In her speech, Prof. Tao concluded:
This seminar does not stop at discussing the publicity of government affairs, and has both practical significance in guiding further reform and theoretical significance in exploring the building of a legal society and further reform.
How the government builds its information disclosure system is in essence a process in which the government deprives its own power with power. That is, the government deprives itself of the power to possibly distort and conceal information with its power to maintain social fairness and transparency. This is undoubtedly a self-revolution for the government. During the defense against the COVID-19, the central and local governments have demonstrated their openness and sense of responsibility, and have provided transparency over the released information, which was actually a self-challenge and self-revolution for the governments. She believed that the results of this seminar will, with the power of thoughts, push Chinese society towards a truly well-established legal and democratic society.
The Seminar on the Publicity of Chinese Local Government Affairs was held in Shenzhen Lafonte International Hotel on June 20, 2020. The seminar was co-sponsored by the Shenzhen Ma Hong Foundation for the Economic Improvement Research (Ma Hong Foundation), the China Development Institute (CDI) and Shenzhen Software Science Development Foundation. Among the attendees were the representatives of some provincial and municipal governments, such as Li Youwei (the former Secretary of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee), Zhang Hongyi and Tang Jie (the former Vice Mayors of Shenzhen), as well as the representatives of the organizers, senior leaders of Shenzhen, experts from the Shenzhen Municipal Policy Advisory Committee, experts from the Shenzhen Municipal Social Science Association, members of the Think Tank Committee of 100 under the Ma Hong Foundation, people from all walks of life and about one hundred mainstream news media reporters. Prof. Tao Yitao also attended the meeting and delivered an impressive concluding speech. Prof. Tao is the Director of China Center for Special Economic Zone Research (CCSEZR), Shenzhen University (SZU), the President of the Belt and Road Research Institute (Shenzhen) for International Cooperation and Development (BRRI), and the Honorary Director of Ma Hong Foundation. The seminar was presided over by Guo Wanda, the Executive Vice President of the China Development Institute and the Chairman of the Ma Hong Foundation.
The seminar was reportedly divided into five parts: the opening speech, the presentation ceremony of the 2020 “Golden Weight” Award for Local Governments with Affairs Publicity in response to COVID-19, the experts’ keynote speeches, the roundtable discussions between representatives of several grassroots governments, and the closing statements. The seminar was also live streamed through streaming platforms and VooV Meeting, with over 1,000 government representatives and experts participating online.
A glimpse of the seminar
First off, Fan Gang, a well-known economist and President of CDI, addressed the event on behalf of the organizers. He said that there was much “uncertainty” about the information release during the COVID-19 outbreak, which has also been one of the topics on cutting-edge economic research in recent decades. In the hope of pushing the whole society in the establishment of a sound public crisis response mechanism under uncertainty, he put forward the following five suggestions: 1. taking major epidemic prevention measures; 2. providing true and accurate information for the authorities in a timely manner; 3. taking “no-regret actions” as part of the early preventive measures; 4. combining information release with actions; 5. legislate laws and regulations to clarify the actions that the local health and epidemic prevention organizations and local governments should take.
President Fan Gang delivers a speech
Subsequently, the presentation ceremony of the 2020 “Golden Weight” Award for Local Governments was staged. It is known that 11 provincial governments, including those of Sichuan, Shanghai, Hainan and Shandong, stood out and took the “Golden Weight” and the “Silver Weight” in the recently concluded appraisal of the 2020 “Golden Weight” Award for Local Governments with Affairs Publicity in response to COVID-19. Li Youwei (the former Secretary of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee) and Zhang Hongyi (the former Vice Mayor of Shenzhen) presented the heavy gold and silver trophies to government representatives from Sichuan, Shanghai and Shandong provinces, who came specially for the meeting.
Then the following people made keynote speeches respectively: Li Luoli (the founding chairman of Ma Hong Foundation), Tang Jie (former Vice Mayor of Shenzhen Municipal People's Government), Zhang Jinzhou (Deputy Director of the General Affairs Office of Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government), Xia Junjie (Director of Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention), Liu Wenjing (professor of Law School, Ji’nan University), and Zhou Runan (associate professor of the School of Communication and Design, Sun Yat-sen University). Following that, representatives of several grassroots governments had roundtable discussions on topics such as “the local government affairs publicity in the era of big data”.
Representatives of several grassroots governments have a roundtable discussion
After the roundtable discussion, Prof. Tao made a concluding statement. According to Prof. Tao, publicity of government affairs has both practical and theoretical significance.
