Hundreds of 'naked officials' reassigned in Guangdong

After a campaign, luoguan or "naked officials" in South China's Guangdong province have been reassigned to other posts in sake of tackling and preventing corruption, People's Daily reported on Thursday.

Among them, nine held senior posts in provincial departments or ran municipal governments.

“We've decided to tackle any luoguan cases once we find them,” an official in charge of the Guangdong Provincial Organization Department of the Communist Party of China told the newspaper.

“Naked Officials” are those who have sent their spouses and children overseas to live or study.

According to the newly-revised Regulations on the Work of Selecting and Appointing Leading Party and Government Cadres by the Party’s Central Committee in January, those officials whose spouses have emigrated, or having no spouses but their children have emigrated, will not be considered for any promotions.

Furthermore, all cadres should report annually by Jan 31 on personal property and on the situation of their spouses and children.

Guangdong pushed the regulations one step further, asking the “naked officials” already on important posts to be removed and reassigned. And a strict deadline for the action was drawn, requiring naked officials at the provincial level to be reassigned by April and those at other levels by the end of May.

One such 41-year-old official, surnamed Cai in Dongguan city, chose to resign under the requirement.

After detailed investigation taken since late 2013, a total number of 127 officials in Dongguan city were found to be “naked officials” whose posts need adjustments. In Jiangmen city, a city known as the home base to many overseas Chinese, the number is 128.

“Naked Officials are not necessarily problematic officials. But when you are alone holding a high post in the country, how can you make the people believe that you'll dedicate all you have to serve them?” Yang Jianwei, vice president of the Guangdong Provincial CPC Party School told the newspaper.

The system of reassigning naked officials is like a cage that confines possible problems and corruptions, Yang said.

The officials are required to accept adjustments or ask their spouses and children to come back home.

Officials of the Guangdong Provincial Organization Department believe the adjustments of the naked officials' posts are just means but not the end. “The final goal is to build a healthy political eco-system.”