Abusing their power by abusing their power

The two officials, who were subsequently fired, said they would lessen the power outage by one hour for every bottle of "baijiu" - a strong grain-based alcohol - two female managers drank, the Beijing Times said.

The two officials, who worked at the power company in the central province of Hunan, were found to have "severely harmed the image of the electricity bureau" and "caused a depraved social disturbance," the newspaper said.

The loss of power also caused chaos and blackouts for surrounding residents, it added.