We can file this under “Never-Gonna-Happen”.

The public has demanded officials disclose their assets and properties for a long time now, and yet still nothing fruitful or noteworthy has come of it. Now, Guangzhou is expecting its officials in Huangpu District to voluntarily return any extra apartments they have improperly allocated for their own use before the end of this month.

If that is the case, the officials will have a lot of paper work to do, and a lot of properties to conceal, and the commission fees for some of the city’s big housing agents will be going through the roof from now until then.

All division level (处级以上) officials and higher working in institutions under the Huangpu District’s government, Communist Party Committee or state companies are subject to the new rule, according to Guangzhou Daily’s report on Wednesday.

Officials who own more than two social housing apartments, or officials who use their connections to buy low-income housings for their children and relatives, are expected to return those properties, the report said. But it did not mention any punishment for officials who refuse to do so.

But as if to appease the public about the rule’s successful implementation in the foreseeable future, the report cited an example of how the district has cleared out more than 190 improperly used government offices measuring 5,875.44 square meters in total since it issued a similar directive late last year.

Like so many other new rules Guangdong has recently unveiled including banning officials from calling each other “brother” or “boss” and the right to go clubbing, we can bank on the ultimate rule that has always, time after time, never failed to deliver – “wherever there is a policy from the top, there is a counter-policy from the bottom (上有政策,下有对策)”.

Home page photo credit: Anhui Daily