Transparency in China
If this policy is more than public relations, it will mean big changes. Is that enough reason to doubt that it's more than PR? Big changes usually come slowly. (How's that for a testable assertion? Can your students test it? Additionally, can your students identify what recent examples of government bumbling are probably related to the disclosures listed in the third paragraph of this excerpt?)This is from the Washington Post:
China Announces Rules to Require Government Disclosures
"China on Tuesday announced far-reaching new rules for disclosure of official information that would require local governments to reveal their accounts and inform farmers about the finances of often controversial land seizures.
"The decree, which takes effect May 1, 2008, would mark a dramatic change in the way Chinese officials work if it were genuinely applied in Beijing and the hundreds of thousands of villages and towns where governments and Communist Party committees make most of their decisions in secrecy...
"The decree... listed requirements to reveal such subjects as local government plans for handling emergencies, the allocation of government expenses and the results of investigations into environmental threats, public health and tainted medicines. It also specified that local governments must reveal the terms of land seizures and the amount of compensation paid to farmers who lose their fields...
"But China's recent history has been filled with central government decrees that are not fully enforced around the country. In that light, it remained unclear whether [Premier] Wen Jiabao's decree would have the power to turn around a half-century of traditional secrecy, particularly where corrupt local officials rely on secrecy to cover collusion with businessmen and embezzlement of public funds..."
Labels: China, concepts, political culture
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:50 AM
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