Chapter 10 Chapter 8 Official "Transnational Family" Camera Obscura

The existence of "transnational families" of officials not only provides shortcuts for some corrupt officials to flee abroad, but also puts my country's political, economic, and military security at a disadvantage, and damages the centripetal force and cohesion of the country and nation. The Third Plenary Session of the 17th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection was held in Beijing from January 12 to 14, 2009. The meeting communiqué stated: "Implementation of the regulations on the employment, investment and shareholding, and settlement of leading cadres' spouses and children, and the reporting and registration of related matters system."

This regulation, which emphasizes the importance of declaring the circumstances involved in the marriage and family of officials, is obviously directly related to the depraved lifestyle of high-ranking officials in the past, the help of their spouses and children, and the fact that some corrupt officials fled abroad by taking advantage of the convenience of their spouses and children having foreign nationality or green cards. The reporter's investigation found that although my country's current laws have strict regulations on the nationality of officials, there is still a lack of clear and operable regulations on the spouses and children of officials.Therefore, in recent years, although some officials in our country hold important positions, their spouses and children have emigrated overseas and obtained citizenship or green cards of other countries, becoming what people call "transnational families".

One problem worthy of vigilance at present is that some corrupt officials take advantage of legal loopholes, use their spouses and children to apply for green cards and naturalization, illegally transfer huge amounts of state-owned assets out of the country, and temporarily stay in China to continue working as officials. Once things happen, they quickly withdraw flee. "When the country is stepping up anti-corruption efforts, it needs to implement stricter management on officials whose spouses and children have emigrated abroad." Professor Li Chengyan, a doctoral supervisor at the School of Government and Administration of Peking University, said in an interview with reporters that "officials' transnational families" The existence of the CCP not only provides a shortcut for some corrupt officials to flee, but also causes huge losses to our country's economy. .”

In fact, most of the "transnational families" of Chinese officials are uncovered in the form of official crimes—— On June 28, 2007, the Intermediate People's Court of Lanzhou City, Gansu Province sentenced Pang Jiayu, the former Vice Chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference, to 12 years in prison and confiscated 200,000 yuan of personal property for the crime of accepting bribes and dereliction of duty.As for Pang Jiayu's wife and children, they immigrated to Canada quietly as early as 2002 when he was in power. This kind of "transnational family" corruption case is not an isolated case. In June 2006, Zhou Jinhuo, the former director of the Fujian Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, who was involved in a case worth as much as 100 million yuan, fled to the United States before being "double regulated" by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.According to reports, Zhou Jinhuo's wife, Chen Shuzhen, had immigrated to the United States before the incident and had a green card, which left a way for him to escape.

In January 2005, Gao Shan, the former head of Hesong Street Sub-branch of Bank of China, fled to Canada.When he was on the job, he transferred 1 billion yuan out of the country in batches, and used public funds to "go abroad for inspections" more than a dozen times, to arrange his wife to immigrate and to "check spots" for his absconding.After his wife successfully immigrated to Canada, he transferred a large amount of funds to multiple private accounts abroad, and then announced his divorce from his wife.After Gao Shan successfully immigrated to Canada, he claimed that he was penniless and relied on his ex-wife for "relief".

In recent years, the phenomenon of corrupt officials fleeing abroad is shocking. In 2004, a survey report issued by the Ministry of Commerce showed that since the reform and opening up, the number of Chinese officials who fled abroad was about 4,000, and the funds they took away were about 50 billion US dollars.However, many interviewed experts believe that from the current point of view, this is only a conservative estimate. These fugitive officials have an obvious feature—most of them first send their spouses and children abroad in the name of doing business or studying abroad, and after obtaining foreign citizenship or green cards, they transfer their assets abroad with internal and external cooperation, and finally "run naked" by themselves.

