Guangzhou Official with 21 Houses Outted on Sina Weibo

Cai Bin had it all.  A wife and son, a senior job in the urban management bureau of Guangzhou’s Panyu District, and 21 houses. And then Weibo ruined everything.

Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou announced in a report on October 11th that Cai Bin would be suspended from his post after investigations showed that reports of his housing portfolio on Sina Weibo were substantially correct.

The housing-happy official was brought down by Chinese netizens who posted records of his 21 properties on the Internet, along with photos which included some luxury villas. According to reports of the local government’s decision last week, the estimate RMB 40 million value of the 21 homes was well above what Mr Cai could have afforded through his RMB 10,000 per month government salary. Cai’s wife is a retired government official and earned an even lower monthly income.

Cai apparently concealed much of his real estate portfolio when submitting reports of personal effects as required by the goverment. In his reports, Cai had told authorities last year and this year that his family had only two houses.

Cai owned one house under his own name and had joint title, along with his wife, to a second home. Nineteen more homes were found to be owned under joint title belonging to his wife and son, the report said.

“Given his normal income and high housing prices, it is rather difficult for people to believe the 21 houses were all bought legally,” an official with the party discipline unit was cited as saying in the report.

Cai is the latest in a series of Chinese officials who have been targeted by the country’s netizens and later investigated by disciplinary watchdogs over the past three years.

Just last month, Yang Dacai, a former senior work safety official in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, was sacked due to a corruption scandal exposed after photos were posted online showing Yang wearing at least 11 pricy wristwatches on different occasions.