Zhejiang county official candidates in asset disclosure

Candidates for official posts in Pan'an County, in east China's Zhejiang Province, have been required to declare their personal assets.

With their details publicized for a week by Wednesday, the county organization committee said it has not received public tips on disloyal reports of personal assets made by the 14 candidates.

The committee's endeavor on mandating personal property declaration has been loudly applauded by the public and the media. Some commended it as the most thorough initiative of its kind so far in the country.

Candidates' personal information publicized on the county government's website includes their educational and work background, annual salary, housing estates, cars, equities and other sources of their family income.

Hu Yuxian, who is running for township head, reported that she has a yearly salary of 62,123 yuan (9,847 U.S. dollars) from her work as secretary of the Pan'an county committee of the Communist Youth League of China, and she has two housing estates -- one measuring 143.95 square meters was bought by her family and another measuring 304.17 square meters was a bestowed asset.

Hu said she feels pressure from declaring her assets, but she understands that it is fair to give the public a clear picture of someone in the running for an important official post.

"It is a strong constraining force to make civil servants self-disciplined," said the 30-year-old college graduate.

According to discipline regulations set by the organization committee, those who are found to have concealed their personal assets will be dismissed from the following official nomination procedure.

The organization committee of Jinhua City, which administrates Pan'an, said it is working to introduce Pan'an's practice into the official appointment system in the city in a bid to check corruption and build a "transparent" government.

Officials bearing luxuries as personal assets have become a new form of corruption in China.

Yang Dacai, a senior work safety official in Shaanxi Province, is the latest of such suspect exposed by Chinese netizens, who posted photos on the Internet showing Yang wearing at least 11 pricy wristwatches on different occasions.

Yang was sacked last Friday, and is now under disciplinary investigation.

Earlier this month, the Shaanxi Bureau of Finance turned down an application by university student Liu Yanfeng for Yang's personal assets to be disclosed.

Liu said on Wednesday that he intends to sue the bureau and the provincial safety administration where Yang worked for violating the country's regulations on government information disclosure.

"The finance bureau's reply refusing my application on Yang's income is illegitimate. I require them to disclose Yang's salary and pay the legal bill for my suit," he said.