Government competing with people's interest

The mass unrest triggered a wide-ranging debate on the Internet. The consensus was that the root cause of such incidents was that "local governments are competing with people's interests". "Some local governments are looking after their own interests and those of business cronies while ignoring farmers' rights and interests," remarked the well-known commentator Wei Wenbiao. Many believe governments have been concentrating on boosting GDP and neglecting their main mission, which should be to serve the people.

It is not clear how many incidents of mass unrest have occurred so far in 2008. But according to the Social Blue Book, in 2005 the number of mass incidents reached 60,000 involving over 3 million people. "The root cause to such incidents was the lack of a negotiation mechanism and a mechanism to safeguard the interests of ordinary people," said Mao Shoulong, a professor at Renmin University of China.

A new approach to dealing with mass incidents

The government is trying to set up a negotiation mechanism to deal with incidents of mass unrest. Three days after the Chongqing cab drivers' strike, the secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, met with representatives of cab drivers and other citizens to listen to their complaints and suggestions. The meeting was televised and broadcast on the radio and the Internet.

Gao Xiaodong, deputy director general of Chongqing Public Security Bureau, said a new philosophy was needed to deal with such incidents. The key step is to set up effective channels and negotiation mechanisms to allow people to protect their interests. Only in this way can conflicts of interests be resolved according to law and the principle of equality.

"Governments have learned that taking care of the public interest is extremely important," Hu Baijing said. To him a healthy society is one which regards citizens' problems as public issues.

The Chongqing cab drivers' strike broke out at about 7:00 a.m. on November 3. By 10:00 a.m. Xinhua was reporting the strike and covering the cab driver's grievances. At 4:00 p.m. the same day the Chongqing municipal government talked to media, explaining the background to the incident and the measures being taken in response to it.

"The Chongqing municipal government chose to talk with the public directly, which defused the situation. The issue is not so much that the problems are difficult to solve, but that people have no channels to express their dissatisfaction, and there is a lack of dialogue between government officials and the people. It is of vital importance to open up new avenues to communicate with the public," said Hu Baijing.

Hu said that ability to communicate effectively with the public should be an important factor taken into account when evaluating civil servants' performance.

He also said central government institutions should invite local governments, media organizations and scholars to participate in a round-table discussion on the lessons of dealing with incidents of mass unrest.

"We should learn how to deal with mass incidents so as to better prevent them from happening again in the future," said Qiu Zhenghai, a commentator on current affairs at Phoenix Satellite Television, "Media coverage can help deal with such incidents."

(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, December 1, 2008)