From The Wall Street Journal:
A regulation mandating greater transparency in China’s government is moving forward in Beijing, but its contents are a secret.
The regulation, eight years in the making, may do more to strengthen Beijing’s sway over its bureaucracy than to meet growing public demands for accountability in a country where information is closely guarded.
China’s chief administrative body, the State Council, approved a draft of the Government Release of Information regulation in January. Officials have said the regulation will give individuals a legal recourse to demand information that some parts of the government often decline to share, which could include court decisions, death tolls in emergencies and disasters, and parts of the proceedings of China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress. It remains unclear whether the new regulation would make it easier to get access to often-secret draft legislation, such as this one on information transparency.[Full Text]
