Naked Governement

Term in China associated with administrative transparency.

published on: Schott's Vocab

In an article for Inter Press Service, Kit Gillet noted a sixty-year tendency in the Chinese government not to disclose information on budgetary and spending matters and revealed, “this may be about to change”:In January, in what some are calling China’s first case of “naked government,” Baimiao, a small town in the southern province of Sichuan, released its budget to the public. The details were not pretty: they showed that 65% of local government spending had gone to accommodating and entertaining officials.
Then, in March, Guangdong, the province closest to Hong Kong and the manufacturing heartland of China, announced that it would be publicizing its financial budget for this year. This is the first time that a provincial-level administration has decided to release these records since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949.
Many feel that this could be the beginning of greater government transparency in China.
“In the past this [greater transparency] has been a topic that nobody was allowed to talk about, but at least now we can talk about it in the open and hope for a change,” Li Chengyan, a professor at Peking University’s School of Government, told IPS.
“Although it is just a beginning, I believe we will see a chain effect; other local governments will have to make their budget transparent under pressure from the public,” Li said.