According to insiders, there are currently some international service agencies that specialize in serving such officials—by providing services for the children of corrupt officials to study abroad and their spouses to settle down, transfer property for officials, and obtain huge profits from it. In today's globalized world, the public has long been accustomed to the fact that ordinary citizens obtain green cards or change their nationality for reasons such as doing business, buying property, or studying.However, the reporter's investigation found that the public has always had unlimited imagination and speculation about the application of green cards for the spouses and children of officials and the secret acquisition of foreign citizenship.

"Officials, especially the spouses and children of middle and senior officials, have foreign nationality or green cards, which violates political ethics." Du Liyuan, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongsheng Law Firm, told reporters, "For the public, officials, especially high-level officials in important positions, Their role as individual citizens has been greatly weakened. On most occasions, officials are representatives of the government, and their words and deeds are directly related to the image of the government. Officials should represent the interests of the people, and be loyal, honest, honest, and law-abiding , has become the basic requirement of the public for officials, coupled with China's traditional concept of valuing family and the precedent of fallen officials, once officials 'transfer' family members abroad, their positive image of being with the people and sharing weal and woe with the country will be questioned , the people have reason to doubt its loyalty and integrity, and even suspect that it may 'grease the soles of its feet' at any time."

During the interviews, many interviewees worried that such officials who "leave a way out" would pose certain threats to the country's politics, economy, and national defense. Once they escape overseas, they will often become the target of hostile forces instigating rebellion. "If officials are not loyal to their own country, this is an extremely serious problem." Li Chengyan believes, "Some officials in important positions have spouses and children who have foreign nationality or green cards. This will make people look at such officials when the country is in crisis. I have doubts about whether I will stand up to serve the country and serve the people."

"Some leading cadres talk about patriotism on stage, but their spouses and children have foreign nationality or green cards." A citizen surnamed Zhang in Honest Hutong, Xuanwu District, Beijing believes, "Such officials are in two boats, wearing 'Life jackets', ready to abandon ship, ordinary people have the right to question whether they are really patriotic." "It is not possible to simply judge that an official's spouse or child has a foreign nationality or a green card as a corrupt official or disloyal to the country, but at least it is difficult to convince ordinary people that they have deep feelings for the motherland and firm political beliefs." The National Professor Gong Weibin from the School of Administration told the reporter, "Once such officials become corrupt, foreign families will naturally become their hideouts and safe havens, which will bring great challenges to the anti-corruption work. At the same time, due to the existence of transnational families, decisions involving major national interests At times, the positions of these officials are easily shifted, causing losses to national interests.”

