外媒關注中國“房姐”肯定政府反腐決心

Chinese fury as ID fraud becomes recurring theme in property scandals

中國日報網 2013-02-07 14:55

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"For young couples, it's getting very hard – it's impossible without their parents' help to buy property," he said.

Cases of officials gaming China's strict residence registration system for property-buying sprees prompt public backlash.

A public security official in southern China purchased 192 properties with the help of a fake identification card, state media reported.

Zhao Haibin, a high-level Communist party official in Lufeng city's public security bureau, was exposed online for alleged excessive property buying by a local multimillionaire amid a business dispute. Zhao claimed the properties belonged to his brother, but admitted to forging an identification card.

Identity fraud has become a recurring theme in property scandals after a senior executive at a bank in Shaanxi province was outed last month for purchasing 41 properties with fake residence registration permits, called hukou in Mandarin.

China's new leader Xi Jinping has embarked on a high-profile anti-corruption crackdown since he took the reins of the Communist party in the autumn.

"This kind of story, it underscores the fact that it's very hard to know how much property people have," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Chinese politics expert at Hong Kong Baptist University. "Because usually what they've done is to register the properties under relatives' names, friends' names and companies' names, so it's a real maze, and it's hard for the authorities to really pare down this kind of practice."

Internet users nicknamed Gong "House Elder Sister" and Zhao "House Grandpa", a play on the netizen-dubbed "Uncle House" – a 59-year-old Guangdong official who made headlines last autumn for owning 22 properties despite his meagre government salary.

"There are practical, logical and symbolic reasons" for the major public backlash against these cases, said Cabestan. "For a long time Chinese people didn't have access to property, it was a dream."

Furthermore, massive property investments by corrupt officials have contributed to a spike in housing prices, making even modest apartments unaffordable for ordinary people. "For young couples, it's getting very hard – it's impossible without their parents' help to buy property," he said. "This is contributing to widening [China's] social gap."

(Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Guardian)

近日，中國數名官員違反嚴格的戶籍制度購入大量房產的事件引發了公眾的強烈譴責。

據官方媒體報道，中國南方某地一名公安局官員利用假身份證購買了192套房產。

廣東省陸豐市公安局黨委委員趙海濱被曝光持有大量房產，舉報人是當地的一名億萬富豪，因一起商業糾紛發現了這一秘密。趙海濱聲稱這些房產歸他弟弟所有，但承認偽造了身份證。

上月，陜西省某地一位副行長龔愛愛因被曝偽造戶籍文件（也稱戶口）購入41套住房而被刑事拘留。此后，又有多位官員的購房丑聞被曝光。

中國新任領導人習近平自去年秋季就任中共中央總書記以來，就開始高調反腐。

香港浸會大學的中國政治專家讓?皮埃爾?卡貝斯坦說：“這種新聞讓大家看到，想要清楚地知道人們有多少房產是很困難的，因為有些人會把房產登記在親友和公司的名下，所以很難分辨。因此政府想要打擊這種行為也很困難。”

網民將龔愛愛稱為“房姐”，將趙海濱稱為“房爺”，這些綽號來自于“房叔”。“房叔”是廣東的一位59歲的前官員，去年秋天因為被曝光持有22套房產，遠遠超過公職收入而得此名。

卡貝斯坦說，此類事件引發了公憤，“是有實際的、合乎常理、且具有象征意義的原因。長期以來中國民眾都覺得房價過高，很多人買不起房，擁有住房成為很多人的夢想。”

而且，腐敗官員的大量房產投資也抬高了房價，使普通人無力購買一般的公寓住宅。他說：“對年輕夫婦來說，買房越來越難，不啃老就買不起房。這也加劇了社會分化。”