An official and member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing has been dismissed after deliberately hiding a history of five trips at home and abroad over one month and failing to undergo self-quarantine when the COVID-19 pandemic situation was severe, in violation of anti-epidemic regulations.
Luo, an official from the sports bureau at Haidian district, received a severe disciplinary warning from the CPC and was ordered to resign on May 28 for violating the Party’s work discipline and causing a bad influence, China.org.cn reported on Saturday.
The discipline inspection commission of Haidian district interviewed the person in charge of the bureau on July 13.
The commission vowed to investigate and crack down on such violations by some Party members and public officials whose disciplinary awareness was weak during the fighting against the epidemic.
The punishment came after the commission received a report in March, which said Luo had left Beijing and went abroad several times, and didn’t report the trips to his work unit or residential community, nor did Luo quarantine at home.
The commission then set up an investigation team and spoke with Luo.
During the first talk, Luo lied by saying he was on guard duty for the community watch and did not go anywhere.
The investigation team found Luo had in fact deliberately concealed his trips and did not cooperate with the investigation.
After four interviews, Luo finally admitted that he visited the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region during the Spring Festival in late January and had traveled abroad three times since January 26.
During the investigation, the commission found that Luo reported to the sports bureau that he planned to visit Hong Kong from January 26 to February 1 but lied that he had come back to Beijing after the trip, and had in fact travelled to South Korea and Thailand until February 14 without permission.
From January 26 to March 15, Luo left Beijing and went abroad three times for a total of 30 days, arriving in five countries, regions and domestic cities including Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Zhuhai and Macao.
On February 14, Beijing issued a notice regulating that all people returning to Beijing should stay at home or undergo quarantine for 14 days. The regulation noted that before returning to Beijing, people should report to their work units and residential communities in advance.
A staff member (R, front) disinfects a COVID-19 nucleic acid testing facility set up temporarily on a construction site in Haidian District of Beijing, capital of China, June 26, 2020. More than 1,750 construction workers in Beijing received COVID-19 nucleic acid tests on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)
