Throughout the cyberspace and beyond, we are hearing loud repercussions to the newly re-elected President Hu Jintao's call for State functionaries to be "sincere and earnest" in receiving people's supervision and "spotlessly clean" in their service for the country and the public.

We cannot be more familiar with similar appeals and pledges. For quite a while, an honest, upright, and clean government has been what we covet, as well as what the authorities pledge to deliver.

Hu's words created a buzz this time because they were at the same time a promise he made to the national legislature and the broad public, on behalf of the new national leadership the National People's Congress has just elected or appointed. In a culture where political leaders generally avoid getting personal, a promise like this suffices to make a sensation.

We find it consoling to see clean government ended up being one of the only four requests, or promises, the other three being about democracy and rule of law, loyalty to public wellbeing, and a no-nonsense style of work, President Hu singled out for his comrades as they start a fresh five-year term in office.

A clean government is important not because President Hu has put special weight on it. It is so because the governance philosophy of the Communist Party of China (CPC) so requires. The CPC Constitution says the Party has no special interests of its own except those of the public's. Following that logic, a government under CPC leadership has no excuse not to be clean. Being clean, in this sense, is an essential precondition for the government to live up to its own manifesto.

Cleanness tops mass expectations of public service in China also because there is acute discontent with corruption in the ranks of State functionaries. There is no denying the authorities have dealt harshly with corruption in recent years. The report by the Supreme People's Procuratorate to the just concluded annual NPC session was illustrative of the increasing magnitude attached to the crusade against the widely blamed problem.

No less evident, however, is the damage corruption has inflicted on the image and credibility of the government. The special association between public servants and State power makes fraudulence in public offices more damaging than anywhere else.

We do not worry about positive resonances from government officials to President Hu's passionate call. But it is quite another thing to have them honored in practice.

We hope all those answering to President Hu's call share his broader concerns about the credibility problem facing public officials.

(China Daily, March 21, 2008)