County govt has no right to put its hand on last rites

THE GOVERNMENT of Yueqing county, East China's Zhejiang province, issued a notice demanding residents conduct funerals within three days, limiting the number of wreaths allowed to no more than four, and stipulating bodies must be sent to a mortuary within 24 hours of death. China Youth Daily comments:

According to the Yueqing government, a funeral in the county may last a whole week and cost more than 1 million yuan ($147,000), and it wants to halt the wasteful and showy practice.

If the notice applied only to civil servants, so they could set an example for curbing the extravagant tradition, it would have been welcomed without question.

However, the notice is applicable to all local residents, and thus it oversteps the bounds of the county government's power.

According to the Administrative Permission Law, it takes at least the provincial authorities to make the rules on civil activities. The Yueqing county government's notice is therefore against the law.

The family members and relatives of the deceased have every right to decide the scale of the funeral. As long as the funeral does not affect public order or invite complaints from the neighbors, the authorities are not entitled to interfere.

The local authority can advocate that traditional social occasions such as funerals and weddings should not be grand affairs. But they should not try to impose restrictions on people, as they have no right to do that.