(Ecns.cn) – Millions of Chinese civil servants will be required to attend moral training sessions over the next four years, in which each trainee will take systematic and compulsory classes for no less than six hours in order to avoid moral laxity in their future work, according to the State Administration of Civil Service (SACS).
The move promises to be the largest ever such campaign in China. And it is not only newly-appointed officials that will receive the training, which must be done within a year before their probationary period ends; other officials will also be given on-the-job training from time to time, the content of which will be an important factor in the performance assessment of civil servants.
The training will include lectures and case studies to improve civil servants' loyalty to the country and people, as well as their sense of responsibility, honesty and fairness.
The move is a scrupulous upholding of official duties and is of great significance in lifting public confidence in the government and in civil servants as well as in consolidating the Party's governance position, according to the announcement from the SACS. It also emphasized that the ethical standard of performance will always be taken into account in selecting, evaluating and supervising civil servants in the future.
From all-staff training to assessment strengthening, the central government has been sending a Party warning to all officials regarding the current moral crisis in the country. However, many wonder whether such measures will work. Some doubt that the classes will have any effect at all.
Ancient ethics
Different from the education of knowledge and ability, moral training is less concrete and more conceptual, the essence of which seems difficult to grasp.
Before the SACS released its outline for the training sessions, there was no clear system for moral standards or about how people should implement them, although there has been similar training in the form of lectures and selective courses in Jiangsu Province before.
When the SACS drafted the outline, it divided the training into three parts: basic knowledge, case studies, and four duties (including loyalty to the country, a readiness to serve the people, a sense of obligation, and persistence in fairness and honesty).
What stands out, however, is the inclusion of basic knowledge of the ethics of ancient officials, such as Liu Xiang of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-25AD), Wen Tianxiang of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and Lin Zexu of the Qing Dynasty (1644 -1911).
Liu Xiang advocated "fetal instruction" as a means to influence the moral development of the child at the earliest possible opportunity, while Lin Zexu was an official loyal to the Daoguang Emperor of China, who was most famous for his active fight against foreign-imported opium.
Moreover, different provinces are allowed to arrange the training according to their own characteristics. Hebei Province has listed the "Xibaipo Spirit" into its training, as Xibaipo was the last rural command post of the Party as it led the Chinese revolution and liberated the country. Jiangsu Province has applied many modern activities, such as an essay competition and a speech contest, which aims to improve the moral standards of officials as well as their abilities.
Moral awakening
Because civil servant ethics represent the image of a government, ethical training is not only popular in China but also prevailing in many other countries.
In the U.S., for example, there is a department called the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), which is a separate agency responsible for directing executive branch policies relating to the prevention of conflicts of interest on the part of officers and employees.
In India, the moral awakening to a need for honesty in governance has also become an important issue in recent years, as the country's middle class is especially fed up with the effects of graft on daily life and the nation's reputation, not to mention the drag on the economy.
An emerging need
China has been making changes to the management of its civil servants for a long time. In 1980, though the regulations of inner-Party political life reflected the period, they turned out to be effective in preventing many wrongdoings and immoral behavior.
In recent months, a series of scandals involving the misuse of state funds and official expense accounts has led to widespread anger and increased calls for a public declaration of interests and assets.
And as scandals involving civil servants who violate laws and regulations continuously make the news, improving their morality is considered an efficient way to build a good reputation among the people. The government has already realized that the most detrimental consequence of deteriorating ethics among civil servants is the loss of public confidence.
Through the ethical training program, the government hopes to reduce the occurrence of misbehavior, promote social values and improve the competence of civil servants.
