Southern Perspective Shenzhen

Six months ago Shenzhen removed their once mayor, Xu Zongheng, for “serious disciplinary violations”(China Daily)

Corruption is not uncommon in the ranks of officials but day by day work is being done. A new policy has come about recently:

“Officials whose spouse and children have all emigrated to foreign countries should not take top positions in the Party and government,” said a regulation issued by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Shenzhen committee and the Shenzhen government on Wednesday.

The reasoning behind all this is not to discourage people from moving out of China, but to discourage absconding to those places to in order make off with the big government pay checks.

The Ministry of Commerce has estimated, “About 4,000 corrupt officials fled the country with at least $50 billion between 1978 and 2003.”

How effective will this new policy be? It is hard to say now, but steps are being taken even if they are small ones.