Research Series on the Chinese Dream

and China’s Development Path

Ping Du · Shiyang Yu
Daoling Yang Editors

The Development
of E-governance in
China
Improving Cybersecurity and Promoting
Informatization as Means for
Modernizing State Governance
Research Series on the Chinese Dream
and China’s Development Path

Project Director
Xie Shouguang, President, Social Sciences Academic Press

Series editors
Li Yang, Vice president, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
Li Peilin, Vice president, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China

Academic Advisors
Cai Fang, Gao Peiyong, Li Lin, Li Qiang, Ma Huaide, Pan Jiahua, Pei Changhong,
Qi Ye, Wang Lei, Wang Ming, Zhang Yuyan, Zheng Yongnian, Zhou Hong
Drawing on a large body of empirical studies done over the last two decades, the
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path seeks to
provide its readers with in-depth analyses of the past and present, and forecasts for
the future course of China’s development. Thanks to the adoption of Socialism with
Chinese characteristics, and the implementation of comprehensive reform and
opening, China has made tremendous achievements in areas such as political
reform, economic development, and social construction, and is making great strides
towards the realization of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. In addition to
presenting a detailed account of many of these achievements, the authors also
discuss what lessons other countries can learn from China’s experience. This series
will be an invaluable companion to every researcher who is trying to gain a deeper
understanding of the development model, path and experience unique to China.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13571

Ping Du Shiyang Yu Daoling Yang
• •

Editors

The Development
of E-governance in China
Improving Cybersecurity and Promoting
Informatization as Means for Modernizing
State Governance

123
Editors
Ping Du Daoling Yang
State Information Center Big Data Development Department
Beijing State Information Center
China Beijing
China
Shiyang Yu
Big Data Development Department
State Information Center
Beijing
China

ISSN 2363-6866 ISSN 2363-6874 (electronic)

Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path
ISBN 978-981-13-1013-3 ISBN 978-981-13-1014-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0
Jointly published with Social Sciences Academic Press, Beijing, China

The print edition is not for sale in China Mainland. Customers from China Mainland please order the
print book from: Social Sciences Academic Press.

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© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019
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Series Preface

Since China’s reform and opening began in 1978, the country has come a long way
on the path of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, under the leadership of the
Communist Party of China. Over 30 years of reform, efforts and sustained spec-
tacular economic growth have turned China into the world’s second largest econ-
omy, and wrought many profound changes in the Chinese society. These
historically significant developments have been garnering increasing attention from
scholars, governments, and the general public alike around the world since the
1990s, when the newest wave of China studies began to gather steam. Some of the
hottest topics have included the so-called “China miracle”, “Chinese phenomenon”,
“Chinese experience”, “Chinese path”, and the “Chinese model”. Homegrown
researchers have soon followed suit. Already hugely productive, this vibrant field is
putting out a large number of books each year, with Social Sciences Academic
Press alone having published hundreds of titles on a wide range of subjects.
Because most of these books have been written and published in Chinese,
however, readership has been limited outside China—even among many who study
China—for whom English is still the lingua franca. This language barrier has been
an impediment to efforts by academia, business communities, and policy-makers in
other countries to form a thorough understanding of contemporary China, of what is
distinct about China’s past and present may mean not only for her future but also
for the future of the world. The need to remove such an impediment is both real and
urgent, and the Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development
Path is my answer to the call.
This series features some of the most notable achievements from the last 20
years by scholars in China in a variety of research topics related to reform and
opening. They include both theoretical explorations and empirical studies, and
cover economy, society, politics, law, culture, and ecology, the six areas in which
reform and opening policies have had the deepest impact and farthest reaching
consequences for the country. Authors for the series have also tried to articulate
their visions of the “Chinese Dream” and how the country can realize it in these
fields and beyond.

v
vi Series Preface

All of the editors and authors for the Research Series on the Chinese Dream and
China’s Development Path are both longtime students of reform and opening and
recognized authorities in their respective academic fields. Their credentials and
expertise lend credibility to these books, each of which having been subject to a
rigorous peer review process for inclusion in the series. As part of the Reform and
Development Program under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio,
Film and Television of the People’s Republic of China, the series is published by
Springer, a Germany-based academic publisher of international repute, and dis-
tributed overseas. I am confident that it will help fill a lacuna in studies of China in
the era of reform and opening.

Xie Shouguang
Preface

The move toward informatization is a global trend, and an important force for
economic and social change. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the
global shift toward informatization has accelerated significantly. Cybersecurity and
informatization have entered a development stage of greater permeation and deeper
integration into all aspects of the economy and society. In particular since the 2008
financial crisis, the world’s major economies have placed a strategic focus on
Cybersecurity and informatization in order to seek out new growth points, alleviate
energy and ecological pressures, improve living standards, and improve social
governance through new technological transformations in fields such as cloud
computing, the Internet of Things, mobile internet, big data, smart cities, and a
wave of applications. The effects on the economy and society have emerged and
will continue to make significant progress. Based on China’s stage of new urban-
ization, industrialization, informatization, and agricultural modernization, and
major characteristics, as well as the intrinsic need for synchronized development,
we must accelerate the pace of development, expand the scope of work, and pro-
mote informatization and the comprehensive, coordinated, effective linking, and
deep integration of informatization with all areas of the economy and society. We
must fully use modern Cybersecurity and informatization to further elevate China’s
governance capabilities.
China should accelerate the adoption of information technology in government.
Vigorously promoting E-governance is an important strategic decision the Central
Committee and the State Council must make in accordance with the trends of world
technological development and China’s developmental needs. In 2002, the
Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee General Office and State
Council General Office jointly reprinted the “Guiding Opinions by the National
Informatization Task Force on E-governance Construction in China
E-governance.”1 By noting that the government’s own transformation is going to

1
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 17 (2002).

vii
viii Preface

lead the country’s efforts toward overall informatization, the document marked the
beginning of expedited development of E-governance in China on a national scale.
Practice has proved that the CPC Central Committee and the State Council make
decisions that study and weigh the situation and are forward looking. For more than
a decade, China’s E-governance construction and its application have made strides
forward, and significant achievements have been made in network infrastructure,
business application systems, government information resources, government
websites, information security, regulatory system standards, management systems,
personnel teams, and other areas, improving the government’s ability to regulate the
economy, oversee markets, manage society, and perform its public service
responsibilities. These achievements have become indispensable, effective mea-
sures in promoting national governance systems and the modernization of gover-
nance capabilities, deepening reforms of government systems, and constructing a
service-oriented government.
The current and future periods are critical times for China to build a xiaokang
society2 and achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people, as well as crucial
periods for deepening reforms and accelerating the transformation of the methods of
economic development. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Part of
China Party Congress clearly articulated the goal of “improving and developing the
system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and pushing forward the mod-
ernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities.” The
congress set out a series of major tasks including accelerating the transformation of
government functions, promoting integrated urban–rural development, strengthen-
ing checks on authority, promoting reform and innovation in social undertakings,
making innovations in social governance systems, and accelerating the construction
of the system of ecological civilization. These tasks will place new and higher
requirements on the construction and sustainable development of E-governance. In
February of the same year, the central government formally established the Leading
Group for National Informatization and its office and clearly stated that without
Cybersecurity, there could be no national security, and without the adoption of
informatization, there could be no national modernization. The central government
also proposed a series of major strategic tasks for Cybersecurity and the adoption of
informatization. These statements further clarified the development direction and
focus of E-governance in China. Facing a new situation, new requirements, and
new tasks, all levels and categories of party and government departments in China
will further enhance their understanding of E-governance support of lawful
administration, further rationalize the thinking of the effective development of
E-governance science and its deepening reform strategy, and further study and
implement policy measures to ensure E-governance plays its important role. Based

2
The term xiaokangshehui, generally translated as “moderately prosperous society,” is of
Confucian origin, used to describe a society largely composed of a functional middle-class.
—translator’s note.
Preface ix

on the above, we have reason to believe that the field of E-governance, as a major
component of promoting China’s Cybersecurity and information technology work,
will usher in significant new development opportunities and good prospects.

Beijing, China Ping Du

Shiyang Yu
Daoling Yang
Acknowledgements

After a relatively short gestation period, the Research Series on the Chinese Dream
and China’s Development Path has started to bear fruits. We have, first and fore-
most, the books’ authors and editors to thank for making this possible. And it was
the hard work by many people at Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer, the
two collaborating publishers, that made it a reality. We are deeply grateful to all
of them.
Mr. Xie Shouguang, president of Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP), is the
mastermind behind the project. In addition to defining the key missions to be
accomplished by it and setting down the basic parameters for the project’s exe-
cution, as the work has unfolded, Mr. Xie has provided critical input pertaining to
its every aspect and at every step of the way. Thanks to the deft coordination by
Ms. Li Yanling, all the constantly moving parts of the project, especially those on
the SSAP side, are securely held together, and as well synchronized as is feasible
for a project of this scale. Ms. Gao Jing, unfailingly diligent and meticulous, makes
sure every aspect of each Chinese manuscript meets the highest standards for both
publishers, something of critical importance to all subsequent steps in the pub-
lishing process. That high-quality if also at times stylistically as well as technically
challenging scholarly writing in Chinese has turned into decent, readable English
that readers see on these pages is largely thanks to Ms. Liang Fan, who oversees
translator recruitment and translation quality control.
Ten other members of the SSAP staff have been intimately involved, primarily in
the capacity of in-house editor, in the preparation of the Chinese manuscripts. It is
time-consuming work that requires attention to details, and each of them has done
this, and is continuing to do this with superb skills. They are, in alphabetical order:
Mr. Cai Jihui, Ms. Liu Xiaojun, Mr. Ren Wenwu, Ms. Shi Xiaolin, Ms. Song
Yuehua, Mr. Tong Genxing, Ms. Wu Dan, Ms. Yao Dongmei, Ms. Yun Wei and
Ms. Zhou Qiong. In addition, Xie Shouguang, and Li Yanling have also taken part
in this work.
Mr. Ren Wenwu is the SSAP in-house editor for the current volume.

xi
xii Acknowledgements

Our appreciation is also owed to Ms. Li Yan, Mr. Chai Ning, Ms. Wang Lei, and
Ms. Xu Yi from Springer’s Beijing Representative Office. Their strong support for
the SSAP team in various aspects of the project helped to make the latter’s work
that much easier than it would have otherwise been.
We thank Mr. Evan Villarrubia for translating this book.
Last, but certainly not least, it must be mentioned that funding for this project
comes from the Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China. Our pro-
found gratitude, if we can be forgiven for a bit of apophasis, goes without saying.

Social Sciences Academic Press

Springer
Contents

1 Development Process: Chinese E-governance from Exploration to

Comprehensive Promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution of the
Development of E-governance in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports
Construction of Service-Oriented Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine
Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent
Government Web Portals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms for
Interaction Between the Government and the Public . . . . . . . . . . . 113
7 Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last Mile” of E-governance
Public Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
8 Application of New Technologies: Driving Changes in the
Development of E-governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9 Assessing Results: Important Drivers of Healthy, Sustainable
Development in E-governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments . . . . . . . 191
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

xiii
About the Authors

Ping Du is a researcher, deputy director of the State Information Center, and

deputy director of the National E-governance Extranet Management Center. He is
also deputy director of the National School of Administration Expert Committee on
E-governance, vice president of the China Information Industry Association, as well
as executive manager of the China Sustainable Development Research Association,
member of the China Geographical Society, and executive manager of the China
Association of Regional Economies. He is mainly responsible for and participates
in national planning for regional economic development, development of national
territory, ecological and environmental protection, sustainable development, and
western development, national strategic research and the formulation of related
policies, the training of National Development and Reform Commission leaders,
and management work for the introduction of knowledge from abroad.
[email protected]

Shiyang Yu is a Ph.D. and researcher. He is currently deputy director of the State

Information Center Information Research Department, executive deputy director
of the National Development and Reform Commission Internet Big Data Analysis
Center, deputy director of the State Information Center Network Government
Research Center, and vice president and secretary of the China Information Industry
Association E-governance Professional Committee. Yu is a graduate of the Peking
University School of Government, where he received a Ph.D. in management under
the tutelage of Prof. Wang Yukai. In 2001, Yu traveled to the United States and
worked as a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yu is
currently focused on big data, innovation in government management, and the
study of development strategies for information technology. As a specially invited
professor at Renmin University of China, Yu spoke on “Internet Data Analysis.” He
has hosted more than 40 national and provincial discussions and participated in a
number of national E-governance programs and related policy research. Yu has
written the following published books: E-governance Performance Management,
Top-level E-governance Design, Analysis and Optimization of Government
Websites, and Internet Knowledge Reader for Leaders and Cadres. He was deputy

xv
xvi About the Authors

editor of the “China E-governance Development Report (2004–2012)” and “Ten

Years of E-governance in China (2002–2012),” as well as executive editor of the
Information and Government Management Innovation Series. [email protected]

Daoling Yang is a Ph.D. and associate professor. Yang is deputy director of

E-governance at the State Information Center Information Research Department,
deputy secretary-general of the China Information Association Professional
Committee, and assistant to the director of the National Development and Reform
Commission Internet Big Data Analysis Center. His research focuses on
E-governance strategy planning and E-governance performance management. In
the past 5 years, Yang has hosted and participated in some 40 central and provincial
level discussions, participated in the preparation of more than ten central and local
E-governance strategy planning documents, directed numerous provinces and
municipalities in launching E-governance effectiveness assessment work, and has
published some 50 academic papers. Published books to which he contributed:
E-governance Performance Management (coauthor), Explanation of E-governance
Vocabulary (associate editor), and Compilation of Information Technology Rules
and Regulations (associate editor). [email protected]
Chapter 1
Development Process: Chinese
E-governance from Exploration
to Comprehensive Promotion

If the government’s adoption of computers represents the beginning of

E-governance, China’s E-governance forays can be traced back to the 1970s.
Through more than 30 years of construction and development since, China has
made significant achievements and accumulated valuable experience in
E-governance sand has begun to pave the way for E-governance construction suited
to China’s national conditions. With government information technology as the
incision point and major government-funded projects as links, promoting the
adoption of information technology in the national economy and society has been
the key to the success of Chinese E-governance. In general, Chinese E-governance
construction has undergone five phases of development: (1) the pilot phase char-
acterized by data processing (1973–1983); (2) the vertical construction phase
characterized by information management (1983–1993); (3) the beginning of key
transaction systems characterized by transaction processing (1993–2000); (4) the
comprehensive promotion phase characterized by E-governance guiding national
information technology development (2000–2006); and (5) the deep application
phase characterized by a service orientation (2006 onward). Corresponding
achievements in E-governance have been made and valuable experience accumu-
lated in each phase.

1 The Pilot Phase Characterized by Data Processing

(1973–1983)

Due to a variety of factors and technical conditions, the Chinese government began
to use computing technologies about 20 years later than the first countries. In
March 1973, in order to carry out Zhou Enlai’s instructions to “actively promote the
application of computers,” the National Planning Commission submitted a report on
establishing a Computing Center to the State Council, a prelude to comprehensive

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 1
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0_1
2 1 Development Process: Chinese E-governance …

economic management departments of the Chinese government adopting comput-

ers. This event is also considered to be a symbol of the beginning of the adoption of
information technology by the Chinese government.
The main application of computers in government departments was at first data
processing, and a representative event of this era was the processing of census data.
When China carried out its third national census in 1999, with the help of the
United Nations, it formed the first prototype central and provincial-level computer
system in China and completed the massive task of processing 40 billion characters
of raw data from a population of 1 billion people. This aspect of the pilot achieved
complete success, and the government accumulated further experience in promoting
the application of computers, enhancing confidence.

2 The Vertical Construction Phase Characterized

by Information Management (1983–1993)

By the 1980s, computing technology had made a new leap forward as the micro-
processor revolution gave birth to personal computers while also creating the
conditions for the popularization of computer applications in government.
Information technology in the Chinese government entered a management infor-
mation system construction phase symbolized by the State Council’s establishment
of an economic information office.
On April 10, 1982, the State Council set up the Leading Group on Computers
and Large-Scale Integrated Circuits.
In October 1983, the State Council approved the National Planning Commission
(the predecessor to the National Development and Reform Commission) to estab-
lish the Economic Information Management Office, which was responsible for the
long-term construction plans and annual implementation plans of the national
economic information management system and the overall technology program for
the information system, as well as launching infrastructure work such as the for-
mulation of an indicator system and unified coding system.
In 1984, in order to strengthen the centralized and unified leadership of the
undertaking of electronics and information and effectively promote this work, the
State Council decided to change the Leading Group on Computers and Large-Scale
Integrated Circuits to the State Council Leading Group for Electronics Promotion.
In order to promote the widespread application of electronic information technol-
ogy, the Electronics Promotion Group focused on twelve systems engineering
applications during the “Seventh Five-Year Plan” and established discount loans for
the promotion and application of electronic information technology, supporting the
use of electronic information technology in transforming traditional industries.
In 1986, the State Council decided to focus on building a national economic
information system comprised of four levels of information centers: national,
provincial, national central city, and county-level city, which was to become the
2 The Vertical Construction Phase Characterized … 3

main system used by central and local people’s governments at all levels and main
economic sectors to carry out macroeconomic analysis, forecasting, and
decision-making services. In January 1987, the State Economic Information Center
was officially established with the approval of the State Council. In January 1988,
Comrade Deng Xiaoping renamed this the State Information Center.
In May 1988, the Ministry of Electrical and Mechanical Services was established
in accordance with the State Council reform plan, and the ministry was endowed
with the task of vitalizing the electronics industry. Subsequently, a State Council
Executive Meeting decided that the State Council Electronics Promotion Group
Office would be renamed to the State Council Electronic Information Systems
Promotion and Application Office. From 1988 to 1992, the National Economic
Council, Ministry of Electrical and Mechanical Services, State Science and
Technology Commission, and the Electronic Information Systems Promotion and
Application Office conducted major work in the fields of promoting the transfor-
mation of traditional industries, EDI technology, CAD/CAM, and MIS, continu-
ously promoting deeper development of electronics and information technology
applications.
By the early 1990s, an economic information system led by the State
Information Center and comprised of central, provincial, municipal, and county-
level information centers covered the entire nation. While focusing on constructing
key national economic information systems, the State Council approved the con-
struction of more than 10 national-level information systems, including those in
finance, railway, electricity, civil aviation, statistics, taxation, customs, meteorol-
ogy, and disaster prevention. Forty-three central ministries and commissions
established information agencies and launched 174 economic information databases
and 252 economic information management systems of various types. Construction
in this period allowed China to introduce international advanced information
technology and equipment and management experience in a relatively short time,
improving the basic environment for information technology applications in gov-
ernment. During the period, China made useful explorations and accumulated
valuable experience in E-governance strategies, organizational systems, human
resources, and infrastructure.
The main achievements in this period were reflected in the following areas:
(1) government information agencies were established, the various main informa-
tion systems were mostly linked with the corresponding four levels of government
institutions, and China thus cultivated and retained an important information
technology construction team and technical support capability; (2) the computer
equipment deployment proficiency of government departments and their subordi-
nate information organs significantly improved, laying a solid foundation for the
construction of government information technology; (3) a large number of data-
bases were developed mainly to manage information, and significant progress was
made in the digitalization of government information resources.
4 1 Development Process: Chinese E-governance …

3 The Beginning of Key Transaction Systems

Characterized by Transaction Processing (1993–2000)

With the continuous maturation of network technology, beginning in 1993 Chinese

government information technology construction began to turn toward an emphasis
on integrated vertical-horizontal key transaction application systems symbolized by
the establishment of the Joint Meeting on National Economic Information. During
this period, the focus of government informatization began to turn from information
management to transaction processes. Cross-sectorial and inter-regional coopera-
tion and construction was inevitable, and state leadership of government informa-
tion technology strengthened significantly.
In December 1993, the State Council approved the establishment of the National
Joint Meeting on Economic Information chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Zou
Jiahua at which the “Golden Bridge,” “Golden Customs,” and “Golden Card”
programs (the “Three Goldens” for short) were officially introduced and entered
into the national long-term development plan. In June 1994, the State Council
General Office sent a memorandum titled “State Council General Office Notice on
Issues Related to the ‘Three Goldens’ Programs” to each ministry, province, and
municipality. Pre-construction for the Three Goldens Programs entered full swing.
During this period, the development of network technology, especially the
emergence of the internet, played a very important role in boosting government
information technology, while also further highlighting the impact of the information
technology revolution. In April 1994, China was officially recognized internationally
as a country with a full-featured internet. In August 1995, the first stages of the Golden
Bridge program were erected, networks (satellite networks) were connected in 24
provinces and municipalities, and these were connected to the international internet.
Golden Customs, Golden Card, and Golden Tax also began to show results. In 1999,
the “Government Online” program jointly launched by more than 40 ministries and
commissions also echoed the rapid development of the internet.
To strengthen leadership of information work, the State Council Informatization
Leading Group and its office were established in January 1996, and Vice Premier
Zou Jiahua was appointed leader of the group. The National Joint Meeting on
Economic Information Office was renamed the State Council Information
Technology Leading Group Office. From April 18 to 21, 1997, the National
Information Technology Working Conference convened in Shenzhen. The con-
ference put forward the “National Informatization Program for the ‘Ninth Five-year
Plan’ and Vision for 2010 (Framework).” The meeting established a guiding
direction of a state-led, comprehensive plan and uniform standards and joint con-
struction, as well as interoperability and resource sharing, effectively promoting the
development of informatization at all levels of Chinese government. Thereafter,
information technology moved from solving emergency hot issues to an organized,
planned development track serving economic and social development. In December
1999, the Leading Group on National Informatization was established with Vice
3 The Beginning of Key Transaction Systems Characterized … 5

Premier Wu Bangguo serving as its leader. The National Information Technology

Work Office was renamed the National Office for the Advancement of Information
Technology.
During this period, the central government further strengthened its leadership of
government information technology work, improved the government information
management system, and vigorously promoted the development of government
information technology. Substantive progress was made in government information
technology emphasizing construction major information systems.
The first stage of the “Golden Tax” program saw the organization and con-
struction of value-added tax computer cross-auditing systems in 50 pilot cities,
which played an important role in recovering taxes and dealing with false invoices.
The “Golden Sea” project established a unified office automation network with the
State Council as the hub, which linked provinces and municipalities with State
Council departments. The “Golden Customs” project achieved networked opera-
tions among customs, banks, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange
(SAFE). The universal application of the H883 system at various levels of customs
agencies effectively prevented the use of false declarations, foreign exchange fraud,
customs evasion, arbitrage, and other illegal economic activities, allowing the state
to recover economic losses of several hundred million yuan.
In 1999, under the “Government Online” program, the vast majority of min-
istries and commissions, as well as cities at the prefecture level and above, had
established websites, functions of which were becoming increasingly diverse. One
could say that through these priorities, government departments at all levels
improved their information technology equipment, the effectiveness of key trans-
action applications was gradually revealed, awareness of information technology
and the internet significantly improved throughout society, and a solid foundation
was laid for the full launch of E-governance in the new millennium.

4 The Comprehensive Promotion Phase Characterized

by E-governance Guiding National Information
Technology Development

In the new millennium national informatization was elevated to an unprecedented

height, and government information technology was given a new mission.
Symbolized by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 15th National Congress,
E-governance entered the comprehensive promotion phase of guiding national
information technology development.
In October 2000, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Fifteenth National Congress
made a major decision to consider and pass the “Proposals from the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China for the Formulation of the Tenth
Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development,” which clearly
stated: “Vigorously promoting national economic and social development is a
6 1 Development Process: Chinese E-governance …

strategic initiative covering all of modernization. (China should) stimulate indus-

trialization through informatization, play to its advantages as a late developer, and
achieve leapfrog development of social productive forces.” The document also
established the basic idea that “government leadership would drive informatization
in the national economy and society.” The state was to comprehensively build out
information technology, government information technology was to play a leading
role, and the comprehensive promotion of E-governance was imperative.
In August 2001, The CPC Central Committee reestablished the Leading Group
for National Informatization, the permanent deliberation and coordinating agency of
which, the State Council Informatization Work Office, was also established. In
December 2001, the Leading Group for National Informatization’s first meeting
urged all departments and levels of government to attach importance to the con-
struction of E-governance. Leading cadres were to strengthen information tech-
nology knowledge and learning, make full use of information technology to
strengthen the effective management of government, promote the transformation of
government functions, improve the efficiency and management proficiency of
government, and promote open government and the construction of honest and
clean government.
In July 2002, the National Information Technology Leading Group’s second
meeting passed the “Guiding Opinions on E-governance Construction in China”
(hereafter referred to as “Document No. 17.” The document made a full deployment
of E-governance construction, establishing a series of priority construction projects.
If the “Three Goldens” programs of the previous period was a rehearsal for
E-governance, this period was a comprehensive advance. The breadth of scope, the
large investments, the rich content of construction, and the high application
requirements of previously arranged programs alone were unprecedented, not to
mention the new applications added by various departments and regions.
At the third meeting of the Leading Group for National Informatization in July
2003, Premier Wen Jiabao clearly stated the goal of China’s E-governance con-
struction: “To combine promotion of information technology with improvement to
government management, to focus on the transformation of government functions,
accelerate the advancement of E-governance, improve government capabilities in
economic adjustment, market oversight, social management, and public service,
and promote openness in government affairs.”
With the implementation of a series of E-governance projects, information
infrastructure of government departments gradually improved, the ability of public
servants to comprehend and apply information significantly improved, and gov-
ernment information resource development and use as well as business process
optimization reached new levels. This greatly boosted comprehensive and rapid
progress in information technology in the national economy and society and created
favorable conditions for the deepening application and smooth transition of
E-governance.
5 Deep Application Phase Characterized … 7

5 Deep Application Phase Characterized by a Service

Orientation (2006 Onward)

In 2006, Chinese E-governance construction began to shift toward a phase of deep

application characterized by a service orientation and symbolized by the opening of
the central government web portal and the promulgation and implementation of the
“National Informatization Development Strategy 2006–2020.”
In the early days of E-governance, there was debate over whether E-governance
should be management-oriented or service-oriented. From the practical arrange-
ments for key construction projects in Document No. 17 one can see that man-
agement information technology was the main target, which was in line with
China’s national conditions at the time. This was not only because there had been
no transformation of government function, but more importantly because
E-governance construction and the level of application had not yet reached a point
that would support a transition to service-oriented E-governance. With increasingly
urgent demands for a transition from management-oriented government to service-
oriented government, once the information technology construction of government
departments reached a certain level, the transition from management-oriented
E-governance to service-oriented E-governance followed as a matter of course.
The People’s Republic of China Central People’s Government web portal (www.
gov.cn) official launched on January 1, 2006 and can be seen as the first sign of the
shift. The site is an integrated platform by which the State Council, State Council
departments, as well as provincial, autonomous region, and direct-controlled city
people’s governments can publish government information and provide online
services on the international internet.
The adoption in principal at the fifth session of the Leading Group for National
Informatization in November 2005 of the “National Informatization Development
Strategy 2006–2020” and its subsequent formal introduction in March 2006 can be
seen as the second sign of E-governance transformation. The strategy puts forward
priority tasks in four areas for the promotion of E-governance: Improving public
services, strengthening public administration, strengthening integrated supervision,
and improving macro controls. This marked the first time public service had been
placed in the number one spot. The strategy also listed the E-governance action plan
as one of six strategic action plans to be given priority in formulation and
implementation.
In March 2006, the Leading Group for National Informatization issued the
“Overall Framework for National E-governance,” which further defined the values
and development direction of China’s E-governance in the next phase. This can be
seen as the third sign of the transformation in E-governance. At the National
E-governance Forum held in June, the major targets of E-governance construction
during the Eleventh Five-year Plan were put forward:
8 1 Development Process: Chinese E-governance …

• By 2010, a unified, nationwide E-governance network would be basically

completed, and an information resources disclosure and sharing mechanism
would be established.
• Government web portals would become an important channel for information
disclosure, and more than 50% of administrative licenses would be able to be
processed online.
• E-governance would play a greater role in improving the level of public service
and oversight capabilities and reducing administrative costs.
The forum emphasized the acceleration of five transformations:
1. The transformation from E-governance reconstruction and light application to a
focus on deepening application;
2. The transformation from the dispersed construction of information networks to
the integrated use of resources;
3. The transformation from independent operation of information systems to
interoperability and resource sharing;
4. The transformation from information management-oriented self-service to a
focus on public service; and
5. The transformation from self-construction and self-management of websites to
allowing social forces to play their role.
On April 5, 2007, the “People’s Republic of China Regulations on Open
Government Information” was formally announced through a State Council order
and formally implemented on May 1, 2008. This can be seen as the fourth sign of
the E-governance transformation. The regulations put forward clear requirements
for the scope and methods of government information disclosure and the oversight
and guarantee of procedures and disclosure work. A year was set aside between
announcement and implementation to allow all levels of government time to pre-
pare. Subsequently, the State Council issued a notice requiring each work unit to
organize or revise government information disclosure guidelines and public
directories, quickly construct a complete government information sharing mecha-
nism and system of rules, and fully bring the platform role of government websites
into play. The promotion of government information disclosure is widely recog-
nized as an important change in the Chinese government’s concepts of democracy
and administrative management and a profound revolution in thinking, which
spurred the upgrading of the capabilities and proficiency of Chinese E-governance
public service.
The “Notice on the Launch of the ‘Facts Online Office’ Government Website
Activity,” issued by the State Council Information Office on August 16, 2007 can
be seen as the fifth sign of China’s E-governance transformation. The notice pro-
posed 100 service items that government websites would provide in the five cat-
egories of education, healthcare, social security, traffic and travel, and public
utilities.
In July 2008, in accordance the State Council’s overhaul of the government
structure, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) was
5 Deep Application Phase Characterized … 9

established. The responsibilities of the Leading Group for National Informatization

Office were placed under MIIT, with specific work undertaken by the
Informatization Advancement Division. Document No. 72 (2008), issued by the
State Council General Office, stated: “Responsibilities of the former State Council
Informatization Work Office will be given to the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology.” Among MIIT’s responsibilities, the document stipulated
“planning work to advance national informatization; organizing and formulating
related policy and balancing major issues in information technology construction;
promoting the integration of telecommunications, broadcast television, and com-
puter networks; guiding and coordinating the development of E-governance;
promoting cross-sectorial and cross-departmental interconnection; and the devel-
opment, use, and sharing of important information resources.”
In 2011, MIIT organized the “National E-governance Program for the ‘Twelfth
Five-Year Plan,’” which served as the guiding document for the promotion of
national E-governance during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan.” In May 2012, the
national Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued the “National
E-governance Informatization Program Construction Plan for the ‘Twelfth
Five-year Plan,’” which served as the basis for state investment in the construction
of major E-governance and information technology programs during the “Twelfth
Five-Year Plan.”
In February 2014, the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs was
established, led by CPC Central Committee General Secretary, National Chairman,
and Central Committee Military Commission Chairman Xi Jinping, with CPC
Standing Committee Member and State Council Premier Li Keqiang and CPC
Central Committee Politburo Standing Committee Member Liu Yunshan serving as
deputy leaders. The status of the newly formed group was of an unprecedented
height. Previously, such groups had been at the national level, while this group sat
at the CPC Central Committee level. In a speech, Xi Jinping stressed that the group
would play a centralized, unified guiding role, plan as a whole and coordinate the
major issues of cyber security and information technology in various sectors, and
develop and implement national cyber security and information technology
development strategies, macro plans, and major policies. The establishment of the
Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs embodies deep reforms at the
highest level in China, strengthens top-level design, and demonstrates a determi-
nation to ensure cyber security, safeguard national interests, and promote the
development of information technology. It also indicates China’s rapid advance
from merely a large position in the internet to a powerful position.
The E-governance transformation has brought with it a series of major changes.
There have been major breakthroughs in government information disclosure, the
service function of major construction projects has been strengthened, and
the innovative applications made by various regions and departments on behalf of
the people continue to emerge. In addition, information disclosure and the public
service function have formed a compulsory mechanism for the transformation of
government function and E-governance performance. Deepening application of
E-governance has gradually embarked on a virtuous cycle.
10 1 Development Process: Chinese E-governance …

6 Summary of Development History and Future

Directions

From the above analysis it is not difficult to see that China’s E-governance
construction has passed through the development process of data processing,
information management, core transaction processes, comprehensive promotion,
and deep application. Brilliant achievements have been made, and E-governance
construction has proceeded on a development path suitable to China’s national
conditions. Although the development process has at times experienced problems
of being too hard, too light, or too soft, and having repetitious construction and
information silos, the results are still major, and valuable experience has been
accumulated. First, in the initial stage of informatization, government initiative was
able to play an extremely important driving role. Second, E-governance construc-
tion must be closely integrated with the needs of national economic and social
development. When conditions are not ripe, we can choose to make breakthroughs
in a few focus areas. Third, E-governance construction goals must be suited to the
requirements of economic and social development, as well as government reform,
in each stage, and therefore require constant adjustment and improvement. Fourth,
E-governance is both a project for top leaders, as well as for all personnel. It
requires a high degree of attention from leadership as well as the active participation
of all parties. Fifth, construction of E-governance must have clear objectives and a
practical plan of action, as well as an appropriate organizational and management
system as a guarantee. Practice shows that when these lessons are taken to heart and
put into practice in close conjunction, E-governance construction will be smooth
and its effect more significant.
Looking back on the development course of E-governance in China, one can see
that the tremendous achievements in E-governance are closely related to national
strategy and overall planning for E-governance. The development of E-governance in
countries across the world has not followed a single model. In its own development of
E-governance, China has been cautious about chasing world trends and introducing
international experiences, paying particular attention to integrating economic and
social development needs and cultural background in order to formulate an
E-governance development strategy with Chinese characteristics. Relevant state
departments have firmly grasped economic, social, and information technology
trends, planned prudently for the future, planned far ahead in the overall plan for
E-governance construction and management, and introduced major policies with
profound impact at the appropriate time to fundamentally devise a strategy for
E-governance. Relevant departments have focused on the unified deployment of
framework design, institutional arrangements, project management, network facili-
ties, information resources construction, government website development, and
information security. They have introduced relevant policy documents and identified
the development direction, key areas, thinking regarding promotion, organizational
systems, working mechanisms, and guarantee system, laying a solid foundation for
the vigorous development of and breakthroughs in E-governance and providing
6 Summary of Development History and Future Directions 11

strong institutional guarantees of the rapid development of E-governance. The

introduction of each major policy document inherits and develops from existing
documents but also serves as new impetus for the next rapid rise.
In the coming period, the historical context and development direction of
E-governance construction in China will shift, with urgent calls for a reshuffling of
E-governance development strategy and improvement of national policy direction.
For more than a decade, the course of the Chinese government’s informatization
and E-governance construction and development as well as major achievements
show that under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and State Council,
cadres at all levels and the masses of information technology workers are capable of
mastering E-governance construction and development and can walk a path of
E-governance construction suitable to China’s national conditions.
After a decade of development, E-governance has become an indispensable
component of government affairs work of the party committees, people’s con-
gresses, governments, people’s political consultative conferences, courts, and
procuratorates at all levels and an important path to improving the performance of
the government sector. It has also been an important strategic initiative in deepening
reform of the administrative system and constructing a service-oriented government
that is satisfactory to the people.
Of course, we should also see that in today’s world, the information society is
gradually taking shape, the degree of informatization in society is increasing sig-
nificantly, and innovation in traditional government management and information-
based social management are placing greater demands on information technology,
requiring administrative departments to employ informatization measures to
improve administrative efficiency. At the same time, we are on the brink of new
technological and industrial revolutions, and the emergence of new innovations in
internet applications, new technologies, and new models, are changing the means of
realizing E-governance.
At present, there is a significant gap between the real needs of Chinese
E-governance development and social and economic technological development
and reform of the administrative system, and there are some prominent issues. The
“Twelfth Five-year Plan” period and a relatively long period in the future are key
periods for China in developing a xiaokang (moderately prosperous) society, as
well as a crucial period for deepening Reform and Opening and accelerating the
transformation of the model of economic development, but also an important
opportunity for Chinese E-governance development. The needs of economic and
social development as well as technological innovation provide a rare historical
opportunity for national E-governance development. Strengthening reforms of the
administrative management system and constructing a service-oriented government
provide higher requirements for the construction of E-governance. We must
continue to persist in the direction of the scientific development concept, make
scientific judgments and accurately grasp development trends, make great efforts to
transform the E-governance development model, and vigorously promote the
sustained and healthy development of national E-governance.
Chapter 2
Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern
and Evolution of the Development
of E-governance in China

China began attempting to establish its own overall E-governance framework in the
1990s. The basic content of the overall framework for E-governance in China has
been relatively stable, mainly including infrastructure, application service systems,
government information resources, policies and regulations, and management
systems.

