline inspection and the commission of supervision, the former director of the funeral and interment management department in Jiangling county, who set the price, confessed to the discipline inspection team he took advantage of his post to gain profits.

He also apologized for harming the interests of the masses and breaking party discipline and state law.

In total, the funeral parlour overcharged 336,700 yuan by selling cinerary caskets to the public to cover the spending of the department.

Zhang was punished with a demotion, a severe warning and demerit.

A major investigation was launched following Zhang's case by local authorities to set prices straight and strengthen the anti-graft mechanism

The corruption case in Jiangling county was not an isolated incident. Heilongjiang Daily published another case recently, in which Sun Jintang, who started service as vice-captain of traffic police in Jiagedaqi district of the Greater Hinggan Mountains Area in Heilongjiang province in March 2010, monopolized the local funeral and interment business.

Selling graveyards enabled him to earn over 40 million yuan ($5.8 million). Sun's overcharging forced many locals to cremate and bury the deceased in other districts.

Sun was stripped of Party membership and expelled from public office in October 2018. He was sentenced to eight years in prison the next year.

Per a report from Heilongjiang Daily on Oct 11, 2022, 139 public officers were punished in a province-wide investigation launched to regulate the funeral and interment sector by the Heilongjiang provincial commission for discipline inspection and commission of supervision.

The local civil administration department also accelerated the overhaul of the funeral and interment management system, and the average cost on funerals in Heilongjiang has since gone down 20 percent.