In a news report dated July 17, 2025, the investigation into the construction of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl sculpture in Lu Mountain County, a poverty-relief county in Henan Province that spent 7.15 million yuan, has finally reached a conclusion after a two-year hiatus. According to official announcements on July 16, the actual cost of the sculpture was only just over 2 million yuan, and the officials involved were sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison, with a three-year suspended sentence. Netizens criticized the official handling of the situation as “raising it high and gently putting it down.”
In August 2023, Lu Mountain County in Pingdingshan City, Henan Province, which had just “escaped poverty,” spent 7.15 million yuan to build the Cowherd and Weaver Girl landmark sculpture, which was heavily criticized by netizens as “ugly and expensive.” Many netizens questioned whether corruption lay behind the exorbitant cost. According to media reports at the time, the project was awarded the bid on July 6 that year, but on June 23, a video surfaced showing the sculpture’s pedestal already under construction, leading to suspicions of a “pre-arranged bidding.” Moreover, Lu Mountain County had just lifted itself out of poverty in February 2020, prompting speculation of it being a mere “facade project.” The incident quickly became the focus of public opinion.
In response, on August 29 of the same year, Lu Mountain County issued a bulletin stating that a joint investigation team had been established to dismiss leaders directly responsible, meting out administrative penalties to relevant staff, and conducting a comprehensive review of project design, construction costs, bidding processes, and other issues.
However, the investigation did not conclude until two years later. Recently, the topic has been brought up by netizens again, sparking heated discussions. Netizens expressed various opinions: “Delay tactics vs. dragging out the outcome.” “The department’s stance: just procrastinate, you’ll forget sooner or later, what can you do to me?” “The situation isn’t complex, just too simple, so there’s no way to explain.” “This shoddy thing was claimed to cost over 7 million, how much was embezzled?” “With 750,000, various companies would compete to do it, with 7.5 million, only designated companies would dare, it can only be done by a specific company!”
On July 12, the Xiao Xiang Morning News contacted the disciplinary department of Pingdingshan City, and the staff responded that the matter was still under investigation and it was inconvenient to disclose specific details, emphasizing that it involved confidentiality and was being investigated by relevant authorities.
On the evening of July 16, the joint investigation team of Pingdingshan released a report stating that during the implementation of the project, issues such as building before bidding, collusion and inflated prices existed. A third-party engineering consulting firm re-calculated the actual cost of the project to be 2,071,949.29 yuan, a difference of more than 5 million yuan.
According to the report, based on the investigation results, on August 29, 2023, the then head of the Lu Mountain County Housing and Construction Bureau, Dang, was dismissed; on September 14, 2023, Li, the deputy in charge of the project’s bidding, was expelled from the Party and sentenced to three years in prison with a three-year suspended sentence and fined 200,000 yuan.
The company Rui Ze Art (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., implicated in collusion and inflated bidding, was fined 300,000 yuan on February 18, 2025. The company’s legal representative, Ma, was sentenced to six months in prison with a one-year suspended sentence, while the actual controller Ma was sentenced to one year in prison with a one year six month suspended sentence. Staff member He was sentenced to ten months in prison with a one-year suspended sentence, with fines ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 yuan for each.
The main leaders of the Lu Mountain County Party Committee and County Government were criticized for education and ordered to write self-inspections, while the deputy county chief of Lu Mountain County, who bore direct leadership responsibility, received a mere verbal warning.
The report once again triggered netizens’ questions: “Where did the over 5 million go?” “Embezzling so much, and at most a three-year suspended sentence.” “Why are they all given suspended sentences?” “Isn’t this just ‘raising it high and gently putting it down’?”