1 Evolution of the Overall Framework of E-governance

The Chinese government began to carry out large-scale construction of government

information technology in the early 1990s, with different levels of government and
government departments developing a large number of applications based on their
own needs. The application of some national key construction projects in particular
played a significant role in market oversight and public administration. However,
due to a lack of coordination in system design, redundant construction, information
silos, and technical barriers were relatively common, increasing the difficulty of
later achieving integrated application on a broader scope and at a higher level. The
launch of the “Three Golden Projects” at the end of 1993 was a watershed moment
in which the central government began thinking systematically and making overall
plans for government information technology, beginning to pay attention to man-
agement issues such as functions, efficiency, and institutional mechanisms. At the
end of 2001, the newly formed Leading Group for National Informatization met for
the first time. The group identified the principle of “government leadership to spur
informatization in the national economy and society” and stressed that government
information technology should be grasped by the central government. On August 5,
2002, the “Leading Group on National Informatization Guiding Opinions on
E-governance Construction in China” (known as “Document No. 17”), marking the
beginning of a phase of comprehensive, systematic promotion of E-governance.
The document influenced E-governance planning and design, project
© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 13
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0_2
14 2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …

implementation, policy, regulations, and standards, as well as institutional mecha-

nisms from that point forward.
Document No. 17 put forward the basic content of the overall framework of
Chinese E-governance, commonly known as “one site, two networks, four data-
bases, and twelve goldens.” “One site” refers to a comprehensive government web
portal with integrated applications. “Two networks” refers to the government
intranet and government extranet comprising the unified E-governance network.
“Four databases” refers to the basic government information resources of the
population information database, the legal persons (corporations) and work units
information database, the national resources and spatial and geographic information
database, and the macroeconomic database. “Twelve goldens” refers to the key
transaction systems China needs to construct and improve, including “the office
work transaction resources system, Golden Customs, Golden Tax, financial regu-
lation (including Golden Card), macroeconomic management, Golden Finance,
Golden Shield, Golden Audit, social security, Golden Agriculture, Golden Quality,
and Golden Water.” This framework is a summarization, continuation, and devel-
opment of the practice and numerous lessons of Chinese E-governance since the
early 1990s. It puts forward clear suggestions on promoting public services, uni-
fying E-governance websites, developing government information resources, and
constructing key business services. It has effectively supported the comprehensive
development of E-governance over the past decade.
In the years after the issuance of Document No. 17, the CPC Central Committee
General Office, State Council General Office, and other departments issued a series
of documents relating to the overall framework for Chinese E-governance. There
are five representative documents. (1) The “Overall Framework for National
E-governance” issued by the Leading Group for National Informatization in 2006;
(2) the “National Informatization Development Strategy (2006–2020),” jointly
issued by the CPC Central Committee General Office and the State Council General
Office in 20061; (3) the “Program for Informatization of Development of the
National Economy and Society for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan,’” issued by the
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in 2008; (4) the “Program
for National E-governance for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan,’” issued by the
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 20112; and (5) the “State
E-governance Informatization Program Construction Plan for the ‘Twelfth
Five-Year Plan,’” issued by the NDRC in 2012 (Table 1).3
The “Overall Framework for National E-governance”4 (hereafter referred to as
the “overall framework”) was the first document since Document No. 17 to sys-
tematically put forward an overall framework. The “overall framework” organically
integrated the social and political functions, engineering technical paths, and

1
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 11, (2006).
2
MIIT No. 567, (2011).
3
NDRC No. 1202, (2012).
4
State Council Information Office [2006] No. 2.
Table 1 Documents outlining the National E-governance Framework
No. Document Issuing institution and date Effect on overall framework for E-governance
1 “Leading Group on National Informatization Guiding CPC Central Committee General Office, Proposed an initial basic structure, the focus of which was
Opinions on E-governance Construction in China” State Council General Office CPC Central “one site, two networks, four databases, twelve goldens.”
Committee General Office (2002) No. 17 Other aspects included secure systems, standardized systems,
legal system construction, and civil servant training and
assessment
2 “Overall Framework for National E-governance” State Council Information Office [2006] Proposed an overall framework for national E-governance,
mainly comprised of service and application systems,
information resources, infrastructure, laws and regulations,
standardized systems, and management systems
3 “National Informatization Development Strategy [2006– CPC Central Committee General Office For the first time emphasized four major functions on the
2020],” jointly issued by the CPC Central Committee [2006] No. 11 transaction and application level to support government
General Office and State Council General Office systems; required “standardizing acquisition and application,”
“creating a directory system,” and promoting “open
information” on the information resource level; at the network
level, required the integration of E-governance networks the
construction of an information resource exchange system;
required the “establishment of a comprehensive, coordinated
1 Evolution of the Overall Framework of E-governance

mechanism for E-governance planning, budgeting, approval,

and evaluation” at the mechanism level
4 “Program for Informatization of Development of the NDRC, 2008 For the first time emphasized “separating the promotion of
National Economy and Society for the ‘Twelfth content management and network management” on the
Five-Year Plan’” network level; key transactions continued to emphasize the
four major support functions; for the first time proposed
“accelerating service-oriented government construction” in
the government website construction portion; on the
institutional mechanism level required the “strengthening of
government investment management, establishment and
improvement of an accountability system, and formation of a
standardized management system,” and the “establishment of
standardized, coordinated E-governance management
(continued)
15
Table 1 (continued)
16

No. Document Issuing institution and date Effect on overall framework for E-governance
mechanisms between central and local governments and
departments”
5 “CPC Central Committee Recommendations for the Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th National On December 18, 2010, the new context of the overall
Formulation of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for the Congress of the Communist Party of China framework was “simultaneously making five changes and
Development of the National Economy and Society” integrating two changes;” specifically required “strengthening
the establishment of important information systems,
strengthening the development and use of basic information
resources such as geography, population, finance, taxation,
and statistics,” “vigorously promoting national E-governance
network construction with an emphasis on information
sharing and interoperability, enhancing government public
service and management capabilities overall”
6 “Program for National E-governance for the ‘Twelfth MIIT Rules (2011) No. 567 Improved the development of the overall framework by:
Five-Year Plan,’” issued by the Ministry of Industry and (1) Providing quantitative development goals in several areas;
Information Technology (2) stressing the need to “comprehensively promote top-level
design of E-governance;” (3) stressing the integration of
coordination, horizontal and vertical integration of
departments and regions at different levels, and “county-level
and grassroots” service; (4) proposing content related to
people’s livelihood and public administration at the
application level; (5) for the first time proposing the
promotion of “socialized application” in the information
construction resource portion; proposing the construction of
public E-governance platforms for the “cloud” and other new
technologies
7 “State E-governance Informatization Program National Development and Reform Improved the development of the overall framework by:
Construction Plan for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan,’” Commission NDRC Hi-Tech [2012] (1) On the network level, clarifying goals for the construction
No. 1202 of internal and external networks; (2) in the resource portion,
adding a “cultural information database” to the four existing
databases; (3) in the information security protection portion,
(continued)
2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …
Table 1 (continued)
No. Document Issuing institution and date Effect on overall framework for E-governance
specifically proposing security measures for important
information systems; (4) in the application services section,
proposing the integration of existing functions in the systems
of various departments, forming a unified, 15-item
information technology project including the “national health
insurance information technology project”
8 “State Council Reply Regarding the State E-governance State Council Letter [2012] No. 36 Stressed that the E-governance framework was “a
Informatization Program Construction Plan for the fundamental task for the development of the national
‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’” economy and society.” Required that targets for the end of the
Twelfth Five-Year Plan include the construction of
infrastructure and application services systems for networks,
information resources systems, and information security
1 Evolution of the Overall Framework of E-governance
17
18 2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …

management elements of E-governance and identified application and service as the

focus of E-governance construction, the goal of which was to improve the ability of
E-governance to support government and serve society. The overall framework is
divided into five sections: services and applications, information resources,
infrastructure, laws and regulations, standardized systems, and the management
system. The document stresses the promotion of national E-governance construc-
tion. Services are the aim; applications are the key; information resource devel-
opment and use are the main thread; infrastructure is the support; and laws and
regulations, standardized systems, and the management system are guarantees. On
the foundation of Document No. 17, the overall framework further clarifies the
basic structure of national E-governance development, emphasizing a service ori-
entation, introducing an object-oriented life cycle management and service
E-governance construction concept, and identifies the relationship between service
and application systems. The goal is to emphasize demand-oriented construction
and change the development direction of heavy construction and light application.
The “National Informatization Development Strategy 2006–2020” (hereafter
referred to as the “strategy”) further defines the guiding spirit, strategic positioning,
construction ideas, and priorities for E-governance. The strategy places more
emphasis on the business and system construction level of the E-governance
framework. The strategy for the first time provides construction paths and focus
sectors surrounding the four major government functions of “improving public
service, strengthening social management, strengthening comprehensive oversight,
and improving macro controls.” At the information resources level, the strategy
requires “standardizing acquisition and application,” “creating a directory system,”
and promoting “information openness.” At the network construction level, it
requires “integration of E-governance networks” and the construction of an infor-
mation resources exchange system. At the mechanism level, it requires “the con-
struction of integrated and coordinated E-governance planning, budgeting,
approval, and assessment mechanisms.”
The “Program for Informatization of the Development of the National Economy
and Society for the ‘Eleventh Five-Year Plan’” not only laid out details for network,
information resource, and business systems under the comprehensive E-governance
framework laid out in previous documents, but also expounded on the directions,
objectives, and demands for the construction and improvement of the E-governance
system. The measures for improving the system and its mechanisms as outlined in the
program are highly focused on improving the construction and management of
E-governance, and include the following: (1) Strengthen management of government
investments, “strengthen the auditing, oversight, and performance assessments of
investments into government informatization, establish and consummate account-
ability mechanisms for the Informatization program, and form a standardized system
for budgeting, constructing, operating, maintaining, and managing the E-governance
program.” (2) Establish E-governance management mechanisms standardized and
coordinated between the central and local levels of government and all the various
government departments. (3) Comprehensively plan for internet infrastructure and
“promote separation between content management and network management.”
1 Evolution of the Overall Framework of E-governance 19

As the guiding document for the promotion of E-governance development in the

nation during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, the “Program for National
E-governance for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’”5 placed further emphasis on
top-level design, per advances in technology and development trends of applica-
tions thereof; the plan also made some breakthroughs in the overall framework per
the potential effects of the cloud model on the development of E-governance,
including some innovative content: (1) The program proposed quantifiable devel-
opment objectives in several areas and was more concrete in its guiding effect on
framework construction. (2) The program emphasized “comprehensively promoting
E-governance top-level design” and increased the comprehensive coordination
capacity by using said top-level design to improve the system and its mechanisms.
(3) At the application service level, the program emphasized integration of vertical
and horizontal, called for “integrated planning across all departments and regions,”
and strengthened services at the county and basal levels. (4) The program gave
prominence to two innovations at the applications level: “strengthening protections
and improving the people’s livelihood” and “strengthening and innovating in social
management.” (5) The program for the first time proposed “socialized utilization”
in the construction of government services information resources. (6) In recognition
of the profound impact that major changes in information technology were posing
to the environment for the construction of E-governance as well as methods for its
employment, the program proposed establishing an improved E-governance public
platform based in cloud computing, as well as proposing for the first time that
E-governance development move toward the cloud. This program reflected, to a
certain extent, that the focus of the E-governance framework had shifted away from
the construction of network infrastructure and service systems and toward inte-
gration and coordination.
The “National Government Services Informatization Project Construction Plan
of the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’”6 was an important basis for the planning of state
investments into the construction of the informatization of major government ser-
vices projects during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period. The plan called for full
support of focus work in government service sectors from government information
technology and placed emphasis at the level of concrete project implementation,
while also indicating the progressive and sustainable nature of E-governance
development. At the same time, the plan represented an innovation and extension of
the overall structure and made a breakthrough in the tradition of dividing con-
struction tasks into regions and departments. The plan noted that the construction of
all focus areas had been comprehensive, and all sectors requiring consolidation and
integration already possessed systematized functionality and information resources;
on the whole, all aspects of superstructure design had been linked. The plan’s
arrangements for overall framework development included the following: (1) That
intranet and extranet construction objectives be clearer and more operable; (2) that

5
MIIT regulation No. 567 (2011).
6
NDRC High-Tech No. 1202 (2012).
20 2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …

in the realm of information resources construction, a “cultural information data-

base” be added to the foundation of the original four databases, constituting an
important supplement; (3) in the realm of information security, that there be security
measures targeting important information systems; (4) that in the realm of appli-
cation services there be important developments and innovations, and the that
relevant functions that had already been systematized across all departments be
integrated to give rise to an integrated informatization program comprised of 15
projects, including the “Healthy and Safe Informatization Project of the Entire
People” and the “Housing Guarantee Informatization Project of the Entire People.”
It is noteworthy that the State Council again emphasized the construction principles
and unmet construction objectives outlined by the plan in the “Twelfth Five-Year
Plan” in a document titled “Reply Regarding Construction Plans for the National
Government Services Informatization Program of the ‘Twelfth Five-year Plan.’”7
A brief overview of the past 10 years reveals that China has continually enriched
and improved the construction and implementation of its E-governance services
framework and has made great strides. First, the focus of the design of the
E-governance services framework has shifted from emphasizing software and
construction and de-emphasizing software and applications toward emphasis on
operating system applications and the development and use of information
resources; we are now beginning to integrate systems construction with innovations
in government administration. Second, there has been a shift in E-governance
services from isolated applications and single system applications toward com-
prehensive applications; increased emphasis is being placed on sharing and coor-
dination. Third, demands for network and information security are becoming
increasingly concrete, and for security issues we are making concrete demands that
deeply target focus systems from the perspective of comprehensive principles.
Fourth, the connections in technology and construction of overall framework and
concrete E-governance projects are becoming tighter, and operability is improving.

2 All Factors of the E-governance Framework

2.1 E-governance Network Infrastructure

The E-governance network is the basic vehicle for government business systems
and exchanges of information resources. Beginning in the 1990s, there was rapid
development in the construction of E-governance networks in all levels of gov-
ernment and all governmental departments, but such networks were plagued with
problems such as inconsistent connotations, unclear boundaries, lack of centralized
leadership, redundant construction, unreasonable structures, and so on. All the
above problems restricted sharing and coordination between departments and

7
State Council Letter No. 36 (2012).
2 All Factors of the E-governance Framework 21

regions and was disadvantageous for further deepening of the application of

E-governance services. In 2002, Document No. 17 made a clear proposal: “In order
to adapt to the development of these services and the demands of security and
secrecy, we should effectively restrict repetitive construction.” The document also
highlighted the urgent need to “build and integrate a unified E-governance net-
work.” The E-governance network is composed of governmental affairs intranets
(hereafter referred to as government intranets) and governmental affairs extranets
(hereafter referred to as government extranets), which are physically separated.
Government extranets are logically separated from the internet at large.
Government intranets are primarily a network on which governmental departments
at the vice-provincial level and above perform work; these intranets are physically
separated from the working networks of government departments below the
sub-provincial level. Government extranets are the dedicated network upon which
governments perform online duties, primarily hosting specialized governmental
services offered to the public and other tasks that do not need to be run on the
intranet. The demands for the construction of these networks were: “Implement
uniform standards, use integrated network platforms, and promote interoperability
and resource sharing between all systems. In the space of a year or so, basically
complete unified E-governance intranet and extranet platforms, and continue to
improve [the networks] over the course of their usage.”
In 2006, the CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council General
Office jointly issued the “Opinions of the Leading Group on National
Informatization on Promoting the Construction of National E-governance
Networks,” or Document No. 18,8 which continued the promotion of the work of
constructing E-governance networks. Document No. 18 built on Document No. 17,
making breakthroughs in three areas: (1) In the administrative system, it made a
top-to-bottom re-ordering and clarified those bodies which would bear relevant
responsibilities. The document clearly called for the six major governmental affairs
departments to be responsible for the construction and maintenance of their own
networks, leaving to the CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council
General Office the responsibility of coordinating interoperability between the
platforms. Administration, coordination, and integrated planning of extranets was
assigned to the State Council Informatization Office (SCIO) and the National
Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The SCIO was assigned to
establish administrative organs over E-governance affairs and was responsible for
organizing and coordinating the construction and management of the backbone
transmission network. (2) The document proposed integrating state E-governance
backbone transmission networks from the central level all the way down to the local
level, such that all levels of government and all committees, offices, and bureaus
would use integrated intranets and extranets. (3) The document clarified and
expanded the scope of E-governance intranets. Document No. 18 for the first time
proposed “creating government intranets by connecting the service networks of

8
CPC Central Committee Issuance No. 18 (2006).
22 2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …

party committees, the National People’s Congress, the government, the Chinese
People’s Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC), courts, and procuratorates,
primarily in order to satisfy the interior needs of the various levels of government
and governmental departments for office work, administration, coordination, reg-
ulation, and policymaking, while at the same time satisfying the special work needs
of governmental departments at the sub-provincial level and higher.” This avoided
controversy over such things as “electronic governmental affairs” and “electronic
party committees”; it also unified understanding and feasibly increased operability.
On the foundation of Documents Nos. 17 and 18, the CPC General Office, State
Council General Office, and other relevant departments subsequently issued a series
of documents promoting the construction of E-governance networks (see Table 2).
These documents not only refined and implemented Documents Nos. 17 and 18, but
also extended the connotations of network infrastructure at differing degrees and
commonly promoted the construction of E-governance networks.
China’s E-governance networks are not limited to simply intranets and extranets,
but also encompass a large amount of dedicated networks. The existence of dedi-
cated networks is a problem leftover from history. The application of some dedi-
cated networks has been extremely successful, such as that of the General
Administration of Customs. There is a high degree of difficulty in migrating onto
intranets or extranets dedicated networks of high-level security demands, complex
operations, high demands for bandwidth or reliability, and marked application
service efficiency, and so those which are too difficult to merge onto intranets or
extranets shall continue to exist. However, some dedicated networks positioned for
office work, coordination, regulation, and decision-making will gradually be
merged into E-governance intranets. The integration of resources is not limited to
simply network resource integration, but also implies operating systems and gov-
ernment information resources; the standardization and intensification of the con-
struction and administration of E-governance systems will require comprehensive
integration where conditions allow.

2.2 Framework for E-governance Applications and Services

The framework for E-governance applications and services refers primarily to the
amalgamation of basic E-governance functions required to meet the demands of
daily functioning in government departments. The “services and applications sys-
tem” as described in the document “Overall Framework for National E-governance”
includes the following three components. The first component is that the service
system is centered on service targets (the public, public service institutions, and the
government), and runs on networks. We will gradually establish an E-governance
service system that extends to the community, village, and town levels, with highly
diversified contents. The second component is that the selection criteria for pref-
erentially supported services will be: a high degree of attention from the public,
obvious economic and social benefits, relatively stable service procedures,
Table 2 Progress in the construction and basic requirements of E-governance network
No. Document title Issuing body and date Construction contents and basic demands
1 “Leading Group on National CPC General Office, State Council General “Build and integrate a unified E-governance
Informatization Guiding Opinions on the Office; CPC General Office [2003] No. 17 network.” Set initial definitions for
Construction of E-governance in China” E-governance intranets and extranets, and
proposed construction principles and objectives
2 “Leading Group on National CPC General Office, State Council General Clarified administration over network
Informatization Opinions on the Office; CPC General Office [2006] No. 18 construction; refined principles and objectives of
Promotion of the Construction of the construction of the two networks and
National E-governance Networks” responsibilities; clearly included “party
committees, the NPC, the government, the
CPPCC, courts, procuratorates, and other
departments” within the scope of E-governance
networks
3 “Notice on Accelerating the Promotion NDRC, Ministry of Finance; NDRC High-Tech As the extranet “now is initially capable of
2 All Factors of the E-governance Framework

of National E-governance Extranet [2009] No. 988 hosting major tasks of central governmental
Construction Work” departments,” proposed new objectives; called
for all departments and committees to move their
computing tasks to the extranet; called for all
provinces and direct-controlled cities to promote
local extranet construction; called for the State
Information Center to perform service work;
increased service standards. When first
proposed, the NDRC in principle would no
longer authorize new construction of dedicated
departmental networks, and the MoF would no
longer authorize funding for the operation of
dedicated networks, in order to avoid redundant
investments and networks
4 “Rules on Strengthening Network CPC General Office; CPC General Office [2011] Emphasized the demands for network secrecy at
Secrecy for Party and Government No. 11 the level of organs, institutions, measures, and
23

Organs and Secret Work Units”

(continued)
Table 2 (continued)
24

No. Document title Issuing body and date Construction contents and basic demands
concrete administrative measures, and ensured
network and information security
5 “Construction and Management Plans for CPC General Office and State Council General First document giving guidance on construction
State E-governance Intranets (2011– Office; Tingzi [2011] No. 21 of intranets; laid emphasis on resource sharing,
2015)” deepening applications, safeguarding security
and implementation of organization, and
scientific development
6 “Notice on Further Strengthening the NDRC, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Proposed “Twelfth Five-year Plan” objectives
Work of National E-governance Network Finance, National Administration for the for the construction of the state E-governance
Construction and Application” Protection of State Secrets, and Office of the network; further refined the focuses, measures,
State E-governance Intranet Construction and and objectives of intranet construction; raised
Administration Coordination Small entirely new demands for the objectives,
Group; NDRC High-Tech [2012] No. 1986 focuses, and measures of extranet construction;
E-governance projects recently begun or now
being resumed should first clarify the computing
demands and plans for transfers on both intranets
and extranets, and should inform corresponding
administrative bodies of their plans or sign
relevant agreements; stipulated that intranet and
extranet administrative and coordinative bodies,
secret departments, and public security organs
participate more in demand analysis, project
establishment, and concrete measures for the
process of verifying deliveries; and again
emphasized that the NDRC in principle no
longer authorize new construction of dedicated
networks, and that the MoF not authorize
funding for the same
2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …
2 All Factors of the E-governance Framework 25

concentration of information, and real-time government operations. The third

component is the application system; those E-governance application systems that
the state has already completed, is still building, or plans to build include the
following: office work, macro-economics, fiscal affairs, tax affairs, finance, cus-
toms, public security, social security, agriculture, quality control and oversight,
inspection and quarantine, flood control, state land resources, human resources and
personnel, news and publishing, environmental protection, urban management,
oversight of state-owned resources, oversight of corporate credit, pharmaceutical
regulation, and so on. We must make comprehensive plans for all the above and
integrate them together, the objectives being to facilitate the deepening of gov-
ernment organ reforms and the optimization of organization structures.
The E-governance establishment objectives proposed in the “2006–2020 State
Informatization Development Strategy” were made in accordance with the four
major functions of government. The strategy calls for promotion and improvement
of application system construction by emphasizing “improvements to public ser-
vices, strengthening of social management, fortifying of comprehensive oversight,
and improvement of macro controls.” Thereafter, the “‘Eleventh Five-Year Plan’
Program for Informatization of the Development of the National Economy and
Society” called for “improving focus operations systems,” which was also descri-
bed from the perspective of supporting the four major functions of government; the
document also emphasized the role of “government websites” in the establishment
of service-oriented government with openness of information as a hallmark. The
MIIT’s “‘National E-governance Program for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan,’” which
served as the guiding document for the promotion of state E-governance devel-
opment during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, made the following changes to
official descriptions of E-governance application and service systems: (1) The focus
of improvements to operations and application systems was downshifted;
strengthening the service role of county and Local governments was emphasized at
the same time as protections for people’s livelihood applications and innovative
social management were proposed. (2) Emphasized integration of departments and
regions at different levels at the level of accelerating promotion of development of
important government applications, emphasized top-level design, and called for an
increase in comprehensive planning and regional and departmental integration in
industry and local government application development. (3) Proposed building and
perfecting an E-governance public platform based in cloud computing and
increasing the technical and service capacities of E-governance. The NDRC’s
“National Government Services Informatization Project Construction Plan of the
‘Twelfth Five-year Plan,’” which served as an important basis for arranging state
investments in the establishment of major government Informatization projects,
made the following innovations at the level of the application service framework:
(1) Placed focus for the construction of the application system on safeguarding and
improving the people’s livelihood, maintaining economic and social security, and
improving the capacity to govern the nation. (2) Emphasized bringing about
operations coordination and resource sharing and the formation of an integrated
Informatization program of affiliated organizations per the existing functions of
26 2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …

departmental functionality integration. (3) All newly proposed construction tasks

were cross-departmental comprehensive programs; proposed that the 15 important
programs, including the “Healthy and Safe Informatization Project of the Entire
People” and the “Housing Guarantee Informatization Project of the Entire People,”
establish making people the priority as their guiding philosophy.
Over the past decade, great strides have been made in applications and services
of the nationwide E-governance system, driven commonly by a number of factors,
markedly increasing the ability of the government to both govern and provide
public services. The policy concepts of the state E-governance application and
service framework exerted a positive influence on the design, implementation, and
application of all concrete applications of all ministries, committees, and local
governments. The overall development status of the application and service system
of E-governance in China can be understood from the following three areas: One,
the construction of focus operations and application systems at the state level
vigorously supported increases to the level of functionality of the four major
functions of government. Two, local governments used E-governance to provide a
great quantity of effective services to the public and businesses. Three, government
web portals played a positive role in promoting connectivity between the govern-
ment and the public and in integrating governmental departments.

2.3 E-governance Information Resources Structure

The national E-governance information resources structure refers primarily to the

system for development and utilization of government information resources.
Document No. 17 proposed planning for and developing important government
information resources, with efforts focused in the following two areas. First, the
state should organize and establish earmarks for government information resources
construction and design both a directory system and an exchange system for
E-governance information resources. Second, the state should begin building four
major infrastructure libraries for population, legal entities, natural resources, and
geographic and spatial information. The “Overall Framework for National
E-governance” gives a more comprehensive and systematic description of the
information resources structure, including the following: (1) In information col-
lection and updating, the framework calls for: clarifying the authorities and duties
of various departments in information collection and updating; the establishment of
orderly mechanisms; and ensuring of the promptness, accuracy, completeness, and
efficacy of information. (2) In information transparency and sharing, the framework
calls for: all levels of government to “take openness as a principle and not make
openness an exception”; the compiling of an open directory and a sharing directory
for government information; increasing the transparency and efficiency of the
government; and ensuring the legal rights of the masses. (3) In basic information
resources, the framework calls for: all departments collecting basic information
touching upon population, legal entities, natural resources, and geographic and
2 All Factors of the E-governance Framework 27

spatial data to abide the principle of “one data, one source”; graded implementation;
construction and application to proceed simultaneously; and differentiated con-
struction, unified management, and sharing of resources.
The E-governance information resources framework is an important component
of the system for developing and using state information resources. In 2004, the
CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council General Office jointly
issued the “Several Opinions on Strengthening the Work of Development and
Utilization of Information Resources,”9 which formally proposed a state informa-
tion resources development and utilization system. In 2009, the CPC Central
Committee General Office and State Council General Office jointly issued the
“Temporary Measures for Electronic Document Management,”10 which was an
extension and supplement to the state information resources development and
utilization system.
The “Several Opinions on Strengthening the Work of Developing and Utilizing
Information Resources” elevated the development and utilization of information
resources to a level of high national strategic importance, concluding that “infor-
mation resources are a production factor, an intangible asset, and a source of social
wealth, and are of equal importance to energy and material resources.” The
“Opinions” called for the realization of the state information resources development
and utilization system through three mechanisms: governmental mechanisms,
market mechanisms, and public welfare mechanisms. The “Opinions” called
for work focuses to “strengthen the development and utilization of government
information resources,” including the following: (1) Establish sound government
information openness institutions; accelerate the establishment of
government information openness rules; compile directories of open information;
and make it convenient for the public to fully utilize websites and other resources to
obtain government information. (2) Strengthen sharing of government information;
clarify the scope, methods, and responsibilities of sharing; establish a directory
system and exchange system for government information resources; place emphasis
on sharing and integration of information resources; and avoid redundant con-
struction. (3) Establish norms for the work of socialized value-adding, develop-
ment, and utilization of government information resources; and encourage social
power to participate in and add value to the development and utilization of suitable
government information resources. (4) Assist in increasing the ability of macro
controls and market oversight; strengthen analysis of the collection of economic
information; and strengthen the collection and management of basic information
about land, minerals, and so on. (5) Make reasonable plans for the work of col-
lecting government information; when collecting and updating information, clarify
divisions of labor, strengthen coordination, avoid redundancy, and reduce costs;
and ensure the truthfulness, accuracy, promptness, and completeness of

9
CPC Central Committee Issuance No. 34 (2004).
10
CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council General Office “Tingzi”
No. 39 (2009).
28 2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …

information. (6) Strengthen management of government information resources;

establish management measures for government information resources divided by
level and type; establish sound rules and regulations for the entire life cycle of
information resources; and promote asset management work in government infor-
mation resources. On the whole, the descriptions of government information
resources in the “Opinions” were a strong supplement to Document No. 17, as they
incorporated government information resources within comprehensive considera-
tions of the state system for information resources development and utilization and
also conformed to the root directive on overall national strategy of the “Overall
Framework for National E-governance.” Thereafter, a slew of strategic documents
written in conformance with the basic thinking of the “Opinions” were issued,
including the “2006–2020 State Informatization Development Strategy”; the focus
of tasks assigned in those documents was the establishment and consummation of a
system for the development and utilization of state information resources, as well as
the meeting of the information needs for economic and social development in all
areas. In early 2006, the former State Council Informatization Office, with per-
mission from the Leading Group for National Informatization, issued the “Notice
on Strengthening Division of Labor in the Work Tasks of Information Resources
Development and Utilization”,11 which fully implemented Document No. 34,
formed joint work meeting mechanisms at the ministerial level for annually
discussing and coordinating the development of the system for development and
utilization of national information resources. The difficulty of this work grew after
the merger of the former State Council Informatization Office.
The “Temporary Measures for Electronic Document Management” defined
electronic documents as follows: “Electronic documents are information records in
different forms such as written documents, charts, images, audio files, and video
files that are created, processed, transmitted or stored on computers or other elec-
tronic equipment by government bodies, groups, public institutions, and other
organizations.” Such documents are important records for economic and social
development in the information age, and this definition encompassed a large vol-
ume of government information resources. The “Measures” called for compre-
hensive, unified, standardized, secure management and high efficiency utilization of
electronic documents and also established the “Inter-ministerial Joint Meeting
System for National Electronic Document Management,” meant to ensure all
government departments work synchronously to promote this work, under the
guidance and coordination of the CPC Central Committee General Office. In 2011,
the CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council General Office jointly
issued the “National Electronic Document Management Work Plan (2011–2015),”
which clarified the work objectives, tasks, and safeguards during the “Twelfth
Five-Year Plan” period. Strengthening management of electronic documents serves
to promote the systematic establishment of a system for development and utilization

11
State Information Office No. 10 (2006).
2 All Factors of the E-governance Framework 29

of government information resources, and is also a supplement to system for the

development and utilization of national information resources.
In recent years, there has been explosive growth in the amount of government
information accumulated in government departments at the central and local levels,
but analysis indicates that at present we have achieved low levels of orderly
development and effective utilization. The process for creation, transmission, and
utilization of information resources is highly complex, and the distinctions between
government, commercial, and public welfare information resources are blurry. It
will be a difficult task to accurately ascertain the total amount of government
information resources, as well as its formats, utilization methods, and results.

2.4 Network and Information Security Structures

for E-governance

Network and information security are an important component of the establishment

of national E-governance. Document No. 17 made the following proposal in this
area: “Basically establish an E-governance network and information security pro-
tection system. We must organize and establish a system structure for safeguarding
China’s E-governance networks and information security, gradually improve the
security management system, establish an E-governance trust system, strengthen
research and development in key security technology products, and establish an
emergency assistance center and data disaster recovery infrastructure.”
In 2003, the Leading Group for National Informatization issued the “Opinions
on Strengthening the Work of Safeguarding Information Security,”12 which noted
that “information security has now become an important component of national
security” and proposed that the overall demand for strengthening the work of
information security and protection was to: “persist in the guiding principle of
proactive prevention and comprehensive defense, comprehensively increase the
capacity to defend information security, focus on safeguarding the security of basic
information networks and important information systems, create a secure and
healthy network environment, safeguard and promote the development of
informatization, protect public interests, and maintain national security.” The
“Opinions” also established the primary principles of strengthening the work of
safeguarding information security: “Based in national conditions, putting ourselves
in the first place, and persisting in paying attention to both management and
technology; properly handle the relationship between security and development, use
security to safeguard development, and seek security in development; plan com-
prehensively, give prominence to focuses, and strengthen fundamental work; clarify
the responsibilities and duties of the state, enterprises, and individuals; allow all

12
CPC Central Committee Issuance No. 27 (2003).
30 2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …

parties to give rein to free initiative; and commonly construct a national system for
safeguarding information security.”
In 2003, the Leading Group for National Informatization issued the “Opinions
on Strengthening Information Security and Protection Work,”13 which noted that
“information security has now become an important component of national secu-
rity” and proposed that the overall demand for strengthening the work of infor-
mation security and protection was to: “persist in the guiding principle of proactive
prevention and comprehensive defense, comprehensively increase the capacity to
defend information security, focus on safeguarding the security of basic information
networks and important information systems, create a secure and healthy network
environment, safeguard and promote the development of informatization, protect
public interests, and maintain national security.” The “Opinions” also established
the primary principles of strengthening the work of safeguarding information
security: “Based in national conditions, put ourselves in the first place, and persist
in paying attention to both management and technology; properly handle the
relationship between security and development, use security to safeguard devel-
opment, and seek security in development; plan comprehensively, give prominence
to focuses, and strengthen fundamental work; clarify the responsibilities and duties
of the state, enterprises, and individuals; allow all parties to give rein to free
initiative; and commonly construct a national system for safeguarding information
security.”
In 2006, the “Overall Framework for National E-governance” raised the tasks of
constructing E-governance information security infrastructure and clarified the
demand for simultaneous construction of information security infrastructure and a
system for safeguarding information security.
In 2012, the “Several Opinions of the State Council on Vigorously Promoting
the Development of Informatization and Feasibly Safeguarding Information
Security”14 noted that the present influence on politics, the economy, society and
culture of the internet had deepened, and that safeguarding information security had
become an important topic in all nations. However, there were still some problems
in China’s informatization construction and information security safeguarding that
urgently needed to be resolved. Comprehensive strategic planning and coordination
in the work of information security were lacking, as were the defensive capabilities
of important information systems and basic information networks; the mobile
internet and other technical applications were also posing arduous challenges to
information security. The “Opinions” also set objectives for the end of the “Twelfth
Five-Year Plan” period: “The System for safeguarding national information secu-
rity should be basically complete. The defensive capabilities of important infor-
mation networks and basic information networks shall grow markedly stronger. The
level of security and controllability of informatized equipment shall have markedly

13
See footnote 12.
14
State Council Issuance No. 23 (2012).
2 All Factors of the E-governance Framework 31

risen. Information security grading protection and other fundamental work shall
have grown markedly stronger.”
In 2012, the “National E-governance Program for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’”
proposed information security objectives: “The capacity to safeguard E-governance
information security shall continue to increase. Local government institutions for
managing E-governance information security shall be ubiquitously established at
the county-level and higher. Information security infrastructure shall continue to
develop. Secure and reliable software and hardware products and applications shall
continue to grow stronger. Great progress will be made in safeguarding the security
of information systems.”
In 2012, the “National E-governance Informatization Program Construction Plan
for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’” raised the tasks of consummating state networks
and information security infrastructure: “Persist in the main line of promoting
development and safeguarding security; follow the guiding principle of giving
priority to regulations, clearing obstacles and attending to multiple issues simul-
taneously, and integration of government and enterprises; accelerate the construc-
tion of network and information security infrastructure; improve the system for
safeguarding national information security; and increase the capacity to safeguard
security of China’s basic information networks and important information
systems.”
On February 27, 2014, Xi Jinping gave a speech at the first meeting of the
Central Leading Group for Internet Security and Informatization, in which he noted
that Cybersecurity and informatization are major strategic issues that touch upon
national development and the work and lives of the masses. Xi said we must
proceed from general international and domestic trends, make an overall arrange-
ment, develop innovatively, and strive to build China into a strong network country.
Xi underscored that even small movements in Cybersecurity and informatization
can have a great impact on many areas in a nation, that we must clearly recognize
the conditions and tasks facing us, that we must fully understand the importance
and urgency of performing this work, plan according to situations, move in
response to conditions, and seize opportunities as they arise. Cybersecurity and
informatization are two sides of the same body, two wheels of the same cart, and as
such we must make unified plans and deployments for them, and must promote and
implement said plans in a unified manner. In order to properly perform the work of
Cybersecurity and informatization, we must properly handle the relationship
between security and development; bring about coordination and consistency and
simultaneous advances; safeguard development with security and promote security
through development; and strive to establish long-lasting security and an enterprise
of long-lasting governance.
32 2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …

2.5 Laws, Regulations, Standards, and Management System

Structures for E-governance

The structure of laws, regulations, standards, and management systems for national
E-governance refers primarily to the development environment and safeguard
measures for E-governance. Document No. 17 discusses these structures in three
areas. First is the need to improve of the standardization system for E-governance.
Second is the need to strengthen informatization training and assessment protocols
for civil servants. Third is the need to accelerate the promotion of legislation for
E-governance. The “Overall Framework for National E-governance” establishes
“laws and regulations and the standardization system” and “management systems”
as the last two components of the framework’s five major areas. The framework
gives concrete definitions for legislative research and construction of laws and
regulations in the section on “laws and regulations and standardization system,”
calling for the use of the E-governance standardization system to establish norms
for the entire process of E-governance. In the section on “management systems,”
the framework calls for governments in all areas and all departments to “accelerate
the promotion of reforms in all areas; make development breakthroughs in major
systemic reforms pertaining to the overall development of E-governance; and
establish sound E-governance management systems that are suitable for the socialist
market economy.” The framework emphasized the call to integrate E-governance
with governmental innovation and systemic reforms and called for the establish-
ment of investment mechanisms for innovative E-governance projects, as well as
increases to standardization and specialization of construction operations. There
were no great changes in the wording regarding laws, regulations, standards, sys-
tems, and mechanisms in relevant policy documents thereafter, but the issue of
“civil servant training” became less important owing to rigorous entry standards for
civil servants and increases of coursework pertaining to information in the Chinese
education system.
The development environment and safeguard measures for E-governance are
reliant upon innovations in government management and the greater environment
of national informatization. In recent decades, there have been relatively large
changes to China’s legal environment as well as to the development of informa-
tization. These changes have exerted a clear influence on both improvements to the
system of laws, regulations, and standards of E-governance and to systemic
reforms. At present, China’s laws, regulations, and policies for E-governance as
well as its standardization system are gradually being established and improved;
vigorous explorations and research into the management system are also being
conducted.
3 The Direction of Development of the Overall … 33

3 The Direction of Development of the Overall

Framework for E-governance

A sweeping look at the evolution of development in this area indicates that at

present, China is already in possession of a relatively complete overall framework
for E-governance at the policy level. Since the issuance of Document No. 17, a
great volume of subsequent documents have in many areas greatly enriched and
improved the original document, which called for “one site, two networks, four
databases, and twelve goldens.” Over the past 10 years of China’s efforts in
implementing E-governance, the overall framework has played an important
guiding role. As conditions continue to change, we will encounter a few new issues
at the operations level as we continue to implement the framework. In terms of
time-effectiveness, we now need to make some adjustments to some documents,
according to the development of applications and technology, especially to
Document No. 17, Document No. 18, and the “Overall Framework for National
E-governance,” which were issued during the “Tenth Five-Year Plan” and
“Eleventh Five-Year Plan” periods. The “National E-governance Program for the
‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’” of 2011 and the “National E-governance Informatization
Program Construction Plan for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’” of 2012 play roles in
guiding and establishing norms for the construction of E-governance both at present
and for a time to come, but there is still a large disparity between these documents
and the present call to further improve the overall framework for E-governance
(or the “top-down design”). Concurrently, another challenging issue will be how the
MIIT and NDRC, under new forms of management, will implement these two
documents to bring about full coordination, completely fulfill the functions of
comprehensive planning and coordination and project management of national
E-governance, and guide the healthy development of national E-governance. One
can, however, arrive at a fundamental conclusion regarding the direction of
development of E-governance in China by assessing these two documents as well
as the overall development conditions of E-governance at present.
First, the primary direction in which we will guide the development of
E-governance remains an orientation around service. In the past 10 years, sustained
development of the economy and society has driven a strengthening of civic
awareness among ordinary Chinese people, and as such it is inevitable that a civil
society will continue to develop and mature. The report of the 17th National
People’s Congress proposed that the basic direction for the construction of
E-governance at present and for a time to come be “shoring up of the system of
government responsibilities, improving the system of public services, promoting
E-governance, and strengthening public administration and public services.” The
“National E-governance Program for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’” (hereafter
referred to as “the program”) mentions public services 10 times in such areas as
development situation, development objectives, and focus work. The program also
calls for average E-governance coverage rates in public services and administrative
applications of 70% at the county level, 50% at the neighborhood (town) level, and
34 2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …

30% at the community (village) level by the end of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan.”
The following is the basic method by which the program calls for the accom-
plishment of that goal: accelerate the promotion of such applied services as
employment services for laborers, social security, health and sanitation, education,
and culture; promote the construction and development of a basic public services
system; strengthen the construction and management of government websites;
promote openness of government information; promote online work services; and
strengthen interaction between the government and the public. The “National
E-governance Informatization Program Construction Plan for the ‘Twelfth
Five-Year Plan’” mentioned “public services” eight times in the areas of guiding
thought, fundamental principles, and construction of important informatization
systems, emphasizing that we should effectively increase the level of public ser-
vices through innovative development, making public services more equal, and
building such major E-governance projects as the “Informatization Program to
Safeguard Convenience and Health.” Public participation is a foundation of public
services, and so the development of E-governance should better guarantee the legal
rights of citizens, such as the right to know the facts, by promoting public partic-
ipation and interaction between the public and the government.
Second, safeguarding and improving the people’s livelihoods ought to be a focus
area of E-governance construction. The “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period is a key
time during which China will comprehensively build axiaokang (moderately
prosperous) society, and safeguarding and improving the people’s livelihoods is the
key to bringing about harmonious social development and overall moderate pros-
perity. Both the “National E-governance Program for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’“
and the “National E-governance Informatization Program Construction Plan for the
‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’ “repeatedly emphasize “safeguarding and improving the
people’s livelihoods” in different ways. The two documents propose this goal be
met in the following two ways: (1) Establishing and consummating relevant poli-
cies and mechanisms and accelerating the construction of relevant E-governance
systems. The documents clearly dictate the call for acceleration of the development
of basic public service systems, acceleration of the promotion and establishment of
harmonious labor relationships, comprehensive planning for the promotion of
integrated urban-rural social security, improvements to medical and healthcare
applications, improvements to the prevention and control of major illnesses,
improvements to informatized applications for administrative management of
education and culture, the promotion of applications for management of trans-
portation and shipping, a strengthening of applications for the management of water
resources, and so on. These are now and will be for a time to come the focuses of
E-governance construction. (2) Using E-governance construction to promote the
construction and reform of systems and mechanisms that benefit the people’s
livelihoods. Increasing the people’s incomes (especially low-income groups),
improving mechanisms for the allocation of income, mitigating the great disparities
between rich and poor, and easing social tensions are all necessary issues to which
we must attach importance in order to build a xiaokang (moderately prosperous)
3 The Direction of Development of the Overall … 35

society, and are also all opportunities for the construction and application of
E-governance to play a major role.
Third, the development of E-governance itself must come onto a development
path of intensification, low costs, and high efficiency. The usefulness of applied
information technology lies not only in simple computerization of work, but also in
giving full play to the advantages of high-efficiency, dynamism, and scientific
allocation of resources. In particular the emergence of cloud computing and other
new forms of applications and methods of resource allocations has provided better
support for more intense, lower cost, and higher efficiency development of
E-governance. This has raised a call for a greater scale of and higher degrees of
system integration, information sharing, and functional coordination per the needs
of applications, as well as allowing existing E-governance systems to play a greater
comprehensive role, in the development of E-governance. Over 30 years of gov-
ernment informatization, particularly the rapid development of E-governance over
the past 10 years, the focuses of E-governance construction have shifted from
hardware and software development toward the development and utilization of
information resources and toward wide-scale coordination and sharing of govern-
ment functions. The “National E-governance Program for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year
Plan’” established “major breakthroughs in E-governance information sharing and
functional coordination” as the focus objectives to be achieved by the end of the
“Twelfth Five-Year Plan” and called for “an average information sharing rate of
primary activities of 50 percent or higher” and “average internet-connectivity rates
of E-governance networks of 85% or higher” in departments at the county level and
above. To these ends, the plan specifically called for the establishment and con-
summation of E-governance public platforms based in cloud computing, encour-
ages a shift toward cloud computing models, and better supports sharing and
coordination between E-governance systems. The “National E-governance
Informatization Program Construction Plan for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’”
refers to “sharing” 43 times and to “coordination” 18 times, and the ideology of
comprehensively integrating system functionality and information resources of all
departments permeates the entire document.
Fourth, we must continue exploring and putting into practice systems and
mechanisms suitable to the development of E-governance. In order to play to the
advantages of intensification of the construction and application of E-governance,
promote sharing and coordination, effectively drive the information and telecom-
munications industries and development of national informatization, we must
persist in unifying leadership, comprehensive planning, overall coordination, and
joining efforts to make progress. How to bring about better integration of the
development of E-governance and innovations in administrative management; how
to establish executable standards for interconnectivity and interoperability between
the various systems; how to truly shift the focus of E-governance implementers
from project construction to deepening of application and increasing of service
capacity; how to bring about positive interaction between E-governance applica-
tions, facilities construction, and the development of technological industries: it will
be hard to answer the preceding questions relying solely upon guidance from
36 2 Overall Framework: The Basic Pattern and Evolution …

regulations and project approvals. At present, working mechanisms for interde-

partmental E-governance coordination at the state level are facing issues which are
very difficult to effectively resolve in the establishment of national laws, policies,
and standards, in coordination between the construction of major inter-departmental
networks and information resource databases, and in the linking and integration of
industry and local government systems. To resolve these issues, we need a com-
prehensive coordinating department with authority but without any conflicting
interests to organize and coordinate all relevant departments and undertake the work
of comprehensively planning and coordinating national E-governance. There are at
present still some problems in the management of E-governance construction
projects in the area of insufficiently comprehensive planning, departments acting on
their own, dispersed construction, low-level redundancy, and wasted investments.
Relevant departments must, under unified high-level leadership, come together to
research the issues and establish policies in order that we may establish more
effective working mechanisms.
The overall framework for national E-governance is an important handle for
implementing unified leadership and the principle of comprehensive planning.
China needs an overall framework for E-governance that drives ceaseless innova-
tions and improvements. International experience indicates that overall frameworks
for E-governance are indeed capable of bringing about unified thought, establishing
norms for operations, and guiding practical implementation, as well as bringing the
construction and application of E-governance onto a long-term track of healthiness
and sustainability. The overall development trend of global E-governance skews
more toward policy support from above and public services to the outside, further
emphasizing integration and coordination, placing more emphasis on integration
between functions and technology, and adjusting to changes in the environment and
functions of E-governance through more timely upgrades. The potential for
E-governance in China, the world’s most populous country, is enormous, but owing
to systemic reasons, E-governance systems at the provincial level and below in
China are highly redundant, with many parties building and operating their own
systems, which leads to structural waste. Relevant state organs should take further
steps toward a consensus of commonly driving upgrades and improvements to the
overall framework for E-governance and commonly driving the thorough imple-
mentation of the overall framework for E-governance.
Since the issuance of Document No. 17, the overall framework has played an
important guiding role in practical implementation, but in the future, it will be a
highly complex and arduous long-term task to maintain the document’s guiding
sense and effectiveness. We must deeply study, make overall plans for, and make
step-by-step implementations for such issues as institutions, mechanisms, laws,
regulations, standards, and technological paths. In particular, we need to emphasize
that there must be an organic synthesis between the design and implementation of
the overall framework, reforms to the national administrative system, and the
construction of service-oriented government. At the level of establishment of sys-
tems and mechanisms, I hope that state-level leadership will establish an organi-
zation body in charge of the framework. This body can be directly led by national
3 The Direction of Development of the Overall … 37

strategic planning departments and highest-level informatization management

bodies, tasked with the following jobs: designing the basic structure of the
framework in accordance with national strategy; implementing the framework’s
contents in accordance with concrete government work; setting methods for tech-
nical realization of the framework in accordance with existing systems and tech-
nological reserves; revising the framework in accordance with changes to the
environment and functions of E-governance; ensuring timely updates and long-term
suitability of the framework; guiding the implementation, operation, and mainte-
nance of E-governance projects by government departments and integrated gov-
ernment systems developers under the standards of the framework; assessing the
results of E-governance construction and application under the unified directives of
the framework, with particular emphasis on cost-effectiveness analysis and the area
of technology; and employing and training government chief information officers
(CIO), promoting the establishment of systems for government CIOs; and so on.
Chapter 3
Effects of Development: E-governance
Fully Supports Construction
of Service-Oriented Government

Going to great lengths to promote E-governance is the strategic means to

strengthening the capacity of the party to rule, deepening reforms to the adminis-
trative management system, and creating a service-oriented government that pleases
the people. In 2002, the CPC Central Committee General office and State Council
General Office jointly retransmitted the “Leading Group for National
Informatization Guiding Opinions on the Construction of National E-governance,”1
which resolved to: establish E-governance construction as the focus of informati-
zation work; drive the informatization of the development of the national economy
and society with “the government leading the way”; and throw open the curtain of
comprehensive, rapid development of E-governance in China. Over the past
10 years, E-governance construction has been stably promoted in China and has
played an important role in improving public services, strengthening public
administration, strengthening comprehensive regulation, improving macro-controls,
and other areas, making E-governance construction an indispensable, effective
method for increasing the party’s capacity to rule and building a service-oriented
government.

