FIVE officials have been punished after they were found to have abused their power to turn people’s health codes red for non-epidemic reasons, China Daily and Global Times reported, citing an investigation report released by local authorities Wednesday.

The local government announcement comes after depositors of small rural banks near Zhengzhou complained that their health codes abruptly changed from green to red when they began to travel to Zhengzhou to protest against blocked withdrawals.

Deposits in four rural banks were frozen after officials uncovered what they saw as billions of yuan in illegal deposits made via online platforms.

According to the government statement, Feng Xianbin and Zhang Linlin, two officials from the city’s epidemic and control headquarters, “decided without authorization” to change codes to red to stop 1,317 aggrieved depositors traveling to Zhengzhou. Three other officials subsequently acted on Feng and Zhang’s orders.

The authorities said in the investigation report that the five people violated the Henan provincial health code management regulations for epidemic control and the rules on the code changing, which had seriously damaged the reputation of those documents and brought negative effects to society.

Feng and Zhang should bear major accountability, while the other three need to shoulder direct responsibility, the authorities said, identifying their moves as a typical abuse of power.

Feng was dismissed from his posts both in the Party and the government. Zhang was given a serious warning within the Party and demoted. The other officials were punished with administrative sanctions.

(SD News)