Chinese mayor sacked for cadre's boozy death

CHANGSHA - A dozen officials, including a city mayor in Central China's Hunan province, have been punished for causing the death of a cadre from alcohol poisoning.

According to a statement by the provincial discipline inspection commission on Friday, Xiang Shuguang was removed from his post as mayor of Yongzhou city and deputy chief of the city's committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Other government officials have been sacked or warned.

On April 29, Xiang and another 13 officials attended a lavish business dinner during which a cadre died after drinking too much. An investigation showed the dinner cost 7,707 yuan ($1,200) and cigarettes were consumed, a violation of the CPC's frugality rules.

This is not the first such case. In 2013, a cadre drank himself to death while accompanying Chen Ruixi, vice mayor of Sanming city in east China's Fujian province, for a dinner hosted by a private enterprise. The mayor was sacked in January 2014.