SOE official's affairs not a private matter

On Wednesday, a video of a man holding the hand of a young woman while shopping went viral online. Netizens soon identified the man as Hu Jiyong, a top official in a state-owned enterprise who was on a business trip in Chengdu, capital city of southwest China's Sichuan province.

Hu is the executive director, party secretary and general manager of Huanqiu Project Management (Beijing) Co Ltd, a subsidiary of PetroChina. The woman in the video is his colleague. Following this incident, the company's statement announced that Hu was removed from his post and the woman's work has also been suspended.

The 10th central inspection group, which is auditing China National Petroleum Corporation, also noted the report and urged the company to verify the information.

The prevalence of senior officials' misbehavior has arisen in many places in recent years, which is a cause of concern. The public has the right to supervise their internal governance and evaluate their external image. State-owned enterprises play a significant role in the development of the national economy, so good internal governance and control are crucial. Problems in internal governance have often resulted in the loss of state-owned assets, causing serious harm to public interests.

Furthermore, the lifestyles of senior officials are not just a personal matter but affect the interests of the general public, as well as the image and credibility of the Party and government. Therefore, government officials, especially Party members, must meet higher requirements for their behavior. According to the Party regulations, a disciplined lifestyle is one of the six main disciplines that follow political, organizational, integrity, public and work disciplines. A violation of lifestyle discipline may also result in integrity and work disciplines, taking into account possible corruption.

To summarize, this incident exposed some internal governance issues within state-owned enterprises. Authorities should normalize their attention within these enterprises and thoroughly investigate relevant concerns of the public rather than only clarifying surface-level issues such as romantic affairs.