Banker's four hukou spark public outrage

A scandal over the hukou (household registration) system, which the public suspect of being related to corruption, has touched a nerve for millions of  Chinese frustrated by inflexible residence rules and exorbitant housing prices.

Gong Aiai, a former bank executive in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, who reportedly owns over 20 properties in Beijing, has been exposed as having four hukou.

Gong, 49, a former deputy chief of the Shenmu Rural Commercial Bank and deputy to the People's Congress in Yulin, Shaanxi, reportedly has hukou in Chaoyang district in Beijing and Shenmu county in Shaanxi, in addition to the previously exposed two hukou in Shenmu.

An online whistle-blower earlier revealed that Gong, who owns more than 20 properties in the capital worth over 1 billion yuan ($160.8 million), also possesses two ID cards, one of them under the alias Gong Xianxia.

The police authority in neighboring Shanxi Province's Linxian county, where one of Gong's hukou was transferred from, has started an investigation, with two police officers at a local police station suspended over the issue, People's Daily Online reported Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the local authority in Shenmu also launched an investigation into the case, after the Shenmu Rural Commercial Bank terminated Gong's employment contract, chinanews.com reported.

Police in Shenmu earlier said it was caused by "negligence," before another two of Gong's hukou were revealed by the media.

As of press time, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau Tuesday didn't respond to the Global Times inquiry about Gong's hukou in the city.

Gong Aiai's case is not an isolated one.