CHUZHOU COMMODITY PRICE BUREAU in Hunan province, Central China, posted a notice in a local newspaper on Aug 20 announcing that its vice-director has been missing since July 27. This is not the first time that a local government department has posted a notice about a missing official in a newspaper. These notices should really be "wanted" notices as missing officials are usually found to have embezzled huge amounts of public money. Comments:

If there is evidence that the missing official has stolen public money, the government discipline authority, public security department and judicial department should find him. Otherwise, the Chuzhou commodity price bureau is wasting time, and giving the suspected criminal enough time to run away. The central government should have pre-arranged plans in place to tackle such instances of officials going missing. In fact it should have the ability and channels to know their intentions beforehand. If the newspapers always carry such notices about missing officials, the government will lose its credibility among the people.

Beijing News, Aug 27