Property disclosure of officials part of further anti-graft efforts

Wu Xiang, a lawyer and member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Guangzhou municipal committee, urged the local Party chief and mayor to disclose the property they own so as to propel a property disclosure system for officials. The move aroused nationwide discussion because such an initiative first emerged two decades ago, yet hardly any progress has been made. Comments:

The leadership said that one of the main goals of the ongoing reform is to shut power inside a cage. One of the best cages must be the disclosure of officials' property - with their property under public supervision, they will lose the motivation for corruption, knowing that illegal properties will be reported and lead them to prison. We call for the central leadership to accelerate the building of this cage, which has been delayed too long.

Qianjiang Evening News, Feb 4

Despite repeated public calls for officials to disclose their property, an effective mechanism has never been established. That's essentially why Wu's speech has won nationwide support from ordinary people - they hope the authorities can echo his initiative and introduce such a system. The problem lies in how to design the system and make officials accept it.

Beijing News, Feb 4

Even without the system, some officials could still choose to disclose their property on their own initiatives. The problem is, without a mandatory system, bureaucrats will wait for each other to disclose their properties, and those daring to take the first step can be isolated by their colleagues. Proper measures need to be taken to encourage more officials to disclose the property they own.

Qilu Evening News, Feb 4

As early as May 2010, the central Party and government authorities issued regulations that require officials at the deputy-director level and above to register their property information. The problem is, the authorities seem to have never bothered to check whether the reported information was true; besides, the information is known only to the authorities and kept secretive from the public. Only when ordinary citizens know this information can there be truly effective supervision.

cnhubei.com, Feb 5

Most media outlets say that officials' property disclosure helps supervise power. Actually that's only one of its two main benefits, the other being greater public confidence in the government, thus preventing innocent officials from being suspected of corruption.

news.com.cn, Feb 5