Anti-graft campaign turns sights to officials with family overseas

A deputy chief of a municipal Party Committee, who has come under fire for being a "naked official," is to be replaced in South China's Guangdong Province, as the country's anti-graft campaign begins to target this specific group of Party officials.

The term, "naked officials," which refers to officials whose spouses and children have emigrated overseas, relates to corruption as it's a common practice for corrupt officials to escape from the country by first arranging for their families to settle down abroad and transferring ill-gotten assets.

According to a statement on Monday from the Organization Department of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Fang Xuan, deputy chief of Guangzhou Municipal Committee of CPC, will be replaced by Li Yiwei, the Party chief of Foshan city in Guangdong.

Fang, born in 1954, was due to reach the official retirement age of 60 in October. The statement said he was taking early retirement.

Media reports revealed that his early retirement is because authorities found him to be a "naked official."

Anonymous sources with the province's organization department told Xinhua that Fang's early retirement was part of a large-scale campaign to stamp out "naked officials."

Reshuffle in Guangdong

Guangdong Province has launched a slew of investigations into such officials, a move that came after a central disciplinary inspection team statement in February, which said the number of "naked officials" in the province was a serious problem.

The Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CPC issued an internal document in February which aimed to curb the number of naked officials, and claimed that naked officials should either bring their families back home or retire ahead of time, the Beijing Evening News reported last week.

Families of several officials in Guangdong Province have abandoned their right of residence overseas, such as the spouse of Liu Hai, Party chief of Jiangmen, who gave up her right of abode in Hong Kong and returned to the mainland, the Hong Kong-based newspaper Mingpao reported.

The report said that officials in Dongguan, Guangdong Province underwent a reshuffle one month ago, as more than 30 officials who serve in the city government and State-owned enterprises, as well as county and township governments, either retired ahead of time or were transferred to serve other less important positions. Sources said that these officials were all "naked."

The reshuffle move in the province affected officials in the Pearl River Delta more as they tend to have more connections with Hong Kong and Macao, said the report.

According to a document released in January by the CPC Central Committee regarding selection and appointment of Party and government officials, "naked officials" will not be considered for promotion.

"The number of 'naked officials' has to decrease rather than merely have their chances of promotion cut off," said Xin Ming, a professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC.

Not harsh enough?

However, some have questioned whether Fang's early retirement was actually a punishment. The public's impression is that such officials must be corrupt.

An editorial published in the Suzhou Daily on May 22 said that even though the authorities have taken further actions to deal with naked officials, making a naked official retire ahead of time without any clarification on whether the official is corrupt or not is still not transparent enough.

Xiao Bin, a professor with the School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University, said "naked officials" are considered high-risk when it comes to corruption.

"These officials who can easily escape to foreign countries are more inclined to act in a corrupt manner," Xiao added.

China has grappled with the "naked official" problem for a long time.

Statistics from the Supreme People's Procuratorate in 2011 showed that 1,631 fugitives from corruption charges were arrested, a 27 percent year on year increase. Proceeds from their crimes worth 7.7 billion yuan ($1.25 billion) have been recovered.

In 2011, Luo Yinguo, deputy Party secretary of Maoming Municipal Committee of CPC, Guangdong Province, was detained for accepting bribes and power abuse. Luo had fake identity cards so he could easily cross the border. Luo's children had acquired foreign nationality.

But many officials just vanished, and the money they absconded with was never returned.

Xin Ming said the problem exists because of a shortage of sufficient and effective measures to control this group of people.

The anti-graft body issued regulations as early as 1997 ordering officials to disclose details of their spouses and children who had emigrated.

A reporting system was implemented in 2010 but has had little impact.

"Clearer rules and specific regulations targeting this group should be in place," said Xin.

Xiao agrees. "What is more important is not to allow the chance of becoming a 'naked official.'" He said this would help curb corruption.

"As the ruling party, we should not permit the existence of 'naked officials,' and Guangzhou is doing what we should have done before. The practice should be spread nationwide," Xin explained.