Red flag raised over setbacks of past reforms

The official Xinhua News Agency has sounded an alarm for the new round of reforms in the administrative branch, noting that structural reforms aiming to transform government functions should not repeat failures of past reforms.

The Xinhua opinion piece Saturday listed four major problems in past reforms, which started in the early 1980s, ranging from overstaffing to excessive administrative approvals.

The commentary echoed Premier Li Keqiang's use of a Chinese idiom at last week's cabinet meeting, in which he urged all departments not to be superficial in reforms by just "using the same medicine with a different name."

Li's concern over reforms is consistent with public calls, a majority of which have been skeptical toward how effective reforms will be.

According to Xinhua, most officials, whose duties were significantly scaled back following the restructuring, are able to keep their salaries unchanged. It cited a reform in an unidentified province, in which 19 percent of government departments were eliminated in 2009 but no civil servants were laid off, while the salaries of some officials, who did not hold any duties, remained unchanged.

He Junzhi, a professor with the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, told the Global Times that the problem does not have a quick fix, citing concerns over stability and impediments in the path of reforms.

Xinhua also voiced concern that the reforms could be used as an opportunity to hike prices of public services.

As soon as the newly-established China Railway Corporation took over commercial functions of the former Ministry of Railways, the public started to worry about the possibility of a train ticket price hike, the news agency opined.

However, price hikes have been seen following the electricity market reform in 2002, after which power grid companies developed into behemoths and put solid grips on the pricing of electricity.

Xue Lan, dean of the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, said that while respecting the role of the market, the government should tighten its oversight of the railways sector to protect public interests.

In an effort to streamline the government's functions, Premier Li has vowed to cut the existing 1,700 administrative approval items by at least one-third over the next five years.

The State Council last year scrapped 171 approval items, although Xinhua argued that some local governments are suspected of increasing those items.

Xu Yaotong, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance and a councilor with the China Society of Administrative Reform, told the Global Times that current institutional reforms aim to deal with overlapping functions of departments through the formation of "super ministries."

"Ministries should separate their policy-making and policy-enforcing functions within themselves, while having their work supervised by another institution to improve efficiency," said Xu.

While the public hopes to have the size of the government scaled back, Xue said it is incorrect to assume this is part of a wider push for smaller government. "In fact, the goal should be to make the government deliver a higher standard of services more efficiently," he said.

While the government streamlines its functions in microeconomic control, it should bear more responsibility in the provision of public services, such as better policymaking and better protection of the environment, said Xue.

The central government is actually short of hands, Xue added, saying this could lead to policymaking mistakes.