President Xi Jinping sent out a central task force on Monday, April 18, to expand the program on four other provincial-level areas: Chongqing, Guangdong, Beijing and Xinjiang. (Photo : Getty Images)
Families of senior officials will be put under a spotlight as the Communist Party expands a Shanghai pilot program to weed out more corruption among its ranks, according to an article by the South China Morning Post.
The Shanghai program, implemented in the city since mid-2015, helps define and regulate the business engagements of officials' relatives.
President Xi Jinping sent out a central task force on Monday, April 18, to expand the program on four other provincial-level areas: Chongqing, Guangdong, Beijing and Xinjiang.
The decision to expand the Shanghai program was finalized at a meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms.
The expansion comes as a result of the recently leaked Panama Papers, which uncovered the offshore accounts of prominent figures from all over the globe. The Panama Papers revealed that relatives of eight serving and retired Chinese leaders were once involved in offshore companies.
Through the expansion of the program, the party will be able to monitor the behavior of senior officials' relatives. For example, spouses of senior officials are not allowed to hold executive positions in private companies. They are also banned from holding senior jobs in foreign-invested firms.
Senior officials' children (as well as their children's spouses) are free to engage in business, just not in the administrative area where the senior official exerts considerable influence.
"We will work to strictly define such business activities, to make detailed rules and procedures for implementation," Xinhua reported.
A post-meeting statement added that such rules are being planned to be institutionalized across the country. One day, such provisions will be considered long-term, "normal" practices.
It is unclear, however, what will happen to those who fail to meet the conditions.
It has long been suspected by some that family members of senior officials use their relationships to gain leverage and improve their financial standing. Some families have also migrated to other countries while the officials work in China. This practice has resulted in the sacking of "naked officials."
