China Vetting its Officials

The Chinese communist government has a new idea to vetting their public officials. They have decided to post” candidates’ names, dates of birth, academic degrees, current posts and applied-for positions have been published online”. To me this gets a big WTF! Yeah, maybe Obama could have used this idea, but dont most countries have a more professional form of vetting, Ie. background checks by the CIA, etc? “Starting Friday, a total of 696 candidates competing for 241 posts in municipal and district governments in Beijing will be subject to a seven-day public review, according to an office set up by Beijing’s organization department. All of the candidates’ names, dates of birth, academic degrees, current posts and applied-for positions have been published online, as part of the review. Anyone objecting to any of the candidates will have the opportunity to dial one of three telephone numbers to express their disapproval. Candidates will also have to submit details about 10 further things, including properties owned by them, changes in marital status, financial investments and the employment status or legal liabilities of spouses or children. Candidates will be excluded if they are found to have concealed information about themselves or tried to mislead, according to an official from the city’s organization department who was quoted by Beijing Times. The official told the newspaper candidates will not suffer any negative impacts if their revelations comply with rules and laws. The move for greater transparency in the capital follows a string of similar initiatives from local governments in other areas that now require officials to report on their personal status. Starting Jan 1, officials slated for promotion to county-level status in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, had to reveal family assets, including debts, to their departments. In February 2009, the Altay prefecture, a region in China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, published reports filed by more than 1,000 local officials about their families’ assets. Cixi, in East China’s Zhejiang province, and Liuyang and Xiangxiang, in Central China’s Hunan province, have also brought in similar rules.”