Yesterday was the day when a new anti-corruption rule went into effect. The new rule on asset disclosure by government officials is another in a series of measures that have been promulgated in recent years in an attempt to thwart bribery, conflicts of interest, and other illegal activities.

I wrote about similar regulations that only applied to Guangdong Province  back in March.

Although similar rules to the one that went into effect Sunday have been around for a while, this most recent iteration expands the scope of what must be disclosed:

The newly added items include the official’s salary and subsidies; income from other sources such as lecturing; housing owned by the family, including spouse and children; the family’s investments in unlisted companies; the family’s investment in stocks, investment-oriented insurance and other financing products; and the employment of a spouse and children at home or abroad.

Not only do the rules target assets held by officials, but family investments are included as well to root out instances where assets are transferred and held in the name of spouses, children, parents, etc. Additionally, including employment and other information of family members who are abroad, the new rule continues the heightened scrutiny of “naked officials” (I wrote about this issue last February) who work in China but whose family, and assets, may be overseas.

Although transparency and disclosure rules are generally met with praise, some critics of these new measures suggest that releasing all of this information to the public would be even better. Under the current system, the disclosure forms are reviewed by higher-level officials who have disciplinary authority.

I’m not so sure that would ever work, or is even a good idea. While I’m also not so confident that superior officers would always flag problems they see on disclosure forms, it seems just as problematic to expect officials to open up their family’s financial information to the public. That’s asking a lot.

That being said, I wouldn’t mind seeing limited public disclosure by top-level officials. But don’t hold your breath waiting on that.