Duowei News published an article stating that, on March 1, People’s Daily published a front page article on how Shanghai is cracking down on the relatives of government officials because they run businesses and have launched enterprises. The People’s Daily article stated that, among 2,133 municipal level officials, relatives of 229 officials received the actions: the rules do not apply to 17 of them; 137 dropped out of the company business; 11 had their job transferred; 10 retired; 1 left the company; 3 were subject to serious disciplinary actions; and 50 signed written acknowledgements. The Duowei article noted that it is rare for a party official media to post local news on the front page. This could indicate that the issue of relatives of public officials conducting businesses has become a serious phenomenon, especially in Shanghai.
According to the People’s Daily article, In May of 2015, the Shanghai Municipal government introduced a regulation about the spouse of a public official or the children of public officials and their spouses conducting business. It specified that the spouses of the officials are not allowed to conduct business, while their children and the spouses of the children can’t have their own business dealings in Shanghai. Meanwhile, 20 percent of the officials who claim that their relatives have no business dealings can be sampled each year and subject to investigation. In 2016, it was reported that 182 out of 1802 provincial and department level officials in Shanghai received disciplinary actions. According to the Duowei article, the number went up in 2017, compared to 2016, which means that the scope of the investigation has expanded.
{Editor’s note: It is known that former President Jiang Zemin’s sons and grandsons are running businesses in Shanghai and have built a big commercial empire there.}
Source:
Duowei News, March 2, 2017
http://china.dwnews.com/news/2017-03-02/59803234.html
People’s Daily, March 1, 2017
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2017-03/01/nw.D110000renmrb_20170301_1-01.htm