Civil servants with families overseas are reassigned

The Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee said on Monday that it has reassigned nearly 1,000 so-called "naked officials" - civil servants whose family members have migrated overseas - as part of the widening anti-graft campaign.

The department has so far found more than 3,200 naked officials at deputy division director level or above, which includes the nearly 1,000 reassigned officials.

Under new regulations set by the CPC Central Committee in January, officials whose spouses and children have emigrated are not allowed to be promoted. It was the first time the Party's central authorities had put restrictions on naked officials.

The department said later that naked officials cannot hold important positions in government, State-owned enterprises, the military, diplomacy or national security.

Naked officials who refuse to move family members back to China will be moved to less important posts, and the public can report officials who hide their family situation.

Zhu Lijia, a professor of public administration at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said naked officials are a big threat to clean governance because it is easier for them to transfer illegal gains overseas.

Zheng Fenming, director of the Institute of Modernization Strategy at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said investigating these officials and not promoting them is a remedial measure to prevent corruption.

"To support their family members abroad, these officials are susceptible to corruption," Zheng said.

In June, the Guangdong provincial government reassigned 866 officials whose family members have migrated overseas, and another 200 asked their families to return from abroad.

In one recent high-profile case, Fang Xuan, the former deputy Party chief of Guangzhou, whose family members have all emigrated, was asked to leave his post in May before reaching the retirement age of 60.

wangqian@chinadaily.com.cn