China's online community won't have Watch-Wearing Brother to kick around anymore.
中国的互联网上不会再有“表哥”了。
Quoting local officials, the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Friday that Yang Dacai, a local official in Shaanxi province, had been ousted from his post for the possession of numerous expensive watches and other violations of discipline. Xinhua said officials are continuing a probe into his conduct.
新华社上周五援引当地官员的话报道，陕西省地方官员
杨达才因佩戴多块名表及其他严重违纪问题被撤销职务。新华社说，对调查中发现的杨达才的其他违纪线索，有关部门正在进一步调查。
Mr. Yang rose to Internet notoriety earlier last month after a photographer captured him smiling at the scene of a deadly collision between and bus and a tanker truck in Shaanxi that killed 36 people.
上个月早些时候，有人拍到杨达才在陕西省的一起交通事故现场面带微笑，此事在互联网上引发了强烈争议。在那起交通事故中，一辆客车和一辆罐车追尾，造成36人死亡。
But it was his accessories that soon became the focus of China's online vigilantes. Some noticed the lowly public official appeared to be wearing an expensive watch. China's massive community of volunteer Internet sleuths soon found a number of other photos of Mr. Yang wearing a succession of different high-end watches the sort of time pieces a local official in the hustings would be hard-pressed to afford with a regular government salary.
不过，是他的穿戴很快成为中国网民关注的焦点。一些人注意到，这位职位不高的
公职人员似乎戴了一块名表。中国庞大的互联网“人肉搜索”群体很快就发现，在其他一些照片中杨达才戴着各种名表，这种名表是中国一名地方官员很难用普通工资买得起的。
Dubbed Watch-Wearing Brother by his critics, Mr. Yang went on the offensive. In a highly unusual move for a Chinese public official, he turned to the Internet to address is critics directly. Writing on his account on Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging service, he said he was sorry for his smile at the scene of the accident, explaining that he was having a hard time understanding the local dialect and wanted to put nervous comrades at ease. On the watches, he assured his critics that he purchased the watches 'using my own legal income.'
被批评人士称为“表哥”的杨达才发起了反击。他做出了在中国公职人员中非常罕见的举措，借助互联网直接回应批评人士。杨达才在
新浪(Sina Corp.)微博账户中写道，他要对遇难者家属表示诚挚道歉。他解释说：有的同志口音比较重，有些话我听不太清楚。我让他们放松些，可能一不留神，神情上有些放松。至于名表，他向批评人士保证是用自己的合法收入购买的。