Major News

Xinjiang dumps asset-revealing rule after discipline chief's death

By Yan Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-24 08:43

URUMQI - A landmark trial program in Xinjiang aimed at unveiling government officials' family assets has been stalled for a year since its main advocate died.

According to experts, it is common for planned experiments to never see the light of day in the Chinese political system.

Since early 2009, not a single new disclosure of the incomes of officials in the Altay region of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has been published on a website run by the local discipline supervisory body.

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The existing rule requires all county and lower level officials in the region to reveal their family assets to the local discipline supervisory department regularly.

The Altay region's oblivion to the rule, which took effect in mid-2008, came as the post of the head of the local discipline supervisory department continued to remain vacant after the death of Wu Weiping, its former head, in August 2009.

The department "temporarily doesn't have a leader" after Wu's death, said Feng Ruizhong, an official with the region's discipline supervisory department. He declined to comment on the yearlong absence of a formal head of the department.

Wu had thrown all his weight behind the rule to kick-start the country's first revelation of officials' family assets. In early 2009, more than 1,000 Atlay officials filed reports of their family assets.

Part of the officials' income sources were also published on the website run by the department.

The move, which drew massive attention, was hailed as a milestone in the cause of preventing corruption in China.

In the wake of Altay's landmark act, Cixi in East China's Zhejiang province, and Liuyang and Xiangxiang in Central China's Hunan province also demanded local officials to report family assets to the local party committees and governments.

But after Wu's death, the rule was conveniently forgotten.

Zhu Lijia, a professor from the China National School of Administration (CNSA), who is also an expert on Chinese politics, said dumping rules "is common" in China.

Policies or rules are often set aside with the departure of their main advocates from government posts, said Zhu.

If officials make the rules or policies more standardized or operational, they can be in effect for a longer duration, he added.