Assessing Government Transparency in China (2020)

In 2019, the Center for Studies of the Rule of Law Index of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Innovation Project Team on the Rule of Law Index of the Institute of Law of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences continued to carry out third-party assessment of the open government work of 49 departments under the State Council, 31 provincial-level governments, 49 governments of larger cities and 125 county (city, district)-level governments, focusing on such aspects of the work as the openness of decision-making, administration and service, and implementation and its results, policy interpretation and response to public concerns, and disclosure of government information upon application. The assessment shows that in 2019, China further improved the system of openness of government affairs, steadily advanced the openness of decision-making, and made significant progress in the openness of government service, administrative law enforcement, and the results of administration. In the future, China still needs to further enhance its awareness of openness, precisely identify public information needs, integrate openness into the whole process of government activities, and raise the level of information guarantee.

In 2019, the Government of Beijing Municipality accurately grasped its duties relating to open government work in a new era, adhered to the people-centered development idea, took the people’s satisfaction as an important criterion for work performance appraisal and “precision openness and consensus building” as guidance, comprehensively improved the quality of open government work, further developed the work pattern of integrated linkage between openness, interpretation, participation and platform through the implementation of a series of projects on the creation of brands of open government work, including the complete list of open government work, “the open government day”, rules on the whole-process openness of grassroots government affairs, the TV and radio program “Dialog Between Citizens and Heads of Government Departments”, and the construction of integrated online government, gave full play to the role of openness in promoting policy implementation and government service, promoted the optimization of business environment, the modernization of the governance system and capacity, and the construction of an innovative and service-oriented government.

In recent years, the Government of Shandong Province has thoroughly implemented a series of arrangements and requirements made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council for open government work, adhered to the principle of “taking openness as the norm and non-openness as the exception”, carried out active exploration and innovation, highlighted key points and took proactive measures, thereby significantly raising the level of standardization of openness of government affairs and gradually improving the pattern of openness with connectivity and mutual support between information release, policy interpretation, and response to public concerns. This report introduces open government work in Shandong Province from the following four perspectives: disclosure of government information upon application, interaction between the government and the public, practice of openness of grassroots government affairs and reflections on open government work.

The open government system is an important part of the grassroots governance system. The standardization and regularization of open government work at the grassroots level will effectively improve the level and capacity for grassroots governance. In recent years, the Sichuan Provincial Government has continuously deepened the application of the results of pilot work, actively accelerated the pace of innovation, explored the construction of a “full chain management” work standard system based on the characteristics of the management, operation, and implementation of and supervision over the openness of government affairs, and strives to solve the “last mile” problem of openness of government affairs.

In 2019, administrative organs in Shenzhen implemented in an all-round way the decisions and arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on advancing the openness of government affairs and the relevant work requirements of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government, adhered to the principle of taking openness as the norm and non-openness as the exception, abided by the principles of justice, fairness, legality and convenience for the people, made every effort to fight the pandemic through openness of government affairs, continuously improved the content, ensured the quality, optimized the methods, increased the depth, and enhanced the effectiveness of openness, thus promoting the continuous development both in width and in depth of the open government work in the new era.

There are boundaries and concurrences between the right to request information disclosure and the right to consult case files. However, it is difficult to determine the boundaries between the two in the practice of administrative trials. When concurrence occurs, it is often handled differently, resulting in the phenomenon of different judgments in identical cases. This report tries to clarify the boundary between and concurrences of the abovementioned two rights and the rules applicable to the situation of concurrence and makes a useful exploration of the way out of the current chaotic state of rights, pointing out that China should remedy the defects in the Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information by separating the right to consult case files from the Regulations. It discusses the remedy mode of the right to consult case files from two aspects: administrative self-restraint and external control.

In recent years, local ecology and environment departments throughout the country have made solid progress and have achieved remarkable results in the openness of government affairs by focusing on the implementation of the relevant decisions and arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. The assessment and analysis show that, in recent years, provincial-level departments of ecology and environment have gradually enhanced their awareness of openness, continuously deepened information disclosure in key fields, developed a supporting openness pattern of information release, policy interpretation and response to public concerns, diversified information disclosure channels, and improved the system of openness government affairs. However, some problems still exist: information disclosure in key fields needs to be further improved, the degree of public participation needs to be increased, and the quality of policy interpretation needs to be perfected.

In 2019, which was the first year of the implementation of the Measures for the Disclosure of Local Government Debt Information (for Trial Implementation), the Project Team of Anhui Guanzhi Tianxia Culture and Technology Co., Ltd. conducted a third-party assessment of the openness of local government debts of 31 provincial-level governments, 49 governments of larger cities and 125 county (city or district)-level governments. The assessment results show that local governments achieved initial results in the disclosure of such information about local government debt as budget and final account, bond issuance, bond duration and government debt management system. Meanwhile, the assessment also shows that some problems still existed in the disclosure of local government debt information, and there was much room for improvement in the scope, form and quality of disclosure. It is necessary to promote typical experiences and practices in the whole country and gradually raise the level of disclosure of information about local government debts.

Health work is closely related to the health and well-being of the masses of the people and economic and social development and therefore is the focus of public attention as well as the emphasis of open government work. In recent years, the Health Commission Jinshan District has taken Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era as guidance, actively practiced the people-centered development idea, conscientiously implemented a series of arrangements made by the state and Shanghai Municipal Government for comprehensively promoting the openness of government affairs, actively adapted itself to the transition of the open government work from openness of results to whole process openness, taken into full consideration of the arrangements made by higher authorities and the actual practice of health work, focused on the concerns of the public, closely combined the open government work with the health work, improved the system and mechanism of open government work, developed the content of the work in both width and depth, diversified the channels of openness, and ensured the actual results, thereby continuously enhancing the people's sense of gain and satisfaction in the field of health.

The optimization of the business environment has become an important means of promoting economic and social development and improving people's living standards in all countries of the world. As such, its significance is self-evident. To create a good business environment, it is necessary to give comprehensive play to the roles of “market element”, “rule of law element” and “government affairs element”, and the maximization of the role of the government affairs element depends on the open government work that promotes standardization, implementation and service. Based on the practice of Putuo District of Shanghai Municipality, this report suggests that, in the future, China may effectively play the positive role of open government work in optimizing the business environment by deepening the standardization of the openness of government affairs, improving the mechanisms for information release, policy interpretation and response to public concerns, and perfecting the platform of openness for benefiting enterprises.