Zhong Guangwu wipes away tears talking about the difficult application process. File Photo 

Earlier this month, a special news story garnered sympathy and outrage on behalf of a Chinese villager. An impoverished man in a remote Chinese village spent 600 RMB, his total income for three months, to treat officials to a meal at their request, as a precondition of their approving a special grant for him. The Party chief of the village has since been suspended, and the officials involved in the incident have lost their Party membership for one year.

Zhong Guangfu, 63, is a widower with no children living in Zenghua Village in Sichuan. He makes a meager living by knitting and selling bamboo baskets. In December 2013, after filling out forms applying for a special grant at a local government office, Yang Xiuguang, the village's Party chief, asked Zhong to treat the officials to a meal. He persuaded Zhong that once the grant was approved, it would bring Zhong more than 400 RMB per month, making the single meal a small cost in comparison.

Days later, Zhong and another villager also “asking for a favor” treated 11 officials to a restaurant meal, even buying them expensive cigarettes. The two split the bill, with Zhong contributing 600 RMB.

More than one and a half years later, his grant was approved. But Zhong remained traumatized from the difficult application process.

“I sell my bamboo baskets for 30 yuan each, and I can sell 80 in a year at most. My dinner expense, 600 RMB, was nearly three months of my total income,” Zhong pointed out.

After the case was exposed, Party inspectors investigated, uncovering even more malpractice. The misdeeds of the officials include falsely claiming earthquake damage to get more reconstruction funds, extorting money from residents for violating family planning policies and taking many free dinners from villagers.