China Redux

This week, China announced its much-anticipated plans to improve government transparency. The new rules, which were signed by President Hu Jintao but don’t go into effect until May 2008, are aimed at reducing government secrecy and increasing citizens’ access to official information.

The new regulations are a step in the right direction.  Local governments must release data on land requisitions from farmers, along with details on relocation and compensation for those farmers — a major source of social unrest in China.  And the rules establish formal guidelines for the release of important classes of information:government responses to emergencies, government spending and fees, and official investigations into environmental problems and public health concerns, as well as food and drug safety.

Yet China’s efforts have been roundly panned by international and domestic observers.  Many have pointed out the obvious loopholes in the new arrangement.  The NYT’s Jim Yardley notes that “the regulations include broad exceptions that raise questions about how much new openness will be tolerated.” The FT’s story by Mure Dickie bears the headline, “China’s transparency rules under fire.” Even the Xinhua news agency quoted Wang Xisheng, a Beijing University professor, as expressing concern that “officials might reserve and control information rather than make it public.”

The widespread dissatisfaction with the scope of these measures mirrors the central government’s own displeasure with its inability to hold local party officials accountable for corruption and other inefficiencies.  The new regulations are an attempt to bring accountability to the diffuse bureaucracy. They are also a political compromise from central party leaders who realize they can’t afford to demand too much, too fast, or risk losing even greater control.