'Naked officials' must bare it all about families

BEIJING - "Naked officials" - the name given to public servants whose spouses have taken up residence abroad and who are suspected to be more prone to corruption - will soon be subject to more scrutiny, according to a senior discipline official.

Speaking at a meeting on Monday, Zhang Xiaoying, head of the Party discipline inspection commission of the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate, announced an approaching campaign to "monitor and correct officials' conduct". His remarks were primarily aimed at the city's prosecutors.

Naked officials are believed to have a greater tendency toward corruption because the presence of their spouses overseas makes it convenient for them to funnel bribe money and other ill-gotten gains out of the reach of local authorities. If caught in their misdeeds, such officials also have an easy means of escape: they simply take up residence with their spouses abroad.