Temple charity may have funded son’s studies

Government and Party officials in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, are investigating the head of the city’s religious affairs bureau over allegations that a Taoist temple used donated money to pay for his son’s studies in the United States.

The investigation comes after a user on Sina Weibo posted a screen shot of the Mingsheng Temple website on Tuesday showing the details of how the Mingsheng Foundation, a charity funded by the income of the Taoist temple on Lishan Mountain, spent its money in 2013.

The temple’s income mainly comes from ticket sales and donations from followers.

Details were originally posted on the website in May 2016. One entry was highlighted by the user: Sponsor the son of Li Shemin, deputy director of Xi’an religious affairs bureau, 20,000 yuan ($2,900) to study in the US.

Li was appointed head of the bureau in 2015.

The user called the entry “real information disclosure”. The temple’s website was not accessible on Thursday.

The post soon went viral and attracted the attention of Xi’an’s anti-graft authority, since Li became the Party secretary and director of the bureau in 2015. The Xi’an branch of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the top anti-corruption watchdog, said on Sina Weibo on Wednesday night that it would investigate.

“We’ve handed all the related information regarding the post to the Xi’an government and Party committee, which are both investigating the case. The result will be made public,” an employee in the bureau’s general office who did not want to be named told China Daily on Thursday.

According to information on NGOs in Xi’an, the Mingsheng Foundation is a charity founded by the administrative committee of Mingsheng Temple in 2012. It receives 5 percent of the temple’s income while receiving donations from the public to support charitable work.