Air baggage row officer is suspended

China has suspended a senior army officer after reports he ­assaulted a flight attendant spread on the internet.

The official Xinhua news agency yesterday said Fang Daguo, district military political commissar in the southern city of Guangzhou, had been suspended after he and his wife, both smelling of drink, had a run-in with flight attendant Zhou Yumeng over the couple’s hand luggage.

The flight attendant published photos of her bruised arms and torn uniform on the Twitter-like microblog Sina Weibo, sparking a storm of angry comments.

“Fang Daguo, you have shamed China in front of the world,” wrote one blogger. After the photos published by Zhou spread online, the local government was investigating further and had suspended the official, Xinhua said.

The Global Times, a popular tabloid owned by the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, said reports of such incidents were spreading like wildfire online as conflict between citizens and local officials was increasing.

The party has always been image conscious, air brushing photos and strictly controlling the media to send the right ­message.

However, the rise of the internet and microblogs such as Sina Weibo have posed a major challenge to the party’s control.