Xinhua: Guangdong officials ‘buy corpses to meet cremation quota’

Two officials in Guangdong province have been arrested after they allegedly bought corpses from grave robbers to have them cremated, Chinese media say.
They said they were trying to ensure government quotas on the number of cremations every month were met.
In Chinese tradition, relatives are buried with tombs built so that loved ones can perform ancestor worship, but the government has encouraged cremations to save land for farming and development.
In June, a resident of Beiliu city in southern China’s Guangxi region reported that his grandfather’s body had been stolen from the graveyard. In July, police in Beiliu arrested a grave robber, surnamed Zhong, Xinhua said. Zhong confessed he had stolen more than 20 corpses from graveyards in local villages at night. He said he put then into bags and transported them into neighbouring Guangdong province.
The two officials, surnamed He and Dong, who were in charge of implementing funeral management reform, were arrested last week.