1 Current Status of Construction

In recent years, E-governance has been comprehensively promoted in China, and

great strides have been made in such areas as network infrastructure, operating and
application systems, government information resources, government websites,
safeguarding of information security, laws, regulations, standards, management
systems, and human resources.

1
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 17 (2002).

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 39
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0_3
40 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

1.1 Strengthening of Network Support Capacity

A unified framework for national E-governance is beginning to take shape, and the
problem of different departments each establishing their own dedicated networks is
starting to come under control. The area of coverage of government networks has
grown greatly, with said networks basically meeting all needs for computing tasks
and applications. E-governance networks are now an important component of
infrastructure for governing the country.
The center is focusing efforts on unifying government networks. In 2000, the
Leading Group for National Informatization issued the “Leading Group for
National Informatization Guiding Opinions on the Construction of National
E-governance,”2 which proposed the construction ideology of building unified
national intranets and extranets. In 2006, the same leading group issued the
“Opinions on Promoting Construction of National E-governance Networks,” which
clarified the construction principles, objectives, and work deployments of national
E-governance networks, while also increasing the intensity of the work of inte-
grating network resources. Recently, the “Plan for National E-governance
Intranets,” the writing and publishing of which was spearheaded by the CPC
Central Committee General Office, greatly accelerated the pace of construction of
intranets. In 2009, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)
and Ministry of Finance (MoF) jointly issued the “Notice on Promoting the Work
of Constructing National E-governance Extranets,” which made the construction of
local extranets more standardized and markedly faster. In October 2010, the State
Commission Office for Public Sector Reform (SCOPSR) approved the request of
the State Information Center to add under its umbrella the State E-governance
Extranet Management Center, to strengthen organization and safeguards of the
construction of extranets.
Orderly driving of government intranet construction. In recent years, the
CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council General Office have
accelerated the promotion of unified national intranet construction.
Interconnectivity has been achieved between party committee general office intra-
nets from the central level to the sub-provincial city level, and likewise between the
six major networks of party committees, the people’s congresses, governments,
people’s political consultative conferences, courts, and procuratorates in 16 pro-
vinces (or autonomous districts or direct-controlled cities). Twenty-eight provinces
(or autonomous districts or direct-controlled cities) have established horizontal
networks that connect subordinate departments of party committees at the same
level and vertical networks that connect party committees at lower levels.
The effects of intensification of government extranets are beginning to
appear. Phase one of the government extranet program began construction in 2006.
On December 24, 2009, construction on phase one of the program was inspected
and officially declared approved, signifying that the state’s proposed goals of

2
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 17 (2002).
1 Current Status of Construction 41

“integrating resources; cutting costs of construction, operation, and maintenance;

and driving network interconnectivity and information sharing through the estab-
lishment of a unified government extranet platform” were gradually being achieved.
China thus made a substantial step toward the construction of large
inter-departmental, inter-regional E-governance infrastructure. At present, govern-
ment extranets have been developed into the governmental public network with the
widest coverage, the most departments connected, and the largest size; the effects of
intensification of government extranets are beginning to appear.
The support capacity of government dedicated networks have been
strengthened. Most central departments have established local area networks
(LAN) that satisfy their working needs, and most work units have established
dedicated networks for their local systems. Important operating and information
systems have been moved from central to local networks. Major departments in
areas such as customs, taxation, public security, national land resources, insurance,
and accounting now have dedicated networks with 24-hour guaranteed uninter-
rupted service. These dedicated networks are in first place globally for quantity of
traffic hosted. The building of the infrastructure for these networks laid the foun-
dation for further integration of network resources and bringing about vertical
linking and horizontal coordination.
All provincial-level governments are accelerating the pace of government
network construction. Local government networks at all levels and of all types
now cover all cities at the provincial level and higher and 80% or more of counties.
Many provincial-level governments have increased the degree of unified platform
construction. For example, Jiangxi, Hubei, Heilongjiang, and other provinces have
built province-wide uniform network platforms through unified leadership, unified
planning, and unified construction, thus eschewing the establishment of dedicated
departmental networks and avoiding redundant construction and wasteful invest-
ments. The amount thus saved by all provinces in operations and maintenance fees
is in excess of 200 million yuan.

1.2 Great Increases to Level of Informatization of Core

Tasks

As compared with the regional construction of government informatization of the

1990s symbolized by the “Three Goldens” program, current E-governance con-
struction in China has accelerated markedly. There have been great increases to the
level of informatization of core tasks, and government administration is becoming
increasingly inseparable from the support of information technology measures.
Most core tasks of most central departments are now supported by informatized
systems. Since 2002, the central government has invested in the construction of
42 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

over 40 E-governance programs, including “Golden Finance,”3 “Golden

Accounting,”4 “Golden Shield,”5 “Golden Protection,”6 “Golden Quality,”7
“Golden Earth,”8 and “Golden Agriculture.”9 The results of an investigation into
over 40 departments and commissions at the central level indicated that the level of
informatization coverage of central government general offices rose from less than
10% in 2001 to 100% at present, and the informatization coverage level for core
tasks in focus areas supported by various “golden” programs, including in customs,
taxation, public security, land resources, financial oversight, and social security, is
nearly 90%; some departments and commissions, as well as the Ministry of Public
Security and the Ministry of Science and Technology, have achieved a rate of
100%. On the whole, however, the rate of informatization coverage for core tasks of

3
The “Golden Finance” program or “General Financial Management Information System”
(GFMIS) was a comprehensive financial information management system for the government that
made use of advanced information technology and supported budgetary planning, centralized
treasury payments, and macroeconomic forecasting and analysis as its central applications. This
was the general name for the objectives and planning of informatization of the financial system.
4
The goal of the “Golden Accounting” program or “accounting informatization program” was to
establish an informatized system for closely following the financial information systems and
relevant electronic data of the treasury, banks, taxation departments, customs departments, and
focus state-owned enterprises and public institutions, in order to effectively ensure the truthfulness,
legality, and effectiveness of the accounts of said institutions.
5
The “Golden Shield” program was the program for informatization of the work of nationwide
public security. Its primary components were: the building of basic telecommunications infras-
tructure and network platforms for public security; the building of application systems for public
security computers; the establishment of standardization and normalizing systems for informati-
zation of public security work; the building of systems to safeguard public security networks and
information; the construction of operations and management systems for the informatization of
public security work; the construction of the nationwide public security information Cybersecurity
oversight center; and so on.
6
The organization and implementation of “Golden Protection” were spearheaded by the former
Ministry of Labor and Social Security. Formally initiated in October 2002, this was the general
term for the nationwide labor protection information system.
7
The objectives of the “Golden Quality” program were: drive all levels of quality inspection organs
to transition toward being service-oriented; increase the transparency of quality oversight,
inspections, and quarantine work; create a nationwide unified quality inspection network; drive the
computerization and informatization of enforcement in the quality inspection system; bring about
greater convenience and expediency for manufacturing enterprises and foreign trade enterprises;
increase the intensity of the fight against fake and poor quality products; more effectively bring
about norms and standards for the market economy; and drive the development of the socialist
market economy.
8
The “Golden Earth” program was an important component of the informatization of national land
resources. It was a mainstay program in the informatization of national land resources centered on
resolving major issues in the management, development, and utilization of national land resources
with objectives targeting resource oversight, regulation, and services.
9
The “Golden Agriculture” program was proposed at the third “Joint Meeting for Informatization
of the National Economy” in December 1994. Its objective was to accelerate and promote
informatization of agriculture and the countryside, as well as to establish a “comprehensive
management and service information system for agriculture.”.
1 Current Status of Construction 43

central departments and commissions is only around 50%. For example, a statistical
analysis of a portion of major E-governance construction projects demonstrates that
18 state-level major E-governance programs have established over 70 information
systems, supporting over 100 core government tasks and effectively supporting the
government’s regulatory capacity and capacity to perform its work.
Increases to the level of informatization coverage of local government core tasks
have been relatively fast. The rate of informatization coverage of core tasks in
eastern, economically developed provinces and direct-controlled cities is univer-
sally over 80%, whereas increases to the same rate at the district and county levels
and most central and western regions are pending. Guided by state policies and
driven by the great degree of development in model E-governance projects from the
central government, local governments have built a large quantity of computing and
information systems per systemic reforms to government administration and taking
administrative approvals and administrative oversight as their main line. In 2006,
the Leading Group for National Informatization issued the “Overall Framework for
National E-governance,” which proposed the development objective of “processing
over 50% of administrative approvals online” by 2010. All provincial-level gov-
ernments actively implemented the unified plans of the center and made great
efforts to promote the construction of information systems to handle administrative
approvals and related tasks; the level of informatization of core tasks hereupon rose
markedly. Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and other
provincial-level governments brought their rate of online approvals to over 90%,
and some provincial-level governments achieved a rate of nearly 100%. Data from
an investigation into the level of E-governance development in some provinces
indicate that there have been great increases to the level of informatization of core
tasks in provincial-level government departments, with the greatest increases
coming in eastern, economically developed regions, where the rate was over 80%;
the rate for district and county-level government departments in the same regions
was 50%. In comparison, the rate of informatization coverage of core tasks among
provincial-level government departments in the central and western regions was
nearly 50%, with most district and county-level government departments in these
regions only having recently begun the establishment of E-governance systems; the
rate of these last departments was low, around 30%, as per initial estimates.

1.3 Great Progress Made in Development and Utilization

of Government Information Resources

At the same time that the central and all other levels of government have worked
toward the informatization of core tasks, so also have they driven construction of
government information resources. At present, the vast majority of central min-
istries and commissions as well as provincial-level government departments have
supported their core tasks with databases, with over 80% of core tasks now covered
44 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

by databases. The state has developed a slew of major fundamental information

databases for population data, corporate data, and so on. Other databases have also
been established to cover key areas such as finance, taxation, quality inspection,
social security, and education. These databases now constitute important informa-
tion resources for the government of China. Some industries and regions have
established public data platforms, on which they have made useful explorations in
unified data management and utilization methods. Some local governments have
promoted information sharing pilots in such major economic and social issues as
population data, taxation, credit, and emergency management; in so doing they
have achieved a certain degree of economic and social benefit and have accumu-
lated precious successful experiences.
Construction of information resources centered on focus tasks and appli-
cations is proceeding stably. At present the vast majority of ministries and
commissions support their core tasks with databases; the overall database coverage
rate of core tasks is over 80%. Since 2006, the state government has established
over 20 important information systems, driving the construction and improvement
of databases for relevant tasks. The establishment of these core task databases laid a
solid foundation for further increases to the government’s level of market regula-
tion, public administration, public services, and scientific policymaking. The state
has built a series of important basic databases, and the Ministry of Public Security
(MPS) has built a national population database covering 1.3 billion people under
the “Golden Shield” program. Population management databases now provide MPS
with inquiry services into the nation’s 1.3 billion people and have been instrumental
in breaking 2.27 million police cases, recovering economic losses of over 4.0
billion yuan. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has built a statistical database
containing over 3400 indices, 320 divisions, and 1.0526 million data parameters.
The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has built a complete
enterprise and corporate database. The Ministry of Civil Affairs and State
Commission Office for Public Sector Reform (SCOPSR) have begun building a
database for mass organizations and public institutions. Construction of the data-
base for state natural resources and spatial geography, spearheaded by the NDRC, is
also picking up. In addition, a great number of other databases in key areas such as
finance, taxation, quality inspection, social security, and education, have also been
built. For example, the Ministry of Finance has concluded upgrades and
improvements to the information system and database for rural citizen subsidies,
which as of the end of 2008 supported a total of 82.637 billion yuan in direct grain
subsidies and comprehensive agricultural subsidies, accounting for 94.7% of total
subsidies paid, and greatly increasing the quantity of work servicing the “Three
Rurals.” There have been continuous improvements to the State-Level Land
Resources Data Center, now equipped with 18 databases, including one for the
current status of land utilization, one for land utilization planning, one for mineral
resource planning, and so on. The General Administration of Quality Supervision,
Inspection, and Quarantine has inaugurated an online records database for product
1 Current Status of Construction 45

quality information, covering most areas of quality supervision and regulation; the
database contains 430,000 product quality records and allows comprehensive
querying.
Initial achievements made in information sharing and task coordination.
Governments and governmental departments in all areas of the nation have actively
promoted information sharing and task coordination in macro-controls, market
regulation, public administration, and public services, and have made great
increases to administrative efficiency and the level of service provided through
constant expansion of the areas in which such is applied, particularly in compre-
hensive governance and taxation, population management, public services, emer-
gency management, and so on. The State Administration of Taxation continues
working with the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance to further
summarize the experience of pilots in the application of the “Tax-Bank Horizontal
Network Electronic Taxation System” and to expand the scope of its application.
The Ministry of Public Security and the People’s Bank of China collectively built
an integrated examination system for population information, providing querying
services to the over 150,000 branches of over 160 banks in the system, and
effectively curtailing fraudulent account openings using false names. The Ministry
of Land Resources and China Banking Regulatory Commission jointly established
an information querying mechanism for banking and land resources departments,
actively promoting inter-departmental coordination. The General Administration of
Customs further drove inter-departmental connectivity of applications by promoting
the “joint examination of customs clearance forms” with several departments. In
establishing the national statistics database, the National Bureau of Statistics built a
catalog of statistical indicators that was more standardized and stable and also more
amenable to data sharing and transfers, making related work more standardized,
institutionalized, and proceduralized. The Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang region
accelerated the construction of a regional informatization platform, deepening
applications such as electronic port access and citizen service cards, effectively
increasing the level of governmental interdepartmental coordination and integrated
regional socioeconomic development in the Yangtze River Delta region. The
municipal government of Wuhan has made sustained efforts to improve platforms
for exchanging basic enterprise information between departments in such areas as
industry and commerce, quality regulation, national taxation, local taxation, and so
on, bringing about inter-departmental interconnectivity and information sharing,
with nearly 50,000 database forms available for sharing at present. In 2008,
Guangdong Province did the following: brought online a social security data
sharing center and an enterprise basic data sharing center, providing an integrated
querying platform to government departments; brought about information sharing
between the provincial level and the two prefectural-level cities of Foshan and
Jieyang; launched the work of electronically overseeing information sharing;
brought the information sharing work of all departments within the scope of
electronic oversight; and further increased the timeliness and effectiveness of
inter-departmental information sharing. The municipal government of Guangzhou
strengthened exchanges and sharing of floating population and handicapped persons
46 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

employment information, greatly increasing the level of work done in management

of temporary residence permits for floating population and employment assurances
for handicapped persons. Such cities as Beijing and Shanghai took the lead in
establishing unified city emergency command centers via inter-departmental
information sharing, initially bringing about information synchronization between
such urban departments as public security, traffic police, firefighters, emergency
medical care, and others; urban emergency management systems are now trending
toward comprehensive, visualized, interactive development. Zhejiang Province
established agricultural information service stations covering over 95% of towns
and townships through its “Million Rural Citizen Mailbox Program,” greatly
increasing the level of rural information services by sharing information in such
areas as agriculture, education, science and technology, and human resources.
Development in government information resource cataloging systems and
information exchange systems has been rather fast. Pilot work has been laun-
ched in the construction of government information resource cataloging and
information systems in such places as Tianjin, Shanghai, Beijing, and Inner
Mongolia. The municipal government of Beijing has already completed construc-
tion on its government information resources sharing and exchange platform,
providing city government departments with geographic and spatial data through a
service platform for the exchange and sharing of government geographic and spatial
information resources. The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has finished work
on a pilot project for the establishment of state government information resources
cataloging and exchange systems, which unify registrations and issuances of
provincial public security population records, spatial and geographic information
from mapping agencies, and other information, in the provincial-level catalog
services center. All governmental departments across the autonomous region can
query the system for data on the over 30 million people in the autonomous region or
for required spatial and geographic information. Hebei Province has finished work
on phase one of its information resources exchange and sharing platform program,
for the first time realizing sharing of basic enterprise information between the four
major departments of industry and commerce, national taxation, local taxation, and
quality regulation, on the strength of the exchanges and sharing of information
permitted by the platform.
Major tasks and applications at the central and local levels are trending
toward great centralization of data. Many central-level ministries and commis-
sions have created an information resources management model centered on
“central and provincial two-level concentration” through focus programs and pro-
jects, giving rise to the trend of great data centralization. Through this process, such
links in the information chain as collection, processing, utilization, and
re-utilization have all been strengthened to different degrees. Departments in public
security, auditing, taxation, social security, and other areas have established gov-
ernment data standards for their departments or industries. The National Audit
Office (NAO) designed and built a database system capable of handling all variety
of complex tasks, as well as an integrated national auditing data center system,
making standards and norms for auditing data and giving rise to integrated data
1 Current Status of Construction 47

standards for auditing. The NAO’s creation of an intensified construction model

through the centralization of data allowed not only for increases to the efficiency of
oversight and speed of systemic deployments, but also laid a foundation for
information sharing and task coordination. Local governments in Xiamen,
Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hainan, and other places have also actively explored models
for the great centralization of data. In July 2003, the municipal government of
Xiamen brought about data exchanges between departments in areas such as public
security, social security, public funds, and planned birth, and also updated usage
mechanisms for such, creating a fundamental municipal citizens information
database with information on 3.4 million permanent citizens and temporary resi-
dents, as well as historical data. Thereafter, departments in areas such as local
taxation, human resources, party working committees, education, and health
gradually joined the system, giving rise to “one-stop public services” for citizens
and furthering the goal of “great centralization” of government data. The
Information Office of the municipal government of Guangzhou developed a com-
prehensive community application platform, and established pilots in 10 neigh-
borhood offices in places like Liurong Street in Yuexiu District, in January 2002.
The municipal government thereafter promulgated comprehensive community
application platforms in 60 neighborhoods, establishing a fundamental database for
natural person, legal person (corporate), and housing data, and other databases for
such areas as unemployed persons, retired persons, senior citizens, and women of
child-bearing age; the government also created a comprehensive “one-stop” service
center for 23 community government tasks such as unemployment management,
retirement management, planned birth, overseas Chinese matters management,
housing rental management, and so on. In November 2002, the municipal gov-
ernment of Guangzhou established another pilot program in Yuexiu District, cre-
ating a district-level government data center, elevating vertical and horizontal
integration from community level one to district level one, and bringing about
“great centralization of data” in the district government. The municipal government
of Shanghai shattered traditional concepts regarding “administering oneself what
one has built oneself” by launching an exploration into the construction road of
“integration,” with third parties building and managing support platforms for
application coordination, with multiple departments as the platform’s clients,
thereby greatly reducing the costs of construction, operation, and maintenance. The
concept of “integrated” construction comprises integration at the levels of infor-
mation and applications. Information integration refers to establishing a
district-level information resources database and information exchange platform,
capable of “triple connections”—upward, downward, and horizontal—and capable
of exchanges with existing application systems; information integration calls for
centralized construction of district- and county-level commission offices as well as
of yet-unconstructed neighborhood-level systems, i.e. the Application Service
Provider (ASP) model, to strengthen horizontally and vertically integrated infor-
mation resources sharing. The government of Hainan Province organized and
realized a slew of focus application projects in accordance with the principles of
province-wide platforms and great centralization of data, bringing about great
48 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

centralization of management of task systems and data, laying a foundation for

comprehensive planning and management of E-governance extranet programs and
the construction of province-wide E-governance, and driving a high level of
interconnectivity and information resource sharing around the province.

1.4 Gradual Formation of the E-governance Public Services

System

Administrative service halls are being universally established at all levels.

Administrative service halls, also known as government halls or administrative
work halls, are service halls planned and built by governments in recent years to
provide convenience in approvals and other government procedures for the public,
enterprises, and government work units. There are at present 4500 administrative
service halls at the county-level and higher around the country, 100% of which are
informatized, providing an extreme degree of convenience in handling government
procedures for the public.
Government websites are now nearly ubiquitous. Government web portals
are an important component of E-governance, fulfilling the two important core
window functions of management and services for “virtual government” and the
government at large in the information era. In recent years, governments at all levels
in China have established websites, explored and realized the network-ization of
E-governance service functions, and have promoted the expansion and deepening
of online government services. In 2006, central government web portals formally
went online, symbolizing the completion of the four-level government website
system. At present, website coverage of central and provincial-level government
departments is 100%, up to 99.1% for prefectural-level cities and over 85% for
county-level departments. At present all government websites, at all levels and of
all varieties, possess the three major service functions of information openness,
online processing of procedures, and interaction between the government and the
people; the framework for online public service systems is now gradually forming.
On April 22, 2009, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT)
formally issued the “System of Core Indicators for Assessing the Development of
Government Websites (Trial),” which guided the predominating thought of
assessments of government web portals. In December 2009, the MIIT’s Electronic
Science and Technology Intelligence Institute assessed the comprehensive power to
influence the internet of Chinese government websites and the performance of
government websites, using the aforementioned core indicators as criteria. The
institute found that: governments at all levels around China had undertaken the
construction of websites in accordance with the three core indicators of information
openness, online processing of procedures, and interaction between the government
and the people; there had been great improvements to website design, spatial layout,
color coordination, website search functions, and user experience; most government
1 Current Status of Construction 49

websites provided “one-stop” service and handling of procedures for the public and
enterprises in accordance with the actual needs of service targets; there had been
improvement to the quantity of applications and functions, as well as the level of
service and personalization of government websites; and the capacity of govern-
ment websites to provide service to the people was growing ever greater. Channels
for citizens to participate in government through websites, such as online sub-
mission of petition letters, leader mailboxes, online chats, industry information
hotlines, and other interactive services, were becoming easier and more unob-
structed. Furthermore, assessments made by the China Center for Information
Industry Development and the Beijing Govmade Information Consulting Co., Ltd.,
indicate that the level of service provided by Chinese government websites is
gradually increasing.
Government call centers are widely used. As E-governance has been further
deepened, call center systems have gradually been broadly promulgated within
government services. “Citizen hotlines,” “government-public-connection hotlines,”
“governmental actions complaint reporting hotlines,” and other similar hotlines
established as public services by government organs at all levels are considered part
of call center services or are similar to the manner of services provided by call
centers. Government functionary departments directly hear the opinions of the
public through these government call centers, strengthening communication, driv-
ing up confidence, increasing public satisfaction with government services, and
improving the government’s image. For example, Ningbo’s “81890” emergency
services center has been in service for 11 years and has earned over 50 accolades,
such as “National-Level Outstanding Community Service Center,” “Chinese Organ
Management Progress Award and Government Innovation Award,” and “Reputable
Service Brand in Zhejiang Province.” The MIIT and Ministry of Commerce have
promulgated the “81890” service model around the nation several times. The
“81890” project established a needed public service platform for communication
and interaction between the government, enterprises, and citizens; effectively
resolved problems of information asymmetry between the three; and established a
whole new area of government public information services; becoming a window for
the government to understand situations at the community level and public opinion,
an “intimate line of connection” for interaction with the public, and also an “in-
cubator” for the services industry.
Public information kiosks are being employed in some cities. In October
2006, the conference to review and finalize the “General Norms for Digital
Information Query Kiosk” was held in Qingdao. This conference gave rise to the
first industry standards for China’s information kiosk industry; at this point the
information kiosk industry alighted upon a standardized development track. At
present, public information kiosks are in use in cities such as Beijing, Chengdu,
Suzhou, Xi’an, and Yantai. In Jiangsu Province, for one example, public infor-
mation kiosks were part of construction projects for the city of Suzhou in 2005 and
2006 and were the signature program of the “Digital Suzhou” program, being
praised by Suzhou citizens in 2005 as “One of Ten Major Suzhou City Programs
Winning the Public’s Heart.” This program called for the establishment of 21
50 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

grade-one data headings, 250 grade-two data headings, and 1700 grade-three data
headings, with over 40,000 information fields to provide convenience and service to
city residents, with data provided for the vast majority of public service projects,
including the food, clothing, housing, and transportation of citizens.
The “citizen card” program has been launched in some developed provinces
and direct-controlled cities in the eastern region. “Citizen cards” are
multi-function IC cards issued with government authorization that city residents use
to handle personal business and enjoy public services. The primary functions of
citizen cards can be divided into three categories. The first is social security. The
citizen card is not only a key to accessing public health insurance, but will later also
be used to access various services from governmental departments such as housing
provident fund inquiries, marriage registrations, cash payments from pensions, and
payouts from minimum-living-standards and priority-poverty-alleviation funds. The
second is an electronic wallet. People bearing citizen cards can use their banks to
increase the electronic payment functions of their cards to pay for medical services
and medicines, and pay cell phone bills, electric bills, gas bills, and other bills. The
third is public transit. Citizens with the cards can use their cards to pay for public
transit options already supported by the system, which will gradually expand to
include taxis, buses, water-buses, and other transit, eliminating the annoyance of
having to find exact change. In the future other functions may be added, such as
parking, paying for gasoline, and others. At present, citizen card programs have
been launched in Beijing, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Yantai, Nanjing, Guangzhou,
Shenzhen, and other cities, and the number of cards issued is increasing rapidly.
The city of Yantai in Shandong Province had issued a total of 73,000 citizen cards,
Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province over 40,000 cards, and Ningbo over 150,000 cards, as
of December 2010. Huizhou City in Guangdong Province is estimated to have
issued one million cards in 2012.
There has been great development in rural comprehensive information
service stations. In recent years, the central government and all levels of local
governments have attached extreme importance to the construction of basic infor-
mation service organs, with backing from such agricultural and rural informatized
construction projects as the “rural commercial information service system program”
and the “integration of televisions, telephones, and computers,” and have increased
the degree of construction of rural information service stations. Agricultural
departments at all levels have actively promoted the construction of new rural
information service stations, with a focus on strengthening network extensions and
the construction of information teams. These departments have explored some
effective models for agricultural information services, particularly in the program
for the “integration of televisions, telephones, and computers.” These departments
have also established such multi-channel, multi-media, multi-format integrated
agricultural information service platforms as the “12316 Three Rurals” hotline,
agricultural information websites, agricultural television programs, and text mes-
sage services. They have also initially realized timely, effective propagation of such
information as agricultural technology, markets, and government policies, and have
met the individualized information needs of rural citizens relatively well, receiving
1 Current Status of Construction 51

universal praise from the mass of rural citizens and every walk of society. During
the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, over 70% of town and township govern-
ments established information service stations, with over one million such stations
around the country, and 700,000 rural information specialists employed. The
“Summarizing Conference for the Work of Assessing and Evaluating Nationwide
Rural Comprehensive Information Service Stations and Information Professionals”
held in Beijing on September 15, 2010, indicated that assessment work touched
upon 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and direct-controlled cities and the
Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, including 300 prefectural-level cities,
touching on 1852 counties and districts, accounting for 60.84% of all counties in
the nation, and involving 110,226 information professionals. In the end, 175
village-level advanced information service stations and 175 village-level out-
standing information professionals were chosen from around the country. The
average age of advanced comprehensive information service stations was over four
years, and the average service station covered 2791 people at the village level.
There were 12 minorities included in the information professionals chosen; there
were also university students, village officials, agricultural technology promoters,
and long-distance education managers.
Mobile government applications are beginning to take off. Mobile
E-governance is a new E-governance model based in wireless network technology
that moves E-governance off the personal computer and onto handheld devices,
from wired networks to wireless networks, and from information retrieval to
information pushing. This technology permits information transmission between
public servants and between the government and the public any time, any place.
This not only eliminates restrictions on space and time of brick-and-mortar gov-
ernment establishments, but also represents a breakthrough in the dependence of
E-governance on the extension of physical networks. The thorough shirking off of
the restrictions of wired networks allows the government to provide faster and more
convenient services to its citizens. At present, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and a
few other developed cities have begun to establish mobile government networks. In
2010, the MIIT organized pilots in mobile government in some cities.

1.5 Augmented Capacity to Protect Information

and Improved Cyber-Security

During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, the security of government infor-
mation continued to be a top priority among governments at all levels. These
governments strengthened information security management; comprehensively
implemented state-level protection institutions; established information security
protection measures and related guiding opinions for their own departments;
strengthened security protections on basic information networks and important
information systems; optimized construction of comprehensive oversight systems
52 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

and the operations environment of data centers; strengthened information reporting

work; launched network and information security inspections; and brought about
stable increases to the government’s capacity to safeguard information security. The
following are findings of a sampling survey conducted by the MIIT:
During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, 92% of central-level state organs
and 71% of provincial-level governments established the construction and con-
summation of information security protection systems and increasing the level of
information security protections as important measures for strengthening informa-
tion security. Local governments and governmental departments further strength-
ened the construction of systems for safeguarding information security, building
E-governance trusted network systems, emergency management systems, and
oversight systems. These government departments also strengthened the construc-
tion of institutions for inspecting information systems security, ramped up work in
information security inspections, and increased the level of protections of
E-governance information security.
During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, local governments and departments
are establishing and consummating institutions for safeguarding information
security, and are further strengthening government information security manage-
ment. The State Forestry Administration has established a system for protecting
information security; has established institutions for managing information security;
has organized inspections for information security and secrecy; and has feasibly
strengthened safeguards on information security. The State Administration of Work
Safety (SAWS) has strengthened construction of systems for safe production
information security; has effectively driven construction of a system for oversight
and regulation of production safety and a system for information security; and has
prevented any major information security issues in its safe production information
system. Fujian Province has actively developed network and information security
inspections in focus areas; strengthened management of government Internet
security; further deepened the work of graded protections; strengthened information
security propaganda and education; constructed a secure, stable, and reliable
informatization environment; and driven coordinated development between
informatization and information security.

1.6 Important Breakthroughs Made in Establishment

of Laws, Regulations, and Standards

Great breakthroughs have been made in the establishment of policies, laws, and
institutions for E-governance. The first decade of this millennium has seen the most
concentrated issuance of policies and laws related to E-governance in China. The
Leading Group for National Informatization issued first Document No. 17 and then
the Overall Framework for National E-governance, both of which played decisive
roles in the overall promotion of E-governance in China and its comprehensive
1 Current Status of Construction 53

application. In addition, the center has also issued the Electronic Signature Law, the
Regulations on Open Government Information, and other similar laws and regu-
lations; established management measures for state E-governance construction
projects; and issued a series of guiding documents in such areas as information
security safeguarding, development and utilization of information resources, and so
on. One hundred percent of central departments have issued documents, rules, and
norms for E-governance and informatization, and over 50% of provincial-level
governments have issued regulations and dedicated management measures for
informatization. Throughout the process of building national E-governance pro-
jects, many departments have established relatively standardized systems for
managing project funds, the scientific-ness and standardization of budget man-
agement has consistently improved, and the capacity to regulate and restrict has
gradually strengthened.
A standards system for E-governance is being initially established. The Overall
Framework for National E-governance has been initially established. The
Standardization Administration has launched research into overall planning for the
standardization of E-governance and a standards system, which has been compiled
into nine research reports and six enchiridions on the standardization of
E-governance. The administration has formally issued eight national standards,
completed 25 national standard drafts, established a service platform for the work of
E-governance standardization, developed four sets of application tools to assist the
work of standardization, and developed a series of activities in the standardization of
E-governance. The administration has assisted the construction of these programs by
issuing industry standards and standards and norms for construction technology. All
work units constructing such projects are persisting in the principles of openness and
extensiveness, actively attracting all forms of power from society, and are drawing
from democratic methods in their common push to establish standards. In the course of
concrete work, they are making abundant use of the advantages and positivity of
technology at all levels; effectively utilizing existing results of resources and stan-
dardization; and drawing from the research and experience of related standards both
domestic and foreign. They have also established standards and norms for the
establishment of application systems, network systems, data centers, and so on, in
accordance with state standards and norms for E-governance construction and the
ideology of “using national standards where they exist and establishing departmental
standards where national standards do not exist.”

1.7 Progress in Establishment of Management System

and Talent Recruitment and Retention

The management system is gradually being improved. Promoting innovations in the

management system for E-governance is an important prerequisite to ensuring
successful construction of E-governance. In the new millennium, the CPC Central
54 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

Committee has established E-governance promotion as an important measure in the

implementation of the national informatization strategy and deepening reforms to
the administrative system, hoping to use this to drive the informatization of the
development of the national economy and society and to drive the construction of a
service-oriented government. In 2001, the center resolved to establish the Leading
Group for National Informatization, the State Council Informatization Work Office,
and the Advisory Committee for State Informatization, to further strengthen state
informatization, as well as guidance and management of the work of maintaining
state information security. To respond to ever worsening network and information
security conditions, in 2003 the Leading Group for National Informatization
established the Group for Coordinating Security of National Networks and
Information, the led by the vice premier of the Central Politburo and State Council.
In 2008, the state implemented reforms in major departments, at which point the
State Council Informatization Work Office was reincorporated under the MIIT. The
majority of central-level state organs and 95% of provincial-level local govern-
ments (excluding Ningxia and Tibet) established Leading Groups for
Informatization modeled off of the central government’s group, and also established
corresponding office work organs. Most prefectural-level city and county-level
governments also established leading groups for the work of E-governance led by
local administrators. Governments at all levels clarified the departments in charge of
E-governance and initially formed top-to-bottom management systems for
E-governance promotion. By the end of 2013, the vast majority of provincial-level
governments had adjusted the functions and responsibilities of controlling depart-
ments and established economic and informatization committees, industry and
informatization bureaus, or informatization committees, in the model of reforms to
State Council organs. Relevant supporting organs such as information centers and
computing centers were established nearly ubiquitously at the central and provincial
levels. In February 2014, the Central Leading Group for Internet Security and
Informatization was established.
There have been steady increases to the quality of talent and information
technology. There have been great increases to the overall quality of civil servants and
information technology. Dedicated E-governance teams have grown ever larger, and
there have been marked improvements to the capacity of safeguarding sustainable,
healthy development in E-governance. In addition to project construction, all
departments have organized training for projects in areas such as data, networks,
applications, and security. Qualified work units have also developed training in the use
of application systems for central and local-level government organs; organized
training in project construction and system applications in which a large quantity of
backbone personnel participated; and attempted to establish online education and
training. In addition, some departments have engaged in international exchanges,
observations, and discussion activities, effectively driving the construction and
development of E-governance in China. At the same time, they have laid the foun-
dation for departments at all levels to foster information technology talent and to
increase the level of technology and management in project construction.
2 Application Results 55

2 Application Results

Over the past decade, E-governance construction in China has created marked
socioeconomic benefits, which can be summarized in four areas: first, the direct and
indirect economic benefits created by the application of E-governance; second,
increases to administrative efficacy brought about by the application of
E-governance; third, an augmenting of the government’s public administration
capacity brought about by the application of E-governance; and fourth, an effective
increase to the level of government public services brought about by the application
of E-governance.

2.1 Pronounced Economic Benefits

Over the past decade, there has been sustained growth in annual investments by
governments at all levels; the economic productivity of E-governance construction
has been particularly pronounced.
Direct benefits to the economy have been enormous. The economic benefits
produced by the construction of information systems directly related to economic
operations and management in such areas as taxation, customs, finance, and
accounting have been highly pronounced. For example, the “Golden Customs” and
“Golden Tax” programs have made enormous contributions to increased fiscal
revenues, with the two programs combined accounting for annual fiscal revenue
increases in excess of one trillion yuan. In a specific example, the construction of
the “Golden Customs” program gave rise to omnipresent informatization in cus-
toms, in the form of “electronic customs,” “electronic entry ports,” and “electronic
head offices,” making China’s one of the most advanced customs information
systems in the world, and making a major contribution to national informatization.
At the end of 2008, 13 banks and 17,000 enterprises had made online customs
payments totaling 429.97 million yuan on the year, a 52.1% increase over 2007s
total. Information systems in financial oversight, auditing, and other industries have
recovered state economic losses totaling in the billions of yuan. The
anti-money-laundering system alone has reported 773 instances of questionable
transactions to relevant state departments, processed 663 investigation files, and
submitted 1523 cases to the Anti-Money-Laundering Bureau for administrative
investigation. This system discovered over 40 million questionable financial
transactions, touching on over 80 billion yuan, in 2009. After completion of phases
one and two of the “Golden Audit” program, traditional work methods in
accounting had changed substantively, with four-fold growth in the amount of
money submitted to the treasury from 2002 to 2007, a six-fold reduction in growth
of fiscal subsidies, and a 5.78-fold growth in the amount of money found to be in
violation of the law returning to original channels.
56 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

Indirect benefits to the economy have also been pronounced. The economic
benefits of E-governance can likewise be observed in the government’s reduction of
administrative costs as well as the reduction of the cost of handling government
procedures of the general public and enterprises. An initial assessment indicates that
one efficiency bump brought about by informatization was that the state’s growth in
hiring new civil servants decreased by one million, an average annual reduction of
200,000 yuan in administrative costs per person not hired; this means that total
reductions of annual government expenditures was not less than 200 billion yuan, a
10-year savings of two trillion yuan. The implementation of E-governance not only
brought about increases in administrative approvals, but also reduced the expen-
ditures of time and money for enterprises and citizens in processing government
procedures; this economic benefit was also enormous. Another example is the
online applications systems for civil servants built by human resources management
departments at all levels of government, which reduced the time and money pre-
viously required to field applications, garnering a total annual savings in excess of
400 million yuan.

