Unmistakable signs of a nascent citizen society

By Qin Xiaoying (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-29 07:29

On July 20 Beijing began implementing the odd-even vehicle restriction scheme, which limits automobile access to public roads to every other day by the number on their license plate till Sept 20, in a bid to ease the city's traffic headache and sickening smog for the sake of hosting a successful Olympic Games.

However, the temporary clampdown on half the auto vehicles in the city on any given day is not a 24-hour affair as it was originally planned. Just before the drastic measure came into effect last Sunday, the municipal government announced that it would be effective for 21 hours a day with a free-for-all window between 0:00 am and 3:00 am.

The last-minute tweak does not seem a big deal but it actually makes life easier during the extraordinary month for many people with special needs. This is in stark contrast to the bureaucratic behavior characterized by rigidity, slowness and sometimes heartlessness that we have endured in the past. The minor change not only reflects improved efficiency of the municipal administration but also gives Beijing residents a sense of care.

In case anyone wants to know why the "minor adjustment" was made, the reason most probably lies in the fact that it is a public wish the municipal government granted after careful consideration. In other words, it is another example of more frequent interactions between the public and decision-making departments of the country and better channels for popular views in recent years.

In fact, China has seen a lot of such stories played out in the past few years, including such "trivial" matters as resolving a dispute over a farmer's private property being occupied without his consent, and something so "major" as abolishing 2,600-year-old agricultural taxes.

During the rescue and relief campaign following the Sichuan earthquake on May 12 and preparations for the Beijing Olympic Games in particular, interactions between the government and general public reached unprecedented levels. If one is pleasantly surprised to find that "truth traveled faster than rumors" immediately after the massive earthquake in northern Sichuan, the reason lies in face-to-face exchanges between the public and the government and between the media and the government. One of the positive social effects of such interactions is that they have drawn intense media interest and won praises from around the world.

The emergence of this phenomenon is primarily the result of heightened spontaneous participation in social life, awareness of personal rights and subjective interest of the Chinese public after 30 years reform reduced their burden of struggling for subsistence. But that is not all. Objectively speaking, it is also the logical result of the reality that the nation's march toward a citizen society has been gathering pace since the Communist Party of China formulated and adopted the theory of the scientific outlook on development based on the people-first doctrine.

The scientific outlook on development based on the people-first doctrine has greatly broadened the scope of participation by the country's public in social affairs, greatly elevated the confidence of Chinese citizens in realizing their own value through individual efforts and, by the same token, achieved a true swap of roles between "rulers" and "subjects" as formerly defined by traditional culture.

Today the most apparent sign that China is moving toward a citizen society is seen in the greatly increased public monitoring and appraisal of government behavior (including commendation and criticism). Take a look at all kinds of media in China these days, be it newspapers, magazines, radio and television or the Internet, including personal Web logs, one will find tens of thousands of public opinions in the forms of appraisal, complaint, suggestion and criticism concerning the government, public servants and various government policies (political, economic, national defense, foreign relations, social welfare, cultural affairs, education and sports).

These opinions have a wide range - from the interests behind faked photos of a South China tiger in the wild to a local government pretending to handle a mass incident; from the debate whether the government should rescue the property market or not to the pros and cons of various taxes; from the scale and quality of urban development to rising prices of meat, eggs and vegetables; from the country's foreign policies in relations with the US, Europe and Africa to the adjustments of traditional holidays; and from the possibility of forecasting natural disasters to determining whether a measure taken by some central government ministry or commission is right or wrong.

The opinions carried in all kinds of media may be flawed, biased and even false; and they may have met official resentment and rejection for one reason or another, but the very existence and remarkable increase of such critical opinions show the determination with which the central government is applying the people-first philosophy and its resilience. They also show the central authorities have taken transparency of policy and openness of thinking as important components of administration and standard for self-discipline.

Another prominent sign that China's development toward a citizen society is gathering pace lies in the budding social activities of the public and citizen organizations and their liveliness.

"Everyone clears their own driveway after a snowfall" used to be part of the Chinese conventional wisdom - a fruit of natural economy that existed for thousands of years.

Almost 30 years of development toward a market-oriented economy and the impact of China's industrialization and information-centric development has shaken the traditional philosophy from its roots as the inter-individual, individual-society and human-nature relationships undergo a fundamental change from what the traditional society maintained.

Helped by increasingly accessible information and encouragement by the government, citizens' organizations such as volunteer groups are becoming more active by the day. One ready example can be found in the vast scale of citizen participation in donations and relief work after a massive earthquake struck northern Sichuan on May 12. It is safe to say a citizen society in its nascent stage of growth is taking place at the beckoning of the people-first doctrine.

We welcome the arrival of a modern citizen society in China. And we have every reason to believe that building up a citizen society based on democracy, rule of law, equality and harmony will be another great goal for the nation's all-round political system reform.

The author is a researcher with China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies

(China Daily 07/29/2008 page8)