American diplomatic missions on the mainland have disclosed details of ambassador Gary Locke's income and personal assets in response to a call by a Communist Party mouthpiece in Beijing.
The Beijing Daily's demand, in a microblog posting on Monday that has since been removed, appears to have been an attempt to silence growing calls to make public mainland officials' assets - by showing US officials were just as reluctant.
'Gary Locke, please disclose [your] assets,' the paper said. But the plan appears to have backfired when he immediately did so. The prompt response triggered heated online discussion about the lack of transparency in mainland governments and widespread corruption.
The United States embassy in Beijing and its consulate in Shanghai released details of Locke's monthly salary and personal assets on their mainland microblogs yesterday morning - along with the salary levels of US State Department officials and their travel, meal and hotel reimbursement caps on the mainland. The microblog postings were accompanied by three detailed tables.
They said Locke (pictured) had declared his assets to local governments and the federal government 'almost every year' and his annual income was US$179,700, plus a US$30,000 annual education allowance for each of his three children. He had 23 assets worth between US$2.35 million and US$8.12 million, and one debt of between US$500,000 and US$1 million.
A declaration signed in March last year by Locke, the first Chinese-American to serve as US ambassador to China, showed he was the sixth richest US executive branch official.