2007, the Year of the Pig, may yet distinguish itself in the transparency arena. See this article from the Wall Street Journal on pushing openness in China (WSJ subscription required). Some key quotes:
“A regulation mandating greater transparency in China’s government is moving forward in Beijing, but its contents are a secret. . .”
Sure, it’s an obvious contradiction. But for the dialectic process to work, contradictions must become obvious. Will it take 100 years to get there? I don’t know.
“Among those who have been pressing for the transparency regulation are members of the nation’s legal and media communities. They hope it could be used to pry open records and unleash reporters who fear punishment for revealing state secrets, a category that is vaguely defined. Ideally, they believe, such rules could help bind Chinese journalists and citizens together with new powers to play watchdog over the government. . .”
It seems some professional political formations are trying to get their nose in the official tent. Given the government’s very public effort to root out corruption, the international attention on the current National People’s Congress, as well as the ever-present preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, there may be a unique opportunity here that allows for some movement.
“. . . the regulation is part of a genuine, if selective, official effort to increase government transparency in recent years as old systems of information control are strained by the Internet, cellphones and other new technologies. Many parts of the government bureaucracy have added press representatives and live news conferences within the past two years — though those functions, as in the West, are as much about spin as about transparency.”
Be warned, this could be all about spin. But even if it is, there’s a recognition of rising public expectations, and a grudging nod to the constant digital leaking of here-to-fore officially private matters.
