Local official suspended after ‘forcing apology’ from elderly man

A local official in Wushan county, Chongqing, has been suspended from his post after a viral video showed him forcing an elderly man to bow in apology for allegedly claiming that he did not benefit from the country’s poverty relief policy.

The video, which started going viral on Saturday, shows a man in a jacket shouting angrily at an elderly man, “It’s obvious you were given 300 yuan ($45) in basic living allowances. Why are you talking nonsense?”

The man then demanded “Were you wrong?” to which the elderly man replied, “Yes, I was wrong.” The elderly man was then physically forced to bow and apologized three times.

Written material circulating online said the elderly man was Li Zedong, 60, from Zhangshu village. Li is from a poor family and has to care for his mother and disabled wife while being sick himself, news site thepaper.cn reported.

The report said that he was forced to apologize because he claimed that he did not benefit from the government’s poverty alleviation policy when interviewed by the county’s government employees.

According to the county government, the man in the jacket who appears in the video was Chen Yong, head of Dachang town, and the elderly man was indeed Li. The county government has suspended Chen and requested disciplinary officials to punish him, local media reported.

China has called for the establishment of supervisory commissions to oversee village construction projects and poverty alleviation funds, Xinhua reported on December 4.