Society

Official forced to declare assets

By Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-08 07:49

Bureau chief comes clean to counter netizen's imaginative online post

BEIJING - Zhang Li, an official in Central China's Hunan province, was forced to declare his assets, including five apartments, on Tuesday to prove his innocence after an alleged "impostor" posted the information, though "inaccurate", online.

Zhang told the local Xiaoxiang Morning Herald that he was "trapped" by some people. He said he had not published any property information online and the list that was posted was out of touch with reality.

Last Friday, a netizen named "007" said on Mop.com, a popular portal, that Zhang, head of the urban planning bureau for the Tianxin district in Changsha, provincial capital of Hunan, had taken the lead in declaring his assets.

The list includes a 4,200- yuan ($618) monthly salary, 3,800 yuan of invisible income each month, an annual bonus of 80,000 yuan and three apartments.

It soon attracted wide- spread attention and was reposted in cyberspace. A few netizens praised Zhang for his courage, but the majority doubted if his assets were legally acquired.

Zhang said he was "not that rich", as the online list suggested. "The so-called 'invisible income' is nonsense," he said, though he refrained from revealing his actual monthly income.

"Maybe he (007) knows me or maybe I've offended someone," the paper quoted him as saying.

According to the "real" list provided by Zhang, he actually has five apartments, two more than the online version. Among these, two are under his name and three are under the names of other family members. Together, the five apartments are worth more than 1.2 million yuan, the newspaper report said.

Zhang further claimed to having purchased two cars for his family. One of them is driven by his wife and is worth 240,000 yuan. The other one, which cost 130,000 yuan, was bought for his daughter. He has also invested over 100,000 yuan in the stock market.

When China Daily called the bureau headed by Zhang, an anonymous official said Zhang was not in the office and that the bureau would not comment on the issue.

She also said Zhang has a good reputation in the bureau and treats his subordinates well.

Willing or not, Zhang has become the first official in Changsha to declare his assets. Up to now, China has not introduced coercive assets declaration rules for government officials.

While many netizens raised doubts about how Zhang could afford five apartments solely on the basis of his salary, others see positive aspects to the situation.

"Anyway he published his assets," wrote a netizen from Henan province on Sina.com. "We should make more officials do the same thing."