From China in Transition blog:
A local official’s comments that it is hard to define the “right” or “wrong” idea of officials’ administrative achievements left the public stunned as well as eager to educate the official in that regard.
Mr. Xu Shaohua, the top official of Zhanjiang city of Guangdong and an NPC national delegate, made the remarks on Tuesday during an online interview with southcn.com, the official news website of Guangdong.”Administrative achievement is something that every government official will pursue,” Mr. Xu said. “But if you talk about what is the right or wrong idea of administrative achievements, it is hard to be clear-cut.”
For years, local officials’ pursuit of administrative achievements disregarding the real needs of local development has been under fire, denounced by the public and some media as officials’ bid for advance in personal political career at the price of public resources. A special term, “image project,” has been coined to describe such endeavors that are widely seen from rural towns to large cities around China. [Full Text]