Four departments of the central government and the Communist Party of China (CPC) jointly issued the regulations last week on disciplinary penalties for violations in handling petitions or complaints from the general public. As first rules of their kind, they are meant to remind government leaders at all levels they may face penalties and even lose their positions if they continue to turn a blind eye to problems they are meant to solve.

The department at different levels handling visits and letters from residents has been an important channel for governments to hear complaints from the general public, and it is also a necessary channel for residents to have their problems heard by relevant departments. The most recent riots in Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, in which police officers and local residents were injured or even killed, could be attributed to the malfunction of this channel.

Blocking of this channel could be dangerous - resulting in accumulation of grievances against a government and possible hostility between local residents and their government.

The rules specify that government officials may be demoted or even fired if they violate relevant rules by using the local police force to crack down on mass rallies or take coercive measures against local residents.

As some local leaders admit, accumulation of grievances against a local government or some particular departments is where the root cause of the recent riots lies. On the part of a government, lack of attention to complaints from the general public and implementation of wrong policies against the will and interest of residents are to blame.

The issuance of these regulations sends the message that the deteriorating relationship between residents and their governments in some localities has become something that must be dealt with in a serious manner. And behind these rules is the resolve of the central government and the Party that governments at all levels must be made aware of their role of serving the people.

These rules apply to top leaders of local governments, according to the interpretation by a senior official from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC. If so, top leaders of local governments face the danger of being demoted if they fail to handle well the relationship between the public and the local government.

If the rules really bite, bad relationship between local governments and their residents in some localities can be expected to turn for the better in the near future.

(China Daily July 29, 2008)