2.2 Marked Improvements to Administrative Efficiency

Since the beginning of the new millennium, the pace of E-governance construction
in China has picked up markedly. In 2002, the Leading Group for National
Informatization proposed the construction of 12 major transaction systems, later
expanded to over 20 in light of actual needs. Construction of E-governance
transaction and application systems at the central and local levels has been com-
pletely thrown open, and there has been a great increase in the level of ubiquity of
E-governance applications. A network-ized, digitalized modern system of gov-
ernment operations is taking form, markedly increasing the capacity to govern and
administrative efficiency.
A high-efficiency, network-ized government operations system is taking
form. There has been a great increase to the rate of informatization of the daily
tasks of party committees, people’s congresses, people’s political consultative
conferences, and all governmental departments. The capacity to process and
transmit public documents has been markedly strengthened. Most departments now
use electronic conferencing systems to hold all manner of state-level meetings,
greatly increasing the organizational efficiency of meetings and reducing meeting
costs. Primary tasks in organization, information dissemination, strategic planning,
foreign diplomacy, party discipline, and other areas have all been informatized,
bringing about increases in the governing capacity to see the big picture and
coordinate between all parties by strengthening information systems construction
and information resources management. Systems for handling legislative tasks
related to people’s congresses continue to come online, and there have been marked
increases in the capacity to collect, process, and analyze information in legislative
work. Most information systems of central-level government departments are
2 Application Results 57

playing an indispensable role in macro adjustments, market oversight, public

administration, and public services. Major government affairs related to the national
economy and the people’s livelihoods are now all supported by E-governance to
differing degrees.
There have been comprehensive increases in administrative efficiency over
previous methods of handling work by hand. An investigation into some
central-level focus task systems indicates that E-governance increases the efficiency
of administrative work universally by four-fold over traditional working methods,
and the accuracy and rule-compliance of data collection tasks and administrative
management tasks has increased by over nine-fold. The investigation further
indicates about a nine-fold increase in the efficiency of fiscal management tasks,
over a 10-fold increase in the efficiency of promoting open information and public
services, and about a six-fold increase in the efficiency of internal management and
controls on lawful administrative oversight. The “Golden” programs serve as a
good example. The “Golden Tax” program increased the collection rate on the
value added tax from 61% in 2000 to 86% now. The “Golden Finance” program has
basically completed the work of universalizing the informatization of core tasks
through support platforms, a budget management system, a national treasury
management system, a system for the management of non-tax fiscal income, a
unified system for salary dispersal, and a system for analyzing and forecasting fiscal
and economic conditions. The central edition of the system for budget editing and
screening is now being used in all 171 central tier-one budgeting work units and
nearly 110,000 grassroots budgeting work units; this has helped to complete
upgrades and improvements to the nationwide rural citizen subsidies network
information system and associated databases, greatly increasing the quality of work
performed in servicing the “Three Rurals.” The “Golden Customs” program has
greatly increased the efficiency of tasks related to imports and exports. As of the end
of 2008, there were 21 online e-port applications, with 472,000 client enterprises
and 1.46 million IC cards issued. Customs departments and their surveillance
systems operate 24 h a day, with customs systems processing up to 1.2 million
customs forms every day, and 4.8 million daily hits on customs portals. In 2008, the
system processed 317 million customs forms of all kinds, with system usability
covering 99.9% of all tasks. The “Golden Shield” program covers 90% of grass-
roots public security stations and teams, markedly increasing the ability of public
security organs to break cases and fight crime. Online police investigations and
collusion in working cases have driven changes in the methods police use to fight
crime. About 20% of all police cases broken were broken using information
technology, the rate climbing to 38.5% in Zhejiang and 25% in Jiangsu. The
capacity of public security organs to investigate cases and fight crime has increased
markedly. In 2008, over 300,000 people on the run were caught using online
technology, greatly reducing the cost of police work. Phases one and two of the
“Golden Audit” program have initially brought about a transition away from
increasing auditing efficiency toward increasing auditing effectiveness and a tran-
sition from auditing single sectors to joint audits spanning multiple sectors and
industries, and from the past ability to audit only single commercial bank to being
58 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

able to audit all four major commercial banks at once. In 2002, there was a 16%
decrease in the amount of major cases handed over to justice or discipline
inspection departments, and there was a 26-fold growth in the recommendations
issued by auditing departments for further standardizing management.
Macro policymaking has become much more scientific. In recent years, all
relevant central departments have cooperated closely, greatly promoting the con-
struction of fundamental databases in areas such as population, corporations, land,
macroeconomics, finance, geography and spatial information, and statistics; they
have used deep data analysis to provide scientific bases for macro-control policies.
All functional departments have also provided references to central policymakers
using deep analysis of industry data. For example, after the onset of the financial
crisis in 2008, state auditors placed their attention on China’s fiscal security,
financial security, security of people’s livelihoods and resources, E-governance
information systems security, and other areas, and submitted related reports to the
State Council, drawing a high degree of attention from State Council leaders and
high-level experts. The General Administration of Customs used the data resources
it had accumulated for years using the “Golden Customs” program to provide
accurate, timely analysis on international trade and make fixed-interval reports to
the center, providing important references for policy responses at the central level to
reinvigorate the economy.

2.3 Marked Strengthening of Management Capacity

As urbanization in China has entered a phase of accelerated development, there has

been sustained growth in urban populations, ever-increasing dynamism in urban
economies, and an ever-greater urgency for comprehensive urban-rural planning.
The government is facing unprecedented pressure in such areas as public admin-
istration, coordinated oversight, emergency management, and urban administration.
E-governance is beginning to play an important role in innovating management
methods in all these areas.
Constant innovation in public administration methods. Traditional public
administration methods are one-sided, not highly standardized, and not highly
time-effective, and so it is difficult for them to respond to social issues that are
growing ever more complex. Over the past few years of E-governance develop-
ment, there have been many cases of innovation in public administration using
information technology. Since the dawn of the “Golden Shield” program in public
security organs around the country, information on over 1.3 billion people has been
entered into databases, which are queried 300 million times annually by entry-exit
police specialists. Population information sharing has greatly increased the
administrative capacity of government departments in such areas as industry and
commerce, taxation, banking, and customs. Inter-departmental and cross-regional
information sharing of departments in such areas as public security, civil affairs,
planned birth, and education has greatly increased the level of administration of the
2 Application Results 59

floating population. Social security cards issued under the “Golden Protection”
program (social security and minimum living standard guarantees) employed by
human resources and social security departments now cover 150 million people,
greatly increasing the accuracy, timeliness, and convenience of disbursal of mini-
mum living standard and pension funds; this represents an unprecedented increase
in the capacity to serve and manage vulnerable groups. Dongcheng District,
Beijing, has constructed a community medical services information system based
on the “Wanmi Grid Management System,” reducing healthcare costs, making it
easier for the public to access healthcare, and creating an entirely new paradigm in
community healthcare services; this system has been highly approved by central
leadership.
Marked increases to the benefits of coordinated oversight. Governments are
now able to manage those areas they previously could not manage or could not
manage well as a result of information sharing and task coordination. For example,
in the area of financial oversight, the government was able to block money laun-
dering, currency swindling, and other illegal monetary activities by integrating the
People’s Bank of China anti-money-laundering system, the State Administration for
Foreign Exchange (SAFE)’s foreign exchange oversight system, and the “Golden
Customs” system into a unified “Online Verification of Customs Clearances”
system, recovering several hundreds of millions of yuan in economic losses for the
state every year. The Ministry of Public Security and the People’s Bank of China
jointly established an integrated system for querying population information data-
bases, effectively restricting the fraudulent opening of bank accounts using false
names. The Ministry of Land Resources (MLR) and China Banking Regulatory
Commission jointly developed and established mechanisms for querying banking
and national land resources databases, actively promoting inter-departmental
coordination and greatly increasing the oversight capacity of the MLR. There have
likewise been many cases of coordination in such areas as comprehensive tax
administration, environmental protection, and food and drug oversight. The
application of E-governance in these cases has greatly increased the administrative
capacity of governments at all levels.
Marked improvements to emergency management capacity. The relationship
between E-governance and urban development became closer as a result of inno-
vations in applied technology and in development models; this played an important
role in driving harmonious development of the economy and society. Many cities
began using information technology to integrate all manner of emergency response
resources, thereby increasing their emergency management capacity. In 2003, the
municipal government of Beijing established an integrated, two-tier (city and
district/county) emergency response command system, used to stealthily respond to
sudden events in the areas of counter-terrorism, major fires, sudden public health
crises, major traffic accidents, and so on. The nine major subsystems of the
emergency management system are counter-terrorism and criminal cases, fire
security, traffic security, safe production, sudden public health events, flood pre-
vention, earthquake relief, and sudden events in urban infrastructure. The system
played a critical role in the government’s response to the SARS outbreak. Shanghai,
60 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

Guangzhou, and other cities took the lead in establishing urban integrated emer-
gency response command systems, which gradually led to inter-departmental
integration in such areas as public security, traffic police, fire prevention, emer-
gency medical treatment, and urban management, and greatly increased the cities’
capacity to respond to emergencies. E-governance played a particularly large role in
the success of such international events as the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the
Shanghai World Expo in 2010.
Major increase to the level of urban management. E-governance has played
an important role in promoting the construction of digital cities and smart cities.
Many cities have built smart traffic systems, increasing traffic efficiency and
reducing resource consumption. The construction and planning departments of
many cities have also greatly driven digitalization of underground pipe networks
and other construction projects, making urban administration much more scientific.
The experience of Dongcheng District, Beijing, in grid management has been
promulgated, and most cities have built fine-detail community management sys-
tems. Community affairs administration procedures have been continuously opti-
mized, and management efficiency has been greatly increased.

2.4 Stable Increases to the Level of Services

Serving the people is the basic concept behind the development of E-governance
around the world. The Chinese government has also attached great importance to
the role E-governance plays in the promotion of service-oriented government. At
the first meeting of the Leading Group for National Informatization in 2001,
Comrade Hu Jintao made the following extraordinarily clear proposal: “As regards
the bottleneck issues that are encountered amid economic and social development
and which the people feel an urgent need to resolve, if there is any possibility of
using computing technology to drive their resolution, then we should begin
working to feasibly drive [such a resolution].” Over several recent years of
development, the capacity of E-governance to serve the people has grown ever
stronger. Government websites are the first channel for open information, and have
established a new image of government in the information age. There has also been
a relatively large increase in the ability of government websites to perform work.
Most ministries and commissions have established portals for interaction between
the government and the public as well as platforms for communication on their
websites; the vast majority of provincial-level governments have set up e-mail
accounts for leaders and government hotlines; and some government departments
have set up online chat services with leaders. Such methods have become important
measures for establishing direct communication between the public and the gov-
ernment, and are driving good governance in the era of the information society.
Government openness becoming more timely and accurate. Driving open-
ness of government information is an important portion—and in fact a point of
prominence—in the construction of E-governance in recent years. In early 2003, the
2 Application Results 61

municipal government of Guangzhou formally issued the “Guangzhou City Open

Government Information Regulations” and used the occasion for a big push in the
construction of government web portals, making the city a good example for the
rest of the nation. Thereafter, such central ministries and commissions as the
Ministry of Commerce, the State Environmental Protection Administration, and the
Ministry of Land Resources (MLR), as well as provincial-level governments in
such places as Shaanxi, Hebei, Hubei, and Beijing have issued regulations con-
cerning open government information, and the level of government information
disclosure work around the country experienced ubiquitous increases. On a foun-
dation of summarizing practical experience, relevant state departments came
together to draft the “Regulations on Open Government Information,” approved by
the State Council Standing Committee in January 2007. The regulations clearly
established government websites as the primary channel for the dissemination of
open government information and provided a solid legal basis for using government
websites to drive openness of government information. When government websites
became the primary channel for open government information, a new image for the
government in the information age was established. In recent years, most govern-
ments around the country have continuously augmented the amount of open
information on their websites; improved mechanisms for protecting content; uni-
versally strengthened the work of organizing government information resources and
editing open government information catalogs; and driven comprehensive, stan-
dardized, and timely openness of government information online. The MLR, per the
demands of the regulations, organized and implemented an inspection of the
openness of state land resources information available online, driving openness of
land resources information catalogs around the nation. Of 333 city-level state land
resources management departments, 292, or 87.68%, had brought about open
government information. The General Administration of Quality Supervision,
Inspection, and Quarantine established open information catalogs with 523 data
fields and 837 information resources categories, while at the same time bringing
online product quality credibility records and organizing product quality informa-
tion on 430,000 different products. The municipal government of Shanghai took the
lead in publishing open information records on its website, establishing open
channels for applications, and safeguarding the issuance of timely, accurate gov-
ernment information and convenient retrieval for the public. As of the end of July
2009, the municipal government of Beijing had publicized a total of 104,072
records from all committees, offices, and administrations within the city, for an
annual average of 1892.2 records per city government department. The Beijing
government also released a total of 211,660 government information records at the
county/district level, for an annual average of 11,758.9 records per county/district.
The government of Liaoning Province issued over 127,000 records of government
information of all kinds on its web portals, for a daily average of over 200 dynamic
government information records issued per day, a total of 195 million unique visits,
and 910 million clicks. Provincial-level governments in Jiangxi, Gansu, and Tianjin
have established unified open government information platforms, greatly increasing
the quality and efficiency of open government information. In summary, open
62 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

government information catalogs have been established on most government

websites, and the law calling for open government information has been imple-
mented. There have also been great increases to the quality and efficiency of open
government information per working plans, working programs, the compiling of the
results of work, and the publication of information; this has brought about sub-
stantial results in increasing government transparency. While increasing govern-
ment transparency, the regulations have also played an important role in mitigating
social conflicts. For example, after the Chengdu municipal government established
a three-tier government website system divided by city, district, and village levels,
there was a reduction in the amount of villagers seeking audiences with higher
officials once the pilot platform in Longquanyi District went online.
More convenience and efficiency in helping the people handle governmental
affairs. In order to make governmental affairs more convenient for the public,
governments at all levels, per the real demands of their service targets, have: greatly
simplified approvals procedures and optimized approvals processes; actively pro-
moted coordination between departments; and have accelerated the transition in
online services models toward “one window” and “one site.” The capacity of
government websites to serve the people has grown continuously stronger. Many
ministries and commissions have made gains in their level of standardization,
richness of content, and personalization by organizing and integrating work
resources. The Ministry of Commerce, for example, set up a dedicated work pro-
cessing system on its website, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social
Security now provides such services as online applications for civil servant posi-
tions, job listings, and online payments on its website. The Ministry of Agriculture
now provides over 10 online services on its website. In cities such as Beijing,
Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and others with relatively fast development of
E-governance, over 50% of government approvals procedures can be processed
online, and the capacity of E-governance to serve the people is gradually growing
stronger. The municipal government of Beijing has deepened the “one window
processing” of online affairs on a foundation of organizing administrative proce-
dures; at present the city government’s web portal offers over 2300 integrated
departmental services, and 11,000 at the county/district level. All city services
except those touching on classified information are included on an online city
services guide, and one can download over 3000 forms from city departments. The
municipal government has brought about online applications, status queries, and
results announcements, and other services. Dongcheng District of Beijing has
established a district healthcare services information network on the foundation of
the “Wanmi Grid Management System,” greatly increasing the level of community
healthcare services. The district has established a new order in community
healthcare services, setting an example in driving harmonious development, and has
received a great deal of praise from central leadership. The Xilingol League of the
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region demands that all administrative approvals and
permitting be run through the administrative services center. The league has also
established a whole-course governmental affairs agency services platform, which
has promoted “single-portal processing and complete affairs processing agency,”
2 Application Results 63

greatly increasing the efficiency and level of services. Yangzhou City, Jiangsu
Province, has established online guides for such services as local registration
processing, pension insurance, and traffic on its website, and as also brought about
unified online approvals procedures. At present, applications can be submitted
online for all 439 of the city’s approvals procedures; of those, 128 can be
pre-applied via the unified online approvals process. Governments of cities such as
Shenzhen have established guides and personalized services in areas such as
marriage and household registration, transportation and shipping, company regis-
trations, housing rentals and sales, social security, and other areas per the needs of
users. The governments of Chengdu and Guangzhou provide employment infor-
mation to migrant workers and their children, as well as online training and
vocational education, on their websites. Tianjin, Hangzhou, and Xi’an provide
integrated community services resources on their websites and have established
community services hotlines; they have also provided convenient online platforms
for city residents to search for all manner of city services and information about city
government organs. The municipal government of Hangzhou has adopted a method
of “government guidance, community autonomy, social participation, and market
operations” to consolidate E-governance, e-commerce, and e-communities all in
one body, and has established an integrated community services web portalen-
compassing all 362 communities within the city, covering such areas of online
services as “food, clothing, tourism, entertainment, shopping,” and others. The
establishment of E-governance by the Hangzhou government will closely integrate
those aspects of grassroots work that touch on the people’s livelihoods and con-
ditions of the people with relevant services and residents, thereby greatly increasing
the quality of public services.
Greater ease and efficiency of interaction between the government and the
people. Online petitions, online chatting, and other interactive features on gov-
ernment websites have become effective channels for government departments at all
levels to promptly understand community conditions and popular opinion and for
the public to participate in government. Most ministries and commissions have
established windows for government-public interaction and platforms for commu-
nication on their websites. The vast majority of provincial-level governments have
set up email accounts for leaders and hotlines. Many government websites include
public comment boards, and some government departments have set up online chat
services with leaders. All the above have become important measures for the
government to establish direct communication with the public. The leaders of many
government departments have established online interaction with the public to hear
the entreaties of the masses and collect suggestions from society. Many comrades in
leadership positions have opened personal microblogs to strengthen communication
with the public. These measures for driving direct communication between the
government and the public are driving the creation of good governance under the
conditions of an information society. For example, the National People’s Congress
now requests opinions from the public on legislative work from all people of the
nation. For example, opinions were requested for such important laws as the
“Property Law”; this has opened new channels for scientific legislation, democratic
64 3 Effects of Development: E-governance Fully Supports …

legislation, and open-door legislation. Websites of the Ministry of Commerce and

other central departments drive incentives in the commercial sector, promote fea-
tures for chatting and collection of public opinion, forge close relations between the
government and the masses, and open new channels for easy flow of popular
opinion, by remaining closely fixated on work focuses and central issues. Discipline
inspection and supervisory departments have established “rectification of customs”
websites to receive reports from the public and strengthen public oversight; these
have played an important role in improving government and industry customs and
protecting fairness and justice. Departments established to handle letters and visits
of the masses have set up online petition functions, driving the openness, fairness,
and transparency of their work. In one example, on May 31, 2008, the online
petitioning platform jointly developed by the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of
Letters and Calls cooperated and the Nanfang Media Network formally went online.
By the end of October 2009, the platform had processed 15,583 online petitions and
transferred 7649 of them to relevant work units and local governments. The plat-
form processed 3128 online petitions over just the span of July to September 2009,
with 2865 complaints and 263 suggestions; online petitions accounted for 20% of
all petitions received by the bureau during that time. The government of Liaoning
Province set up the “Popular Sentiment Network,” a typical case for hearing the
appeals of the masses. Furthermore, as microblogs have exploded in popularity,
more and more party and government organs—as well as individual party and
government leaders—are opening their own government microblogs. The
E-governance Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Governance released a
report indicating that as of December 10, 2011, there were 50,561 verified gov-
ernment microblogs on the four major microblogging sites of Sina, Tencent,
Renmin (people.com.cn), and Xinhua. Of those, 32,258 belonged to party and
government organs, and 18,203 belonged to individual leaders. There were 12,103
verified party and government organ microblogs and 10,652 individual party and
government leader microblogs on Sina alone. Tencent boasted 13,911 party and
government organ microblogs and 6748 individual leader microblogs. Renmin
hosted 2401 verified party and government organ microblogs and 71 leader
microblogs, and Xinhua sported 3943 verified party and government organ
microblogs and 732 leader microblogs. Most party and government organs with
microblogs—58% of the total—were prefectural-level city organs or their subor-
dinate bodies. Government microblogs are now an important platform for gov-
ernment openness, serving the people, understanding popular opinion, and
interaction between the government and the public.
Of course, there still remain a few obvious problems in China’s current devel-
opment of E-governance. The first is that the overall level of E-governance is low,
and we remain at a middling level in terms of global E-governance development,
lagging far behind advanced nations; there is still a large disparity between the level
of development of E-governance and the both the development of the national
economy and society as well as the urgent needs of the people. The second is an
urgent need to increase the overall level of accomplishments of E-governance.
There are still egregious issues of horizontal and vertical partitioning and
2 Application Results 65

information silos, and the levels of information sharing and task coordination
remain low. The third is imbalanced development, with great disparities in
E-governance infrastructure and service provision between regions and also
between rural and urban areas. Many vulnerable groups have yet to enjoy the
benefits of E-governance. We must also work to change the perilous conditions of
emphasizing software while downplaying hardware, emphasizing the vertical while
downplaying the horizontal, and emphasizing oversight and management while
downplaying service. The fourth is that the development environment needs to be
improved. We must further deepen our understanding of the development of
E-governance in this new age. The concept of using informatization to drive the
construction of a service-oriented government has not been truly established. There
is an urgent need to shore up organization and coordination mechanisms for the
scientific development of E-governance. Informatization standards, norms, and
institutions have not kept up with the demands of development, and it is difficult to
be optimistic for network and information security at present. These issues are
bottlenecks and difficulties in the development of E-governance, and at the same
time are areas of potential where our efforts to increase the effectiveness of
E-governance can pay off.
Chapter 4
Open Information: Creating
a Transparent Sunshine Government

Transparent Government is the trend for administrative reforms around the world.
Transparency means that a government must administer in the light of day (hence
“sunshine government”) and give the public full rights to know relevant facts and to
oversee. Greater openness of information and transparency in government actions,
driven by E-governance, are objectives that the Chinese government has always
pursued.

1 A Look Back on the Development of Open Government

Information in China

As market and government reforms have been deepened, rules calling for open
government information have undergone gradual development and improvement
over the long course of their evolution. Their basic characteristics are as follows: In
terms of the scope of information openness, they begin from economic adminis-
tration departments, particularly those involved in foreign trade and regulation of
foreign investments, and gradually expand to other government departments, and
finally cover all government organs. For establishment of open information rules,
they start from open information rules at the village level, and then gradually
expand to municipal- and provincial-level governments, and finally create nation-
wide rules for open information.

1.1 Opening to the Outside and Open Information

China’s first pilots in open government information were launched in the area of
economics, especially in the areas of foreign trade and foreign investment; this

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 67
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0_4
68 4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine Government

conformed to the intrinsic demands of both China’s gradual market system reforms
and externally-oriented economic development. It is impossible for market mech-
anisms to function normally without free flows of information; it is likewise
impossible to realize effective allocations of resources. In the same way, without
openness and transparency in laws and policies related to foreign investment and
trade, there’s no way to eliminate information asymmetry between foreign investors
and the Chinese government, nor is there a way to create a positive investment
environment to attract foreign investors. Consequently, in order to attract a large
amount of foreign investments and establish confidence among foreign investors,
the most pressing task was to break through the bans on openness of government
information that had been put in place by government organs since 1949, and
openly issue government policies, laws, and documents related to trade and
attraction of foreign investment to the public.
On December 5, 1991, China’s former Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations
and Trade (now the Ministry of Commerce) announced that it had approved seven
internal administrative documents related to foreign economic relations and trade.
On February 2, 1992, the ministry issued another 14 important administrative
documents. On March 16, 1992, the State Council General Office issued the
“Notice on Reaffirming, Establishing, and Issuing Nationwide Laws, Regulations,
and Policies Related to Foreign Trade,” which called for the Ministry of Foreign
Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) to serve as the functional department
in charge of comprehensive administration of foreign trade—excepting those laws
and regulations which needed to be established by the PNC or issued by the State
Council—and for MOFTEC to assume unified responsibility for the work of
approving and issuing laws, regulations, and policies related to foreign trade. The
open dissemination of a gargantuan quantity of trade and foreign investment
administration documents eliminated concerns over information asymmetry from
foreign investors regarding the lack of openness in China’s government adminis-
tration; this drove a giant wave of foreign investments into China in the early 1990s.
The opening of policy documents and other information in the area of foreign trade
and foreign investment drove a broad push for open information in the area of
economic management. Other departments in charge of macroeconomic manage-
ment and industry management followed the example and issued a series of laws,
regulations, and policies in their respective sectors.

1.2 Open Government Information at the Village Level

For a country with major regional disparities, selecting rural Local governments
with minimal relative disparities for conducting pilots is without a doubt a reliable
path for exploring nationwide policies for open government information. On April
18, 1998, the CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council General
Office jointly issued the “Notice on Universally Establishing Institutions for
Openness of Village Affairs and Democratic Management Across the Countryside,”
1 A Look Back on the Development of Open … 69

which called for promotion of the work of bringing about openness of village affairs
in rural areas around the country. The document demanded that disclosure of
village financial affairs be the focus of openness of village affairs, with a wide
dissemination of all issues of universal concern to rural citizens and all affairs which
touched upon the interests of the masses, such as: land appropriations and home-
stead plot approvals; planned birth indicators; plans for reserving funds in the
village or comprehensive planning; contracting of collective land and business
entities; the issuance of funds and materials for emergency and disaster relief; and
assessments of village leaders. The document also demanded that there be clarity
and simplicity in open village affairs, that information be accurate and released in a
timely manner, and that there be democratic oversight thereover by villagers. On
the foundation of the experience gained by pilots in village-level open government
information, on December 6, 2000, the CPC Central Committee General Office and
State Council General Office jointly issued the “Notice on Comprehensively
Promoting Government Openness Institutions in Town and Township Government
Organs Around the Country,” which provided comprehensive stipulations regard-
ing the guiding ideology of government openness at the town and township level,
basic principles and demands thereof, primary matters to be disclosed to the public,
institutions for oversight and protection, and the organization of leadership mech-
anisms. After many years of practical experience in openness of village affairs, the
CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council General Office again
jointly issued a document on July 12, 2004, this time targeting some new issues that
had arisen in the openness of village affairs, titled “Opinions on Shoring Up and
Improving Institutions for Village Affairs Openness and Democratic Management.”
This document called for a further expansion of the scope of openness of village
affairs, further standardized the forms, timeframes, and basic procedures for
village affairs openness, established small groups for overseeing the openness of
village affairs, and so on.
Pilots in open government information at the town/township and village levels
not only promoted democratic elections in town and village governments and
democratic oversight by the people over town and village Local governments, but
also provided an abundant accumulation of experience for government openness
institutions to be later emulated at higher levels of government.

1.3 Open Information in Local Governments

On the foundation of practical experience in open government information at the

village level, information openness began spreading to higher levels of local
government and to relevant departments of the central government. The most
vigorous implementation of such expansion to higher levels of government
happened in local governments in coastal regions. In January 2001, the Gazette of
the People’s Government of Shanghai Citywas issued to all citizens of the city for
free; prior to that, this confidential government document had been circulated to
70 4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine Government

only government personnel. In 2002, residents of Shandong Province were able to

publicly access the Shandong Government Gazette, likewise hitherto available only
within the government, to enable the people to understand laws, regulations, and
policies. On January 1, 2003, China’s first ever local law related to “government
transparency,” the “Guangzhou Municipality Provisions on Open Government
Information,” was formally issued. This law stipulated that all individuals and
organizations have the right to petition the government to publicize information. On
May 1, 2004, the government of Shanghai was the first provincial tier-one level
government to enact a “transparent government plan” via the formal issuance of the
“Shanghai Municipality Provisions on Open Government Information.” This law
called for “openness to be the principle and non-openness to be the exception,” with
all government information—excluding such information as relates to state secrets,
commercial secrets, individual privacy, justice investigations currently proceeding,
or other areas the non-disclosure of which is protected by the law—related to the
economy, public administration, and public services, particularly public informa-
tion under the government’s control to be released to the public, or provided to
citizens, corporations, or other organizations filing petitions, in accordance with the
law.
In 2004, information openness had become common practice, with local gov-
ernments scrambling to keep up. In addition to Shanghai, 15 provincial-level
governments or other government departments, including Hubei Province, the
Ministry of Transport, and Hangzhou City issued laws or administrative measures
related to open government information. On the basis of a large quantity of pilots
launched in governments and departments at all levels in open government infor-
mation, on March 24, 2005, the CPC Central Committee General Office and State
Council General Office jointly issued the “Opinions on Further Promoting
Government Openness,” which called for all state organs to implement open
government protocols, particularly calling for them to actively publicize govern-
ment information related to the departments under their control.

1.4 The Establishment of Nationwide Laws and Regulations

for Open Government Information

All levels of local government as well as central departments launched attempts at

open government information, thereby accumulating needed experience for the
establishment of integrated nationwide laws and regulations for open government
information and formalized, standardized, legalized protocols for the same.
However, there was a degree of limitation to these experiments, such as in the
principles, scope, methods, procedures, and conflict resolution for open informa-
tion, as well as in such areas as the design of organization mechanisms; there were
large disparities in all these areas, which easily led to chaos in the course of actual
1 A Look Back on the Development of Open … 71

implementation. Resultantly, there was no time to lose in the establishment of

nationwide laws and regulations for open government information.
The “Administrative License Law of the People’s Republic of China,” passed on
August 27, 2003, was the first important legal document related to open govern-
ment information. The primary goal of this law was to standardize the establishment
and implementation of administrative licenses, in order to: protect the legal rights of
citizens, corporations, and other organizations; maintain public interests and social
order; and ensure that administrative organs effectively implement administrative
management. There were two sections of the law that touched on open government
information. The first was Article 5: “The principle of publicity, fairness and
impartiality shall be abided by in the establishment and implementation of an
administrative license. The relevant regulations on an administrative license shall be
announced to the public; those undisclosed shall not be the basis for the imple-
mentation of the administrative license. The implementation of the administrative
license and the results thereof, except for those that concern state secrets,
commercial secrets or individual privacy, shall be disclosed.” The second was
Article 40: “Administrative organs shall publicize decisions about the approval of
administrative licenses, and the general public is entitled to consult.” Although this
law provided an important legal basis for the publicizing of government informa-
tion, the scope of information openness of this law was restricted to administrative
licenses, and only within implementation mechanisms, leaving it far from satisfying
the demand for complete openness of government information.
On January 17, 2007, the 165th meeting of the State Council Standing
Committee approved the “People’s Republic of China Regulations on Open
Government Information,” which went into force on May 1, 2008. The regulations
were not only a milestone in the history of administrative legislation in China, but
also a milestone in China’s promotion of E-governance and in bringing about
innovations in administrative management.

2 The Implementation of the “Regulations”

2.1 Deciphering of the Regulations’ Basic Contents

The “People’s Republic of China Regulations on Open Government Information”

were formally implemented on May 1, 2008. The regulations established principles,
primary entities, procedures, corresponding judicial relief channels, and so on for
government information openness. The regulations also established such institu-
tions as: active disclosure and disclosure per petition; government information
catalogs; disclosure guides; querying of open information; annual reports on
government information disclosure; fee-levying restrictions; administrative recon-
sideration of decisions and lawsuits; oversight by third parties; and so on. These
were administrative regulations implemented from the perspective of the
72 4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine Government

government fulfilling its duty and bringing about government services. The regu-
lations further solidified the rights of citizens to obtain information controlled by
government organs (as well as public institutions with administrative management
functions legally authorized). The regulations also stipulated that, owing to the
proceduralized scope of disclosures of government information, administrative
organs also bear the responsibility of proving what special information is not
allowed to be disclosed to the public. One could say that the regulations guided the
way toward the construction of a service-oriented government, particularly the
construction of government capabilities while responding to technological changes.
The issuance and implementation of this administrative regulation could drive the
construction of the institutionalized foundation upon which corruption is fought,
could increase the credibility and ability to execute laws of governmental depart-
ments, and could create broader trust mechanisms between the government and the
people, thus causing the disclosure of government information to truly become the
vessel for the construction of service-oriented government and responsibility-
oriented government.
The regulations stipulate that the primary entities for disclosure of government
information should be state administrative organs at all levels as well as organi-
zation bodies legally endowed with the functions of managing public affairs. These
two kinds of entities both possess government information and are charged with the
duty to publicize government information, and so the regulations call for all levels
of government as well as all government departments at the county level and higher
to establish and shore up individual institutions for disclosure of information, and to
establish corresponding working bodies in charge of the daily tasks of information
disclosure. The “supplementary articles” of the regulation also stipulate that “All
information created or obtained by public enterprises, institutions, and work units
closely related to the interests of the masses in such areas as education, healthcare,
planned birth, water supply, power supply, gas supply, heat supply, environmental
protection, public transportation, and so on, during the course of the provision of
public services, should be disclosed per the provisions of this regulation.” To this
end, the regulation also establishes some public enterprises, institutions, and work
units as the primary entities for information disclosure and incorporates them within
the scope of adjustments. However, in consideration of the fact that public enter-
prises, institutions, and work units are different from the previous two kinds of
primary entities, the concrete measures for their information disclosure are estab-
lished separately by relevant controlling departments of the State Council or other
bodies.
From the perspective of the scope of disclosure of government information, the
regulations make detailed stipulations regarding all affairs related to what infor-
mation government organs should actively disclose by listing them out. The
principle for the scope of active disclosure is basically defined as “openness as the
principle, and non-openness as the exception.” This is also a basic principle gen-
erally acknowledged in international society. In addition to clearly listing out the
scope of information which should be disclosed, the regulations also define those
exceptional areas in which information should not be disclosed, primarily related to
2 The Implementation of the “Regulations” 73

state secrets, commercial secrets, and individual privacy; of these, it is clearly stated
that state secrets cannot be disclosed, and that commercial secrets and individual
privacy receive a high degree of protection. These methods are highly similar to
international practices in general use.
The regulations stipulate two basic methods for information disclosure: active
disclosure by the government and disclosure by request. The methods for active
disclosure outlined in the regulation cover almost all public media, including such
traditional media as periodicals, radio, television, archives, and libraries, as well as
new media such as websites, electronic information screens, and so on. To make the
obtention of information more convenient for the public, the regulations also
stipulate that the government should compile and publicly issue guides to open
government information as well as catalogs of open government information, both
of which to be regularly updated. The regulations also establish procedures, rules,
and fee standards for petitioning the government to disclose information.
Without feasible oversight and safeguard measures, openness of government
information would likely exist in name only. The regulations establish several
mechanisms for ensuring the disclosure of government information, including
assessments for information openness, public critiques, and accountability mecha-
nisms. The regulations call for the issuance of annual reports on the work of
disclosing government information to be issued before March 31 of each year. The
regulations uphold the right to know for individual citizens or corporations via
allowing for administrative reconsiderations of decisions or the raising of lawsuits.
The regulations also allow for administrative or criminal punishments for those who
violate its tenets.
After the issuance of the regulations, in April 2008, the State Council General
Office issued the “Several Opinions of the State Council General Office on
Implementing the ‘People’s Republic of China Regulations on the Disclosure of
Government Information,’ “which provided supplements and opinions for handling
several issues encountered in the implementation of the regulations, touching on the
management system, mechanisms for coordinating the issuance of information,
secrecy protection investigations, active disclosure, disclosure by request, oversight
and safeguards, as well as the work of information disclosure performed by public
enterprises, public institutions, and work units.

2.2 Implementation of the Regulations

Following the formal issuance of the regulations, governments and governmental

departments from the central level down to the local level all began rigorously
abiding the demands of the regulations; actively establishing and shoring up work
organization mechanisms and coordination mechanisms for the disclosure of
government information at all levels, compiling information disclosure guides and
catalogs for all levels of government, and actively promoting the construction of
government websites to serve as the primary channels for the disclosure of
74 4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine Government

government information, in order to ensure the timeliness, accuracy, and compre-

hensive issuance of the disclosure of government information required by law and
to enable the public fast, convenient access to government information. The
institutionalization and standardization of the disclosure of government information
has effectively driven the construction of a “sunshine government.” Government
behaviors have become more transparent, and government powers are daily coming
under the broad oversight of the masses and society.
Per the demands of the regulations, a comprehensive set of rules is required for
the work of disclosing government information as a safeguard.
The first thing that needed to be established was a nationwide top-to-bottom
leadership organization mechanism for the work of disclosing government infor-
mation. The regulations clearly established the State Council General Office as the
controlling department for the work of disclosing government information at the
national scale, making that office responsible for promoting, guiding, coordinating,
and overseeing the work of information disclosure at all levels of government. At
the same time, per the demands of the regulations, governments and governmental
departments at all levels must establish and shore up organs responsible for the
work of information disclosure, with full responsibility for such work. Also, the
regulations called for the establishment and shoring up of mechanisms for coor-
dinating the issuance of government information, in order to ensure the accuracy
and continuity of information disclosed across departments and across regions.
After the issuance of the regulations, governments and governmental departments at
all levels established organs responsible for the work of disclosing government
information, without a single exception, per the above demand. These organs then
undertook the planning, organization, and implementation of the work of infor-
mation disclosure with the five powers and responsibilities entrusted them by the
regulations. The establishment of work organization mechanisms across govern-
ments and governmental departments at all levels was the most important measure
for ensuring the comprehensive undertaking of the work of information disclosure
as laid out in the regulations.
Second are a guide and catalog of open government information compiled by
individual governments and departments targeting the specific characteristics of
information disclosed. The compilation of a guide and catalog is both a funda-
mental effort required to standardize operations in the work of government infor-
mation disclosure and is also an important measure for making it convenient for the
public and all branches of society to obtain government information. In December
2007, the State Council General Office established a dedicated group responsible
for the drafting of the “State Council General Office Information Disclosure Guide
(Test)” (hereafter referred to as “the guide”) and the “State Council General Office
Open Government Information Directory” (hereafter referred to as “the directory”),
in order to facilitate the formal implementation of the regulation. The guide gives a
detailed definition of the scope of government information to be disclosed by the
2 The Implementation of the “Regulations” 75

State Council General Office and two primary methods for information disclosure:
the Gazette of the State Council and the official website of the Chinese central
government (http://www.gov.cn). The directory makes divisions by category,
dividing open government information into major categories, with information
entries related to the major categories divided out below them. The public can use
the information querying methods introduced in the guide to obtain relevant
information. At 5:00 pm on April 30, 2008, the State Council’s Government
Information Disclosure Column went live on the central government’s website,
beginning to provide information browsing and search services to all of society. At
the time, information entries from the directory were searchable retroactively to
January 1, 2003, and now the service is routinely updated. The formal introduction
of the column symbolizes China’s entry into a new development phase in the work
of government information openness; it has had an enormous effect in guiding and
driving the work of government information disclosure from the central level down
to all levels of local government. Thereafter, government organs at all levels also
began rapidly establishing information disclosure columns on their websites to
provide browsing and search services.
The third is the establishment of oversight and safeguard mechanisms for the
disclosure of information. This includes primarily the following. First is a stipu-
lation that people’s governments at all levels should establish and perfect systems
for assessing the work of disclosing government information, systems for receiving
public critiques, and accountability systems, and should also assess and critique the
work of disclosing government information at fixed intervals. Second is a stipu-
lation that open government information work controlling departments and
regulatory organs be responsible for oversight and inspections of the disclosure of
government information by administrative organs. Third is a stipulation that
administrative organs at all levels publicize annual reports on the internal work of
disclosing government information at fixed intervals. Fourth is a stipulation that
citizens, corporations, or other organizations, in the event they feel an adminis-
trative organ has failed to fulfill its legal responsibility in disclosing information,
can submit a complaint to a higher level administrative organ, a regulatory organ, or
a government information openness work controlling department, which will then
investigate the claim. Fifth is a stipulation that citizens, corporations, or other
organizations, should they feel an administrative organ has infringed upon their
lawful rights through their concrete behavior in performing the work of disclosing
public information, can file a lawful request for an administrative reconsideration or
file an administrative lawsuit. In addition, the regulations also established legal
responsibilities for such behavior as violating the stipulations of the regulation;
failing to establish sound mechanisms for issuing, maintaining secrets, or investi-
gating government information; failing to fulfill legally mandated duties of
disclosing government information; charging information fees in violation of the
regulations; and so on.
76 4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine Government

3 Open Government Information Driving Construction

of a Sunshine Government

In order to allow the public to access government information in the most timely
and convenient manner, the regulations called for governments to make use of the
broadest-reaching forms of media and broadcasting in the dissemination of
information that should be actively disclosed, including such public media as
government newspapers, government websites, news conferences, periodicals,
radio, television, archives, and libraries, as well as public spaces and facilities
(public reading rooms, information request centers, public information boards,
electronic information screens, and so on).
Government web portals also possess obvious advantages when compared to the
various other channels for information dissemination. The first advantage is the
timeliness, completeness, and abundance of information provided. Owing to
support from superior network transmission technology, storage technology, and
content processing technology, government web portals can both issue and update
information content in real time, and can do so without being restricted by the
enormous flow of content, allowing for a complete disclosure of government
information to the public. The second advantage is the convenience of information
searching. Using information retrieval technology, the public can easily find the
information they need from amid the massive volume of data stored on government
web portals. The third advantage is the amount of information disclosed. As the
internet has experienced rapid growth in both number of users and popularity,
disclosure of information on government websites is now catching up to the cov-
erage achieved by traditional channels such as television and radio. The fourth
advantage is lower costs. In terms of both costs for the government to disseminate
information and for the public to access said information, using government web
portals to disclose government information is an all-around cost reducer. The fifth
advantage is that government web portals are not only a platform for information
dissemination, but are also a comprehensive platform for the provision of an array
of public services; such reciprocity could not be achieved via any other channel of
information dissemination. The multitudinous advantages of using government web
portals to disseminate and access government information have led to their being
locked in as the primary channels for the dissemination of government information
and as the primary method for the public to access such information. Of course,
government web portals cannot completely replace all other channels. For example,
newspapers, television, and radio remain indispensable channels for accessing
information for the enormous group of people who do not regularly access the
internet. In another example, when responding to a sudden incident, the use of news
conferences to disseminate relevant information to the public has become a
common practice; websites are just not capable of being as authoritative as such
conferences. Also, although government web portals do confer giant advantages in
the active disclosure of government information, they are quite poor at providing
information in response to an official request. The vast majority of government
3 Open Government Information Driving … 77

websites do not possess functions for online completing of forms and submitting of
applications for information requests. The public must submit such applications by
appearing in person, using the mail, or sending facsimiles; this is one area of
government web portal information dissemination which we must strive to improve.
As the primary channels for disclosure of government information, government
web portals ought to be established by governments and departments at all levels as
the focus of E-governance construction. These governments and departments
should further promote the standardization and systemization of the online dis-
closure of government information, continuously expand the scope and amount of
information disclosed, and strive to make disclosures of information more timely
and more complete. Tables 1 and 2 list out the primary content of government
information disclosures on central and local government web portals, respectively.

