The latest apply to officials in Guangdong. It would be nice to see the details. Relying on the press reports provides sketchy information at best. Hard to tell whether there are major loopholes here or if this is just the result of a space-limited news article:

Top officials of the Party and government organizations in Guangdong province will be required to disclose their personal assets, sources close to a provincial government work meeting have said.

Top officials of the Party and government organizations will also be required to reveal other personal information such as housing, marriage and children who are abroad.

Personal assets disclosure has been talked about a lot already, so that’s certainly not new. Information on housing, spouse and children has been the subject of recent discussion, however, particularly when those people are living abroad. I discussed that issue in an earlier post.

The central government and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued two regulations, in 1995 and 2001, requiring officials to declare their income. However, these were limited to officials’ salaries and subsidies, without the information being made available to the public.

So this represents a movement towards greater transparency and a wider scope of investigation. That’s great. But here’s what I don’t understand. Assets will be under the microscope, and family members will be scrutinized, particularly if they are living abroad. However, I have not heard anywhere that the assets of family members will be disclosed, which to me is the big one.

I’m not sure what the legal basis is for requiring the disclosure of family members’ assets and income, but the information certainly needs to be included. You have to connect the dots here or else finding those illegally appropriated assets is impossible.

Sadly, though, none of these disclosure rules will do anything about influence peddling. All of those kids of high-ranking officials who use their family name to do business on a less-than-arms-length basis have little to worry about disclosure.