Guangdong province is planning to implement new rules aimed at strengthening the anti-corruption campaign of the country by tightening regulations to bar officials from uniting with their families overseas. The new rules were disclosed on Wednesday and presented to the public for comment.

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In accordance with the new rules, officials with spouses and children residing abroad will be banned from holding key roles in government agencies, public foundations, people's associations and State-owned and State-controlled organizations.

These officials, who have been dubbed as "naked officials", will also not be authorized to participate or take charge of "important or sensitive" positions, which include posts involving accounting, finance, human resources, security, and financial regulation.

Any official under consideration for promotion to a principal post will be required to openly declare information regarding his or her marriage, personal investments and properties, as well as self-discipline records and occupations of the spouse and children.

Zhang Jin'gen, a political science professor at Sun Yat-sen University, commended the new rules as effective measures to fight corruption in the province.

"Disqualifying naked officials from leading roles can reduce the risk of having corrupt officials who flee the country," commented the scholar at Guangzhou University's Center for Anti-Corruption Studies.

"However, it's better to authorize an independent third party to investigate the backgrounds of the State personnel in line for promotion rather than solely rely on their own reports," stated Zhang.

"And the provincial government needs to set specific standards on examining the collected information and picking out naked officials," he added.

Moreover, Zhang interpreted the provision in the draft requiring the public officials under deliberation for promotion to publicize the mandated documents only "within a certain scope" to mean that the information will only be disclosed "within the Party committees' organization department".

Zhang asserted that the documents should be shared with the general public as the influence of online users in the supervision of government activities, as well as exposure of naked and corrupt officials, has already been tested and proven to be effective.

In compliance with the orders of the central inspection team in February, 2,190 naked officials have been identified in Guangdong. Among these officials, 866 were reassigned. 

TagsNaked Officials, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Anti-corruption