Officials will have to declare assets
Law experts believe measure will curb rampant corruption
Mainland officials will be required to declare their income and assets under a new civil service law that is part of Beijing's efforts to crack down on rampant official corruption.
Although the law is unlikely to touch on how assets are to be declared, many mainland legal experts view this as the most significant part of the new legislation. The law is expected to be adopted by the country's legislature today - highlighting the top leadership's resolve to curb official corruption.
The National People's Congress Standing Committee would approve the law after the second reading at a session scheduled to end today, said Ying Songnian , of the NPC's internal and judicial affairs committee. New legislation usually goes through three readings before becoming law.
For the law to be an effective weapon in the fight against corruption, NPC deputies and legal experts have urged the central government to follow up with detailed implementation measures to require officials and their family members to put their incomes and assets under public scrutiny.
'Official corruption is the thing that people hate the most, and what they are most concerned about is how the country can curb official corruption through various systems and legislation,' said Wang Quanjie , an NPC deputy who was invited to share his opinions on the law at the Standing Committee meeting.
Jiang Mingan, from Peking University, said it was time to boost scrutiny of the country's millions of civil servants to prevent abuse of power.
'To make the law work properly in this regard, it would have to reflect at least three principles. It should cover officials' assets, including property and cars, in addition to their official wages. Their family members, such as spouses or children, must be included. [Information relating to] declared assets must also be made public through the internet, newspapers or other media,' he said.
Professor Jiang denied there was any contradiction between the people's right to access information about officials' assets and civil servants' privacy, which the official media cited as the main sticking point preventing the law from being more specific.
'As they are government officials, civil servants must give up some privacy to ensure the public interest is protected. This is a recognised principle all over the world,' he said.
He suggested that senior officials in the central and local governments should be among the first to declare their assets and incomes.
'We have been discussing the topic for the past five or six years. We should not delay its adoption any more.
'If the system is not set up as soon as possible, we will give more leeway to corruption,' he said.
But he admitted that legislation alone would not wipe out corruption.
