HUAXI, China: Residents of China's "richest village" bid farewell Friday to the man who made them wealthy by transforming the rural settlement of Huaxi into a socialist paradise.
Wu Renbao, the retired Communist Party chief of the village in the eastern province of Jiangsu, died on Monday of cancer at age 84 and a simple funeral ceremony was held, in keeping with the communist cadre's wishes.
Beneath a huge photograph of the late leader, hundreds of mourners wearing black armbands bowed their heads in silence, surrounded by wreaths made of paper flowers sent by China's top leaders.
"He will be in our hearts forever," one villager said, with tears in her eyes.
The story of Huaxi is a model for Chinese propaganda, showing how a village could get rich under economic reforms launched three decades ago, but stay true to socialist ideals by sharing the wealth.
Wu was in charge for more than four decades, turning farmers into millionaires by setting up 12 corporations ranging from textiles to steel.
Now the village's 2,000 registered residents live in villas and drive luxury cars bought with profits from the collectively-owned companies, state media said.
But some are more equal than others and the 33,000 people who live in Huaxi but are deemed non-residents do not enjoy the same benefits, while a magazine has claimed the Wu family controls more than 90 percent of the village's assets.
His fourth son Wu Xie'en, who took over as the village party chief in a dynastic succession in 2003, vowed to carry on his legacy, saying he would "truly turn Huaxi into a unique, special Shangri-La".
Thousands of mourners filed through Wu's home -- a two-storey, white-painted cement building to pay their respects, where he lay in a plain wooden coffin, draped in a red Communist flag with only his head visible.
The Wu house is a marked contrast to the ostentatiousness of much of Huaxi, which in 2011 unveiled one of China's tallest buildings, a $470 million, 74-storey hotel 328 metres (1,080 feet) high.
In it stands a gleaming near-life-size statue of an ox, claimed to be made of solid gold.
Extravagant displays of wealth and accusations of nepotism have called the model village into question, the China Daily said, and China's new leadership has stressed frugality for officials as a means to crack down on corruption.
But a villager praised Wu's humble lifestyle, saying he remained in his original house from the 1970s, and Wang Hui, a retired government official from Beijing, added: "He was a common person and he had morals."
During his lifetime Wu assumed mythical status, meeting top leaders and starring as himself in a 2012 film made to mark a key Communist Party meeting.
After his death, state media reported incorrectly that the US news magazine "Time" had once put him on the cover.
Official figures are scarce, but the village -- which proclaims itself China's richest said its businesses had total sales turnover of 50 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) in 2008.
"My biggest wish is to make poor people live a good life. Communists should seek happiness for the majority of the people," Wu once said, as quoted by the official Xinhua news agency. (AFP)
