Beijing's pronouncements on transparency ring a little hollow

Contradictions abound in Beijing. On Tuesday, official media reported an official circular, jointly dispatched by the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the Secretariat of the State Council, listing 20 ways to increase government transparency.

Just days earlier, on the previous Friday evening, an order was reportedly imposed by the party's Propaganda Department to stop all media from continuing to report on the fatal high-speed train crash on July 23 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province following a week of widespread criticism of the Ministry of Railways' handling of the disaster.

Not a single article was published using the circular to challenge the ban. But the contradiction was so clear it seemed like a man punching his own arm.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted Zhou Hanhua, a legal expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as calling the circular a strategic move 'directed against government agencies that have tended to cover up' their mistakes.

A column on Thursday on People.com.cn, the website of the official People's Daily, went so far as to say the circular brought hope of a 'sunlight government' of openness and transparency.

For some time now, the column noted, 'hardly a day goes by without hearing public criticism' of government departments' lack of transparency. It listed areas of concern as follows: accountability for public funds; the dealings of he Chinese Red Cross Society and whether it had misused charity funds; the seemingly unstoppable oil leaks from offshore oil drilling operations in Bohai Bay; a proper explanation for the train crash in Wenzhou; and how staff at the Palace Museum in Beijing could break a priceless ancient porcelain plate in its collection.

Government agencies, the circular said, should understand that responding to the public is an obligation. Indeed, the most notable directive outlines that, for the first time ever (according to the People.com.cn column), all government agencies will be required to be transparent during emergencies and about society's 'hot issues'. Officials must provide information about their reaction to events, list mitigation measures and release findings of investigations.