Morning Clicks | Guangzhou party official to make assets public to bootstrap anti-corruption plans

And after four days of heavy publicity, Xinhua late Monday night responded with a statement reminding the public not to get their hopes up.

Reading Time:5 minutes

Fan's promise left many excited, and then Xinhua chimed in.

Published: 1:39pm, 22 Jan 2013Updated: 3:59pm, 28 Feb 2013

People have gotten excited over Fan Songqing, a deputy secretary with the CPPCC Guangzhou municipal committee because a few days ago he said he wants to be the first to go public with his (and his family's) total personal assets ahead of upcoming local transparency mechanisms to ensure they prove effective.

Provincial officials announced last year one district in Guangzhou has been chosen for what's being touted as the country's first formal pilot assets declaration scheme, although it remains uncertain whether or not information disclosed will be accessible to the public.

It's that lack of accountability, Fan said in one interview, which prompted his decision, and led previous similar attempts at transparency in Xinjiang and other provinces to failure.

Incidentally, Party discipline officials revealed last week that consensus within the Communist Party ahead of the NPC/CPPCC sessions in March slightly favours trying to rein in corruption through officials' disclosure of assets over political reform of the corrupt system.

Fan also argues the scheme should be extended to include the heads of state-owned enterprises and civil servants from the county level on up through their tenure and for the five years following their retirement from public service.

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