Laobulaluo, a police chief in Heizhugou township, Sichuan province, had seen 25 relatives either jailed, sent for "re-education through labour," or punished in other ways, according to a report posted on state news portal Chinanews.com

The police chief, who is in his 30s, is a member of China's Yi ethnic minority. Over a 10-year career, He had personally arrested a brother and two cousins after finding they had beaten local teachers at a primary school while drunk.

Other family members were arrested after stealing a woman's handbag.

The policeman's sense of duty had inflamed his relatives, some of whom had taken turns threatening his parents, and had "even secretly cut off the tails and slashed the legs of their cows," the report said.