Latest anti-corruption regulations still lag behind standard practices in West

There is a long-standing popular saying on the mainland that if 10 officials were randomly chosen and jailed for corruption, the evidence would show that only one had been wronged. This may be an overstatement, but it succinctly reflects the growing anger against official corruption, which has become rampant and systematic.

Mainland leaders have long admitted that fighting corruption is a matter of life and death for the Communist Party, which cannot be faulted for not trying hard enough.

Over the past 30 years, the authorities have released a multitude of anti-corruption rules ranging from the maximum number of dishes officials may have for a banquet to the types of cars they may drive. The mainland probably has more anti-graft bodies than any other country in the world. The most powerful is the party's benignly named Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which has sweeping powers to detain and question indefinitely an official suspected of corruption. On the government side, the Ministry of Supervision is responsible for monitoring the conduct of civil servants. On the judiciary side, the Supreme People's Procuratorate has anti-corruption bureaus on the national and local levels. On top of those, the central government has also set up a National Bureau of Corruption Prevention.

While those agencies investigate corrupt officials by the thousands each year, the fact remains that official corruption is still rampant, and the public still disgruntled.

It is against this background that the central government earlier this month made public what were termed the strictest and most comprehensive 'discipline regulations' yet, requiring most ranking officials to disclose information such as salary and bonus, marital status, property and securities investments, overseas trips, and the professions and business operations of their spouses and children.

Xinhua hailed the promulgation of the rules as reflecting the mainland leadership's 'staunch determination and clear-cut attitudes' in fighting corruption, which would have 'far-reaching implications' for strengthening 'the party's self-building'.

Big words indeed, but anyone who goes through the 23 clauses and 3,400 words of the regulations will conclude that they can in no way be compared to the regulations on declarations of assets required of officials in Hong Kong and Western countries. There are good reasons to doubt the enforcement and effectiveness of the mainland's rules, not least because the information will not be available to the public or the media.