Officials 'must treat public woes'

The central government has asked all county heads to try to redress¹ residents' grievances² and help solve their problems.

The unprecedented³ move is in response to recent public protests and shows the central leadership is paying more attention to public complaints after a rising number of social conflicts at the grassroots level.

The central government recently ordered all Party chiefs of 2,300 counties to act on people's complaints and try to resolve their disputes, says the Outlook Weekly magazine.

The help-public campaign, which started earlier this month, makes it mandatory⁴ for all local CPC chiefs to keep track of key public complaint cases till they are solved, the magazine said.

"All the county CPC chiefs will have to shoulder this responsibility," it said, referring to the rising number of public complaints and mass incidents at the county level.

The central government has taken note of the incidents and wants the local officials to make every possible effort to ensure a harmonious⁵ social atmosphere.

The latest in the series of such incidents took place in the affluent⁶ coastal⁷ province of Zhejiang. Hundreds of migrant workers attacked and injured three policemen after an argument over registration⁸ of a migrant as a temporary resident turned violent.

After the central government order was implemented⁹, people have flocked to meet with local leaders with their complaints, which have ranged from illegal land seizures¹⁰ and judicial¹¹ injustice¹² to non-payment of salary and corruption¹³ of village officials.

The Party secretary and magistrate¹⁴ of Pingyang county in Zhejiang received 362 people on July 10 alone, the Wenzhou Metropolitan¹⁵ News reported.

Mo Jihong, a professor at the law institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the government move comes in response to accumulating social ills during the country's economic reform.

"Infringement¹⁶ of legal rights of the public is still common ... at the grassroots level. That's why the county Party chiefs are the protagonists¹⁷ of this campaign."

And the system, if implemented properly, could yield positive results, he said.

Huang Qingping, a resident of Huaining county in Anhui province, said he hoped the move could become regular, instead of being another "temporary image-projecting" act.