According to the reporter's understanding, the problems of officials' "transnational families" have attracted the attention of the central government, and some relevant regulations have been issued successively to prevent them. At the beginning of August 2003, the central government issued the "Measures Concerning Exit, Overseas Permits, and Passport Management Measures for Party and Government Organs, Judicial and Public Security Department Personnel", requiring some officials at the county level and above to submit the exit permits and passports to the higher-level organization department Unified management. In September 2006, the central government promulgated the "Regulations on the Reporting of Personal Matters by Party Members and Leading Cadres", which stipulated the declaration matters of officials, and required party members and cadres to report 9 types of personal matters, including the status of spouses and children going abroad (territory) and settling down. . On January 8, 2007, after the 7th Plenary Session of the 16th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection deployed the anti-corruption struggle, the central government conducted the first large-scale general survey on the marriage and family affairs of officials above the deputy director level.The content of the investigation includes the officials themselves, their spouses, and their children at three levels. Many places have also improved their personal reporting systems for officials, including Beijing, Guangdong Province, Jilin Province, and the national judicial system. However, the effects of these measures are still limited. Reasons such as the confidentiality of the report content and the restrictive regulations on the scope of disclosure when it is released make it difficult to realize the public's right to know, which is not conducive to the supervision of the public and the media. my country's current laws have strict regulations on the nationality of officials. Article 3 of the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for Chinese citizens. Article 11 of the Civil Servant Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that civil servants shall have the nationality of the People's Republic of China. "However, there are no restrictive regulations in our country's laws regarding the emigration or naturalization of the spouses and children of officials." Du Liyuan introduced, "According to the Nationality Law, except for state staff and active servicemen, the law does not prohibit Chinese citizens who have settled abroad to voluntarily Joining or obtaining foreign nationality, therefore, as long as the official's spouse and children go abroad and settle down, they can obtain foreign nationality. In terms of foreign-related marriages of officials, my country's Marriage Law does not mention it. In 1983, in the Ministry of Civil Affairs on "Chinese Citizens and Foreigners "Several Regulations for Marriage Registration" clearly stipulates that active servicemen, diplomats, public security personnel, confidential personnel and other personnel who hold important secrets are not allowed to marry foreigners. 'Besides being retained by the 1984 "Notice of the General Office of the State Council Forwarding Requests from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of State Security on Several Issues Concerning Foreign-Related Marriages", the above-mentioned other provisions have been issued by the State Council No. 387 on August 8, 2003. ordered the abolishment of the Marriage Registration Regulations, and the new regulations did not mention foreign-related marriages of officials.” The public is largely unaware of such issues as how to define "persons who hold important secrets" and whether their spouses are allowed to obtain foreign citizenship after marriage. "The best management is transparency. The fundamental way to solve the problem of official corruption is to have full transparency." Professor Qi Shanhong, a doctoral supervisor at Nankai University, believes that it should be published nationwide or on the Internet and other mass media in the department or region. The declarations of generals and officials are announced, allowing the public to monitor in real time. "Implement strict immigration supervision and registration for the immediate family members of officials. Of course, this does not mean that the wives and children of officials have no right to go abroad. It's just that when it comes to immigration, the spouses and children of middle and high-level officials should undergo stricter scrutiny than ordinary immigrants. Mechanism - To treat ordinary citizens, it is their duty to adhere to the principle of "no doubt"; when it comes to whether officials are corrupt, the discipline inspection department must adopt a corresponding "no doubt" attitude." The 10th CPPCC Beijing Zeng Guangyu, deputy secretary-general of the committee and vice-chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association, suggested that "officials serving in key state departments, whose spouses and children have acquired foreign nationality or hold green cards, should automatically resign. Confidential work, you can hold a lower position or work without a position that does not involve state secrets." “The spouses and children of officials should be strictly managed and examined and approved. Those who refuse to implement the system and violate the regulations should be investigated for administrative and even legal responsibilities. We must reform and improve the current regulations for the spouses and children of leading cadres to study and work abroad. management system.” Gong Weibin believes that “officials should regularly report to the organization department the reasons for their spouses and children going abroad, sources of funds, residence time, location, work and study status, etc. Learn about working and living conditions. This is not only the need to protect national interests, but also the need to protect cadres." "As a government official, when there is a conflict between public interest and personal privacy, it is a common principle in most countries in the world today to give up part of personal privacy to ensure the protection of public interest." Du Liyuan suggested, "Officials and their spouses and children should be strictly controlled. Examination and approval of going abroad (border), especially the approval of officials going abroad (border) for private purposes, and publicize the foreign-related situation of officials through the Internet, newspapers and other media. At the same time, clean up the intermediary service market for going abroad, and strictly investigate and punish corrupt officials who settle overseas and transfer assets , fleeing illegal organizations that provide a series of services. It is also necessary to strengthen international anti-corruption cooperation, and completely block the way of transferring 'black gold' abroad through spouses and children." According to Yu Fei, a teacher at the Law School of China University of Political Science and Law, this problem cannot be solved overnight.He suggested: "You can choose departments that are related to major national interests, such as finance, politics, law, and national defense, to pilot first, and establish a hierarchical publicity system. If it is stipulated that officials above the department level must publish such information, the objects of publicity can be within the party first. After the outside of the party; the main body of the announcement can be carried out gradually at the top, then at the middle and low levels. In addition, according to the post regulations of officials before retirement, they are not allowed to obtain foreign residency within a few years after retirement.”