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Official fired over pricey cigarettesPosted by Eric Mu, December 29, 2008 10:18 AM
 Chongqing Times December 29, 2008 Zhou Jiugeng, the government official who recently became notorious on the Internet for his expensive cigarettes, has been fired. Zhou was the director of the real estate bureau of Nanjing's Jiangning District. He was dismissed for "expressing inappropriate opinions to the media without authorization, which caused negative social effects" and for "purchasing high priced cigarettes using public funds." Zhou's "inappropriate opinion" refers to his saying in an interview that developers would be inspected and banned from selling properties below cost. This opinion was interpreted as attempt to justify current property prices which many people feel are still too high. An ensuing "human flesh search" found a photo showing Zhou at his desk with a pack of cigarettes which cost 1,500 yuan per carton. In the photo, he was wearing a watch believed to be an expensive Vacheron Constantin. Netizens also found that Zhou's brother himself is a real estate developer.  The Beijing News December 29, 2008 In other job-related news, Fan Meizhong, a former teacher who became a celebrity for running for his own life instead of helping his students when the Sichuan earthquake struck on May 12, was recently reported to have been offered a job by Beijing Kaihua Training School. Fan's actions brought a flood of criticism and resulted in a public debate over the role of teachers as role models and protectors of the students in their charge. Many people saw his new job as a crass attempt by the Kaihua Training School to use Fan's notoriety to gain publicity for themselves. Today's Beijing News reports that the school has announced that his hiring would be postponed indefinitely. Ran Dongzheng, president of Kaihua, explained that the school had underestimated the consequences of the controversy over Fan. Links and Sources
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Comments on Official fired over pricey cigarettes
re:
one wonders which facets of the above accusation comprise the core of the offense and which, if any, are mere aggravating factors.
would Zhou have been fine, for example, had he expressed inappropriate opinions to the media with authorization?
or would Zhou have been wrong even had he expressed appropriate opinions to the media provided that he'd done so without authorization?
and how crucial is the causing of negative social effects?
could someone be punished for expressing inappropriate opinions to the media without authorization if doing so causes positive or neutral social effects?
this is tricky stuff, people.
chinese officials are grossly under-paid.