The future is in their hands

For most Chinese, official corruption remains a key social issue. The new government has shown its awareness of the problem by nominating Wang Qishan, one of its ablest members, to lead the country's attack on corruption. But if you believe, like I do, that in general, Chinese officials are morally no worse than government officials from countries like Britain, where corruption is a much smaller problem, then you can accept that corruption in China arises not from widespread official immorality, but from the system itself.

Changes in the system, rather than the pursuit of individuals, will have the greatest impact in reducing corruption to "normal" or acceptable levels. In a system where the control of public assets and licences by senior local officials has enormous financial consequences for business people, it is very hard to stop private individuals trying to pervert individual officials for their own gain. Overhauling the fiscal revenue system of local governments, reducing the power of state-owned companies, and placing less reliance for economic growth on huge public programs are three steps that will improve the system, and help to reduce corruption. A fourth is to make government procurement more transparent.

The dreadful air quality on some days over this winter in Beijing has made pollution a hot issue. The new government needs to become more open about China's pollution problem. Every major industrial country, from Britain 150 years ago to Japan in the 1960s and 70s has had a serious pollution problem. It's an issue of money, which China now has, and of political will.

The emergence recently of new kinds of public financing outside the control of the central bank draws attention to the increasingly urgent need to modernize and liberalize China's financial institutions. Increased mobility of labor requires thorough reform of the household registration system.

The economic and social reform "to-do" list for the new government is a long one. But the most important development for the new government concerns its relationship with the Chinese people. Today, a few seconds is all it takes for one person in Chengdu, Shanghai or Shenyang to forward a Web page to many thousands or even millions of other Chinese hundreds or thousands of miles away. Chinese social media have already radically changed the relationship between the government and the people.

As a number of local government officials have discovered recently to their cost, advances in communications technology have created much greater openness in China. It is tempting for the government to try to turn the clock back and limit the media. But the social trend of openness through communication cannot be reversed. In this new context of social media, the next government has the vital task of repositioning itself with the Chinese people.

Surveys show that while the Chinese may hate officials who use their positions to become rich, they are proud of their country, and most of them support the government. In these circumstances, it is certainly possible, without a big loss of support, for the government to evolve into a more transparent and less arbitrary organization, serving the people more and better, and itself less.

The author is a visiting professor at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily 03/22/2013 page9)