Table 1 Typical Contents of Information Disclosed on Central Websites

Basic category Sub-category Information disclosed
Leadership Leader resumes Resumes of leaders in principal and deputy
information positions
Work divisions Work directions of leaders in different areas;
leaders in charge of various departments
Important speeches Important activities in which leaders participate;
speeches or statements of leaders that can be
publicized
Departmental Functions Functions and responsibilities of government
information organs; functions of subordinate bodies and work
divisions
Departmental set-up Names of subordinate bodies; names of
subordinate offices; information disclosed by
leaders of bodies and offices
Contact information Office addresses; contacts within various
departments; contact telephone numbers
Appointments Appointments and Information search availability; availability of
and dismissals dismissals of leaders notices of appointments and dismissals;
availability of notices prior to appointments
Testing and hiring of Civil servant examination information; hiring
civil servants information for civil servants; civil servant test
prep materials
Selection and Information related to selection and promotion of
promotion of leaders leaders
Planning Annual plans Annual departmental work plans; internal annual
gazettes work plans
Development Industry development plans and research results;
planning compiled planning information
Summary reports Government work reports; important work
summary reports; government gazettes
(continued)
78 4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine Government

Table 1 (continued)
Basic category Sub-category Information disclosed
Laws and Laws and regulations National laws; departmental regulations
official Policy documents Historical information on department documents;
documents updates and defenses of departmental documents
News Notices and Notices and announcements about management,
announcements hiring, investment attraction goals, and other
Major industry news Whether the contents of news is related to
administrative functions
Open Procurement and Government procurement information
procurement bidding
Bid-winning notices Open information on winners of bids
Fiscal Dedicated funding Explanations of dedicated funding; allocation and
openness usage of dedicated funds
Fiscal budgeting and Information on fiscal budgeting and accounting
accounting
Project investments Investments in major projects
Information Issuance of Information on the construction of departmental
integration departmental subsidiary websites; government information on
information subsidiary websites
Information Statistical data Annual data; quarterly (or monthly) data
service Procedural guides Directories of administrative affairs; factors of all
affairs, including procedures, responsible bodies,
entities involved, time limits, documentation
required, and fee standards
Special information Special industry information from departments
responsible

Table 2 Typical contents of information disclosed on local government websites

By category Information disclosed
Government functions Primarily includes leadership organization, division of labor,
administrative functions and authorities of government,
government work plans, and so on
Policies and laws Primarily includes regulations, standardizing documents, and
so on
Major policy decisions Primarily includes annual work plans, major work
deployments, plans for socioeconomic development, and so
on
Capital management Primarily includes fiscal budgeting and accounting reports,
revenue and expenditure reports, management and usage of
dedicated funds, the use of extra budgetary funds, and so on
Public resources Primarily includes land management, land transfers and
pricing thereof, uses of appropriated land, urban demolitions
and relocations, compensation standards, government
(continued)
3 Open Government Information Driving … 79

Table 2 (continued)
By category Information disclosed
procurement, quantities and standards for fee levying, and so
on
Human resources Primarily includes appointments and dismissals in
management government, testing and hiring of civil servants, planning for
placing former soldiers in government leadership positions,
employment for graduates, and so on
Social services Primarily includes disaster relief, poverty relief, special social
care, education, healthcare, culture, social security, labor,
employment, and so on
Work status Annual work objectives; work progress and completion;
affairs which require knowledge, participation, and
supervision from the public during the fulfillment of duties;
and working conditions periodically publicized
Administrative Primarily includes administrative licensing, approvals of
responsibilities and non-administrative licenses, administrative punishments,
authorities administrative obligations, administrative requisitioning, and
so on
Administrative execution of Primarily includes the responsibilities of governance of
the law administrative bodies and judicial departments, as well as the
conditions of law enforcers and judicial results (individual
cases)
Social services All services which administrative organs are legally required
to provide
Other Information which is difficult to lump into other categories

The data in these tables demonstrates that at both the central and local levels, the
scope and quantity of information disclosed now cover government composition,
government functions, legal documents, public services, government operations,
and all other areas. In 2011, 31 provinces (and autonomous regions and
direct-controlled cities) actively disclosed over 28.85 million information records,
and central state organs and departments actively disclosed over 1.49 million
information records, all on government websites.
In addition to government websites, the rapid rise of microblogs has made them
a network platform for the dissemination of government information that has also
caught the attention of many. Controlling departments now place a high degree of
attention on and lend a great deal of support to their development. Statistics released
by the State Council’s News Bureau indicate that as of the end of 2011, there were
over 60,000 official microblog accounts registered to government departments and
government employees. Although the absolute quantity of government microblogs
remains low, and most government microblogs are opened by a minority of gov-
ernment departments and officials, especially in local governments in southern,
economically developed regions, they are developing rapidly. In many areas there is
a trend for “collective microblog registration,” and many official “microblog news
bureaus” for disseminating government organ information are coming online.
80 4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine Government

4 Promoting Transparent Use of Authorities Through

Construction of Sunshine Government

As the scope of open government information has grown continuously and the
democratic ideologies of public participation and public decision-making have
consistently risen, the promotion of transparent use of administrative authorities has
become an important objective in government reforms. In essence, the transparent
use of administrative authorities refers to the goal of standardizing the exercise of
administrative authorities. It means using E-governance platforms to bring online
such administrative matters as approvals, internal administrative organ affairs, and
the processes and results of administrative policymaking, thereby making these
operations transparent. It also means real-time dynamic oversight and control of the
exercise of authority, to ensure that administrative departments govern in accor-
dance with the law and strictly abide legally-established procedures, as well as to
ensure that the public can understand, oversee, and participate in the public
decision-making process.
In November 2010, the State Council issued its “Opinions on Strengthening the
Construction of Government Ruled By Law,” in which it proposed “strengthening
oversight and restrictions on the exercise of administrative authorities, promoting
governance in accordance with the law, and constructing a government ruled by
law.” The opinions called for “enlarging the scope of active [information] disclo-
sure, with a focus on promoting open government information in such areas as
fiscal budgeting, allocations of public resources, approvals and implementation of
major construction projects, construction of social welfare enterprises, and so on.”
The opinions called for “establishing openness and transparency as fundamental
institutions of government work and broadening the sphere of government affairs
openness. All government departments providing services to society must com-
prehensively promote institutions for openness in government affairs; publicize
bases, conditions, demands, processes, and results of handling affairs in accordance
with the law; and fully publicize all information related to public affairs.” The
opinions called for “integrating government openness with reforms to the system
for administrative approvals and promoting online approvals and “one window”
and “one stop” services.”
During the course of promoting openness and transparency of administrative
authorities, broader fiscal openness represented by the breakthrough in “three public
funds” has become a focus in recent years, and has also become a hot topic for the
public. As fiscal revenues come directly from taxes and contributions from each
individual citizen, and as fiscal expenditures directly affect the personal interests of
each individual citizen, an important prerequisite to safeguarding the public’s right
to know and right to supervise and participate is ensuring transparency and open-
ness of fiscal accounting. The spread of such phenomena as wining and dining on
public funds, private use of public vehicles, and using public funds for foreign
vacations led the public to pay a great deal of attention to the “three publics funds”
(referring to international fees for expenditures of fiscal allocations to administrative
4 Promoting Transparent Use of Authorities … 81

bodies and public institutions and work units, automobile purchase and operation
fees, and public servant entertainment fees). There was no time to waste in the
publicizing and reining in of the “three public funds.” To this end, beginning in
2011, the State Council Standing Committee proposed several times that a break-
through be made in the area of the “three public funds,” which the public was most
concerned about, and that the scale of openness would gradually be extended to
fiscal budgeting. With active support from the State Council, complete openness in
fiscal budgeting and accounting, including the “three public funds,” has now been
achieved, and results are marked; this has been widely welcomed by the public.
Relevant statistics indicate that in 2010, 75 central departments publicized their
departmental budgets. In 2011, 92 central departments did the same, while 90
publicized departmental accounting, and 98 publicized “three public funds” figures.
In 2012, 95 central departments publicized departmental budgets and accounting.
Publicized fiscal information is not only growing more detailed, but its dissemi-
nation is growing more timely and standardized. At the same time, data publicized
by central departments regarding the “three public funds” not only includes
accounting data, but is also coming with more detailed explanations to make them
more comprehensible by the public.
Local governments have been slower to publicize “three public funds” data than
central departments, but local governments around the country also place a great
deal of emphasis on disclosing “three public funds” data. In 2011, provincial-level
governments in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shaanxi, and other places publi-
cized local “three public funds” data, while other provinces have successively
announced that they will this year begin publicizing “three public funds” data. In
June 2012, the State Council issued the “Regulations on Management of
Government Body Affairs,” which called for provincial-level governments to dis-
close all “three public funds” information within two years. The regulations also
demanded that beginning on October 1 of the same year, governments at the county
level and above include “three public funds” spending within accounting
management, rigorously control the size of such funding and its proportion to total
expenditures, and make budgeting and accounting data, including the “three public
funds,” available to the public at fixed intervals.
The core of the construction of sunshine government is the open and transparent
exercise of administrative authorities. Administrative licensing and approvals are
the domain in which administrative authorities are most concentrated, and as such
this domain has become the focus of pushing transparent exercise of administrative
authorities by governments and departments at all levels. In recent years, all
departments of the central government and all levels of local government have
actively combined government openness with reforms to the system for adminis-
trative approvals, and have set up online platforms for handling administrative
licensing on government web portals, providing online administrative approvals
services to the public, and achieving a level of success. In 2011, the National
Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) publicized 2532 records of all
82 4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine Government

manner of government information on their official website’s information disclo-

sure column. Of that total, 2334, or 92%, fell in the approvals (approved) category.1
The Ministry of Transport in 2010 launched an online platform for handling
administrative licensing, and in July 2011 cut down the number of approvals
processes to 65. Of the 22 approvals processes for which ministerial bodies had
responsibility, 20 could be applied for online, with results likewise made available
online. As of the end of 2011, the results of 1073 approvals procedures had been
published online.2 The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT)
established an online service hall on its web portal, on which it issued a guide to 52
administrative licensing processes and consolidated 14 administrative licensing
subsystems and 23 results search databases. In 2011, there were 567 million visitors
to the website, for a daily average of over 1.55 million visits.3 Jiangsu Province
made active explorations into the “one database, four platforms” model and pro-
moted open, transparent exercise of administrative authorities online. The “one
database” refers to an administrative authorities database, through which all manner
of basic information regarding administrative licensing is released to the public on a
foundation of unified code, including prerequisites for applying, processing time
limits, procedures, and so on. The first of the “four platforms” is the online gov-
ernment hall, which primarily handles online application, registration, and results
issuance for administrative licensing. The second is the platform for exercise of
administrative authority, which is used primarily to standardize the procedures
employed in the exercise of administrative licensing authorities. The third is the
platform for administrative oversight, which is used primarily for real-time super-
vision of the exercise of administrative licensing authorities across their entire
processes. The fourth is the platform for rule-by-law oversight, which is used
primarily for real-time oversight and error correction in the case of illegal or
erroneous behaviors in the employment of administrative authorities. At present,
this model has been spread to 52 provincial-level government bodies, 13
provincial-level prefectures, and 106 county-level governments.4
Government openness and public participation in public policymaking comprise
a reciprocal, self-reinforcing relationship. Government openness drives public
fervor for participation in public policymaking, and public participation further
promotes the deepening of government openness. Thus, the synthesis of

1
“NDRC 2011 Government Open Information Work Annual Report” http://zfxxgk.ndrc.gov.cn/
PublicItemView.aspx?ItemID={a3e9ced6-e2a6-4911-b07c-27c45256bf12}.
2
“Ministry of Transportation 2011 Annual Report on Open Government Information” http://www.
mot.gov.cn/zfxxgk/report2011.html.
3
“MIIT 2011 Annual Report on Open Government Information Work,” http://www.miit.gov.cn/
n11293472/n11505629/n12216826/14538002.html.
4
“Jiangsu Province 2011 Annual Report on Open Government Information Work,” http://www.js.
gov.cn/xxgk/xxgknb/szfgknb/201203/t20120331_723814.html.
4 Promoting Transparent Use of Authorities … 83

government openness and public participation in policymaking has become an

important track for promoting democratization of policymaking. The “Opinions on
Deepening Government Openness and Strengthening Government Services”5
clearly propose in major reform plans, policy measures, and focus programs and
projects that are closely related to the interests of the people, that there must be a
broad soliciting of opinions from the public prior to decision-making, and appro-
priate methods must be employed to give feedback or publicize the results of
opinion gathering, in order to strengthen the transparency and public participation
of policymaking.
Broad public participation in policymaking has already been expanded to many
areas. During the planning for adjustments or drafting of reform plans for
fee-levying and pricing in such public service areas as electricity, municipal water
supply, natural gas supply, telecommunications, railways, and transportation, public
hearings on prices with public representatives have now become institutionalized.
In the drafting of all manner of plans related to the development of the national
economy and society, mobilizing the public to contribute new and better ways to do
things via government web portals has become a standard convention. In the
drafting of laws and regulations, it has become common practice for the National
People’s Congress (NPC) and State Council Legislative Affairs Office to request
public opinions on laws and regulations through their websites. At the same time,
they summarize and publicize these opinions; they have also institutionalized
feedback mechanisms of responding through news conferences.
The drafting of the reform plan for individual income taxes was a typical
example of public participation that took place in 2011. During communication
with internet users on the Xinhua website early in the year, Premier Wen Jiabao
declared that this was a practical matter in improving the people’s livelihood, and
that the government would increase the taxation threshold for the individual income
tax. On April 20 of that year, the NPC Standing Committee for the first time
discussed amendments to the individual income tax law and requested opinions
from the public; this incited great attention and active participation from the public.
On the very first day, 100,000 opinions were submitted online. The total number as
of the cut-off date of May 31 was 230,000. While opinions were being collected,
experts, academics, and the public at large expressed their opinions and appeals via
newspapers, television, and the internet. The most fervent displeasure was pointed
at the taxation threshold of 3000 yuan of income per month. There was even more
displeasure from the public when the amendment’s taxation threshold remained
3000 yuan of monthly income even after the second round of deliberations. In the
end, out of respect for “public opinion,” the Standing Committee passed an
amendment setting the taxation threshold at 3500 yuan per month.

5
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 22 (2011).
84 4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine Government

5 Importance Attached to Disclosing Information Related

to Major Sudden Public Incidents

During the period of major adjustments to the economy and society, there has been
a sharp, sustained increase to the occurrence of all manner of sudden public inci-
dents, including mass incidents. The reasons behind sudden public incidents are
various and sundry, including land requisitioning, forced demolitions and reloca-
tions, enterprise restructuring, labor and wage disputes, judicial complaints, envi-
ronmental pollution, natural disasters, issues related to production security and food
and drug safety, social security, official corruption, and so on. A focus issue in
public administration for all levels of government is how to increase the govern-
ment’s capacity to handle sudden incidents while maintaining social stability and
harmony. Issues related to information openness are at the fore of this question,
making this the most arduous challenge facing both the promotion of open gov-
ernment information and the construction of a sunshine government.
Owing to complex historical reasons, prior to the 1990s, sudden public incidents
in areas other than pure natural disasters were a “forbidden zone” for government
information disclosure. As information related to these incidents was frequently
viewed as negative or harmful to social stability, the publication, propagation, and
dissemination of said information were subject to rigorous controls. Upon entry into
the new millennium, the “forbidden zone” was gradually dismantled, and there was
a gradual relaxing in the rigorous controls on the disclosure of government infor-
mation. From this point onward, mechanisms for the disclosure of information
related to sudden public incidents gradually sprouted, and then came to be
increasingly institutionalized and standardized.
The outbreak of “SARS” in 2003 was a milestone in the disclosure of infor-
mation related to sudden public incidents. As the epidemic grew more severe daily,
the central government decisively adopted measures to fully and promptly dis-
seminate information related to the epidemic and placed accountability on officials
who had failed in their duties. These actions became a harbinger for future openness
of government information related to major sudden public incidents. The estab-
lishment of information disclosure mechanisms for sudden public incidents became
a priority for governments at all levels. In 2006, the “Overall Emergency Response
Plan for National Sudden Public Incidents” was issued; the plan clearly called for
publication of information related to sudden public incidents to be timely, accurate,
objective, and complete. The plan called for publication of information briefs to the
public at the first chance, with more complete information following, such as initial
assessments, government responses, self-protection measures for the public to take,
and so on. The plan also called for proper performance of follow-up information
dissemination work based on the handling of the situation. In 2007, the NPC
Standing Committee approved the “Emergency Response Law of the People’s
Republic of China,” which for the first time codified within the law demands for the
disclosure of information related to sudden incidents. Per the law, the government
“should centrally, accurately, and promptly issue information related to the
5 Importance Attached to Disclosing Information … 85

development of sudden incidents and emergency response work, as per relevant

regulations.” The “Regulations on Open Government Information” of 2008 for-
mally stipulated that “in the event that administrative organs discover false or
incomplete information that affects or may affect social stability or throw public
administration into disorder, they should issue accurate government information
within the scope of their duties in order to rectify [the information].” Although this
stipulation didn’t clearly specify the disclosure of information related to sudden
public incidents, it did consider the characteristics and nature of sudden incidents;
so this stipulation is obviously also applicable to the disclosure of information
related to sudden incidents. In reality, since the implementation of these regulations,
the prompt convening of a news conference to disseminate information in the wake
of mass incidents has become the unspoken rule for many government departments.
Sudden public incidents are often highly localized; this fact puts local govern-
ments of all levels on the front line of handling such incidents, placing them under
immense direct pressure from the public, and frequently testing the capacity of local
governments to respond to sudden incidents. So establishing and perfecting formal
systems and mechanisms for handling sudden incidents is now an extremely urgent
task, of which mechanisms for disclosing information related to sudden incidents is
an indispensable component. The Shandong Provincial People’s Congress Standing
Committee in 2012 approved the “Shandong Province Regulations on Responding
to Sudden Incidents,” which went into force on September 1 of that year. The
regulations stipulated that people’s governments at the county level and above
establish systems for disclosing information related to sudden incidents; perfect
institutions for dissemination of information and for official spokespeople; establish
and perfect rapid response mechanisms to news reports related to sudden incidents,
as well as mechanisms for the collection and analysis of public opinion; and
strengthen organization, coordination, and management of the work of information
dissemination and news reports. On October 19, 2012, the municipal government of
Shenzhen issued the “Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Regulation for Responding
to Sudden Incidents (Draft for Soliciting Opinions)” for soliciting opinions from the
public. Article 53 of the draft called for the establishment and perfection of a system
for disclosing information related to sudden incidents and a system for news
releases, in accordance with the law. The draft called for designating official
spokespeople for the disclosure of information related to sudden incidents in such
forms as news conferences, organizing media reports, being interviewed by
reporters, providing news drafts, notices on official websites or official microblogs,
issuance of reports through authorized news outlets, and so on. At the same time,
the draft also stipulated that information briefs be publicized within two hours of
the occurrence of major sudden incidents, with basic information on the handling of
said incident released within 24 h.
The role played by the media during the disclosure of information related to
sudden events is worthy of attention. First, new media is often the first to report on
sudden events; this has a decisive effect on breaking through information monop-
olies and blockades established by some government departments and officials
when sudden incidents occur. As sudden public incidents are frequently major
86 4 Open Information: Creating a Transparent Sunshine Government

topics of public discussion, the methods of reporting on social discourse incidents

also reflect the general issuance of information related to sudden incidents to a
certain extent. Monitoring by relevant organs indicates that public discourse inci-
dents in which new media bursts the lid on stories are gradually increasing; the
proportion of said incidents to total public discourse incidents has risen from
slightly above 50% in 2007 to 65.2% at present. Looking at the distribution of 471
effective samples in 2011, there were 307 incidents incited by coverage in new
media, and only 145 incited by coverage in traditional media, with the latter
accounting for less than half of the former at only 30.8%.6 Second, new media also
plays the role of reporter, witness, and participant in these incidents. The great
capacity of new media to mobilize and propagate public discourse, as well as its
influence on society, allows it to play an enormous role in the prompt, complete
dissemination of information related to sudden public incidents. At the same time,
these features push governments to actively strive to establish systems for the
disclosure of information related to sudden public incidents, in order to respond to
the appeals of the masses for information openness. The “Brother Watch” incident
of 2012 was a typical case in which the new media participated in discourse of a
public issue. This incident was initially incited by a major traffic accident, but
evolved into a major anti-corruption case following the active participation of
Chinese internet users. Third, one should not ignore the negative impact of new
media in sudden incidents. Anonymity on the internet and the complexity and
diversity of new media technical propagation methods have made it possible for
new media to become a hotbed for the creation and dissemination of slanders and
rumors, and may intensify extremism and irrationality of the public in the face of
sudden incidents, and may even drive blind followership and impulsive behaviors.
All of the above may in turn incite even more sudden incidents, or add fuel to the
flames of ongoing sudden incidents, or prevent the proper resolution of ongoing
incidents. To reduce the potential negative impacts of new media, government
departments should actively make use of the advantages of new media platforms,
issuing authoritative, accurate information as quickly as possible on government
portals and microblogs, while at the same time reducing the space for propagation
of rumors to the greatest extent possible and promoting timely, appropriate reso-
lution of sudden incidents..

6
China Public Opinion and Crisis Management Report (2012), ed. Jiaotong University Public
Opinion Research Laboratory, (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe), 2012
Chapter 5
Online Services: Using Big Data
to Create Intelligent Government
Web Portals

At present, China’s government website system has basically been completed, with
most governments at all levels equipped with the three major service functions of
information disclosure, online handling of government affairs, and interaction
between the government and the public. These websites have now developed into
an important channel for the party and government to communicate regarding
public opinion, and an important platform for the provision of services to the public.
However, as the internet has grown rapidly more widespread, the development of
government websites now faces unprecedented challenges. On the whole, if
Chinese government websites are to further increase their capacity to serve and
increase the satisfaction of their users, then they must make great breakthroughs in
both theory and practice.

1 The Course of Development of Government

Websites in China

In January 1999, information controlling departments of over 40 ministries, com-

missions, bureaus, and administrations collectively called for launching an “online
government program.” Thereafter, government web portals of all varieties and at all
levels were established, inciting a nationwide movement for universalization of
government informatization at a grand scale.
In August 2002, the “Guiding Opinions on E-governance Construction in
China” was issued, formally calling for focusing on the construction and integration
of central and local comprehensive web portals.
From November 2003 to March 2004, the State Council Information Office
organized an investigation into the development status of government web portals.
The results indicated that government web portals in China remained in the ele-
mentary stage of development.

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 87
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0_5
88 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

On June 2, 2005, the State Council General Office issued the “Opinions on
Properly Performing the Work of Safeguarding Contents on Central Government
Web Portals,” which clarified that central government web portal content should
come primarily from the websites of the State Council General Office, local gov-
ernments, and government departments; that government web portals should
employ safeguard measures such as online fetching, information transmission,
website links, and sharing of information entries; and that web portals should
adhere to the principles of common construction, resource sharing, timeliness and
accuracy, openness and transparency, strengthening of services, and convenience
for the public.
On October 1, 2005, the People’s Republic of China People’s Government Web
Portal (hereafter referred to as central government web portal) went into trial
operations.
On December 28, 2005, the State Council Standing Committee received a report
on the status of construction of the central government web portal from the State
Council General Office, after which the committee consented to formally activating
the web portal on January 1, 2006. The meeting emphasized that the construction
and activation of the central government web portal were important measures for
driving innovation in government administration methods and constructing
service-oriented government, and were of great significance to promoting govern-
ment openness, improving public services, increasing the capacity to govern, and
making it easier for the public to know, to participate, and to oversee.
On January 1, 2006, the central government web portal (www.gov.cn) was
formally launched with versions in simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, and
English. It was divided into four areas: government information, government ser-
vices, interaction and communication, and applied functions. The day that the
website went online, it received 40.48 million clicks, 5.19 million page views,
340,000 visits, and 260,000 unique visitors. The central government web portal’s
formal launch filled the internet void at the highest level of government and
symbolized the basic completion of China’s four-tier government web portal sys-
tem. It also played an important guiding role in pointing the way forward for
construction models of web portals in government departments at all levels, for
their functions, for their designs, and for the organization of their content.
On September 7, 2006, the State Council General Office Issued the “State
Council General Office Opinions on Better Performing the Work of Safeguarding
Central Government Web Portal Content,” calling for further increasing the
intensity of government information publication, feasibly strengthening website
service functions, stably promoting interconnectivity, and establishing and per-
fecting highly effective mechanisms for the work of safeguarding content.
On December 29, 2006, the State Council General Office issued the “State
Council General Office Opinions on Strengthening the Work of Government
Website Construction and Management,”1 which provided 10 guiding opinions.

1
State Council General Office Issuance No. 104, (2006).
1 The Course of Development of Government … 89

At the end of 2006, the nationwide average rate of possessing a government

website at all levels of government was 85.6%, a 4.5% increase over the previous
year. State Council departments increased their rate to 96.1%, provincial govern-
ments to 96.9%, prefectural-level cities to 97%, and counties to 83.1%.
On August 4, 2007, the State Council General Office issued the “Notice on
Properly Performing the Preparation Work for the ‘People’s Republic of China
Regulations on Open Government Information,’” calling for government infor-
mation disclosed on government websites to play a platform effect.
On August 16, 2007, the State Council Informatization Office Issued the “Notice
on Launching the ‘100 Real Matters Handled Online’ Activity on Government
Websites,” proposing that the first batch of government websites offer 100 service
items.
On April 22, 2009, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT)
issued the “Core Indicator System for Assessing the Development of Government
Websites (Trial),” establishing nine indicators for government website evaluations
surrounding the three core links of government information openness, handling
affairs online, and interaction between the government and the people, for use as a
reference by local governments in addition to actual working conditions.
On April 21, 2011, the State Council General Office issued the “Notice on
Further Strengthening the Work of Government Website Management,” raising
demands for further strengthening the management of government websites.
By the end of 2013, 100% of central and provincial level governments had
websites, as well as 99.1% of prefectural-level cities and 85% of counties.

2 Connotations and Characteristics of Intelligent

Government Web Portals Based in Big Data

The past decade has seen rapid development of the internet in China. From 2000 to
2003, the number of internet users in China experienced over 21-fold growth, with
annual growth far outstripping the global average. By the end of December 2013,
there were 618 million internet users in China, and the country’s internet pene-
tration rate was 44.1%,2 making China the world leader for three consecutive years
in both quantity and scale. A McKinsey forecast estimated that by 2014 there will
be 750 million internet users in China, over half the country’s population, equal to
the combined total populations of the European Union and the United States.3 The
widespread use of the internet as well as rapid growth in internet users has caused

2
China Internet Network Information Center, “China Internet and Network Development
Conditions Statistical Report,” January, 2014. http://www.cnnic.net.cn/hlwfzyj/hlwxzbg/hlwtjbg/
201403/t20140305_46240.htm.
3
Mckinsey. Understanding China’s Digital Consumers. http://www.mckinseychina.com/2011/02/
23/understanding-chinas-digital-consumers/.
90 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

online government services in China to face new conditions and challenges.

Comprehensively increasing the level of government public services is an essential
prerequisite to the construction of a service-oriented government. The internet’s
rapid development and continual increases to the number of internet users are
forcing the government to place emphasis on the new social entity of internet users
as well as the internet’s ability to reflect all manner of social phenomena. The
government must actively adapt to the environment and ceaselessly innovate,
feasibly integrate website resources from the perspective of meeting user demand,
build intelligent government web portals, and provide quality service to the public.
“Intelligent” means the capacity for rapid, flexible, accurate comprehension and
processing of events and objects. Intelligent government web portals are guided by
user demands and use real-time, thorough detection of user demands to make rapid
responses, immediately improve service shortcomings, and actively provide con-
venient, accurate, highly effective service to the public and companies, increasing
the government’s capacity and level for online service provision. “Intelligent”
services are comprised of the following four areas:
First, the foundation of intelligent government web portals is the application of
big data. The “big” in big data when it comes to government services means not
only a “big” quantity of contents in a “big” range of categories. Its more important
connotation lies in the use of data to create “bigger” value for the public. Through
deep digging and multi-dimensional analysis of vast amounts of internet user data,
the government is able to use its online functions to provide services that are more
accurate, more convenient, and closer to the needs of the public. This allows for an
effective increase in the government’s capacity to provide online services, creating a
new overall situation of internet administration in which the government and the
people blend and interact.
Second, the service model of intelligent government web portals is guided by
user demands. Government websites are important platforms for serving the public,
and user demands provide the basic guidance for the services provided thereupon.
Intelligent government web portals overcome the traditional service model short-
coming of being “supply-oriented,” and create a new service model of being
“demand-oriented,” as demonstrated in Fig. 1.
Third, the core of intelligent government web portals is detection and response.
The difference between intelligent government web portals and traditional gov-
ernment websites lies in the former’s ability to detect the diversified demands of
users, and to make targeted responses to those needs, bringing about positive
interaction between supply and demand. There are two characteristics to such
detection. The first is that it’s based in real-time data analysis, turning post-fact
responses into mid-fact responses and even pre-fact forecasting, allowing for pre-
determinations to be made in real time about user demands. The second is that the
use of multidimensional, multi-layer fine analysis of user demands allows for
perceptions of the details of demand, not just the superficial aspects, thereby
allowing the government to provide more precise, more individualized online
services.
2 Connotations and Characteristics of Intelligent Government … 91

Fig. 1 Changes in service models

Fourth, a fundamental goal of intelligent government web portals is to increase

the government’s ability to govern society using the internet and to create “good
governance” of the internet. The construction of intelligent government web portals
to provide authoritative, abundant, and easily obtainable information drives gov-
ernment operations to become more ruled by law and more transparent. The pro-
vision of high-quality, high-efficiency, individualized public services to the public
increases the influence and inclusiveness of the government. The government uses
thorough detection of all manner of public incidents and public requests happening
on the internet to respond to and handle matters in a timely fashion, demonstrating
the government’s responsibility and commitment to public administration, facili-
tating the creation of consensus and obtention of broader public support.
As we can tell from the above descriptions, intelligent government web portals
possess the following basic characteristics: The first is the real-time, thorough
detection of demands. Intelligent government web portals allow for real-time,
complete detection and forecasting of all manner of services and information for
which there is public demand, as well as the prompt discovery of hot spots in
92 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

demand. The second is the rapid, sustained progress in services. Intelligent gov-
ernment web portals can accurately locate shortcomings in service by monitoring
the actual experiences of users, and allow for the government to persist in
“user-centered” improvements of website services. The third is the accurate supply
of intelligent services. Intelligent government web portals can provide more intel-
ligent, more convenient services to the public based in user demands.

3 Construction Ideology and Contents of Intelligent

Government Web Portals

Speaking summarily, the methods by which the Chinese government develops

intelligent government web portals include: real-time detection of user demands,
accurate locating of service shortcomings, increasing the capacity for accurate
services, and dynamic management of service performance. The logical relationship
between these four is demonstrated in Fig. 2. First, from the perspective of user
demand, sites analyze the online behaviors of users, to differentiate between and
ascertain user demands. Second, from the perspective of website supply, sites
quickly, accurately identify website service shortcomings. Third, on a foundation of
detecting user needs and identifying service shortcomings, sites optimize columns,
functions, and pages, enabling the site to provide accurate, intelligent services,
effectively nullifying the disparity between “user demand” and “service supply.”
Finally, sites dynamically monitor the sensing of demand, the identifying of
shortcomings, and the provision of services to keep an eye on the service perfor-
mance of government websites in real time, ensuring that intelligent web portals
always evolve with consideration of user experience.

Fig. 2 Methods of intelligent web portal development in china

3 Construction Ideology and Contents of Intelligent … 93

3.1 Detecting User Demands in Real Time

From the user’s perspective, the rapid development of the internet has given rise to
ever more pressing, more diversified demands for government websites. The con-
struction of government web portals must start from the perspective of emphasizing
user needs. Real-time detection of user demands is an imperative for providing
accurate, intelligent services. At present, websites can detect user needs through
two methods: deep segmentation and analysis, and real-time detection of hot spots.
The first is segmentation of user demands. Government websites have enormous
numbers of users and are thus unable to accurately determine the actual needs of
every kind of user, much less to make targeted improvements to website services.
These websites undertake multidimensional segmentation of users in such areas as
location, distribution, language used, user system environment (including browser,
operating system, screen frequency, and so on), source of user visit, and whether
one is a new user, enabling the code to deduce the characteristics of the needs of
each different kind of user, laying a foundation for the provision of precision
services.
Second is the real-time detection of dynamic differences occurring in the hot
spots of the demands of different kinds of users. Because many times user demands
are highly time specific and occur among a highly specific group of people in a
specific place, real-time detection of changes in demand hot spots is the only way to
provide targeted, time-effective services. Often, the most direct indicator of user
needs is the keyword searches users perform. Real-time analysis of the keywords
searched by users enables website managers to discover the most concentrated
hotspots in user demand, making the provision of more abundant, higher quality,
more prompt services to users more convenient.
Let’s look at the city of Chengdu website (www.chengdu.gov.cn) as an example.
From September 10 to October 10, 2011, the third most searched keyword on the
site was “Eastern District Music Park” (see Fig. 3). Through an analysis of the
trends in the number of times this keyword had been searched (the number of
people visiting the website performing this keyword search), officials discovered
that the searches for this term picked up rapidly beginning on September 25,
peaking on October 1 (see Fig. 4). This led officials to conclude that Chengdu’s
Eastern District Music Park was a theme park that integrated music and IT, which
was formally opened on September 29, 2011. Tourists planning trips during the
National Holiday (beginning on October 1) and users interested in music were
seeking information related to this park, and so the frequent searches for “Eastern
District Music Park” caused a link to appear on the Chengdu government website.
This is a classic case of highly time-sensitive public demand. The park, which
opened a day before the holiday, was bound to attract a great deal of users with
tourism plans to visit during the holiday. If the government website can promptly
detect hotspots in user demand, it can then provide complete information services
prior to the holiday regarding park activities, park opening and closing hours, how
to get to the park, food and beverage in the surrounding area, and security warnings,
94 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

Fig. 3 Keywords searched on chengdu’s government websites (No. 3 is eastern district music
park, with 3137 searches and 5058 page views)

Sudden
increase, 9-25

Fig. 4 Number of times the keywords “eastern district music park” were searched

greatly increasing both the level of services provided and user satisfaction. At the
same time, once a user demand hotspot is detected, website managing departments
can forecast trends for the holiday, such as a major increase in traffic to the park,
and provide advanced notice to related departments, such as traffic police and urban
3 Construction Ideology and Contents of Intelligent … 95

management departments, allowing them to prepare for security and traffic guidance
work, and effectively bringing about real-time interaction between online govern-
ment bureaus and offline administrators. After being illuminated by the example of
the music park, Chengdu officials in charge of the website, in preparation for 2012s
Spring Festival, put a dedicated section on the home page about temple fairs in the
area, providing information about the times, activities, and locations of such events,
and giving suggestions to city residents hoping to take advantage. This move was
met with widespread approval from city internet users. In fact, many enthusiastic
internet users added information to the section based on their own experiences, both
improving user experiences and agglomerating more popular wisdom on the
website.

3.2 Accurately Identifying Service Shortcomings

From the perspective of supply, the lack of effective feedback mechanisms of

traditional “supply-oriented” website service models made it impossible for website
managers to quickly, accurately identify website service shortcomings, much less
make targeted improvements to websites. For intelligent government web portals to
make rapid, continuous improvements to service, they must be able to quickly,
accurately identify existing service shortcomings.
The most common website shortcomings generally fall in the following four
categories: (1) Service shortcomings in dedicated sections, primarily in the posi-
tioning of dedicated sections (including arrangement, naming scheme, and so on) as
well as lack of coordination with user demand. (2) Content provision shortcomings,
primarily in dead or broken links and mismatches between professional jargon on a
site and commonly used language. (3) Defects in service details, or insufficiencies
in minute functions on websites. (4) Shortcomings in website technology, such as
lack of web page stability and lack of support for different operating systems and
web browsers.
Thermal imaging tools allow for rapid identifying of service shortcomings on
websites. Thermal imaging allows for the graphic representation of the clicking
behavior of users on websites. Different colors denote different frequencies of
clicks, with yellow for the most clicked areas, red for areas clicked relatively often,
and blue for areas seldom clicked (see Fig. 5). The use of thermal imaging tools
allows for accurately determining which parts of a website receive the most
attention from users, which user demands have gone unmet, and which website
contents have gone largely ignored by users, allowing for the effective identification
of minute defects in website services, allowing site managers to adopt targeted
optimization methods.
Let’s look at the front page of the Chengdu government website as an example.
A thermal image of the page indicates that over the five months between December
10, 2011, and May 10, 2012, there were 6443 clicks on the website’s logo (see
Fig. 6). There are several reasons that this logo received so many clicks. The first is
96 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

Blue for few

clicks

Yellow for
most clicked Red for
above-average

Fig. 5 Thermal imaging of website clicks

Fig. 6 Using thermal imaging to discover previously ignored details

that it is prominently displayed at the top center of the page, making it easy to see.
The second is that it is colored golden and is constantly moving. The third is that
placing the cursor over the logo displays the “hand” that indicates it is a clickable
link. User clicks represent their curiosity about the logo, as they believe there
should be some content here. The truth, however, was that clicking on the logo
merely refreshed the screen, and did not link to any other page or website function.
Website builders either ignored user demand or created a false impression among
users that the logo was meant to be clicked. An investigation revealed that the
website’s logo was based on the “Golden Sun Bird,” a ring-shaped piece of foil
made of pure gold unearthed at the Jinsha Ruins in Chengdu, a relic from the Bashu
Culture of incredible cultural significance. It is often easy for website managers to
overlook minute functions of their websites, but the overlooking of such details
frequently leads to worsening of user experiences. Internet users are not interested
in work efficiency alone when using websites, but are becoming increasingly
interested in their user experience. To overcome this service shortcoming, website
3 Construction Ideology and Contents of Intelligent … 97

managers in the Chengdu government added a super link to the logo, and now
clicking on the logo leads to an explanation of the Golden Sun Bird (see Fig. 7),
allowing users to better understand the cultural relic. This both increased the
website’s service quality and helped to spread the city’s culture.
Let’s look at another example, the website of the Ministry of Agriculture
(MoA) (www.moa.gov.cn). The site’s intelligent cloud analysis platform detects the
operating system of the user. Apple’s iPad operating system is now ranked fourth
among users of the website (see Fig. 8). A thermal imaging analysis of user clicks
on the page comparing iPad users and all other users reveals that iPad users almost
never clicked on the photo scrolling function, a major departure from the behavior
patterns of other users, as demonstrated in Fig. 9. An investigation revealed that the
iPad operating system does not support photo scrolling. As internet and intelligent
terminal penetration continues to increase, more users of government websites are
using mobile, intelligent terminals. Statistics indicate that government website users
run more than 150 different operating systems and 240 different web browsers,
exerting high demands on the inclusiveness of website technology. Government
websites must closely follow the pace of technological development and constantly
make websites compatible with more different kinds of technology and create
innovative applications and functions to satisfy the diversified needs of users; this is
the only way to truly build a close relationship between the government and the
people.

