Toad soup video sparks enforcement review, controversial fine revoked

Authorities of Linyi in Shandong province have revoked a penalty imposed on a local restaurant in response to a social media video and suspended five officials for misconduct in law enforcement following a public outcry, according to an official statement released on Tuesday.

The statement, released by a joint investigation team comprising officials from Linyi's justice bureau and market supervision department, detailed the procedural violations in the case.

In February, a restaurant owner surnamed Zhang posted a short video about a dish called "Bufo Gargarizans (toad) Soup" on social media. On March 22, market regulators of Lanshan district, Linyi notified her by phone that the content allegedly violated advertising laws and required her to cooperate in an investigation.

Zhang said she would report to the investigation within a week as she was not home at the time and immediately removed the video.

However, two days later, she received a notice of administrative penalty with a fine of 450,000 yuan ($62,725) as a consequence of her "refusing to cooperate". The notice was slipped under her restaurant's door.

The investigation team said that no proper hearing procedures were conducted, nor was a non-penalty decision delivered timely as required by law.

The team also confirmed the penalty lacked sufficient evidence, as it was based solely on the video without verifying claims that the dish used farmed bullfrogs, referred to as "toads" locally, rather than protected wildlife.

Linyi's market supervision bureau annulled the penalty, and five staff members of the bureau, including former Party chief surnamed Qi, were suspended for dereliction of duty.