1. Publicity of government affairs is an institutional arrangement. As an institutional arrangement, it can help cut social transaction costs, increase government’s credibility, reduce public panic, boost national confidence and maintain social order. Compared with the society devoid of this system arrangement, those with a scientific, sound and streamlined publicity of government affairs mechanism often feature more established and sound social governance systems and mechanisms, as well as better competence of the governments and more confidence in the systems. The success of COVID-19 prevention and control has proved it.
2. As an institutional arrangement, the key to the publicity of government affairs lies in the contents and form of the information to be released. For the released contents, the timeliness and authenticity of the information are of decisive significance, for which not only relate to the governments’ credibility, but also determine the value of the information itself and the expectation that the future social returns may be affected. Therefore, how the government builds its information disclosure system is in essence a process in which the government deprives its own power with power. That is, the government deprives itself of the power to possibly distort and conceal information with its power to maintain social fairness and transparency. This is undoubtedly a self-revolution for the government. During the defense against the COVID-19, the central and local governments have demonstrated their openness and sense of responsibility, and have provided transparency over the released information, which was actually a self-challenge and self-revolution for the governments. This can further improve the social management system and mechanism while driving the transition of government functions and the establishment of government credibility. The provinces and cities that have been effective in the COVID-19 prevention and control have well secured the timeliness and authenticity of released information, so as to achieve institutional performance that guarantees effective prevention and control of the pandemic and social stability. In addition, the form of the information released by the government, such as the sentiments of officials between the lines and the appeal and affinity of language, will not only significantly enhance the positive effect of information disclosure, but the form itself is an invisible force. The power of the form can even play an equally important role as the disclosure of information in a sense.
3. How to allow local governments to release “probabilistic information” and take “no-regrets actions” under information asymmetry in times of sudden public crisis is a theoretical and practical challenge that surfaces itself in this COVID-19 outbreak. From an economic perspective, since “the satisfaction of an equivalent gain is always less than the pain of losing”, the “no-regrets actions” taken given the “probabilistic information” is similar to a “gambling” in the face of an unknown disaster and on the supposition that the disaster will happen. Even if we “lose”, that is, the disaster does not happen as expected, then the marginal cost of “losing” is lower compared with “winning”, that is, the disaster does happen. Therefore, a more scientific and reasonable accountability system is required. Do distinguish between the foresight and sense of responsibility of local governments or officials in the face of unknown forces and force majeure, and the malpractice and dereliction of duty under the idea of “GDP-based promotion tournament”. This not only relates to the scientific nature of the social management system and mechanism, but also can reflect the ruling ability and wisdom of CPC.
4. An established and sound system of laws and regulations is the fundamental institutional environment underpinning the publicity of government affairs. All of the following issues about the information release should be solved within a certain legal framework: What can be released? What must be released? Who has the right to release it? How should it be released? For one thing, the public has an undoubted access to information in the face of public disaster. For another, the purpose and goal of information disclosure is to face up to and to predict the possible events or dangers, and to offer the public freedom of choices about the expectation with the given information, so as to stabilize the social order, rather than to aggravate the public panic and social disorder caused by fear. From the standpoint that the government is the only publisher of public information during the public crisis, the rule of law not only means that the government acts in accordance with the law, but also implies that the government’s actions are also subject to the law. The development of the government’s information disclosure system during the COVID-19 will objectively carry forward the establishment and improvement of a legal system with Chinese characteristics.
Prof. Tao said that the theoretical and practical reflection on the government information disclosure system is not only a touch on the publicity of government affairs, but also a probe into the building of a legal society and the deepened reform. She believed that the power of thoughts will push Chinese society towards a truly well-established legal and democratic society.
Prof. Tao’s brilliant summary won cheering applause form the attendees. The seminar came to a successful conclusion in a positive atmosphere.
Prof. Tao delivers a concluding speech
2020 marks the final year for the in-depth implementation of the “Opinions on Fully Promoting Openness in Government Affairs” issued by the General Office of the State Council and the General Office of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. It is a key year for the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core to start and map out the publicity of government affairs in the new era. It is a year to focus on improving systems and mechanisms and driving reforms and innovations, thereby re-positioning the publicity of government affairs with Chinese characteristics in the new era. We firmly believe that the comprehensively promoting law-based governance is always under way. There is no end for building a law-based, sunshine and transparent government. The fundamental role that the publicity of government affairs plays in the systematic project of comprehensively promoting law-based governance will be gradually brought to the fore. The tasks for publicity of government affairs in the new era are more arduous and glorious.
Group photo of all the attendees
