Guangdong mayors pledge to disclose all family assets

The mayor of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province declared his willingness to disclose his personal assets after several mayors in the province made similar pledges, and more than 500 other local officials are being required to make asset declarations after Spring Festival break.

Mayor Xu Qin told a press conference during the current session of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress that he agrees with the other mayors and will push for mandatory declarations of personal assets among government officials in Shenzhen. The disclosure plan currently does not call for the declarations to be made public.

"I am willing to declare my assets once I receive notice to do so," said Xu, "The strategy helps curb corruption and I will do my best to promote the strategy according to plans from the central government."

Zheng Zhentao, the mayor of Shaoguan, also made the same pledge during the provincial session which started Friday and will last seven days.

"The best place to start is with the higher level government officials," Lin Zhe, an anti-corruption specialist with the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, told the Global Times.

"When the mayor starts to do it, his or her subordinates will follow."

Lin believes that one of the major reasons the asset declaration failed in previous attempts is because the officials who were in charge tried to avoid making declarations themselves. "The government needs to put in some serious effort, otherwise the strategy will not work," Lin added.

Zheng announced that 526 government officials in Shixing county, one of 27 places in a nationwide pilot program, will start declaring their family assets after Spring Festival.