3.3 Increasing the Capacity of Precision Service Provision

The core objective of intelligent government web portals is the provision of

accurate, intelligent services to users. After detecting user demands and accurately
identifying service shortcomings, website managers should improve and optimize
their sites to provide higher quality services to users. The logical sequence by which
users obtain information or services from websites indicates that information on
government websites must be kept “visible.” Next, users must “be able to find”
needed content once looking at a website. Finally, relevant services must be
actively pushed into users’ field of vision using judgments of user demands.
First, website information must be “visible.” In general, on occasions where
users wish to obtain public services or public information from government web-
sites, when they don’t do a direct search on the website, they use keyword searches
on search engines. Our research into some central-level and provincial-level web-
sites indicates that most searches on government websites originate from search
engines, with over 95% of users coming to government websites from search results
on third party sites; search engines are now the primary means by which internet
users find government website information. Thus, when users search for informa-
tion related to the government, pushing authoritative government information to the
top of search engine results is an important tool for allowing users to quickly,
accurately find government information and increasing the capacity of the
98 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

Fig. 7 Explanation of the chengdu government website’s logo

3 Construction Ideology and Contents of Intelligent … 99

Fig. 8 Operating systems of website users

Use of photo
Nobody uses photo
scrolling by internet
scrolling; iPad OS does
users normal; many
not support this function
scroll

Fig. 9 Comparison of clicks on website home page by iPad users and those by all users

government to provide precision services. To this end, the Network Government

Research Center proposed the work of “optimizing the visibility of websites,” to
help websites accurately disseminate information and services to users on search
engines, increase the accuracy of search engine searches related to government
information, and make it fast and convenient to find such information.
In July 2012, officials in charge of the MoA website and the China Agricultural
Information Network (CAIN) (www.agri.gov.cn) launched the work of making
resources on the two sites more visible. After six months of hard work, by the end
of January 2013, the team had made marked progress. First, they greatly increased
the proportion of information from these sites that appears on search engines,
increasing the frequency with which their information appears on Baidu by 43.2%
100 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

and on Google by 243.9% for the MoA site, and 71.8% on Baidu and 351.7% on
Google for the CAIN site. Second, there was a marked increase in visits to both
sites with a 25.9% increase in visits to the MoA site originating from search engines
and a 36.5% increase in visits to the CAIN site originating from search engines over
six months. Third, there was a marked increase in the usage rates of website
resources, with 111,244 first visits to the MoA government affairs site over six
months and 234,932 first visits to the service version of the MoA site.
In addition to increasing the capacity of government websites to provide pre-
cision services by optimizing visibility, the MoA has recently also begun collab-
oration with the Baidu search engine, becoming the first government body to
establish a “dedicated brand section” on a search engine (see Fig. 10). Once this
was done, when users searched for information related to the MoA or CAIN, Baidu
produced a great quantity of core MoA resources at the top of its search results,
including information on ministry leader activities, radio broadcasts of agricultural
information, agricultural service policies, specialized “Three Rurals” services,
important dedicated topic activities, and so on. Officials have effectively promoted
the timely dissemination of MoA website information by making search results
more abundant and displaying them in a more reasonable manner.
Second is ensuring that website services “can be found.” Officials should
incorporate intelligent analysis methods such as digging in live journals and ana-
lyzing social network behavior to obtain data on user behaviors, as well as close
monitoring of usage behaviors on government websites to adjust and optimize

Fig. 10 “Dedicated brand zone” of baidu search engine search on ministry of agriculture site
3 Construction Ideology and Contents of Intelligent … 101

website sections per user needs. For example, they can analyze comprehensive click
quantities and performance in different sections (number of visits, average visits per
time period) to make targeted plans for section improvement, including updating
versions, adjusting section location, optimizing section navigation, and so on. They
can also consolidate different sections or add new super links between related
sections or recommended navigation links, to ensure that users can access the
information or services they need quickly.
Second is pushing intelligent services per demand. Websites can provide
more active, intelligent services using many different methods on a foundation of
detecting user demands and identifying service shortcomings. For example,
real-time analysis of changes to keyword searches on government websites allows
dynamic monitoring of users demands for services and rapid organization of
government information and the creation of hotspot sections on the site. Analysis of
the characteristics of needs of users from different areas allows for the provision of
specialized services. Innovative methods of service provision can be created based
on the characteristics of user behaviors.
Let’s look at the CAIN website as a further example. Statistics compiled on
keyword searches on the site indicate that there is a clear law governing such
keyword searches: the top 100 keyword searches on the site are names of agri-
cultural products (see Figs. 5.11 and 5.12). These keyword searches indicate that
the needs of users are extremely clear: the obtention of information on agricultural
products such as prices, trading, husbandry techniques, and so on. By performing
keyword searches, users are very likely seeking information that does not appear on
the home page. Analysis indicates that the site’s home page displays primarily
agricultural work trends, market information, agricultural science and technology,
and recommended agricultural products; these contents are ranked high from the
perspective of website supply. In addition, further analysis of thermal imaging of
the home page indicates that 30% of all clicks on the page were on the search bar,
further demonstrating that the home page has failed to effectively guide users to the
information they need most. To better satisfy user demands, the MoA is currently
planning to create an agricultural product information labeling system underpinning
the whole site, and to guide users to this information with labels on the home page.
This will bring about automatic detection of user demands and actively promote
relevant services.

3.4 Dynamic Management of Service Performance

Performance management is an important driver of the development of intelligent

government websites. Service performance management requires monitoring of the
websites in the effectiveness and results achieved in detection of user demands,
identification of service shortcomings, and the provision of precision services, per
the basic conditions of intelligent government web portals; such management
places emphasis on comprehensive appraisals of website service performance from
102 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

Fig. 11 Keyword search statistics on agriculture information website (all of the top 20 results are
agricultural products: corn, cotton, peanuts, grapes, apples, walnuts, chili, rice, soybeans, potatoes,
lamb, pork, cotton, wheat, garlic, edible mushrooms, watermelons, corn, and “husbandry”)

the perspectives of both users and the website itself. As the demands of internet
users change rapidly, we need real-time, dynamic management of service perfor-
mance. This is on the one hand advantageous to making timely service responses,
and on the other hand advantageous to creating a virtuous cycle of user demands
driving service provision and vice versa. The core of dynamic management of
service performance is the ensuring of visibility of real-time performance moni-
toring, which requires using different visibility plans for different targets.
Service performance monitoring platforms can be created for website managers.
Such platforms are based in data collected on various user behaviors to first determine
whether website resources are visible to users (website visibility), whether navigation
systems accurately guide users to website information and services (navigation
effectiveness), and whether users can find site contents using a search (effectiveness of
built-in search), whether users have a good experience (user viscosity); these are the
four multidimensional indicators used to evaluate website service performance. One
uses these four indicators to calculate a score on the “dashboard,” which displays
results in real time. Dashboards also support structural analysis of quantitative data,
automatic analysis of changing trends, and core focus points, as well as intelligent
3 Construction Ideology and Contents of Intelligent … 103

Current events in
agriculture

Market informaƟon

Agricultural science
and technology

Agricultural product
recommendaƟons

Fig. 12 Home page of china agricultural information network (CAIN) website

104 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

Fig. 13 Dashboard for government website services performance monitoring

recommendations for improvements. Finally, a weighted calculation is performed on

the basis of the indicator score, which reflects comprehensive service performance of
the entire website, as demonstrated in Fig. 13.
A service performance development platform can be made for the decision-
making stratum. To reflect service performance for any one area, industry, or
website in real time, and to provide decision-making support for regional or
industry-specific improvements in government services, the MoA, Jiangxi
Province, and Chengdu Municipality are currently building a “cloud center for
management of government online service performance and decision-making
analysis.” This platform allows for comprehensive analysis of all user behavior data
collected on sample websites (for example, the website of a government department
at a given level, or a website at any level of any industry system), which displays
real-time, dynamic, direct operating conditions, service shortcomings, changes in
service hotspots, and service performance rankings for the sample website. This
service provides an objective assessment of service performance based on actual
user experiences and provides data support for leaders to make scientific decisions.

4 Practical Experience in the Construction of Intelligent

Government Web Portals: Revisions to Chinese
Government Web Portals

From the official launch of the central government web portal in 2006 to present,
with great support from State Council Leaders and all departments and local
governments, its service contents have grown ever more abundant and of greater
quality, and many new interactive service platforms, such as microblogs, We Chat,
4 Practical Experience in the Construction of Intelligent Government … 105

and others have been added; this has allowed the website to fully play an important
role as a comprehensive platform for the online disclosure of government infor-
mation and provision of online services for the State Council, all departments of the
State Council, and all provincial-level governments. However, as the internet
continues its unrelenting evolution, the website faces entirely new challenges in
such areas as understanding public demands, making timely responses to issues
about which the public is concerned, effectively disseminating government infor-
mation, and actively guiding online discourse. To better adapt to the development
trends of internet technology and the deepening reforms of information dissemi-
nation methods, and play a larger role in helping the Chinese government disclose
information in accordance with the law, respond to public demands, properly guide
public discourse, and improve government services, beginning in 2003, the gov-
ernment initiated preparations work for formally revising the website.

4.1 Preparation Work for Revising Chinese Government

Websites

To scientifically, stably promote the work of revising Chinese government web-

sites, and under the unified leadership of the State Council General Office Open
Government Information Bureau, The State Information Center Network
Government Research Center topic group performed all items of fundamental work,
in a practical manner, per the concepts and technology of big data.
(1) Confirming Basic Principles and Directions of Revisions
Preparations were made for revisions to the website’s functional positioning, i.e. the
creation of an all-in-one platform that integrates a platform for dissemination of
authoritative government information, an interactive platform for responding to
social issues, and a platform for online public services, under the guidance of the
following principles: The first was to borrow from the design concepts and
methods of developed nations. Fully learn from the most recent research in the
design of government website services from European and North American
countries, as well as design and planning for foreign government website systems;
reflect advanced international experience in the functions and style of the Chinese
government website and embody international design principles. The second was
to build a service system from the perspective of user demand. Fully dig up user
all user service demands from the central government website, provincial web
portals, and all other websites, and meticulously categorize demands and applica-
tions. Be guided by the service-ization of tasks and applications, give prominence to
satisfaction levels with services, guide service supply, and bring about seamless
connections between tasks and service. The third was to explore new models
using big data to guide the revisions. Persist in using decision-making models of
letting the data speak for itself. Create targeted suggestions for optimizing the
website’s home page, sections, and other pages, and ensure that the revision plan is
both scientific and effective by deeply digging for user behavior data and analysis of
106 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

user demand on the central government website and on the entire internet. The
fourth was placing emphasis on active guidance of the online ecosystem. Play
up advantages of the central government website of being the first to issue infor-
mation, the originator of information, and the issuer of authoritative information.
Increase the capacity of the central government website’s information resources to
efficiently disseminate information on the internet and to actively respond to social
topics of concern by simultaneously optimizing information dissemination channels
such as search engines and social media sites.
(2) Performing Fundamentals Research and Safeguard Work
These revisions to China’s central government website were based in efforts to
better satisfy the public’s demand to know about, participate in, and oversee the
government’s work, and to use the State Information Center Network Government
Research Center’s proprietary, safe, and reliable big data technology, with a focus
on learning from advanced international experience and completely understanding
user demands to make bold innovations. The following were the focuses of this
work: The first was to study recent revisions made to government web portals
in developed nations. The topic group placed emphasis on analyzing recent
website revision methods in 16 E-governance developed nations, including the US,
Canada, and South Korea, to draw from the experience of these countries in the
development concepts, service systems, page color schemes, and application of new
technologies in their government websites. This research demonstrated that there
are many common characteristics of government website development trends in
recent years between different developed nations in Europe and North America. In
interface style, government websites in these nations are developing in a direction
of greater design simplicity. Content on their home pages is generally limited to
about two screens, and primary web page color schemes are based in blue, white,
and gray. Most of these sites use large images to emphasize the site’s service
positioning and visual effects. In service positioning, these sites place a high degree
of emphasis on government body descriptions, propaganda regarding leader ima-
ges, service information, policy documents, opening hours, and other information;
they also attach great importance to active responses to all manner of hot button
social issues. In the area of technology and functions, these sites place a great deal
of importance on built-in intelligent searches, optimization of search engine visi-
bility, automatic compatibility with mobile terminals, social media connectivity,
and other new applications of technology. The second was to comprehensively
analyze internet users’ demand for central government website information
and services. The topic group collected a massive amount of information on
internet user demands for central government website services through many
internet channels, including nearly 600,000 microblog posts from Sina Weibo;
3863 data indices from the Baidu search engine; and 486,000 related news reports
from 117 new media sites, including Sina, Sohu, Xinhua, and Renmin. On this
foundation, the group employed natural language processing technologies such as
topic identification and automatic classification to organize user service demands on
relevant internet channels into a few major categories, including State Council
4 Practical Experience in the Construction of Intelligent Government … 107

guidance, dynamic important news, China summary, policy documents, public

services, people’s livelihood central issues, and government data, providing a solid
data foundation for later planning of the revisions. The third was the use of big
data technology to deeply study the patterns and experiences of users visiting
the central government website. The topic group used comprehensive deployment
of the “China Government Website Intelligent Analysis System” on the central
website to collect about two months’ worth of basic data on users visiting the site,
and to comprehensively analyze user data in such areas as user locations, click flow,
technological environments, page addresses, form submission, and mouse clicks. At
the same time, the group used the basic user visit data collected from 1200
nationwide government websites using the “China Government Website Intelligent
Analysis Cloud Center” to further introduce such intelligent analysis tools as click
thermal imaging, diffusion of methods of site visits, diffusion diagrams displaying
origins of visits, and hot spot monitoring, to summarize the general patterns of user
visits to government websites. In this analysis, the topic group placed focus on
ordering the central topics to which internet users paid most attention, and found the
design flaws and technological shortcomings of the old version of the central
government website, thus clarifying the direction of the revisions. The fourth was
launching the work of designing the site’s column system and important pages.
On a foundation of comprehensively understanding the demands and behavior
patterns of users, the group fully borrowed from the successful experience of
government websites in developed nations to re-order the column system of China’s
central government website, designing eight tier-one channels: State Council, news,
dedicated topics, policies, services, political participation, data, and national con-
ditions. The group completed the visual design and reciprocal functional design of
the important columns and pages of the central government website on the basis of
design principles of internationalization, humanization, conforming to Chinese
style, and innovation. The fifth was exploring long-acting mechanisms for
supporting website service operations and maintenance with big data. To fully
allow the central government website to play a strategic role in responding to social
concerns and guiding online public opinion, the new version of the site employed
big data analysis technology at the levels of operation and maintenance, drawing
support from normal observations of channels of internet information dissemination
and user visit behavior, helping website management departments promptly
understand current social central issues and focus topics of great concern to the
public; organizing responses of relevant departments in such forms as online
interviews, information dissemination, and soliciting articles on dedicated topics;
and widely disseminating information through such technological measures as
optimization of search engine visibility and sharing on social media sites. For
example, during the “Lianghui”4 of 2014, the State Information Center Network

4
Literally “two meetings,” referring to the simultaneous meetings of the plenary sessions of the
National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.—translator’s
note.
108 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

Fig. 14 Macro controls during “lianghui” viewed using big data. Source http://www.gov.cn/
zhuanti/kgtk2014.htm

Government Research Center’s “Using Big Data to Look at the Lianghui” research
topic group collected nearly seven million Sina Weibo microblog posts from the
span of nearly a year and 2000 pieces of data collected over half a year on Baidu;
525,000 news reports over nearly a year from 117 websites, including Phoenix,
Tencent, NetEase, Sina, Sohu, Xinhua, and Renmin; and 21.62 million keyword
searches over nearly half a year on 1025 government websites, performing a data
analysis on such major central issues of social concern as streamlining of admin-
istration and decentralization in government work, changing methods and adjusting
the structure, macro controls (see Fig. 14), and allowing for the concentrated dis-
semination of dedicated topic research on the central government website,
achieving laudable results.

4.2 Primary Innovations in the Revisions of the Central

Government Website

The characteristics of the revisions to the central government website can be

encapsulatedin the following three areas:
(1) “Affinity”
Through the entire course of the planning and designs of the revised edition of the
central government website, officials established increasing affinity between
4 Practical Experience in the Construction of Intelligent Government … 109

government website content and the public as an important principle. The revisions
started from the perspective of satisfying users, and so officials performed deep
analysis on the patterns of user behaviors on 24 existing tier-one website sections,
and then re-ordered all content based on the degree of user attention and the
categories of user demands, integrating the entire system of website sections into
eight tier-one sections. Such restructuring allowed for a marked increase in the
convenience by which users find information and services, and was advantageous to
the establishment of the central government website as a website with affinity and
unique characteristics. At the same time, as officials placed more emphasis on
making responses to the public concerns in service provision, they added a political
participation column to the website, for the first time providing interactive services
such as response to public concerns and a section called “I have a word for the
premier.” From the first week of revised edition operations, it seems that users are
quite enthusiastic about these two new Sects.
(2) “Internationalization”
Emphasis was placed on internationalization and humanization of the website’s
interface. In the structural design of pages, officials drew from general international
practices to allow users to more quickly and accurately find needed information.
Designers condensed page contents from three and a half screens long to under two
screens long, while at the same time adding a sliding tab function, allowing for
actual home page contents to greatly exceed three screens, and enabling users to see
all needed contents with only three clicks of the mouse. In the visual design of the
pages, officials strove for simplicity and placing prominence on focuses. The
website’s primary color scheme is blue, white, and gray. Hot news is displayed on
the first screen of the home page in an image carousel, giving the website solemnity
and majesty while also providing users with a fresh visual experience, which is
advantageous to displaying China’s major country temperament and image of being
close to the people (see Figs. 15 and 16).
(3) Giving Prominence to “Intelligent” Design
The use of a great quantity of innovative internet technology has greatly increased
the levels of initiative and intelligence of the new version of the central government
website. In the area of promptly detecting user demands, site designers employed
big data analysis technology to create automatic recognition and active transmission
mechanisms for hot topics about which internet users are concerned, vigorously
supporting protections of contents such as responding to concerns, hotpoints, and
areas of general concern. In the area of expanding information dissemination
channels, the site further optimizes mainstream search engine connection on a
foundation of using microblogs and We Chat, greatly increasing the ability of
website information to influence the internet. In order to facilitate government
information sharing, site designers also specially developed secure, reliable soft-
ware for social media sharing, making the rapid dissemination of government
information to internet users more convenient and increasing the incentives for
internet users to participate in and pay attention to government information. In the
area of making user searches for information more convenient, the site employs
110 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

Fig. 15 New edition of chinese central government website

advanced search technology, greatly increasing the precision and ease with which
users can find central government information. In the area of adapting to the
diversification of terminals that users employ to connect to the internet, the new
version of the site is gradually adopting intelligent auto-adapting technology for its
multi-terminal interface, markedly increasing the compatibility of the site with
different cellphones, computers, and other varieties of internet terminals.
5 Outlook 111

Fig. 16 Social networking and media sharing platform interface on government website

5 Outlook

The central government website is not simply a window for online interaction and
communication between the central government and the public. It should further
take up the strategic task of guiding the construction and development of govern-
ment websites across the country, making it a vanguard in nationwide government
website development. From a certain perspective, the current round of revisions and
upgrading of the central government website have blown the “attack horn” for
transformation and upgrading of Chinese online public services. Chinese govern-
ment websites are now in a completely new stage of development, in which they
must transition from a mentality of “content is king” into a mentality of “service is
king.” Public satisfaction and capacity to influence the internet will be the primary
direction of future improvements to government website services.
At present, the construction of intelligent government web portals in China
remains in an initial exploratory stage. We need tighter cooperation and common
promotion between the government, companies, and research organizations. In the
days to come, there is much work for us to do. First, we must strengthen policy
guidance. We should further put in order website management systems and
mechanisms. Relevant departments should research and develop policy documents
and standards guides for the promotion of intelligent government web portal con-
struction and strengthen policy guidance. If we are able to increase the intensity in
areas such as construction of intelligent cities and national E-governance con-
struction, we believe that in the coming 3–5 years, we should be able to complete a
batch of intelligent government web portals, thereby greatly increasing the quality
of online government services, and effectively supporting the construction of
service-oriented government. Second, we must strengthen support of industries
112 5 Online Services: Using Big Data to Create Intelligent …

and technology. We should augment support of industries and technologies related

to intelligent government web portals, and in particular increase the government’s
capacity to guide investments in big data analysis technology, user behavior pattern
mining, visual service monitoring, mobile intelligent government web portals,
vertical search engine construction, and other areas. Third, we should strengthen
cooperation with companies possessing internet advantages. Relevant govern-
ment website managing departments and internet management departments should
create normalized communication and cooperation mechanisms with search engine
companies and large navigation web portals. These companies should assume the
social responsibility of internet companies to accelerate innovations in search and
navigation technologies, and do their utmost to make the obtention of online
government information and services by the public as convenient as possible.
Fourth, we should develop pilots and model projects. The construction of
intelligent government web portals is a long-term process of endless exploration,
and so we should proceed step by step. In consideration of actual present conditions
of government website construction at all levels, we can choose provinces and cities
with a high degree of leadership awareness and a certain working foundation to
establish pilots, which we can then gradually promulgate.
In summary, as intelligent government web portals continue to develop, we have
reason to believe that the government can provide better, more convenient services
on the internet, giving rise to a more harmonious interactive relationship, and
creating an even happier online environment of good governance.
Chapter 6
Online Political Participation:
Establishing New Mechanisms
for Interaction Between the Government
and the Public

As the internet has grown steadily more ubiquitous, it has come to play an
increasingly important role in the government, the economy, society, and daily life
in China. Online political participation has gradually evolved into an important
channel for Chinese citizens to exercise their right to know, right to participate,
right to expression, and right to oversee. These rights have come to be universally
acknowledged by party and government organs, the media, and academic bodies.
Online political participation is, in essence, citizens making inquiries into political
processes via the internet, and an interaction between the government and citizens
on public network platforms. Such interaction generally brings about discussion on
current affairs, public policies, public incidents, government behaviors, government
responsibilities, and so on, making it an important method and means for citizens to
participate in public governance activities.1 Online political participation is more
than a simple notifying higher-ups of the wishes of those below or notifying those
below of the wishes of higher-ups; much less is it a form of one-way “hearings.”2 In
recent years, online political participation in China has trended further toward being
institutionalized, organized, technicalized, and specialized; the influence on society
of online political participation is growing broader daily. Online political partici-
pation has made the relationship between government and the people closer and has
helped to promptly find out and mitigate all manner of social conflicts. It has
fundamentally adjusted social relationships and has continued to maintain social

1
“Achievements, Problems, and Responses of Online Government in Guangdong,” speech given
by Beijing Normal University professor of political science Shi Xuehua at the Third China Online
Government Symposium (in Huizhou), oeeee.com, September 23, 2012. http://wen.oeeee.com/a/
20120923/1051317.html.
2
“The Key to Online Political Participation is Accountability,” speech given by Peking University
School of Journalism and Communication Associate Professor Hu Yong given at the Second
“Online Political Participation and Public Sentiment Monitoring Summit,” people.cn, September
21, 2012. http://www.ddcpc.cn/2012/09/21/59294.html.

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 113
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0_6
114 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

prosperity, harmony and stability, and a long and peaceful reign for China. It has
exerted a positive influence on the stable, fast development of the national
economy.

1 The Genesis and Development Phases of Online Political

Participation

The rise of online political participation is inseparable from the state’s construction
and use of the internet. September 20, 1987, saw the first email sent by a Chinese
person, demonstrating that the internet was opening a new window for us. By the
mid-1990s, just a few short years later, China had built a domestic information
network and had achieved connectivity with the world, making China a member of
the great internet family. As the internet became connected with ordinary people,
China entered an era of unprecedented social discourse, and gradually became one
of the world’s greatest arenas for online discourse, providing fertile soil for “online
political participation” in China.
The development of online political participation in China can be roughly
divided into four stages (see Fig. 1). The first, prior to 2003, was the nascent stage.
The second, from 2003 to 2007, was the development stage. The third, from 2008
to 2010, was the finalization stage, and the fourth, from 2011 to present, is the
maturation stage. As online political participation has developed, its scale has
grown larger; its forms have grown ever more diversified; and it has grown more
institutionalized and standardized. The power of online political participation to
influence society has grown ever stronger, making it a powerful driver of innova-
tion and the construction of a sunshine, rule-by-law, responsible, and
high-efficiency clean and honest government.

1.1 Early Stage: The Internet as a Channel for Expressing

Public Opinion

From the 1990s to the early 2000s, the internet insinuated itself into the daily life of
the Chinese people, experiencing explosive growth. Online political participation in
the nascent phase existed primarily in the form of the gradual emergence of gov-
ernment web portals. Online commentary of current events came into view of
internet users, who began to seek for their own break-through points, beginning to
hover between forums and rapid communications; the pace for discussion of current
topics grew ever larger. The primary characteristic of this period was that the
internet gradually evolved into a channel for the expression of public opinion and
popular sentiment, in which the masses of internet users eagerly participated. The
majority of China’s first internet users were male, mostly possessing “high degrees
1 The Genesis and Development Phases of Online … 115

Fig. 1 The development of online political participation in China

of education, high incomes, and high social status,” i.e. the “three highs.”
This group included white-collar workers, in the computer industry, bosses, social
elites, and university students. These groups were most interested in specialized
information in areas such as technology, followed by entertainment and news.
By the end of 1998, the municipal government of Beijing made its initial foray
into online government with the “Window of the Capital” website. As responses
from the mayor’s official email account were rare, people who couldn’t commu-
nicate with him began frequenting online forums. This year saw the entry on the
scene of Sina, Sohu, Tianya, Xici, and other social sites. On May 8, 1999, the
bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade incited fury among the Chinese
people; the bulk of the discourse took place online. Within 24 h of the bombing, the
online branch of People’s Daily, people.cn, launched a “BBS forum for the strong
116 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

protest against NATO savagery,” which led to intense repercussions. Hereafter this
forum was formally renamed the “StrongNation Forum.”
After 2000, hanging out in internet cafés became a fashionable lifestyle.
Chatrooms and OICQ (later renamed QQ) became popular, the latter eventually
becoming the world’s largest real-time chat service. There was an 11-fold increase
in internet users over the course of two years, and QQ identification numbers
gradually evolved into electronic name cards for Chinese people. After entry into
the new millennium, the majority of Chinese internet users were members of the
“three lows” group: “low age, low income, and low degree of education.” Up to
present, although the ages and education levels of Chinese internet users are
trending closer to those of the general population, there has been no change to the
overall situation. In 2002, the space for online discussion in China grew further; the
previously most common topics of online discussion—purely technical or patriotic
topics—gradually gave way to such entertainment-oriented themes as the Chu
Mei-feng sextape scandal. Popular entertainment for the first time turned to those
mysterious people in political power, and the internet began its transition into an
important forum for current events.
In the early development stage, the primary applications on the internet were
Web 1.0 news, e-mail, entertainment, and real-time communications programs. The
online activities of internet users became more spontaneous and blinder, in urgent
need of guidance by mainstream media. During the nascent phase of online political
participation, some areas and central cities rather far along in Reform and Opening
began pursuing more openness of information on government websites, and there
was an upsurge in email accounts for leaders. Although there was little action, this
was of great significance, garnering widespread public attention and throwing open
the curtains for the development stage of online political participation.

1.2 Development Stage: Maintenance of Internet User

Rights as Central Issue

Online political participation in China entered the development stage in 2003. On

the one hand, the rise of mainstream media began to influence the drafting and
implementation of public policy, and at the same time, party and state leaders began
paying a great deal of attention to opinions and suggestions from internet users,
actively responding to their appeals related to rights. On the other hand, as online
grassroots power grew and the ideology of rights maintenance of internet users
rapidly expanded, online movements for maintenance of rights gradually rose. At
this time, a great deal of ranking officials’ emails accounts and internet user mes-
sage boards came into existence. The major characteristic of the Chinese internet at
this time was the online maintenance of rights by internet users. In 2007 there
emerged a trend whereby social discourse that began online spread into the real
world.
1 The Genesis and Development Phases of Online … 117

The influence of online political participation grew ever larger during the
occurrence of sudden incidents, garnering a high degree of attention aimed at the
internet from high-level policymaking departments. In 2003, as the SARS epidemic
was peaking, Comrade Hu Jintao told a internet user/doctor from Guangzhou:
“Your advice is extremely good. I’ve already seen it online.” Comrade Wen Jiabao
made the following impassioned comment to students in the dormitories of Peking
University: “I’ve seen the messages that you students have left online expressing
your resolve to fight SARS with all the people of the country, and it has moved
me.” At the end of 2003, the State Council Investigation and Research Group met
with famous local internet users in Shenzhen to hear their appeals. Under the
guidance of the party and government, online political participation has been
continuously deepened, from the theoretical to the practical. On March 14, 2005,
Comrade Wen Jiabao made this comment to reporters at a “Lianghui” press con-
ference: “The many suggestions and opinions of internet users are worthy of serious
consideration by me and our government.” At the end of 2005, the Central
Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and Ministry of Supervision
(MOS) for the first time issued a web address for the CCDI’s Letters and Visits
Office and the MOS Incident Reporting Center; online anti-corruption was hereby
formally incorporated into official anti-corruption channels. At the end of 2005,
deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Health Department Liao Xinbo
announced a blog, making him the highest level official in China at the time to
operate a blog. During this time, a great number of party and government leaders
entered forums of online discussion, making them both important participators and
promoters of online political participation.
The high degree of emphasis placed on online discourse by party and state
leaders not only served to encourage internet users’ passion for discussion of
current events, but also drove mainstream media outlets to establish platforms for
online political participation. From February to March 2006, during the time of the
“Lianghui,” people.cn set up a “Leadership Message Board,” which garnered fer-
vent attention from social discoursers. Oeeee.com launched such political partici-
pation platforms as “Ask the Premier,” “Ask the Mayor,” and “Ask the District
Head,” receiving great support and participation from internet users. Models for
online political participation guided by mainstream media also began to emerge,
interactive with the movements for rights maintenance spontaneously developed by
internet users, further broadening channels for online political participation.

1.3 Finalizing Stage: Normalization and Institutionalization

of Online Political Participation

Beginning in 2008, online political participation was not only supported and wel-
comed by all walks of society and the public, but was also actively promoted by
party and government organs at all levels. Party and state leaders set leading
118 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

examples many times, lending a high degree of affirmation to the internet’s role in
ruling the country and ordering the government, particularly its ability to guide
thought and public discourse. Party and government organs at all levels also
actively made use of advanced internet tools, listening to the appeals for rights from
internet users, responding to the social concerns of internet users, and drawing
tighter the relationship between the party and the people. Against this backdrop,
online political participation started becoming normalized and standardized.
On June 20, 2008, Comrade Hu Jintao made a work inspection visit to the
People’s Daily, where he interacted with internet users on people.cn; this move was
widely described as a historical “embrace of the internet.” This was the first time
that the supreme leader of the party and the state engaged in direct communication
with internet users over online forums. His action made an enormous splash both
domestically and abroad, and was an extremely important driver of the work of
“online political participation” among party and government organs and individual
leaders at all levels; this was of great historical importance. On February 28, 2009,
Comrade Wen Jiabao communicated online with domestic and foreign internet
users via the central government web portal, gov.cn, and the Xinhua television
studios, inciting fervent interaction with 100,000 internet users; it later became
common practice for the premier to understand public sentiment and popular
opinion this way prior to the “Lianghui.” Statistics from the people.cn Public
Discourse Monitoring Bureau indicate that over the time period of a little over half
a year from the second half of 2008 to early 2009, party and government bodies in
Guangdong (see Table 1), Jiangxi, Henan, Shanghai, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hubei,
Qinghai, Xinjiang, Hunan, and other places took the lead in establishing commu-
nications with internet users, meetings with internet users, or the collection of
popular wisdom via the internet.
During this period, internet users began to exert an increasingly large influence
on reality. From June to July 2008, a succession of sudden mass incidents occurred
in places such as Wa’an, Guizhou, and Menglian, Yunnan. Once rapidly dissem-
inated over the internet, these incidents incited widespread public discourse across
the nation. The breaking of the stories of Shenzhen Maritime Affairs Bureau chief’s
lewd acts with an underage girl and the astronomically priced cigarettes of corrupt
official Zhou Jiugeng in Nanjing also incited a wave of public discourse online.
During the Yunnan “hide-and-seek” incident of February 2009, the Yunnan
provincial committee’s publicity department invited internet user representatives to
participate in the investigation of the truth of the incident; this led to a rapid change
for the better in the case. During that same month, internet users from Luoyang,
Henan, going by the handles “Old Cow,” “I Love Luoyang,” “Flush,” and “Big
River” were selected as delegates to the Luoyang Municipal People’s Congress and
were put forward as Luoyang Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference
members, leading the way for Chinese citizens to achieve participation in gov-
ernment on the strength of their internet user identities. In May 2009, during the
Deng Yujiao incident in Hubei, an internet user rushed to the scene to express
support for Deng; pressure from public discourse forced the court to reconsider and
ultimately change its verdict.
1 The Genesis and Development Phases of Online … 119

Table 1 Summary of online political participation activities in Guangdong Province, 2008–2010

Time Primary contents
January– The provincial government of Guangdong holds an online activity
February, 2008 soliciting articles called “I contribute advice to the scientific development
of Guangdong.” Over 30,000 articles are collected, and many are sent to
local leaders and relevant departments as important references for
policymaking. In February, 10 articles are chosen for publication in the
special publication Lingnan shi pai
April–June, 2008 Guangdong party and government leaders successively issue Happy New
Year’s greetings to Guangdong internet users over Guangdong provincial
websites and focus central news sites. In April, the provincial party
committee secretary Wang Yang and provincial governor Huang Huahua
has a face-to-face “chat with 26 internet users from oeeee.com and
southcn.com, where the two officials receivepaizhuan “bricks” [playful
online insults]. In June, Wang Yang makes an appearance to resolve the
substitute teacher payment issues raised by internet user “Dragon Sword”
July, 2008 Party and government leaders from all counties, cities, and districts of
Zhanjiang Municipality hold a meeting to disclose work and clean
governance reports to the city committee via television and internet live
broadcast. They receive oversight from the masses and internet users.
This brave exploration is dubbed by the media as the “Zhanjiang model”
November, 2008 Guangdong provincial committee leaders ask for commentary into the
working styles of 122 government organs directly subordinate to either
the provincial or central governments via online survey. Leaders from
each department then engage in online communications with internet
users
April, 2009 Guangdong party secretary Wang Yang has an informal discussion with
12 internet users and important public figures to ask for opinions and
advice on the planning compendium for reform and development in the
Pearl River Delta region. Guangdong thus leads the way for
provincial-level party and government leaders in China to meet with
internet users and important public figures
2009 First broadcast of the “Benefitting the People Online” forum. Within two
years, nearly 60 leaders from city government departments and district/
county governments come online to answer internet user questions.
Huizhou municipal party secretary Huang Yebin meets with internet
users online six times, receiving a great deal of praise online
2009 Party and government organs in Dongguan, Foshan, Yunfu, Shanwei,
Heyuan, Leizhou, and other prefectural-level cities lead the way in
engaging in dialogues with internet users via online communication,
face-to-face chats, public mailboxes, and open responses
June, 2009 Guangdong for the first time convenes a conference on the assignment
issues most reported by internet users, demanding that 37 assignment
issues be completely resolved by the end of the year. As of March 2012,
Guangdong has held seven similar conferences
August, 2009 An “online spokesperson for the Guangdong Provincial Industry and
Commerce Administration” for the first time responds to a post alleging
“abuse of official powers” by the Shaoguan Industry and Commerce
(continued)
120 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

Table 1 (continued)
Time Primary contents
Administration placed on the “Online Political Participation Platform” of
oeeee.com, becoming the first “online spokesperson” for a government
body at the provincial level or higher
November, 2009 Guangdong’s “Southern Popular Wisdom Think Tank” is formally
established, with 15 initial members, including several renowned internet
users
Beginning 2010 Major leaders from 17 prefectural-level cities and 14 provincial-level
government organs wish internet users a happy Chinese New Year on
oeeee.com

Party and government organs at all levels have rapidly established the institution
of official online news spokespeople to respond to sudden mass incidents. In July
2009, provincial officials in Yunnan proposed establishing the institution of “online
news spokespeople.” From September to December that year, officials in Guiyang
City, Guizhou; Sichuan Province; Guangdong Province; Shaanxi Province; Anhui
Province; Nanjing City, Jiangsu, and other places established similar institutions.
Organs in the political and legal systems then likewise followed suit. On April 21,
2009, Supreme People’s Court news spokesperson Sun Jungong was a guest at
Xinhua Online (http://xinhua.com), where he explained the “Opinions on Further
Strengthening the Work of Communicating on Popular Will” and opened a personal
blog. In September that year, the CCDI and MOS opened the nationwide integrated
website for filing reports related to discipline and supervision; this was a great step
forward for online anti-corruption work. In November, the Henan Provincial
Supreme People’s Court also appointed an online news spokesperson.
From 2009 to 2010, there was rapid development in social networking and
microblogging sites, and a great quantity of internet users began transitioning from
forums and blogs onto microblogs, exerting an enormous influence on the structure
of social discourse. During this time, the exposure of sudden incidents online
rapidly led to explosions in nationwide public discourse, transforming localized,
regional, and sometimes random issues into topics for the entire populace to dis-
cuss. All walks of society became more deeply aware of the necessity and urgency
of online political participation. On the eve of the 2010 “Lianghui,” people.cn
began reporting news of the conferences on such interactive platforms as cell phone
networks, cell phone reports, and cell phone television. Once people.cn’s
microblogging platform was launched, over 40 delegates to the National People’s
Congress (NPC) and to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference
(CPPCC) incited a frenzy of public discourse by “discussing governmental matters
on microblogs.” In 2010, officials from as high a level as the State Council Premier
all the way down to grassroots delegates, committee members, and party and
government leaders began publicizing email and microblog accounts; online
1 The Genesis and Development Phases of Online … 121

political participation thus became a popular phenomenon. Such terms as

“E-Lianghui,” “delegates and committee members knitting scarves,”3 and “internet
user discussions of official business” became hot online search terms. The gov-
ernment began collecting popular wisdom on the internet, and internet users began
participating in government through posting on message boards, blogs, microblogs,
and other formats; these became major topics during the “Lianghui.”
In 2010, 31 party and government leaders from 24 provinces, direct-controlled
cities, and autonomous regions sent out Chinese New Year greetings on people.cn.
This was the first online New Year’s greeting issued at the national level. In
September 2010, the CPC news network of People’s Daily (cpc.people.cn) laun-
ched the “Directly Contact Zhongnanhai4—Message Board for Central Leaders and
Central Organs.” Thereafter “leadership message boards” spread from the central
level down to the provincial, municipal, and county levels. Provincial-level gov-
ernments in Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, and nine other areas issued documents calling
for the incorporation of message boards within the normal working mechanisms of
party committees and governments. In January 2010, Anhui Province clearly pro-
posed “supporting and encouraging online political participation” and for the first
time wrote online political participation into a provincial-level government work
report, making it requisite reading material for all party and government leaders.
People’s Daily published a full-page article titled “The ‘Guangdong Sample’ of
Online Political Participation,” describing Guangdong’s explorations, achieve-
ments, and experience in online political participation.

