Officials punished over illegal buildings

Hebei province has punished about a dozen officials involved in illegal building projects in Shijiazhuang and Baoding cities. The projects were exposed to the public in the media earlier this year.

The punishments were disclosed in a notice on Friday by the Hebei Committee of the Communist Party of China and provincial government, according to official news website hebnews.cn.

Most of the 13 officials, including deputy mayors of prefecture-level cities and county-level Party chiefs, were given warnings or severe warnings within the Party for failing to perform their duties to stop the illegal acquisition of land and subsequent construction projects.