Many officials in China have resisted plans to pass a national “Sunshine” policy, which would require the disclosure of official expenditures. For the Asia Times, Wu Zhong looks at the issue through the scope of Baimiao township:

Baimiao is by Chinese standards, with a population of less than 10,000, a tiny township, though it still has its own party committee and government. This otherwise unknown and remote place became famous this year when it implemented what has been called a full “Sunshine” policy.

The policy, publicized on the local government’s website [1], details government revenues and expenditure as well as the salaries and fringe benefits paid to incumbent and retired officials. Baimiao government became fully transparent, so much so that media dubbed it China’s first “fully naked” government.

Baimiao’s experiment, first reported by a Sichuan newspaper in mid-March, quickly attracted national attention. The website of the Baimiao government drew many hits as netizens flocked to express their opinions. Some praised the move, some questioned it or cast doubts.

Update, 6/18/10:

Yiyi Lu, an expert on Chinese society, writes for the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report on officials’ private use of government vehicles, part of the “three public” problem:

The private use of government vehicles is part of the so-called “three public” problem that has angered the Chinese public for many years. The “three public” refers to officials “wining and dining using public funds; using publicly-owned vehicles for private purposes, and using public funds to go on sightseeing trips.” The government has repeatedly vowed to curb this problem, but somehow it just doesn’t seem able to get on top of it.

… So how can the “three public” problem be solved? Is it really so difficult to control the “three public” spending? This was one of the questions put to Premier Wen Jiabao by a member of the public during his annual online conversation with netizens in February. Wen answered: “We ought to be able to control such spending, and we must control it. In fact, we can do it.”

So far, however, there doesn’t seem to have been any major progress on the management of government vehicles. One wonders why resolute measures such as those introduced in Kunming cannot be applied immediately across the country. In Kunming, it seems that civil servants used to enjoying unlimited access to government cars have had a painful time adjusting to the new system. Perhaps decision-makers do not wish to risk upsetting civil servants all over the country by implementing drastic reforms quickly. However, as the competition to enter the civil service gets more fierce every year, with the most coveted posts attracting hundreds or even thousands of applicants each, decision-makers can well afford to worry less about upsetting civil servants. Instead, they should worry more about the public mood, which is growing ever more impatient with the obstinacy of the “three public” problem.