Embarrassment between black and white

The property disclosure system, an international practice for civil servants, is somewhat difficult to implement in China. Reportedly, over 90 percent of officials do not agree with this system. Media exposure of the sentiment also reinforced an impression that the public is not quite happy with delays in the disclosure.

Scrutiny of the regulation shows it is premature to implement the practice before structural problems are resolved. Government officials are called cadres in their bureaucratic hierarchy. On the one hand, officials have long been portrayed as parenting guardians of local residents. On the other hand, public servants are administrative leaders of the mass. The two relations tangle up and distort the officials' attitudes toward their commitment and the public. Some people still regard appealing to the authority as their last resort in solving problems. Government officials sometimes also deem the people as their children and even err on the side of controlling information flow because they fear that the public will be poisoned by adverse thoughts.

It is inappropriate to demand that power elites open their pockets to the public in such a self-conflicting social structure. How can "children" ask "parents" to disclose their property?