OpinionShanxi investigates disciplinary official for double hukou

Shanxi officials have launched an investigation into a family of public officials after one was found to be in illegal possession of more than one household registration permit, while another owned close to a dozen properties in the country, the Beijing Times reported.

Zhang Yan, an official with Yuncheng city’s Commission for Discipline Inspection, was found to have illegally registered household registration permits, or hukou, in both Yuncheng and Beijing, the newspaper had first reported on Thursday.

Zhang's husband, Sun Hongjun, helped her obtain the hukou during his tenure as Xiaxian county’s police chief. He was sacked last year.

Zhang’s Beijing address is listed to a residential complex in Zhongguancun – an area known by many as China’s Silicon Valley, although neighbours said they rarely saw her. 

According to the newspaper, a second hukou can be bought under the table for about 100,000 yuan (HK$123,000). Police are known to take bribes to process documents “negligently”.