1.4 Maturation Stage: Clustering and Standardization

of Online Political Participation

With the rapid rise of social media also came rapid development in government
microblogs, which became catalysts for online political participation. Government
microblogs made it easier and faster for internet users to make appeals to gov-
ernment, made interaction with government entities more frequent, made govern-
ment information more open, made administrative procedures more transparent, and
made institutions for online political participation more mature.
Beginning in the second half of 2010, government organs and officials began
their entry into microblogs, a trend that peaked in 2011. Statistics from the State
Internet Information Office (SIIO) indicate that as of September 2012, there were
over 80,000 verified government microblog accounts in China.5 Microblogging

3
The Chinese term for “scarf,” weibo, is a homonym for “microblog,” also weibo. “Knitting
scarves” here is a play on “building one’s microblog fan base”.—translator’s note.
4
The physical location of China’s central government.—translator’s note.
5
“Sina Government Microblog Report, First Half of 2012,” People.cn Public Sentiment
Monitoring Office, July 2012.
122 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

platforms are now important platforms for interaction between officials and the
public, and “microblog political participation” is now the biggest point of attention
in online political participation. In mid-October 2011, the SIIO convened a “con-
ference for exchanging experiences of actively using microbloggers to serve soci-
ety,” encouraging party and government organs and leaders to use microblogs more
openly and self-confidently. Data from people.cn’s Public Sentiment Monitoring
Office indicate that: microblogs of government organs and officials in China have
achieved an initial scale; there has been rapid growth in government microblogs
belonging to functional departments other than public security microblogs; and that
the structure and regional distribution of government microblogs are becoming
more reasonable. While maintaining rapid growth in their numbers of users, gov-
ernment microblogs have also started becoming mature in such areas as mass
concepts, media attainments, timeliness, transparency, rationality, constructiveness,
organization protections, institutional construction, management standards,
responses to public sentiment, the ideology of crisis management, and so on.6
In 2012, several local government departments came together to establish a
microblogging announcement hall (see Table 2), which promoted clustered
development of government microblogs and caused hitherto isolated government
microblogs to achieve more cooperation, mutual supervision, and mutual acceler-
ation. Typical examples of clustered microblogs are the “Beijing Microblog
Announcement Hall,” anchored by “Beijing Announcements” and the “Shanghai
Microblog Announcement Hall” led by “Shanghai Announcements.” Clustering is
becoming a major trend in the development of microblogs. Initial achievements
have been made by microblog clustering in areas such as responding to internet user
questions and actively establishing topics of discussion to guide public discourse.
Government microblogs are also beginning to play an important role in responding
to sudden incidents. For example, Chen Shiqu, director of the Ministry of Public
Security’s Anti-Child-Kidnapping Office, uses his government microblog to
effectively support the recovery of kidnapped children. In another example, Wang
Hui, director of the Beijing Municipal News Office, actively used his government
microblog to drive communication between the government and the public during
the “7-21 floods” incident, garnering widespread praise from the public.

2 Diversified Channels for Online Political Participation

Constant evolution in internet technology has provided an abundance of platforms

and vehicles for online political participation and has made possible equal com-
munication between the public and government via many methods. Online political
participation now comes in many forms, as it has entered a development stage of

6
Liu Pengfei, Chen Ning, et al., “2011 Sina Government Microblog Report,” People.cn Public
Sentiment Monitoring Office, December 2011. http://yuqing.people.com.cn/GB/16575758.html.
Table 2 Level of attention paid to hot topics on party and government microblogs in 2012a
No. Web Province # of Percentage Percentage of Most shared original microblog post in 2012 # of # of
name followers of active followers with shares/ comments
followers verified real identify reposts
1 Chen Beijing 2,924,975 2.50% 0.19% Dispelling the rumor posted on Beijing bus stops 5261 1134
Shiqu that the kidnapper and seller of a small child was
the child’s nanny
2 Yushi Hunan 122,638 55.80% 2.54% Buddhism also needs to fight corruption 26896 8793
Zaitu
3 Chen Li Shaanxi 2,930,569 1.00% 0.06% Rural citizen issues are the most important issues 2134 345
facing China at present
4 Wang Zhejiang 919,633 4.10% 0.23% Urgently seeking parents of two lost children 69377 8449
Yujing
5 Duanlang Jiangxi 298,534 36.80% 1.31% Review on Zhejiang University dean punished for 9221 1540
Expounds playing with cell phone during meeting
6 Wuhao Yunnan 1,815,360 4.60% 0.27% A discussion of the relationship between 764 358
Honghe democracy, elections, and clean governance
Weiyu
2 Diversified Channels for Online Political Participation

7 Zhu Jiangsu 1,351,148 5.70% 0.29% Things parents should do and shouldn’t do 503 59
Yongxin
8 Gansu Liu Gansu 1,825,850 1.10% 0.10% Clarification on “practicing qi gong to open up 1192 1143
Weizhong governor and conception vessels”
9 Beijing Beijing 1,579,466 0.40% 0.05% Cancellation of tickets on flooded engine parked 10506 1978
Wang Hui vehicles in Beijing after flood
10 Zhongyi Zhejiang 767,356 7.40% 0.35% Critique of public security departments erecting 745 266
Online police offices in hospitals
a
Statistics in this table were compiled on October 30, 2012. Relevant data come from statistics from people.cn’s public sentiment platform and searches on
Sina Weibo. “Active fans” are bloggers who repost and comment at least once a week. Verified fans have official “V” verifications on their blogs
123
124 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

multiple vehicles, multiple drivers, and diversification. Today, diversity of models

for online political participation in China, as well as abundance of content and
flexibility of methods are commonplace in online political participation, most
readily observed in government microblogs, political participation forums, online
chats, ranking officials’ emails/message boards, online searches, and so on.

2.1 Government Microblogs: The Most Dynamic Vehicles

of Online Political Participation

Government microblogs are growing rapidly, owing to such characteristics of

microblogging platforms as their real-time nature, interactivity, and centralization,
making them one of the most dynamic vehicles for online political participation.
Government microblogs represent the internet’s spirit of equality, freedom, and
sharing, and have become an important fulcrum for equal dialogues and positive
interaction between the government and the people. Government microblogs have
also become a bridge between “internet users participating in government” and
“administration by the government.” They play a positive role in safeguarding the
rights of the people to know, to participate, to express themselves, and to supervise.
In April 2010, the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department took the
lead in establishing a Sina Weibo microblog called “Ping’an Nanyue” [Peaceful
Guangdong]. Officials wrote 5772 posts on the microblog in over two years, and the
contents of the posts were characterized by being close to the people, intelligence,
humor, vivaciousness, and high-frequency interaction. This microblog played an
extremely large role in supporting police work and improving the relationship
between the police and the public. In June 2011, 21 town and township government
offices and 34 district work units of Mudan District, Heze City, Shandong Province,
signed up for verified microblog accounts on Renmin (microblogging service of
people.cn), clearing the way for county-level work units around the country to
establish official microblog clusters. “Lianghui” delegates also joined political
participation on microblogs. During the 2011 “Lianghui,” Lin Yanzhi, Li Daokui,
Ye Qing, He Qiang, and other delegates aired proposals on their verified micro-
blogs, asking for opinions from internet users, and further driving interaction and
communication between delegates and internet users. In May 2012, the Zhejiang
Provincial Public Security Department established a government microblog, on
which users could directly search for records of crimes and infractions or perform
vehicle registrations; users could also report problems via messages, a forum, or
private notes.
2 Diversified Channels for Online Political Participation 125

2.2 Forums/BBS: Convenient for Timely Assessments

of Local Political Situations

When online forums had just emerged, the government primarily set agendas for
discourse in order to maintain supremacy over public discourse by establishing
forums on official websites upon which relevant departments or spokespeople
disseminated information such as government policies. As society developed, this
simple top-down manner of guiding public discourse was unable to completely
satisfy the needs of the masses, and so there were many innovations made in
methods of online political participation. In terms of content, such tools as “fo-
rums,” “admonition boxes,” “government bridges,” and “service halls” not only
provided information on such particular topics as news, interviews, entrepreneur-
ship, and so on, but also gave the public channels for inquiries, suggestions, and
complaints, and also constantly expanded the scope of people’s livelihood services.
At the level of form, the style of forums was plain and simple, with fresh colors,
obvious formatting, and convenient, fast services such as guided searches.
Internet forums related to online political participation can be divided into two
categories. The first comprises nationwide forums, such as Tianya’s “Voice of the
People,” Kaidi’s “Public Sentiment Observations,” and others. These have long
been important venues for grassroots masses to report on their conditions, owing to
a high number of users and a great deal of notoriety. The second category comprises
local forums established at the provincial, city, county, or other lower level.
Some notable examples are Beijing’s “National Capital” forum, Hunan’s “Red
Network” forum, the “Hefei Forum,” Hangzhou’s “19th Floor Space,” and others.
Each of the preceding forums possess over a million registered users and host daily
averages of over 50,000 independent visits; user posts are dynamic on all of them.
As localized online forums place more emphasis on local affairs, local governments
are attaching increasing levels of importance to them, and many local governments
are establishing modules for political participation on local public forums with high
view rates. For example, Hunan’s “Red Network” has established a sub-section
called “Political Participation Hunan,” on which internet users can provide policy
suggestions or complaints to governmental departments at all levels within the
province. Relevant departments are responsible for responding to such comments
and the compilation and publication of their replies. In September 2012 alone, the
government made 228 replies to internet users on this forum.

2.3 Online Interviews: A Normalized, High-End Method

of Political Participation

Online interviews have become a normalized method for online political partici-
pation. This method is direct and visual, is capable of inspiring affinity, is advan-
tageous to increasing the image and credibility of party and government organs and
126 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

leaders, and closes the distance between common people and internet users. Thus,
governments and media outlets from the central to the local levels have broadly
adopted this method, which is gradually becoming common practice.
In 2011, people.cn organized 1247 interviews—a 35% growth over 2010—of
which 204 were of high-end guests at the deputy ministerial level or higher.
Interviews of high-end guests are held to high standards, use new approaches, and
exert a broad influence. Online political participation and online interviews are
growing ever more capable of attracting high-end persons from the party and
government and all other walks of life. A few notable interviews were the “na-
tionwide public security department chief interviews,” “nationwide tour of out-
standing border patrol and inspection stations,” “interview series of secretaries of
political and legislative committees,” “interview series cherishing the memories of
revolutionary ancestors,” and “online interview room of discipline inspection sec-
retaries”; all these exerted an enormous influence. In 2011, after microblogs had
entered the field of vision of government departments and officials,
“micro-interviews” gradually grew to become an important method for online
political participation. In April 2011, secretary of the Dongguan City Party
Committee, Guangdong Province, Liu Zhigeng took the occasion of his being
interviewed on the “Guanxiang Huakai” blog run by the city government news
office to discuss “how to get to happiness.” This became the first instance in the
country in which the party secretary of a prefectural-level city was interviewed on a
microblog.
Online interviews have also become an important method in handling sudden
events for the government. Four days after the “5-26” incident transpired in
Shenzhen, city traffic police consented to a microblog interview, during which they
communicated with internet users about the case and were able to understand the
opinions and perspectives of internet users in the matter. The police used the
opportunity to publicize videos, pictures, and other evidence from the case, dis-
pelling internet user doubts, refuting rumors that had been circulating online, and
making it easier for the city government to continue handling the incident.

2.4 Ranking Officials’ Emails/Message Boards:

“Express Train” for Public Opinion

Ranking officials’ emails and internet message boards are common methods the
government employs to collect public opinion. Most government websites contain a
link to “ranking officials’ emails,” through which internet users can send their
opinions to leaders in all locales. In addition to email accounts, leader message
boards are another important channel for understanding public opinion.
2 Diversified Channels for Online Political Participation 127

In May 2012, citizens of Urumqi used a message board to notify local leaders of
the lack of a public kindergarten in their neighborhood, which was making it
difficult to find kindergartens for their children and increasing parental burdens.
Municipal committee officials quickly responded on the message board that they
would handle this matter as fast as possible. Shortly thereafter a plan was formu-
lated to build a new public kindergarten in their neighborhood.
The biggest difference between online political participation and the traditional
work of receiving petitions is the openness of the former. The complaints and
suggestions of internet users, as well as the responses and handling of affairs by the
government, are all on the internet, open for all to see. Such openness increases
pressure on the government and makes supervision of government via public dis-
course easier. Online message boards are as open as it gets; one could call them the
platform that most clearly typifies online political participation. The government,
the media, and the masses all attach a great deal of importance to communication
achieved on message boards between the public and public administrators. The
government is willing to draft laws in response to suggestions left on message
boards. The media is willing to open a slew of new message boards. The masses are
willing to write suggestions on message boards.

2.5 Online Surveys: A Good Method for Monitoring Public

Opinion and Collecting Good Ideas

In the drafting of laws and policies in recent years, one often sees the line “X
suggestions for revisions collected online” in media reports; this demonstrates that
online surveys have become an important method for online political participation
in China. Online surveys are a direct means of online political participation, and are
typically characterized by low cost, broad scope, and high degrees of truthfulness.
Government departments can use a great quantity of free survey platforms to
monitor public opinion on such issues as the people’s livelihoods, policies, and so
on. They can then make adjustments to their laws and policies per popular reac-
tions, allowing them to make policies that are more practical, closer to life, and
closer to the people.
On gov.cn alone, “online surveys” to collect popular opinion have been used for
things as small as reformatting of web pages and for things as big as administrative
laws and departmental regulations. Of all those surveys, the “soliciting of opinions
on administrative laws and regulations” section encompasses all drafted laws issued
in recent times. In another example, on March 31, 2012, the National Copyright
Administration (NCA) issued the “Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of
China (Revised Draft)” on its website, soliciting the public for opinions. Article 46
of the draft incited heated controversy among internet users regarding the protection
of copyrighted materials. Many renowned musicians and internet users proposed
amendments to the law on the website. On July 10 of the same year, the NCA
128 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

issued the second revision of the law, from which the contents of the former Article
46 had been deleted.

3 Development Trends of Online Political Participation

3.1 Universalization of Online Political Participation

The universalization of online political participation can be summed up in this way:

after years of development and distribution, “online political participation” as it is
currently being promoted by central and local party and government organs, after
years of development and distribution, is now typified by being of a large scale and
universally applied, at the levels of regions, departments, organs, personnel,
administrative grades, audiences, and so on.
Online political participation is now an important component of E-governance.
In 2011, the CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council General
Office jointly issued the “Opinions on Deepening Government Openness and
Strengthening Government Services,” which called for “promoting the application
of telecommunications networks, radio and television networks, the internet, and
other modern scientific and technological measures within government services,
and increasing the level of informatization of government services.” The State
Council General Office then released a notice regarding further strengthening of the
work of managing government websites, which emphasized “strengthening
mechanisms and giving full play to the ability of government websites to disclose
information and bring about interactive communication.” These opinions also made
a special note that “important policy decisions that involve the direct interests of the
masses must be publicized on government websites in order to solicit opinions,”
and that “we advocate for leading comrades in local governments and government
departments to consent to online interviews on government websites.”
In addition to widespread growth of platforms for online political participation,
internet user message boards, and government spokespeople, government micro-
blogs have proven to be one of the most dynamic platforms for online political
participation in recent years; their widespread opening at regional and departmental
levels illustrates the universalization of online political participation as promoted by
the government in China. This is both a foundation and prerequisite for the party
and government to strengthen online political participation and deepen reforms to
the administrative and political systems at the level of institutionalization.
Statistics from people.cn’s Public Sentiment Monitoring Office indicate that as
of the end of October 2011, government microblogs in China already covered all 34
provincial-level regions of China, with more microblogs opened in the East, South,
and North than in the Center and West; government microblog registrations were
best in such economically developed regions as Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu,
Zhejiang, and Fujian. In terms of departmental distribution, most government
3 Development Trends of Online Political Participation 129

microblogs in 2010 were opened by departments in such areas as public security,

tourism, propaganda, and the justice system. By the end of 2012, that distribution
had expanded to include the majority of functional departments, most notably in
public security, tourism, publicity, transportation, justice, and Youth League
committees. There were marked improvements in the timeliness, service-nature,
practicality, and interactivity of information disseminated on the microblogs of
those departments, which led to a change in the overall situation of microblog
discourse and even of public discourse in general. Media outlets even called 2012
the “year of government microblogs.”
In 2012, this trend was still in the ascendant. As of the end of October that year,
government microblogs were still on the rise from the central to the local level, with
over 53,000 verified government microblogs on Sina alone belonging to over 40
central ministries, commissions, and administrations and as far down the line as
Local government organs. The “2012 Third Quarter Report on Government
Microblogs” indicated that Local government bodies with a million followers at the
district/ county, town and township, and neighborhood levels were gradually
coming to the fore, and coming to comprise an important positive force driving
microblog development.
In the future, as technology develops, the internet’s role as an important channel
for E-governance will grow increasingly prominent, and platforms for online
political participation will grow ever more abundant. Many new media technologies
not quite in the application phase may also join the fray of online political par-
ticipation when they become mature.

3.2 Institutionalization of the Use of Online Political

Participation

The institutionalization of online political participation means that at present and for
a time to come, the “online political participation” activities in which party and
government organs and leaders in China participate broadly will be extended from
limitations to just some areas to encompass the entire administrative system and all
aspects of national politics, economy, culture, society, and life; its contents will
transition from special, un-fixed methods toward universally approved, fixed
models. The institutionalization of online political participation is a long-term
project in which we will extend the functions of party and government organs onto
the internet, and is also a process of change in which all social organizations and
groups will come to be standardized and orders. On the one hand, it will be
manifested as a method through which the contents and formats of interaction
between the government and the people change. On the other hand, it will end up as
the completion of party and government organization administrative methods,
organization departments, human resource structures, and institutions and systems.
130 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

China’s constitution and laws provide a solid foundation for the institutional-
ization of online political participation. Article two of the constitution reads: “The
people administer State affairs and manage economic and cultural undertakings and
social affairs through various channels and in various ways in accordance with the
provisions of law.” Article 27 reads: “All State organs and functionaries must rely
on the support of the people, keep in close touch with them, heed their opinions and
suggestions, accept their supervision and do their best to serve them.” Article 35
ensures the people’s right to free speech.
The party and government have for a long time attached great importance to
striving to promote government openness and the construction of a democratic
government. In 1987, the 13th CPC National Congress report proposed “increasing
the level of openness of the activities of leading organs, letting the people know
about major conditions, and discussing major issues with the people.” This was the
initial judgment of the party document regarding the right to know and the right to
expression. In 1999, the Chinese government began drafting and implementing its
“Go Online” program. In the beginning the “two open and one supervision”
activities, comprehensive promotion of openness of village affairs, and the imple-
mentation of the system of open government work caused constant increases to the
ideology of open information in some government departments. There was a
gradual movement toward making policy decisions only after holding hearings in
major government matters that touch upon the direct interests of the people.
In recent years, a series of important meetings, documents, reports, laws, and
regulations of the party and government have all been of major guiding significance
in the institutionalization of online political participation in China. On May 1, 2005,
the State Council Issued the “Regulations on Letters and Visits.” On January 8,
2006, the State Council issued the “Overall Response Plan for National Sudden
Public Incidents.” On August 30, the “Sudden Incident Response Law of the
People’s Republic of China” was issued. In April 2008, the State Council issued the
“People’s Republic of China Regulations on Open Government Information.” The
Fourth Plenum of the 16th CPC National Congress proposed: “We should establish
mechanisms for collecting and analyzing public sentiment and open up channels for
the public to reflect popular opinion.” “Improve the system for news releases and
fast response mechanisms for news reports on major sudden incidents.” “Strengthen
the construction of battlefield positions in online ideology and public opinion and
seize the initiative in guiding online public discourse.” The report of the 17th CPC
National Congress clearly called for “shoring up democratic institutions; enriching
democratic forms; broadening democratic channels; implementing democratic
elections, democratic policymaking, democratic management, and democratic
supervision in accordance with the law; and safeguarding the people’s right to
know, right to participate, right to expression, and right to supervise.” In February
2014, Xi Jinping made the following comment at the first meeting of the Central
Leading Group for Internet Security and Informatization: “Performing the work of
online public discourse well is a long-term task. We should innovate in and improve
online propaganda; employ patterns for online dissemination; carry forward the
dominant theme; stimulate positive energy; strive to foster and implement the core
3 Development Trends of Online Political Participation 131

values of socialism; maintain control over the time, degree, and effectiveness of
guiding online public discourse; and make online spaces cool and bright.”
With the rise of public discourse on the internet, there have been increases to the
development of democratic government, democratic concepts, civic awareness, and
awareness of direct participation in government. The public is increasingly raising
appeals for their rights or directly participating in government via various channels
and methods. At present, there are still some problems in the current implemen-
tation of “online political participation” that require resolution. The level of
informatization of government affairs in some local governments is limited; they
lack dedicated online government affairs staff and corresponding technologies. The
level of online political participation is primarily determined by whether the gov-
erning philosophy of government departments and officials is enlightened; there is a
lack of unified mechanisms for assessing government achievements. Sometimes
online political participation exists as merely a formality, and sometimes responses
to the proposals of internet users are slow, lack content, or are written
half-heartedly; this causes unequal efficiency in online political participation.
Websites, microblogs, forums, and the like are merely the vehicles of online
political participation. The effectiveness of online political participation is deter-
mined by a single entity: the government. In order to allow online political par-
ticipation to truly exert long-term, stable positive effects, we need to change the
values of those who exercise public authorities and make them fully aware that the
internet is a tool for the people to seek information, participate in government, and
seek services, and is also one of the government’s tools for providing services and
strengthening public administration. We should also make a pledge to support the
internet using political institutions.
The internet is the channel for communication between the government and the
people with the lowest costs and the greatest speed. Institutionalizing “online
political participation” is one of the lowest-cost, highest-efficiency measures for
administrative system reforms. If we are able to feasibly incorporate online public
opinion into policymaking, and solidify this measure using corresponding institu-
tions, we will greatly increase the capacity of the government to govern. China’s
“Regulations on Open Government Information” clearly stipulate that government
organs should promptly disclose relevant information regarding all laws and
administrative regulations for which the regulations demand disclosure. Online
political participation is an effective course for thoroughly implementing the
institution of government information disclosure. In the construction of institutions
and assessments of administrative work, we should guide public participation
through institutionalization of some policymaking. We can also establish mecha-
nisms for sharing and integration of necessary information resources between dif-
ferent departments to ensure the feasibility and effectiveness of online political
participation. “Those who know the roof is leaking are the ones underneath it; those
who know the government is deficient are the common people.” If everybody in
132 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

society attaches importance to the power of the internet; the government establishes
sound mechanisms for collecting, categorizing, delegating, supervising, and
responding in online political participation; an effective mechanism is formed for
hearing public opinion, consolidating public wisdom, and condensing public sen-
timent; and all the above are used to promote clear, abundant, and effective com-
munication and interaction between the government and internet users; then there
will be a great increase in the government’s capacity to govern.
At the end of October 2012, an article in Nanfang ribao reported on the
advantages of institutionalization: “From ‘mayor email accounts’ in the beginning
to complete online petitioning systems, from groping in the beginning to now
standing at the fore of the industry, online political participation in Heyuan has
undergone the test of the passing of power from the previous two secretaries, but
has not shut down because of the departure of a particular individual, demonstrating
the vitality of institutionalized online political participation.”7 It is our under-
standing that incorporating the work of online political participation within rigorous
work assessments is an important safeguard for the institutionalization of online
political participation in Heyuan. Work units directly subordinate to the city may
dock a maximum two points from annual work assessments for lack of achieve-
ments in the area of “public servant email accounts.” As of June 30, 2012, “public
servant email accounts” in Heyuan had received a total of 60,146 emails, responded
to 57,840, and processed to completion 56,006, a completion rate of 93.1%. There
were real achievements in online political participation, and institutionalized
measures ensured that online political participation would not exist in name only,
but rather would become a platform whereupon the public could express opinions
and receive replies.

3.3 Integration of Different Channels for Online Political

Participation

With the arrival of media convergence and the era of big data, channels for online
political participation are exhibiting a trend toward convergence as well. This can
be seen not only in the integration of the methods of new and traditional online
political participation, but also in the convergence of multi-media formats and
technical tools. Traditional means for political participation of citizens included
elections, voting, deliberations, symposiums, expository hearings, public hearings,
criticisms, suggestions, letters and visits, complains, re-deliberations, lawsuits, and
so on. Citizens could also participate in politics through traditional media such as
newspapers, radio, and television. Today, however, as far as the aforementioned
traditional means of political participation are concerned, citizens can become

7
Staff reporter Li Xiuting and intern Liu Qiuxiang, “Avoiding Shutdown in Online Political
Participation After the Departure of an Individual,” Nanfang ribao, October 30, 2012.
3 Development Trends of Online Political Participation 133

internet users, and can exercise their right to know, right to expression, right to
supervise, and right to participation by discussing state politics or making appeals
for their rights online. There has been a smooth linking between traditional political
participation and online political participation in both technology and content; there
has also been an extremely large increase in the results of political participation.
The methods of online political participation are currently transitioning away
from singular channels to multiple channels. Posts in forums are the fountainhead of
online political participation. Online political platforms and internet user message
boards are the evolved forms of forums. Microblogs are epitomizers of the methods
of political participation, and government microblogs are new growth points for
online political participation. In 2003, MOP, Tianya, and KDNet were still the
centers of online political participation in China. In 2006 there was a great pro-
liferation of online message boards, and in 2010 there was great growth in
microblog political participation. There is at present a trend for cross-platform
propagation of online political participation. Forum posts are giving way to long
microblog posts, and online message boards are giving way to identity-verified user
message boards. Conventional channels for political participation have converged
into governmental new media channels, making them the convergence point of
online political participation channels. The convergence of traditional and online
media is another noteworthy development trend. The SouthCN Reporting Network
has undergone a new round of updates, consolidating the resources of SouthCN,
oeeee.com, and the South Nongovernmental Think-tank (SNT) with online political
participation clearly identified as their core, in order to go all out to build a
“southern omnimedia platform for online political participation.” Online political
participation will give rise to new omnimedia formats, headed by social media.
During the “Lianghui” meetings of 2012, such popular online communities as
Tiexue, KDNet, Tianya, and oeeee.com posted at least one article related to the
“Lianghui.” Such battlefields for social discourse lying within the system as the
“Strong Nation” forum, the “Restoration” forum, and the “New China” forum all
used themes to solicit the sharing of popular opinions. The “I have a question for
the Premier” message board maintained explosive popularity, garnering over 4000
posts during the “Lianghui” period. Microblogs surged with even more activity,
with topics such as government work reports, news conferences, and the actions
and words of delegates being the most popular. In an atmosphere of all-around
fervent discussion, microblogs still managed to garner the most attention. Internet
users sent suggestions to delegates or government microblogs using the handle
“@Lianghui,” and most breaking news from media outlets is generally first dis-
seminated on microblogs. The previously simple functionality of forums has now
evolved and taken on the role of message boards as well.
Microblogs were also at the forefront during the “7-21” floods in Beijing.
Traditional media interacted with online media, and a great cohesive force of online
134 6 Online Political Participation: Establishing New Mechanisms …

political participation was demonstrated. Such government microblogs as “Beijing

Announcements” and “Beijing Firefighters” conducted live broadcasts of emer-
gency relief actions online. Microblog political participation entered deeply into the
people’s hearts, and in the early morning on July 22, the People’s Daily official
microblog went online, its first post concerning the floods in Beijing also garnering
a great deal of support.

3.4 Online Political Participation Resulting in Concrete

Outcome

The materialization of the results of online political participation means: timely

responses from party and government functional organs and subsequent appropriate
resolution of the various appeals that citizens and internet users express through their
online political participation activities, as well as the various issues that are reported.
One should not understand online political participation as “official achievements
programs” or “emphasizing words more than actions”; we must tighten communi-
cations with the people and fully implement all policies of the party and state that
benefit the people. If we are unable to materialize “online political participation”: to
smooth out social relationships at their foundations; to resolve the sources of social
conflicts; and to sort out obstacles within the system; then we will need to discount the
significance of the important values of online political participation. Thus, the
materialization of online political participation has embodied the excellent traditions
and truth-seeking, pragmatic working style of the party, and is a concentrated
embodiment of the core values and significance of online political participation.
First, the development of online political participation has not only increased the
government’s capacity to govern, but has also strengthened the political partici-
pation awareness and ability to participate in politics of the citizenry. Institutions
related to online political participation are gradually being perfected, and mecha-
nisms gradually improved. In order to properly perform the work of processing the
information on online message boards, party and government organs in many
places have established fixed working mechanisms for responding to and handling
the messages left by internet users in the form of “government confidential docu-
ments.” Government and judicial organs around the country have registered official
microblogs, established dedicated bodies, and appropriated dedicated staff in order
to ensure that the great volume of issues reported by internet users be attached
importance and processed in a timely, appropriate fashion; this has made it possible
for problems raised online to be resolved offline, and has fundamentally resolved
the problems of “actualizing” online political participation.
3 Development Trends of Online Political Participation 135

Next, frequent online political participation demonstrates the ability of the

people to participate in government. Elites from all walks “speak truth to power” on
microblogs; when common internet users join the fray, their political awareness and
ability to participate in government both increase. For example, in 2010, Phoenix
Weekly reporter Deng Fei wrote a post about a “free lunch” plan on his microblog
in order to raise money for free lunches for children in impoverished areas. On
October 26, 2011, the State Council resolved to implement a plan to improve
nutritional meals for rural compulsory education students, affecting 680
county-level administrative regions and about 26 million students. From the pro-
posal of the “free lunch” plan to the implementation of the State Council resolution,
there was a synthesis of popular exploration and state actions, which was advan-
tageous to the promotion of improvements to the people’s livelihoods and an
increase to the government’s credibility.
Chapter 7
Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last
Mile” of E-governance Public Services

Providing services to the public is a basic function of government. Local govern-

ments are on the front line of benefitting the people and providing services to them.
Their ability to administer and to provide services are directly related to the interests
of the common people. In recent years, as construction and application of
E-governance in China have grown ever deeper, and the focus of E-governance has
gradually shifted toward permeating the basal level, making E-governance an
important measure for driving innovation in public administration and increasing
the capacity to serve of Local governments.

1 Background and Significance of Promoting

the Extension of E-governance to the Basal Level

1.1 Local Governments: On the Front Line

of Serving the People

Local governments are an important component of China’s government system,

responsible for providing grassroots public products and services. As of the end of
2011, there were 40,466 town or township level administrative regions (see Fig. 1),
590,000 village committees, and 89,000 residential committees (see Fig. 2) in the
country.1 Towns and townships (neighborhoods in urban areas) and communities
(villages in rural areas) are the most stable grassroots units in the real work of the
party and government in the economy, society, and other areas; they are on the front
line of benefitting and serving the people. The ability to fulfill duties and level of
service of Local government organs directly affects the closest interests of the
common people. In the course of real work, the majority of government actions that
1
Ministry of Civil Affairs, “2011 Social Services Development Statistical Report.” [EB/OL].
[2012-10-22]. http://cws.mca.gov.cn/article/tjbg/201210/20121000362598.shtml.

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 137
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0_7
138 7 Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last Mile” …

Fig. 1 Changes in towns, townships, and neighborhoods in china over several years. Data source
Ministry of civil affairs: statistical report on social services development in 2011, June, 2012

Fig. 2 Changes to residential and village committees in china. Data source Ministry of civil
affairs, statistical data from the nationwide social services industry, 2007–2011

directly affect the concrete interests of the people are undertaken by Local gov-
ernments, and the majority of services available to the public are provided by Local
governments. Strengthening the capacity of Local governments in public admin-
istration and service provision is an effective measure in strengthening
self-construction and management of the government, and is an important com-
ponent of the construction of service-oriented government. On February 19, 2011,
at the opening ceremony of a special symposium on public administration and
1 Background and Significance of Promoting the Extension … 139

innovation therein for important leaders at the provincial level, Secretary General
Hu Jintao underscored the need to “further strengthen and improve the local public
administration and service system; invest more human resources, financial
resources, and physical resources into the basal level; strive to shore up grassroots
organization, invigorate grassroots power, integrate grassroots resources, and
strengthen fundamental work; strengthen autonomy and service functions of urban
and rural communities; and strengthen new community administration and service
systems.” The “Twelfth Five-Year Planning Compendium for the Development of
the National Economy and Society,” issued in March 2011, clearly called for
“strengthening the grassroots administration and service system, promoting a
downward movement of the focus of administration, and extending to the basal
level functions of public services.” In November 2012, the 18th CPC Congress
report called for “improving the methods of government service provision,
strengthening the construction of the system for local public administration and
services, and strengthening the service functions of urban and rural communities.”
It is thus clear that strengthening local public administration and services has
become a marked trend of government administration in China in the new age.

1.2 Promoting the Extension of E-governance to the Basal

Level: A Necessity in the Construction
of Service-Oriented Government at the Basal Level

Devotion to the provision of convenient, rapid, high-quality services is a core

strategic objective of administrative reforms, and is a necessity and core component
of the construction of service-oriented government, but is even more the starting
point for the promotion of E-governance and the essence of E-governance. The
relationship between the construction of local E-governance and the work, life, and
leisure of the people is the closest; this relationship is the “last mile” on the
expressway of information that links the government with the people and directly
affects whether information services will be provided broadly to the people. This
relationship enriches life, broadens channels for employment, strengthens grass-
roots democracy, and makes it convenient to enjoy public services; it is the foun-
dation of E-governance in its entirety. The extension of E-governance to the basal
level and increasing of Local governments’ ability to provide services are not only
an important yardstick for regional socioeconomic development and the govern-
ment’s level of governance, but are also advantageous to ensuring that all state
grassroots public services are fully implemented at the basal level; they are of great
significance to the optimization of the provision of grassroots public services, the
establishment of a grassroots public services system, and by extension the pro-
motion of the construction of grassroots service-oriented government.
140 7 Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last Mile” …

1.3 Promoting Extension of E-governance to the Basal

Level: Present Focus of State E-governance Work

Since the beginning of the new millennium, construction of E-governance in China

has been primarily concentrated at the central departmental/ministerial level, the
provincial level, and the municipal level. E-governance construction has lagged far
behind at the county and town/township levels, particularly in urban areas; this has
become a “shortcoming” in the development of E-governance in China at present.
The current capacities of central, provincial, and municipal E-governance systems
and platforms to extend to Local governments remain insufficient, and the level of
informatization of core tasks among Local government departments is low across
the nation. Lags in construction of information infrastructure in rural areas, a lack of
both awareness and capacity for Local government E-governance services, low
abilities for rural citizens to access online information, and other problems have
caused difficulties in the extension of E-governance platforms to the town/township
and village levels and greatly obstructed the informatized development of Local
government openness and public administration. Although governments in some
economically developed and leading informatization application regions now
possess a degree of work automation and have achieved an initial scale in infor-
mation networks and information resources, on the whole, E-governance in most
Local governments remains stuck in the stage of “without bridges or roads, it’s
difficult to drive cars.” E-governance services in these places remains far from
sufficient to satisfy the diversified needs of grassroots citizens, and the effects of
services in such places are poor across the board. Thus, universal topics of concern
in this new era are how to extend E-governance to the basal level and enable
E-governance construction to benefit the entire population. During the “Twelfth
Five-Year Plan” period, E-governance in China is in a crucial stage of transfor-
mation of development models, deepening of application, and giving prominence to
achievements. Strengthening construction of E-governance is both the focus point
for deepening application and the direction of efforts for giving prominence to
achievements. Professor Wang Yukai of the Chinese Academy of Governance once
noted: “Counties and towns are responsible for a great quantity of public services
and directly come into contact with common people. From the county to the town,
and even to the village and community, this may be the development direction for
E-governance in the future.”2 The “National E-governance Program for the
‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan,’ “issued in March 2012, clearly stressed the need to
“accelerate the extension of services to the basal level, increase the efficiency and
quality of services, and cause E-governance to benefit the entire population” and to
“strengthen the application of services in county-level and Local governments.” It is
thus clear that promoting the extension of E-governance to the basal level and

2
Wang Yukai, “Superstructure Design and Development Trends of E-governance During the
‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan,” Dianzi zhengwu, 2010 (8).
1 Background and Significance of Promoting the Extension … 141

striving to develop local E-governance is one of the focus tasks for E-governance
promotion during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period and for a time to come.

2 Overall Progress in the Extension of E-governance

to the Basal Level

In recent years, as E-governance construction in China has been constantly deep-

ened, and in particular with the successive launches and implementations of a series
of “Golden” programs, all central administrative departments have strengthened
their demands for extending transaction systems and networks to the local and basal
levels. Such demands have not been limited to vertically controlled departments of
the central government; ever more administrative departments not vertically sub-
ordinate to the center are also starting to extend their systems and networks to the
level of neighborhoods and towns. At the same time, local governments across the
country are gradually realizing that extending E-governance to the basal level is
highly important for promoting local public administration and public services.
These governments are constantly expanding the areas to which E-governance is
expanded and are also innovating in and enriching grassroots service models.

2.1 The Center Attaches Great Importance to Promoting

the Development of Local E-governance

The CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and relevant departments all attach
a great deal of importance to the extension of E-governance to the basal level, and
as such they have issued several policy documents related to the acceleration of
local E-governance construction to increase the level of grassroots public services.
The 18th CPC National Congress Report contains clearly defined requirements
for the promotion of local public administration and public services, noting that in
order to make public administration more scientifically-sound, informatization must
first be strengthened. This fully affirmed the important role played by informati-
zation in driving innovation in local public administration and increasing the quality
of grassroots public services.
The “Twelfth Five-Year Planning Compendium for the Development of the
National Economy and Society (2011–2015)” (hereafter “the five-year plan”) is the
grand blueprint and action plan for the development of all industries within China’s
economy and society during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period. The five-year
plan stresses that during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, we should “go all out
in urban community construction and actively promote construction of rural
communities. It also enumerates tasks and demands for grassroots community
142 7 Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last Mile” …

construction in areas such as system construction, institution construction, and

platform construction. The five-year plan proposes that we “shore up the grassroots
management and services system, promote the downward movement of the focus of
management, and extend grassroots public service functions. Establish norms for
developing community service stations and other dedicated service organs and
effectively handle the commissioning of Local governments with these tasks. Using
the needs of residents as a guide, integrate such management functions and service
resources as population, employment, social security, civil affairs, health, culture,
comprehensive governance, maintenance of stability, and letters and visits; accel-
erate the informatization of communities; and establish comprehensive manage-
ment and service platforms in communities.” The five-year plan’s issuance
provided guiding thought for the promotion of grassroots public services and the
development of local E-governance.
The “National E-governance Program for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan,’” which
sets out guiding blueprint for the development of E-governance in China during the
“Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, in makes it clear that during said period, we
should “accelerate extension of services to the basal level, increase the efficiency
and quality of services, and cause E-governance to benefit all of the people.” In the
area of strengthening the application of government services at the county and basal
levels, the “objective” set was to augment efforts in promoting the application of
government openness and government services at the county level, constantly
innovating in service methods and measures, and driving the applied development
of the construction of grassroots public service systems. The “focus and contents”
of work is to develop government service applications in areas such as civil affairs,
planned birth, labor, education, health, public security, and agriculture using
county-level governments’ E-governance public infrastructure; increase the quan-
tity of services; expand the scope of services; strengthen interconnectivity between
transaction and application systems; drive coordination in information sharing and
tasks; and increase the level of services. The “methods and means” to be adopted
are deepening service applications in channels such as government service centers
and all manner of government service windows; making full use of existing
grassroots facilities for service provision; and accelerating the extension of gov-
ernment services to the town/township (neighborhood) and community (adminis-
trative village) levels. At the same time, we are to constantly increase the capacity
to apply E-governance of Local government personnel; develop “one stop” ser-
vices; provide convenient, high quality, diversified, comprehensive services to the
public; and increase the level of grassroots services. One could say that the
“National E-governance Program for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’” clearly pointed
the path forward for the extension of E-governance to the basal level.
To further increase the levels of openness and service in county-level govern-
mental affairs, in September 2011, the State Council General Office retransmitted
the Leading Group for National Informatization’s “Opinions on Using
E-governance Platforms to Strengthen the Work of County-Level Government
2 Overall Progress in the Extension of E-governance … 143

openness and Government Service Pilots,”3 which emphasized that “the focus of
deepening government openness and strengthening government services lies at the
basal level, and the difficulty lies at the basal level. In county-level government
work related to developing E-governance platforms, the area affected is broad, the
circumstances complex, and the difficulty of work great; we must use pilots to
accumulate experience, gradually establish norms, and push forward in an orderly
manner.” The opinions also laid out guiding ideology, basic principles, objectives
and tasks, and implementation steps. Thereafter, the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology (MIIT), the Ministry of Supervision, and the National
Bureau of Corruption Prevention jointly drafted the “Implementation Guide for
Using E-governance Platforms to Strengthen County-Level Government Openness
and Government Services,”4 which proposed concrete guiding opinions for the
extension of E-governance to the basal level and clarified that those things to be
extended to the basal level included extensions of services, networks, and windows.
In June 2012, the “Several Opinions of the State Council on Vigorously Promoting
the Development of Informatization and Feasibly Safeguarding Information
Security”5 again called for “accelerating the extension of E-governance services to
neighborhoods, communities, and rural areas, and supporting innovative pilots in
local governments and communities developing models for administration or
services.”
In addition, all Central Documents No. One issued from 2005 to present have
called for great development to rural informatization. In December 2011, the
Ministry of Agriculture issued the “National Rural Informatization Plan for the
‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan,’” which further clarified the work to be done in rural
informatization during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period. To strengthen con-
struction of community service systems in urban local E-governance plans, in
December 2011, the State Council General Office issued the “Community Service
System Construction Plan (2011–2015),” which proposed vigorously promoting
community-level informatization, including improvements to community infor-
mation infrastructure, increasing the capacity of residents to use information
technology, integrating community public service information, allowing compre-
hensive community information platforms to play a role, and so on.
In summary, the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and relevant con-
trolling departments all attach a great deal of importance to local E-governance. The
issuance of relevant documents has pointed the way forward for the extension of
E-governance to the basal level, and has provided an advantageous policy envi-
ronment for the development of local E-governance.

