官邸制 (guāndĭ zhì): Official residence system

The recently released Blue Book on Public Administrative Reform 2016, issued by the China Society of Administration Reform, says it is time to implement a system for official residences.

According to the Blue Book, about 90 percent of the interviewees, most of them government officials, civil servants, enterprise managers and local community staff support the implementation of a system for officials' housing.

An official residence system would mean that the housing provided to government employees above a certain level during their time in their posts will have to be returned when they leave or are removed from office.

In other words, an official has the use of a property, not ownership of it.

Such a system would curb housing corruption, which is conducive to the building of a clean government.

The implementation of a system for official residences was put forward at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in November 2013, which indicates such a system has already been included as a significant issue in the central government's all-round reform. The related authorities should propel this reform soon and advance a detailed timetable and road map for the sake of clean governance and social harmony.