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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (4404)	6/11/1998 5:08:00 PM
From: George Papadopoulos	Respond to of 9980

China to village officials: end secret ways By Scott Hillis BEIJING (Reuters) - China is ordering officials in its nearly 1 million villages to open their activities to public scrutiny, Chinese state media said Thursday, hailing the move as another step in building grass-roots democracy. The circular from China's top leadership was announced just two weeks before a landmark trip by U.S. President Bill Clinton to China, where he is expected to press Beijing for progress on human rights. The People's Daily, mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, front-paged the circular by the party's Central Committee and the cabinet, saying it would "guarantee the spirit of the masses directly exercising democratic rights." The reforms would end the closed-door work style of village officials by requiring them to post decisions on issues such as economic projects, village assets and official budgets on a public billboard every three months, the official Xinhua news agency said. "All major issues of public concern and any practical problems that will have an impact on the personal interests of farmers must be made public to the villagers instead of being decided or resolved secretly," Xinhua said. The circular called for village congresses to be set up to keep an eye on the village leadership and give input from residents, Xinhua said. "The wrong practice that a few officials act willfully regardless of the villagers' wishes must be corrected resolutely," Xinhua quoted the circular as saying. The high-profile coverage given to the circular contrasted with the quiet introduction of democratic reforms in the 1980s, albeit at the lowest level of officialdom far removed from national decision-making. It also comes ahead of Clinton's trip, scheduled for June 25 to July 3. Officials have said Clinton could visit a village on his trip, and he is expected to preach human rights and American-style democracy. Village democracy has gradually built up support among China's leadership and most of the country's hundreds of millions of villagers can now choose their leaders in elections that U.S. monitors have judged as relatively free and fair. But China's experiment in grass-roots democracy has so far been limited to its villages, leaving out the country's 250 million or so urban residents. In addition, rural elections only choose government leaders in charge of day-to-day affairs, while the Communist Party officials that wield real power are not subject to public accountability. Acknowledging that corruption and fraud threatened to undermine the shift toward democracy, the circular ordered officials to hold regular elections in line with the law, Xinhua said. "The will of the voters must be respected," it quoted the circular as saying. "No one is allowed to make any attempt to manipulate the elections, or to canvass votes by any unjust means, especially through various forms of bribery," it said. Last week Xinhua said China would amend its laws on village elections to spell out precise procedures for holding polls and to tackle problems such as bribery, fraud and the influence of higher-level officials. Previous Story: Direct aid flights to Cuba resume from U.S. Next Story: Prosecutors scramble to build case in Texas