Govt wants a better view of 'naked officials' to help prevent corruption

A special monitoring system is likely to be set up within the year to better watch officials who have spouses or children living abroad, as a measure to curb corruption.

The National Bureau of Corruption Prevention and the Ministry of Supervision jointly listed supervision over so-called "naked officials" as a key task.

The term "naked official" was selected as one of China's top 10 buzzwords of 2009 by Chinese linguists. It refers to officials whose family members have moved overseas, while they themselves work in the country alone, usually with the other country's visa in hand.