‘Naked’ party officials whose families live abroad demoted under anti-graft campaign
Move follows an order from Beijing in January that officials whose families have emigrated should not be promoted
Guangdong has transferred Communist Party officials whose families live abroad to less sensitive posts as part of the anti-corruption campaign, party mouthpiece the People’s Daily reported.
The move followed an order from Beijing in January that officials whose families have emigrated should not be promoted.
Such officials are usually dubbed “naked” officials by mainland media. The term refers to a new class of cadre which has emerged on the mainland over the past decade who send their wives or children to live comfortably in foreign countries while quietly laying the ground for their own eventual departure.
There are no national statistics on such cadres across the country, although some analysts have put the figure at more than one million.
The Guangdong Communist Party Organisation Department has ordered its branches across the province to investigate how many officials’ immediate families have emigrated. All “naked” officials - including department heads - should either ask their families to return to the country or be moved to less sensitive positions.
Before transferring these officials to other posts, the organisation department tries to persuade them to have their wives or children return from overseas.