Shanghai's ban on officials' family businesses needs better coverage

Shanghai officially announced a new regulation on Monday that prohibits family members of leading local officials from running related businesses in the zones where they hold leading positions. For those whose spouses or children are already running businesses, either the official or the family member must quit. Comments:

Quite a high percentage of the recent corruption cases involved family members of the officials concerned running businesses that took advantage of the official's position or laundered bribes through their bank accounts. This corruption related to the family is already a common phenomenon. Shanghai's regulation shows the authorities are heeding the lesson and trying to cut the illegal transfer of interests.

xinhuanet.com, May 4

As early as 1985, the central leadership issued a similar ban nationwide; and regulations of this kind were published in 2001 and 2010, however, none of them was strictly implemented. Shanghai's new regulation is said to be very strict and we hope it too won't become a mere scrap of paper. Our advice: Why not introduce a property disclosure system for officials, and allow the public to supervise officials? When people can report that an official's family members are running a business related to his position, it will help the anti-corruption agencies keep an eye on them.

people.com.cn, May 5

The regulation needs improving. For example, it forbids a leading official's family members from running business in a zone where an official has power, but the influence of the official may well extend to other zones. Besides, it only prohibits spouses and the children of officials from running businesses, but increasingly more officials tend to find agents. There are too many examples in which officials from different zones or cities take care of each other's family members running business under their governance. What is needed is a stricter regulation that is better implemented, to prevent officials from continuing to obtain illicit profit with the power in their hands.

Beijing News, May 5