Reports from the United Kingdom say that a Chinese student, whose father was a deputy commander from Northeast China's Shenyang Military Area Command, drugged and raped a woman. The Shenyang Military Area Command denied the report and published the names of a deputy commander with the same surname in the report and his only son, who never went abroad. The government should publish basic details of senior officials and their families, says a column in the Beijing News on Monday (excerpts below).

Some Chinese citizens facing allegations of misconduct overseas can come very high family backgrounds.

Sometimes the allegations turn out to be true, sometimes they do not.

As public figures that control great power, officials should have a less-rigid definition of privacy. Their property, family members and family background should be made known to the public, so that the public will know if their family members commit wrong.

The Xinhua News Agency has set very good examples by including family details in their feature stories of the seven central leaders after the 18th Party Congress. But there is still little transparency concerning officials nationwide.

What happened in the UK has definitely taught officials a lesson. To make themselves trustworthy to ordinary people, they need to be honest with their family information.