Officials should keep out of affordable housing

The distribution process includes working with local governments to make approvals mainly based on an applicants' family income, although other factors like employment status also factor into the process.

It is vital to disclose information on how many affordable units are available each year, who is applying and who is finally approved.

Some cities make the names of applicants a matter of public record, but more details regarding their income and jobs should be provided in the future so others can better gauge their qualifications.

Take the official in Zhengzhou for example. As a former government employee at quite high a level, the official's family would not meet the low-income requirements to obtain such apartments.

The 11 affordable housing units are registered under the name of the official's daughter who has two different identification cards, which shows how greatly a stricter ownership registration system is needed.

If a person already has an affordable apartment registered, let alone 10, he or she should be automatically eliminated from further registrations.

With many low-income citizens seeing such subsidized housing as their only chance of ever owning a home, any corruption is immoral. Tolerating it is equally unacceptable.