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Wednesday, 27 January 2010
China ‘to shut down local lobbying offices’
China has ordered the closure of thousands of ‘regional liaison offices’ - in essence, lobbying firms - that local governments and companies operate in Beijing to curry favour with senior officials, said media reports.
BEIJING: China has ordered the closure of thousands of ‘regional liaison offices’ - in essence, lobbying firms - that local governments and companies operate in Beijing to curry favour with senior officials, said media reports.
The government-affiliated magazine Outlook Weekly has reported that Beijing officials have vowed to shutter the liaison offices within six months in an effort to stanch what some analysts call a culture of unalloyed corruption surrounding the institutions.
Outlook said an order to close them was being drafted, but gave few other details.
Liaison offices are widely seen as a symbol of bloated bureaucracy and abuse of public resources, but are considered necessary because of China’s highly centralised decision-making process.
These offices were recently featured in less-than-flattering light after it was reported that two local governments from Henan province last February spent more than US$96,000 (S$135,000) to buy 777 bottles of expensive Chinese liquor to entertain high officials.
That is but the latest in a string of scandals surrounding the offices, which have produced a number of indictments in recent years on various charges including bribery and embezzlement.
Chinese wags often refer to the liaison offices as pao bu, qian jin which ostensibly means ‘run forward’ - but also can be translated as ‘go to the ministry and give money’.
Although such offices have operated in the capital for decades, their numbers have skyrocketed in recent years as part of sharpening competition for central government funding.
By some calculations, Beijing boasts more than 5,500 local-government provincial offices, and perhaps 5,000 more offices representing state-run corporations, associations and other entities.
The provincial-level offices alone employ close to 8,000 workers, housed in impressive bureaus designed to convey the power and prestige of the areas they represent.
The central government directive would close the offices of state-run firms and governments at or below the county level. The survivors, Outlook said, would be strictly regulated. But the central government could be in for a fight, said analysts.
‘This is serious,’ said Professor Russell Leigh Moses, a Beijing-based analyst of central government affairs.
‘These offices are strong symbols of provincial sovereignty, and by seeking to shut them down, the central government is trying to keep regional officials from lobbying too hard for local interests.’
China’s leaders have used increasingly dire language in recent years to lash out at government corruption, which they liken to a disease that is eroding the strength of communist governance.
Local government corruption is a common subject of attack by local journalists and Internet surfers. But with some exceptions, higher-level corruption has largely been excluded from government campaigns.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday that Beijing is awash in liaison offices because state power is so concentrated that virtually anyone seeking influence needs a representative in the national capital.
‘In a democratic country, there is a fairly transparent regime in place to decide where a government project goes and how much expenditure it will receive, even with some lobbying,’ Professor Ren Jianming, deputy director of Qinghua University’s Anti-corruption and Governance Research Centre, was quoted as saying.
‘But in China, it often comes down to networking and even some shady ways to court the higher authorities. So the liaison offices are indispensable in this sense.’
1 comment:
China ‘to shut down local lobbying offices’
Many linked to abuse of public resources
New York Times
27 January 2010
BEIJING: China has ordered the closure of thousands of ‘regional liaison offices’ - in essence, lobbying firms - that local governments and companies operate in Beijing to curry favour with senior officials, said media reports.
The government-affiliated magazine Outlook Weekly has reported that Beijing officials have vowed to shutter the liaison offices within six months in an effort to stanch what some analysts call a culture of unalloyed corruption surrounding the institutions.
Outlook said an order to close them was being drafted, but gave few other details.
Liaison offices are widely seen as a symbol of bloated bureaucracy and abuse of public resources, but are considered necessary because of China’s highly centralised decision-making process.
These offices were recently featured in less-than-flattering light after it was reported that two local governments from Henan province last February spent more than US$96,000 (S$135,000) to buy 777 bottles of expensive Chinese liquor to entertain high officials.
That is but the latest in a string of scandals surrounding the offices, which have produced a number of indictments in recent years on various charges including bribery and embezzlement.
Chinese wags often refer to the liaison offices as pao bu, qian jin which ostensibly means ‘run forward’ - but also can be translated as ‘go to the ministry and give money’.
Although such offices have operated in the capital for decades, their numbers have skyrocketed in recent years as part of sharpening competition for central government funding.
By some calculations, Beijing boasts more than 5,500 local-government provincial offices, and perhaps 5,000 more offices representing state-run corporations, associations and other entities.
The provincial-level offices alone employ close to 8,000 workers, housed in impressive bureaus designed to convey the power and prestige of the areas they represent.
The central government directive would close the offices of state-run firms and governments at or below the county level. The survivors, Outlook said, would be strictly regulated. But the central government could be in for a fight, said analysts.
‘This is serious,’ said Professor Russell Leigh Moses, a Beijing-based analyst of central government affairs.
‘These offices are strong symbols of provincial sovereignty, and by seeking to shut them down, the central government is trying to keep regional officials from lobbying too hard for local interests.’
China’s leaders have used increasingly dire language in recent years to lash out at government corruption, which they liken to a disease that is eroding the strength of communist governance.
Local government corruption is a common subject of attack by local journalists and Internet surfers. But with some exceptions, higher-level corruption has largely been excluded from government campaigns.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday that Beijing is awash in liaison offices because state power is so concentrated that virtually anyone seeking influence needs a representative in the national capital.
‘In a democratic country, there is a fairly transparent regime in place to decide where a government project goes and how much expenditure it will receive, even with some lobbying,’ Professor Ren Jianming, deputy director of Qinghua University’s Anti-corruption and Governance Research Centre, was quoted as saying.
‘But in China, it often comes down to networking and even some shady ways to court the higher authorities. So the liaison offices are indispensable in this sense.’
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