China brings lavish funerals under lens of anti-graft campaign

In its latest effort to combat corruption, China has issued new guidelines to rectify and punish violations of funeral regulations for ruling Communist Party members, such as unapproved types of burial and the purchase of oversized tombs.
Party members should take the lead in promoting environmentally friendly funerals and should act as practitioners of funeral system reforms, new guidelines released by nine ministries - including the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Thousands of Communist Party of China (CPC) officials including senior leaders and army officials were punished in the last two years in the massive anti-graft drive initiated by President Xi Jinping.

Party members are also asked to exhort close family members and colleagues to follow the guidelines. Those who violate funeral rules will be corrected and punished, state-run Global Times quoted an official announcement as saying.
"Many graves for officials are several times larger than the national standard of no more than 1 square metre. Plus, many have luxury decorations, and in some cases, a luxurious grave can serve as a bribe," Yang Genlai, a funeral management expert with Beijing Social Administration Vocational College, told the paper.
Ji Jianye - a former mayor of Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption - once bought a 150 square metre grave for 500,000 yuan (USD 76,550), less than the market price, The Beijing News reported.

Another prominent problem is officials taking advantage of their power to throw lavish feasts at funerals and collect large sums of money, Yang said.

China's Cabinet in 2013 imposed a ban on officials and Party members from holding extravagant funerals to collect money. It also encouraged cadres to donate their bodies or organs after death.
However, the guidelines did not specify how Party members involved in violations would be punished, Yang said, adding that even detailed rules about punishment may not effectively resolve the situation if the government fails to crack down on commercial behaviours involved in such violations.
"Many cemeteries welcome the profit and celebrity that officials' purchases of luxury tombs bring, and some companies will also establish cemeteries for deceased local officials to gain fame," Yang said.

China's promotion of ecological funerals is in a preliminary stage beset by insufficient relevant facilities, low public acceptance and the prominence of problems like oversized graves, the guidelines added.
The guidelines for the first time define ecological funerals to include sea burials, burial or scattering of ashes at the bases of trees, and storage of ashes remains in boxes or urns.