A government official told a press conference on Monday that the death tolls of natural disasters will no longer be regarded as state secrets, and that implementation of regulations to that effect would be backdated to August this year.

"This is the first time we stand under a spotlight," said Shen Yongshe, spokesperson for the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets (NAPSS), "We hope this is a good start."

At a press conference held jointly by the NAPSS and Ministry of Civil Affairs, Shen said "Declassification of these figures and related materials is conducive to boosting disaster prevention and relief work."

The decision marks a major step toward "administering according to law" and "building a transparent government," he added.

Deaths from natural calamities used to be taboo among government officials. From the early 1950s, the Communist Party of China feared that publishing figures could tarnish its image, draw blame from the public or trigger social turmoil.

On July 28, 1976, the devastating Tangshan earthquake in north China's Hebei Province resulted in massive fatalities, but a death toll of 240,000 was only released three years later.

In 2000, China passed a regulation defining death tolls from natural disasters as state secrets, but the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 increased calls for greater transparency.

In recent years, figures from major disasters as well as annual death tolls have been released despite their classification.

"The free flow of information poses great pressures to our local officials," said Liu Daoping, a local official in southwest China's Sichuan Province, which frequently suffers natural disasters, "Just like criticism from superiors, we have to deal with these things conscientiously."

With the aim of increasing transparency, regulation on publishing government information is being drafted that, according to a member of its drafting committee Xie Shenwu, "will do away with the government's original secrecy principle."

One anonymous NAPSS official said keeping secrets is a way to ensure state security, but that publicity can achieve the same end.

(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2005)