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An exemplary experiment

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-14 07:35

It's nice to know that a city in Xinjiang has adopted a property declaration system, but it's still unknown whether the practise can survive in the face of opposition of local officials, says an article in People's Daily. The following is an excerpt:

Altay in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has attracted national attention for its online declaration of incomes of 55 new officials. This makes Altay the first city to ride the tide of anti-corruption campaign in the country.

Last year, the prefecture government issued a rule that required county-level officials to declare personal properties before the deadline of Jan 1, 2009.

According to the property declaration information listed on a local government-funded website, these officials seem to have similar amounts of personal incomes and properties and none of them declared that they have ever received gifts. As for their family properties, no information is available. People said it's incomplete and limited. They question whether this information about the officials' properties can be relied on for social supervision.

Incomplete though it is, it has won wide acclaim. Some people have concluded that it is a big step forward in terms of concepts, although it's not perfect.

In fact, only one out of 10 local officials supported this practice, while 70 percent of the surveyed local officials opposed it. People are still waiting to see whether this open test of property declaration system can yield lasting results.

(China Daily 01/14/2009 page8)