3
State Council General Office Letter No. 99 (2011).
4
MIIT Joint Letter No. 455 (2011).
5
State Council Issuance No. 23, (2012).
144 7 Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last Mile” …

2.2 Continuous Deepening of Extension of E-governance

to the Urban Basal Level

2.2.1 All Manner of Applications Being Extended to Neighborhoods

and Communities

In recent years, with the shifting downward of the focus of management and the
constant extension of E-governance networks to the basal level, all manner of
government applications have begun being extended to the neighborhood and
community levels.
At the central government level, the networks and application systems of pri-
mary state ministries and commissions (including “Golden Customs,” “Golden
Tax,” “Golden Land,” “Golden Security,” “Golden Shield,” planned birth, statis-
tics, and other departments) have been connected down to the county level; some
have already achieved or are in the process of establishing connectivity down to the
level of townships and neighborhoods. For example, the “Golden Shield” program
now covers 90% of grassroots public security organs, overall increasing the
capacity of public security organs to investigate and solve criminal cases. The State
Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has achieved a 100% coverage
rate of all five tiers of industry and commerce organs around the country, basically
establishing an informatized network system that covers the national industry and
commerce system. As part of one of the four major functions of the “Golden
Security” program, “public services,” officials have developed an information
system for managing grassroots labor protections, which has been applied in
neighborhood and community grassroots service organs in many cities, bringing
labor protection services closer to the common people. The National Cultural
Information Resources Sharing Program has established a Chinese Cultural
Information Center and Chinese Cultural Network Center; the transmission network
of the Cultural Information Resources Network has been extended to most neigh-
borhoods and communities, and the program has built a sharing program com-
munity website, initially satisfying the needs of grassroots citizens to “seek
knowledge, seek wealth, seek health, and seek pleasure.”
At the local level, most Chinese cities are currently deepening implementation of
an urban management system composed of “two-tiered government” (the city and
county/district levels), “three-tiered management” (the city, county/district, and
neighborhood/town and township levels), and “four-tiered networks” (the city,
district/county, neighborhood/town and township, and community levels). This
system is aimed at giving prominence to being guided, embodied, and subordinated
by urban management in government bureaus at the county/district, neighborhood,
and community levels, and clarifying the responsibilities and authorities of urban
managers in cities. The system is intended to strengthen the status of neighborhood
offices and community residential committees at the grassroots, fundamental level
of urban management; to cause urban management work to truly be implemented
down to the basal level; to expand such work to the community level; and to cause a
2 Overall Progress in the Extension of E-governance … 145

downward shift in the focus of urban management. To these ends, governments in

all areas are actively promoting the extension of corresponding transaction and
application systems to the basal level. On the one hand, this will strengthen the
ability of Local governments to supervise and cause their operations to become
more efficient and more standardized, and on the other hand, this will effectively
increase the quality of Local government public services and allow them to more
effectively benefit the people. For example, in 2006, all neighborhoods in Yuexiu
District, Guangzhou, launched 16 systems, including automatic work systems and
community management systems, reaching their objective of “100% application of
community systems.” At the same time, the district was the first in the city to
establish a “six-in-one” comprehensive service system for bringing convenience to
the people, benefiting the people, and for labor protections that integrated man-
agement, human resources, fiscal affairs, land use, institutions, and tasks; this
became a comprehensive, integrated, multi-functional three-tier (district, neigh-
borhood, and community) labor protection services network. In 2010, the municipal
government of Nanchong used its E-governance extranet to build two major sys-
tems for video surveillance and administrative approvals in all public service
centers of the city, in order to increase the supervisory abilities of all grassroots
public service centers and drive up the quality of service in administrative service
centers. All township governments have completed construction of electronic video
surveillance systems, bringing about inter-connected operations of electronic video
surveillance systems at four levels: provincial, municipal, county, and town/
township. In early 2012, the government of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, estab-
lished a platform for coordinating work that covered over 170 district departments
and the over 5000 town/township and neighborhood government workers in the
district, providing them with a personalized, independent departmental work sys-
tem, and bringing about proceduralized management of the collection, processing,
and issuing of public documents, greatly increasing administrative efficiency. In
2012, Chengdu further strengthened the work of extending basic work unit direc-
tory databases to the basal level, issuing the “Notice on Feasibly Performing the
Work of Extending Basic Work Unit Directory Databases to the Basal level in
2012,” which called for an extension of basic work unit directory databases to all
township and neighborhood governments in the city by the end of June 2012.

2.2.2 Gradual Implementation of Urban Grid Management

Grid management (sometimes referred to as the grid model of management) is a

typical model in which the government innovates in local public administration and
public services using informatization. In 2004, Dongcheng District, Beijing, took
the lead in proposing the establishment of a new model for urban grid management.
Officials proposed using a digitalized platform for urban management to divide the
district’s jurisdiction into grid units per set standards, and then establish a model for
supervision and division of management by strengthening inspections of the
components and incidents in each grid area. Thereafter, Dongcheng District
146 7 Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last Mile” …

expanded its thinking on grid management to include application in such areas as

basic public services, monitoring of economic operations, urban public security,
and social services management, on the foundation of practical successes already
achieved in urban grid management. At present, officials behind Dongcheng
District’s grid management system have established a comprehensive command
center for district-level social services management; comprehensive sub-command
centers for neighborhood social services management; a “three-tiered platform”
comprehensive work station for community services management; and a
“four-tiered management” system at the district, neighborhood, community, and
grid levels; thereby promoting more finely tuned management in local governments.
As of December 31, 2011, the system had handled 811,000 urban management
issues and resolved 796,000 of them, a resolution rate of 98.09%; the system had
also received 14,726 cases via telephone reporting, of which 5732 were entered in
the system and 5465 were resolved, a resolution rate of 95.34%. The system
receives a monthly average of 12,000 issues, seven times higher than in the past; the
average time required to process an issue is 6.5 h, only one-sixth the amount of
time required in the past.
The application of grid management allows for extension of social services
management to every corner of society, makes grassroots urban services manage-
ment responsibilities at the neighborhood and community level clearer, makes
methods more fine-tuned, makes coordination closer, and makes E-governance
construction benefit citizens at the basal level. In June 2005, the municipal gov-
ernment of Beijing promoted the application of Dongcheng District’s grid man-
agement system throughout the city. In July the Ministry of Construction
promulgated the system to 51 cities (or districts) around the nation, including
Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Wuhan. Shanghai’s urban grid management
system has now extended from central districts to outlying districts and counties,
covering a total of 18 districts and counties and 190 neighborhoods. Shenzhen’s
urban grid management system now covers 632 communities in the city, handling
floating population management, labor protections, fire safety, and many other
areas, and making management and services at the basal level more personalized
and fine-tuned. Statistics indicate that urban grid management has been applied in
over 150 cities around the nation at present.

2.2.3 E-governance Services Gradually Extended to Communities

As society has transformed, enterprises have been reformed, and government

functions have changed, an ever-increasing amount of “work unit people” (gov-
ernment employees) have become “society people” (self- or privately employed
people), a great deal of government functions in public administration and public
administration have shifted to society (the private sector), and the needs for com-
munity resident services are becoming increasingly personalized and diversified; it
is now imperative that we strengthen the construction of community public ser-
vices. At present, government public services in areas such as labor and
2 Overall Progress in the Extension of E-governance … 147

employment, social insurance, social services, culture and entertainment, and public
order are gradually shifting toward “society” (the private sector). Community ser-
vice methods are being constantly improved, and “one-stop” service concepts based
in informatization measures are being gradually promoted within social services.
Many places rely on neighborhood and community service centers and stations to
make use of modern information technology and integrate and intensify construc-
tion of unified community web portals, call centers, SMS platforms, wired digital
television platforms, electronic reading rooms, and autonomous information service
terminals, in order to provide “single web” or “single line” comprehensive services
to residents and conveniently, quickly satisfy the diversified needs of residents.
Ningbo’s 81890 hotline (the numbers 81890 sound similar to “just dial for results”
in local dialect) organically integrated E-governance with e-commerce and
e-community development to establish a public service platform that provides
much-needed communication and interaction between the government, businesses,
and city residents. The hotline has linked the tens of thousands of local families and
their needs with the thousands of service provision entities in the city, and has
created a new model of “all-weather, comprehensive, complete follow-up over-
sight” community E-governance public services. The “information services express
train” of Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, has further strengthened information system
integration and task coordination by establishing “one web, one site, one database,
and one platform,” creating a Local government services model whereby residents
can handle their affairs in “one stop.” The Jiefang Road Neighborhood Affairs
Office of Lixia District, Jinan, closely embracing the objectives of providing service
to the people, benefitting the people, and helping the people and departing from the
needs of the masses, has increased investments in science and technology; done a
great amount of work in E-governance and the development of three-tiered service
platforms (district, neighborhood, and residential committee); created a 24-hour
“serve the people” online services platform; created and upgraded neighborhood
“serve the people” centers and service conditions and levels for service halls in
subordinate communities and residential committees; and has taken up the van-
guard of grassroots public affairs management in the city and the province.

2.2.4 Influence of Local Government Microblogs on the Rise

As of the end of June 2012, there were 274 million microblog users in China, with
50.9% of internet users using them. Government microblogs have become an
important platform for government openness, serving the people, understanding
public opinion, and interaction between the government and the people. The current
development stage of E-governance in China and the characteristic of Local gov-
ernments to be close to the masses have determined that the focus of E-governance
at the basal level should be on interaction between the government and the masses.
In October 2012, Sina Weibo published its “Government Microblog Report for the
Third Quarter of 2012.” The report indicated that at the end of September 2012,
Sina hosted 50,947 verified government microblogs, and that there were
148 7 Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last Mile” …

government microblogs in all 34 of China’s provincial-level administrative regions.

About 80% of those government microblogs were run by organs or officials at the
county level or below. In comparison with Sina’s government microblog report for
the first half of 2012, when most government microblogs were registered to the ten
major nationwide government organs or party and government officials at the
provincial level or higher, the third quarter report indicated that most new gov-
ernment microblogs were being registered at the basal level. The extension of the
use of microblogs and other new social networks to grassroots service centers
brought more and more Local government organs and public servants to the fore;
this move was approved by the masses. Local government microblogs have made
achievements in the area of increasing the influence of online political participation
that cannot be ignored.

2.3 Gradual Extension of E-governance to the Village Level

2.3.1 Important Applications and Services from the Central

Government on Their Way to Full Coverage in Villages

In recent years, the center has placed focus on promoting the extension of important
E-governance applications and services to the village level and constantly meeting
the production and living needs of rural leaders and residents around the country;
this move has been welcomed and given positive feedback by the masses.
In 2007, the CPC Central Committee General Office issued the “Opinions on
Launching the Work of Modern Remote Education for Party Members and Leaders
in Rural Areas Around the Country,” which resolved that beginning from the
second half of 2007, work would be begun in modern remote education for party
members and leaders around the nation, beginning from a foundation of pilots. As
of the present, the task of constructing an integrated network for modern remote
education of rural party members and leaders has been satisfactorily completed.
This program established broadcasting platforms at the four levels of the center, the
province, the municipality, and the county; established over 700,000 terminals at
the township and county levels, and initially formed a network system for
long-distance education from the center down to the basal level.6 The launch of
modern long-distance education has played an important role in such areas as
educating and training rural party members and leaders, elevating the vigor of
grassroots organizations, and promoting rural informatization.
To accelerate the cultural construction of rural and under-developed regions and
enrich the people’s spiritual and cultural lives, the Ministry of Culture’s Nationwide

6
“Summary of Modern Remote Education Network Construction for Rural Party Members and
Cadres Around the Country.” [EB/OL].[2012-10-18] http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2012-10/15/content_
2244057.htm.
2 Overall Progress in the Extension of E-governance … 149

Cultural Information Resource Sharing Program has actively entered the coun-
tryside and provided to the mass of rural citizens information services in areas such
as agricultural science and technology, policies and regulations, film and drama,
Chinese poetry and songs, and healthcare. As of the end of 2010, this program had
established one national center, 33 provincial-level centers (achieving 100% cov-
erage), 2867 county-level support centers (achieving 95% coverage), 22,963 town/
township-level grassroots service stations (achieving 67% coverage), and 597,000
village-level grassroots service stations (achieving 98% coverage), providing ser-
vices to a total of 960 million citizens.7
To promote rural informatization, the Ministry of Agriculture initially estab-
lished an electronic network system for dispatching agricultural conditions, basi-
cally bringing about interconnectivity between the four levels of the ministry,
province (or autonomous district or direct-controlled city), prefectural-level city,
and county, and forming a system for dispatching agricultural conditions that was
relatively excellent and with smooth operations. The system gives timely reports on
agricultural conditions, disaster conditions, industry conditions, and popular sen-
timent, and brings about “information to the top, voices to the outside, and actions
to the bottom” in key agricultural seasons. The ministry also organized and
developed a system for keeping statistics on nationwide agricultural mechanization,
which now covers 31 provinces (or autonomous districts or direct-controlled cities)
and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps’ provincial-level agricultural
mechanization department; this system has been extended to some agricultural
mechanization departments in some cities and counties as well, greatly increasing
the efficiency of grassroots departments in filing reports, auditing, and reporting
data to superiors. By the end of 2010, the rural comprehensive information services
system had come to cover 100% of prefectural-level cities, over 95% of counties,
85% of townships, and over 65% of administrative villages, enabling sharing of
information resources and interactive information services for the government and
the people.8

2.3.2 All Provincial-Level Governments Actively Exploring Local

Rural E-governance Services

In addition to relying on centrally constructed top-to-bottom information service

stations to provide public services to grassroots rural citizens, governments in all
areas are also attempting to use information technology to extend diversified rural
services to the levels of the township and village.
First, some local governments are accelerating the construction of service net-
works for providing convenience to the people at the provincial, municipal, town/

7
Nationwide Cultural Information Resource Sharing Program. http://www.ndcnc.gov.cn/.
8
Guo Zuoyu, Treasure Chest—Cases and and Analysis of Informatization and Modern
Agriculture in China, Zhongguo nongye chubanshe, May 2011.
150 7 Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last Mile” …

township, and village levels, with platforms gradually being extended to the town/
township and village levels, bringing about linkage and integration of all manner of
service centers at all levels and forming a rural government services system that
provides top-to-bottom connectivity, with clear levels, and coverage of both urban
and rural areas. For example, Dandong City, Liaoning Province, has built a
four-tiered (municipal, county, town/township, and village) administrative services
network system. At present, more than two-thirds of all town/township govern-
ments in the city have built convenient service centers. Town/township convenient
service centers are established with the guiding mission of “for the people, con-
venience to the people, benefit the people.” Their working procedures are stan-
dardized, and they implement “one-stop” services in windows of service halls.
Departments closely related to the interests of the people such as planned birth, civil
affairs, social security, urban construction, forestry, and financial affairs are all
represented therein, thereby presenting a feasible solution to the inconvenience
caused by the disparate locations of these bureaus, and effectively resolving the
arduous problems of low levels of service and low administrative efficiency. It is
estimated that the four-tiered (municipal, county, town/township, and village)
administrative services network system will cover the entire city by the end of 2012.
Xinjin County, Chengdu City, has established a three-tiered (county, town/
township, and village/community) convenient services network. This network fully
supports the processing-by-agents system, in up to 28 administrative approvals
procedures falling under six major categories including rural housing construction,
labor and employment, and civil affairs, and down to 10 minor service procedures
including the issuing of contraceptives. Villagers in Xinjin can handle procedures
for free at any of the 106 village-level convenient service offices or on the internet,
realizing “information runs, not people,” and making it convenient for grassroots
citizens to handle procedures and obtain information. Ningguo City, Anhui
Province, has built a sound “for the people” service network covering all townships,
bringing about integrated services and interconnectivity at the three levels of the
municipality, the town/township, and the village.
Second, many specialized agricultural information service models have gone
into deep application in many areas. In recent years, all provincial-level govern-
ments have continued to ramp up efforts to create information service models
tailored to local characteristics. There have been marked increases in the capacities
of village information service systems of late. Many such specialized information
service models have surfaced, including Jilin’s “12316 New Rural Hotline,”
Zhejiang’s “Rural Citizen Mailbox,” Shanghai’s “One Stop for Rural Citizens,”
Guangdong’s “Information Express,” Hainan’s “Agricultural Technology 110,” and
Shaanxi’s “Expert Academy.”
Third, there has been steady progress made in the construction of all manner of
agricultural government websites. At present, China has built many varieties of
agricultural government websites targeting the village level, touching upon many
areas, such as planting, husbandry, fisheries, land cultivation, agricultural
machinery, agricultural science and technology education, and agricultural products
markets, playing an increasingly important role in serving the “Three Rurals.”
2 Overall Progress in the Extension of E-governance … 151

Statistics indicate that there are over 31,000 agricultural websites in China, of which
over 4000 are operated by the government. These websites actively provide the
masses of grassroots rural citizens with services such as agricultural production
guidance, agricultural product sales, and agricultural technical services. For
example, the “Anhui Agriculture Network” has now been extended to all 1327
town/township governments and the vast majority of administrative villages in the
province, providing information in such areas as climate, agricultural networks,
“China Spark Program” information, and cultural and commercial information. The
“Village Affairs E-Pass” website of Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, gives full
information in 29 areas, including rural party affairs, village affairs, public finances,
and information for “strengthening and benefitting rural citizens.” This website
fully covers all rural information that state law requires disclosed and has brought
the “five online functions” of online issuance, online searches, online supervision,
online complaints, and online critiques; at present 11 counties (or county-level
cities or districts), 88 towns/townships, and 1503 administrative villages of
Zhanjiang use this platform.

2.3.3 Gradual Informatization of Rural Local Government Affairs

At present, some regions in China have begun informatization of rural village

affairs openness and village and community administration. By developing and
promulgating city-town-village management systems, they have driven construc-
tion of fundamental databases for population, land, and enterprise information.
They are also informatizing such government tasks as planned birth, social security,
employment, military drafts, elections, fiscal affairs, emergency relief, and basic
education, all provided to grassroots township and village governments for free,
thereby increasing the levels of management and services of townships and
administrative villages. For example, the municipal government of Beijing has
brought about comprehensive informatized management of personnel, fiscal,
material, and social affairs of village organizations (primarily collective economic
organizations at the two levels of town/township and village) using integrated
network software. Beijing’s system comprises primarily the eight major functions
of operations management, population management, resource management, party
member management, public affairs management, records management, and
openness of village fiscal affairs. This system makes operations of Local govern-
ments more convenient while simultaneously allowing for the level-by-level
transmission of dynamic information to departments at higher levels, in order to
provide bases for scientific policymaking in rural economic and social develop-
ment. At present, 4014 village collective economic organizations and 192 town/
township collective economic organizations in rural Beijing have brought about
complete informatization of rural management, establishing three-tiered informa-
tion processing centers for data transmission and sharing at the four levels of the
152 7 Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last Mile” …

city, district/county, town/township, and village.9 Other statistics indicate that of the
rural E-governance projects on display at the “2010 Informatization and Modern
Agriculture Exposition,” 70% of exhibits were related to informatization of rural
public affairs management; that subset was comprised primarily of rural cooperative
medical systems (29%), land contracting and operation (29%), rural cooperative
information management (29%), and rural collective assets management informa-
tization (14%).
In the informatization of agricultural management, agricultural departments at all
levels in China are focusing on increasing administrative efficiency, deepening
reforms to the administrative approvals system, and increasing the level of services
provided to the people; to those ends they are constructing many different types of
agricultural information systems, for such functions as agricultural administrative
work, online administrative approvals, subsidies for the purchase of agricultural
machinery, video conferencing systems, and databases. Of those, some information
systems have already begun to be extended to the county and town/township levels.

3 Characteristics of E-governance Extension to the Basal

Level

On the whole, the following are the most prominent characteristics of the extension
of E-governance to the basal level in China:

3.1 Synthesis of Central Top-to-Bottom Promotion

and Grassroots Bottom-to-Top Innovations

Since the new millennium, there has been a marked acceleration in the pace of
E-governance construction in China. The current rate of E-governance coverage of
primary tasks of central and provincial-level government departments is 70%.10 The
rate of E-governance coverage of core tasks in such focus areas as customs, tax-
ation, public security, state land resources, financial oversight, and social security is
nearly 90%. In comparison, E-governance construction at the Local government
level (particularly across the countryside), the first line of providing services to the
people, is extremely weak. Furthermore, local E-governance foundations are
lacking, as are human, financial, and material resources. There is an urgent need for
top-to-bottom promotion of E-governance from the center to the basal level,

9
Practical Explorations in Rural Informatization in Beijing. [EB/OL].[2012-10-11] http://www.blh.
agri.gov.cn/sjdt/200910/t20091016_42182.htm.
10
MIIT, “Plan for National Informatization During the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan.’ “[EB/OL].
[2012-10-12]. http://www.miit.gov.cn/n11293472/n11295327/n11297217/14562026.html.
3 Characteristics of E-governance Extension … 153

in order to fully benefit from the existing positive results of E-governance. Resolve
is required to promote the extension of the various “Golden” programs and dedi-
cated task networks of the center to the county and township level; for all
provincial-level governments to strive to establish convenient service networks at
the provincial, municipal, county, town/township, and village levels; for the many
regulations and policy documents regarding E-governance of the center to be
extended to the basal level; and for E-governance plans to be implemented from the
central to the basal level in all provinces, autonomous districts, and
direct-controlled cities. At the same time, many innovative methods have surfaced
in the construction of local E-governance around the country. Examples include
Dongcheng District’s Wanmi Grid Management System, Ningbo’s 81890 hotline,
Zhejiang’s “Rural Citizen Mailbox,” and others. These innovations were tailored to
local needs and fully play to the characteristics and advantages of their locations.
They are methods and models that can be used as references elsewhere, and in fact
they have been promulgated to other places. They have, amid the extension of
E-governance to the basal level in China, fully embodied a synthesis of
top-to-bottom promotion from the center and bottom-to-top innovations from the
local level.

3.2 Public Administration and Public Services: Focus

of Efforts in E-governance Promotion to Basal Level

The functions of Local governments determine the characteristics of local

E-governance. There is a rough division of labor in government functions at all
levels. The primary functions of central and provincial-level governments skew
toward economic adjustments and market regulation, whereas the primary functions
of Local governments tend toward public administration and public services. Thus,
Local governments should place more focus in their E-governance programs on
administration and services. Moreover, the lower the level of government, the
closer the government is to the people, and so service functions should be stronger.
The government affairs subject to information disclosure, administrative authorities,
and public service items listed out in the central document “Opinions on Launching
Pilot Work in Using E-governance Platforms to Strengthen County-Level
Government Affairs Openness and Government Services”11 are all directly rela-
ted to Local governments’ public administration and the production and lives of
grassroots citizens. The “National E-governance Program for the ‘Twelfth
Five-Year Plan’” calls for “using county-level E-governance public infrastructure to
develop applied government services in areas such as civil affairs, planned birth,
labor, education, health, public security, and agriculture; increasing service con-
tents; and expanding the scope of services.” Practical explorations into

11
State Council General Office Letter No. 99, (2011).
154 7 Spreading to the Basal Level: “The Last Mile” …

E-governance such as Dongcheng District’s Grid Management System, Yuexiu

District (Guangzhou)’s Information Services Express, Ningbo’s 81890 compre-
hensive service platform, and Chengdu’s grassroots open comprehensive platform
all placed the priority of extension of E-governance to the town/township, neigh-
borhood, and community levels on “innovating in public administration and
improving public services.”

3.3 Diversification in Methods of Extension

of E-governance to the Basal Level

There is currently a trend for diversification of the methods by which E-governance

is extended to the basal level in China, with three major methods having emerged:
service extension, network extension, and window extension. Service extension
refers to sending to Local governments all those affairs hitherto under the juris-
diction of higher levels of government, such as fee collection and other procedures,
thereby making it easy for local citizens and businesses to handle government
affairs conveniently close to home. At present, most attempts in grassroots con-
venient services around China have employed the method of “serving as agents in
providing all services to the people.” Authorized neighborhood (or town/township)
and community (or village) governments handle all manner of public services as
proxies for higher levels of government, giving full play to the natural advantages
of grassroots neighborhoods, community layouts, and being close to the people,
while also reducing the pressure on higher levels of government and increasing the
efficiency of these governments and the people’s satisfaction with them. Network
extension refers to making full use of existing infrastructure to build a network
environment based in the internet and complying with relevant national standards to
extend service windows to the levels of district/county, town/township (or neigh-
borhood), and community (or village), installing window service terminals and
related equipment, and thereby bringing about network interconnectivity. If net-
work extension is the core of the extension of E-governance to the basal level, then
network extension is also the basic safeguard for the extension of E-governance to
the basal level. As internet penetration levels around China continue to grow higher,
network extension has become one of the important methods for extending
E-governance to the basal level. Window extension means making districts/
counties, towns/townships (or neighborhoods), and communities (or villages)
responsible for building service centers; making full use of existing convenient
service centers and all manner of service facilities; building service windows;
allocating accompanying window terminals, equipment (scanners, printers, and the
like), and self-service terminals required for the exercise of administrative author-
ities and the provision of services to the people; and providing services. There are
also service opportunities in China to expand the ability of grassroots citizens to
access the internet and to bring about equality in information obtention through the
3 Characteristics of E-governance Extension … 155

extension of windows, as well as in the equal sharing of “one-stop” services. The

present components of Local government service windows are county-level (ad-
ministrative) service centers, departmental affairs processing windows, town/
township (or neighborhood) convenient service centers (windows), and community
(or village) convenient service windows, all of which provide to the public such
government services as inquiries, handling of affairs, processing of affairs, or
receiving feedback. In summary, service extension, network extension, and window
extension can all help to reduce the costs of local E-governance construction, are
suitable to providing convenience to the people, are easy to promulgate, and are
suitable to the real needs of local E-governance development.
Chapter 8
Application of New Technologies:
Driving Changes in the Development
of E-governance

The new generation of information and telecommunications technology is pro-

foundly changing the technical environment and conditions for the development of
E-governance, and driving a major shift in the development of E-governance.
Strengthening the application of new technologies in E-governance and accelerating
innovations in the development of E-governance are of strategic significance to
increasing the service capacity of E-governance technology, reducing redundancy
and waste, avoiding individual governments doing things their own way and the
formation of information silos, and promoting the scientific development of
E-governance.

1 Development of New Generation of Information

Technology Promoting Changes in the Development
of E-governance

Information and telecommunications technology is experiencing rapid innovation

and development around the world. The mobile internet, cloud computing, the
Internet of Things (IoT) and other new technologies, new industries, and new
applications are coming out daily, driving major changes in productivity, produc-
tion methods, and models of economic and social development, and also pro-
foundly changing the technical environment and conditions for the development of
E-governance.
In the past two or three years, developed nations have all established and rolled
out new development strategies and action plans for E-governance, making full use
of the new generation of information and telecommunications technologies, and
driving the construction of E-governance and innovation in service models.
A fundamental change is currently taking place in the model of development of
E-governance. This change is driving governments and the public to come together

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 157
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0_8
158 8 Application of New Technologies: Driving …

to innovate in public administration and public services, and to come together to

innovate in economic development. Changes in the development of E-governance
come first from changes in technology. The core of new technologies lies in the
mobile internet, cloud computing, the IoT, geographic information technology, and
other places; these new technologies exert a profound influence on the development
of E-governance. These influences will be given a maximum of prominence during
the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, manifested primarily in the following two
areas.
First, the new generation of information technology will exert a profound
influence on the government’s public administration and public services. The
development of the new generation of information technology makes possible
aspects of public administration and public services that were hitherto impossible,
even making them easy to accomplish, in areas such as real-time regulation of food
and drugs, dynamic management of “the whole map” of state land resources,
dynamic monitoring of environmental protection, and so on. Using the IoT, geo-
graphic information, mobile internet, and other technologies, customs departments
are now able to monitor and process focus events, and state land bureaus are able to
dynamically regulate “the whole map.” The application of the new generation of
information technology and further improvements to networks for public admin-
istration and monitoring not only for monitoring of natural conditions, but also
allow for monitoring and handling of cultural trends, and will inevitably increase
the capacity to make decisions and handle affairs.
Second, the new generation of information technology will foment changes in
the construction and procedures of E-governance. For many years, the process for
E-governance construction has involved establishing a project, analyzing needs,
design, construction, operations, and maintenance. Cloud computing is gradually
making it possible for projects to avoid this procedure, and will evolve into two
models. The first is integrated application, in which service providers directly serve
users, no matter what the application, and all construction procedures are dispensed
with. Under the second model, there will be changes to the operating environments
of informatized governments, there will be major changes to existing government
procedures.

2 Mobile Internet and E-governance Applications

2.1 Characteristics of the Mobile Internet

The mobile internet is an integration of internet applications based in user identity

verifications, environmental perceptions, terminal intelligence, and ubiquity of
wireless networks. The ultimate goal of the mobile internet is to place the user’s
needs first and to bring about customization and personalization on all manner of
user terminals in all kinds of internet applications. The vigorous growth of the
2 Mobile Internet and E-governance Applications 159

mobile internet has further popularized the internet. As broadband wireless and
mobile technologies have developed further and web application technologies and
undergone constant innovation, there has been a trend of diversification in the
development of the mobile internet, or in other words, the four major characteris-
tics: openness of technology, service convergence, terminal intelligence, and
heterogeneous networks.
Open technology is a defining characteristic of the mobile internet. The mobile
internet is based in IT and CT technology and applies a model of network devel-
opment. Using SOA and Web 2.0 models, it opens up formerly closed telecom-
munications capacities and merges web tasks and applications. It also provides
services from content providers and developers directly to users through web, API,
and other methods.
Service convergence refers to the diversification of needs of users born in the era
of the mobile internet. User needs are diverse, and so single networks are unable to
satisfy all user needs. Open technology has already made service convergence
possible. More channel convergence technologies are integrating tasks that were
previously separate, causing service provision to develop away from its previous
vertical model into a new horizontal model. All manner of data, videos, and
streaming media services can now offer more diverse applications, such as rich
media services, mobile government affairs, mobile communities, informatization of
the home, and more.
Intelligent terminals were driven by the development of chip technology and
improvements in manufacturing techniques. Development of these two enabled
individuals to own mobile terminals with powerful processors and intelligent
functions. Mobile intelligent terminals are the lifeline of mobile processing. As
processing tasks have gradually grown more complex, solutions have multiplied.
Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Symbian, and other mobile operating systems have
allowed mobile terminals to access the internet, in addition to standard phone
functionality, and have provided a broad platform for software operation and
content services. Many value-added tasks are now much more conveniently
accessed, including: stocks, news, weather, traffic, music, pictures, and others. In all
these areas, the ideal of “giving individuals access to information anywhere, any-
time” has been achieved.
Network heterogeneity embodies the incredible variety of network organization
frameworks and management methods. The mobile internet’s network support
foundations include various broadband internet networks and telecommunications
networks. At present technologies that enable wireless connection to the mobile
internet can be roughly divided into three categories: wireless local area networks
(Wi-Fi), wide area wireless networks (WiMAX), and 3G and other enhanced
technologies. Different technologies are suited to different locations, and so users
decide how to connect to wireless networks based on their surroundings. This has
exerted a hard requirement on terminals to be equipped with multiple connection
models. All networks, however, are built on a common foundation: IP transmission,
which draws from the ability to differentiate between different network vehicles and
160 8 Application of New Technologies: Driving …

makes the method by which one connects to the internet irrelevant at higher levels,
through its capacity to integrate task functions.
As compared to the fixed internet, the mobile internet provides more space for
innovating in applications and flexible, diversified commercial models (see Fig. 1).
So the mobile internet has market potential that gets people more excited. As data
transmission and computing bottlenecks are broken, most functions and models of
the fixed internet will be transitioned onto the mobile internet, driven by con-
sumer’s desires for “freedom in decision-making and action.”

2.2 Applications of Mobile Internet in E-governance

Mobile E-governance is the product of combining traditional E-governance with

mobile telecommunications technology; it makes PDA and Wi-Fi terminals as well
as wireless standards like GPRS, CDMA, 3G, 4G, and others applicable to gov-
ernment affairs, thereby reducing the amount of work that government personnel
perform, increasing their work efficiency and performance, and making provision of
convenient services to the public easier. When government affairs can be handled
via the mobile internet, government administrators will be able to promptly
understand popular sentiment, receive abundant information, make rapid responses,
and serve the people to the greatest extent possible. Mobile E-governance,

Fig. 1 Mobile internet industry chain

2 Mobile Internet and E-governance Applications 161

processed on mobile terminals, is not only the continuation, supplementation, and

development of traditional E-governance; it also provides new channels through
which the government can serve the people.
As E-governance gradually replaces traditional government affairs, so too is
mobile E-governance gradually replacing traditional E-governance. The construc-
tion of “wireless cities” has become the mainstream for present urban reforms and
city construction in China. As nationwide 3G networks are completed and con-
struction on 4G networks begins, the 640 million cellphone owners in China will
fully enjoy vibrant wireless lives in the 3G and 4G eras. The role played by
smartphones in mobile E-governance will promote constant innovation in public
administration models and government information dissemination models, and will
also further drive the construction of service-oriented government that is infor-
matized, wireless, highly-effective, transparent, and interactive.
Data contained in the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC)’s
“30th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China” indicate that as of the
end of June 2012, there were 538 million internet users in China, and internet
penetration was 39.9%. The report further indicated that there were 388 million
cellphone internet users, and for the first time cellphones exceeded desktop com-
puters as the primary terminal for going online. Rapid growth in mobile internet
users has driven development of the mobile internet, and has made cellphone
internet users the primary users of mobile E-governance. This has laid a foundation
for applications and provided a network platform for the development of mobile
E-governance. The mobile internet is used to access E-governance in the following
ways.

2.2.1 Government Information Services

Government information services include SMS (short messaging service, i.e. text
messages) early warnings, SMS notices, SMS announcements, cellphone govern-
ment reports, and others. The role of SMS in government services provided to the
public should not be overlooked, as SMS services such as early warnings (such as
typhoon warnings, geographic calamity warnings, and rainstorm warnings have
been broadly applied in Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities), SMS announcements
(such as the text message dispelling the rumor that “storms in Zhanjiang will trigger
a massive earthquake” sent by the Guangdong Weather Bureau), and making
doctors’ appointments by SMS (Dongguan has already established a pilot in SMS
appointments) have played an extremely large role in the timeliness and broad
coverage of mobile government. In services that governments provide to enter-
prises, the government sends out targeted SMS messages regarding the processing
of business licenses and tax payments. The government also uses SMS text mes-
sages to inform companies of whether they have won procurement bids and the
results of applications submitted on government platforms. Users can read gov-
ernment newspapers on their cellphones over the internet.
162 8 Application of New Technologies: Driving …

2.2.2 Location Services

The use of CDMA and GPRS positioning technology or their use to assist GPS
systems abundantly display the advantages of mobile E-governance in finding
missing persons and in vehicle positioning. Guangxi Province has used CDMA
positioning technology to save a tourist adrift at sea. Jiangsu Province mandates the
installation of GPS on trucks carrying fireworks, with location information sent via
GPRS networks at fixed intervals. The municipal government of Xiamen provides
cell phones with maritime location-finding functionality as part of the construction
of the “wireless city” program there.

2.2.3 Data Collection Services

GPRS, CDMA, and Wi-Fi are the primary technologies used in mobile
E-governance internet services. In the digital cities program, governments use
GPRS remote monitoring in urban management (the “Chengguan Tong” of cities
like Beijing and Shanghai) and in environmental protection departments (Foshan’s
“environmental protection pass”). The “Chengguan Tong”1 is a device equipped
with advanced live data collection functionality. Its powerful live video recording
and advanced mapping and spatial positioning information functions make it
extremely well suited to urban policing and management, such as correcting illegal
business operations that occupy public streets, processing illegal construction
conducted without licenses, and so on. In sudden emergency incidents, urban
management personnel use their “Chengguan Tong” to collect first-hand informa-
tion and relay it via GPRS to police, firefighters, hospitals, and other departments,
allowing real-time information sharing between departments and unified command,
and markedly increasing the efficiency of handling sudden public incidents.

3 Internet Services

All government departments can push their services onto wireless intelligent ter-
minals by developing web portals designed for cellphone use. High-speed internet
access achievable on 3G networks makes using the internet on a phone just as fast
and convenient as connecting to the internet via broadband on a computer; users
can browse or search for all manner of government notices and information and can
communicate with government personnel through email or online message boards.
Citizens and companies can apply for all manner of licenses or pay taxes all on their
3G smartphones. Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Suzhou, and other cities

1
The Chinese chengguan tong can be roughly translated as “urban management pass.”—transla-
tor’s note.
3 Internet Services 163

have launched WAP government websites. The launch of government WAP portals
has reduced the digital gap to a certain extent. Government WAP portals enable
several hundred million people lacking access to computers to enjoy equal civic
rights to government information as citizens with access to computers.

4 Cloud Computing and E-governance Applications

4.1 Characteristics of Cloud Computing

(1) Overview
Cloud computing is a new generation of computing technology that targets
workloads with large amounts of concentrated data to be computed and provides
such internet-based resources as dynamic, virtual storage and computing. It’s called
“cloud” computing because it shares a lot in common with clouds, such as a large
area, dynamic resizing, and obscure boundaries. Cloud computing condenses
available resources and uses software for management. Users don’t need to worry
about the physical location of their resources, but can access, expand, or use them
on demand whenever they want.
In simple terms, cloud computing means that computing, storage, and other
resources can be moved around like a commodity, just like water, electricity, heat,
and natural gas; it can be used when needed, with fees charged per amount of usage.
The biggest difference lies in transmission of data over the internet, making it a new
model for operations and services. The applications of cloud computing in network
services are abundant and obvious, such as search engines, online email accounts,
open platforms, and so on. Users can access a great deal of information just by
entering their passwords (see Fig. 2). The characteristics of cloud computing are as
follows:
Service resource pooling. Virtual technology allows for pooling of resources
such as storage, computing, and networks, and enables users to dynamically allo-
cate resources per needs.
Expandability. Users can rapidly, flexibly request or purchase services or
expand processing capacity any time, any place, based on actual needs; this makes
it possible to meet the constantly changing and growing demands of users for both
space and applications.
Pay as you go. The cloud is an immense resource pool. Users can purchase
cloud services on demand in the same way that they pay for their use of natural gas,
tap water, electricity, and heat.
Broadband network allocations. Users can employ all manner of client-end
software to allocate cloud computing resources over the internet.
Measurability. The use of service resources can be monitored and reported to
users and service providers, and fees can be assessed on the basis of actual usage
(such as broadband, number of active users, storage, and so on).
164 8 Application of New Technologies: Driving …

Fig. 2 Cloud computing service models

Reliability. Automatic testing of voided nodes and data redundancy enables

continued normal operations, increases to service quality, and the meeting of
agreed-upon service levels.
(2) Categories of Cloud Computing Services
Cloud services can be divided into three categories: IaaS (infrastructure as a ser-
vice), PaaS (platform as a service), and SaaS (software as a service).
IaaS is the lowest level of services, coming somewhere near to physical hard-
ware resources. IaaS uses virtual technology to provide computing, network stor-
age, network data transmission, and other resource services for users. Typical
examples of IaaS include Amazon’s flexible cloud (Amazon EC2) and Apache’s
Hadoop.
4 Cloud Computing and E-governance Applications 165

PaaS is built on top of IaaS. Users develop and deploy a software operating
environment suitable to their own needs using the software tools and editing lan-
guage provided. PaaS is a platform for developing and entrusting network appli-
cations and programs. Two representative examples are the Google App Engine and
Microsoft Azure.
SaaS occupies the highest level of the three. Different users can access SaaS
services using client-end methods; an example would be using a browser to reach
services. Users can create needed application and software services for providers
based on needs, and charge for the services as they go. A typical example of a SaaS
model is the Client Relations Management (CRM) system employed by Salesforce,
which is a SaaS system developed on the company’s PaaS, force.com. Another
example is Google’s online office work software, Google Docs (Fig. 3).

4.2 Application of Cloud Computing in E-governance

Cloud computing is a major revolution in information technology, following on the

heels of personal computers and the internet. Its emergence and development are
going to change CPUs, storage, servers, terminals, and operating systems, as well as
the entire software industry chain; it will also exert a profound influence on the
informatization of human life in general. At present, nations with strong informa-
tion industries have all classified cloud computing as a strategic industry; some
developed nations have already begun work on state-level cloud computing
infrastructure. A few renowned international IT companies have made gigantic

Fig. 3 Relationships between cloud computing services

166 8 Application of New Technologies: Driving …

investments in research and development of cloud computing and have also rolled
out a series of cloud products, all of which have been developed with blinding
speed. Companies like Microsoft, IBM, Google, Amazon, and Yahoo have
scrambled into the fray, making them the forerunners in development, application,
and operation of cloud computing.
As cloud computing is most capable of bringing value to existing IT invest-
ments, it is also the most capable of increasing the degree of informatization of
government affairs and public services. In 2010, the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission
jointly issued a notice designating the five cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen,
Hangzhou, and Wuxi for pilots in innovative development of cloud computing
services. Cloud computing is playing an ever more important role in the IT policies
and strategies of government organs, and is receiving a great deal of attention from
leaders and workers alike at all levels. There are endless projects related to cloud
computing in the informatization programs of all local governments for the
“Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period.
In Beijing, the “‘Xiangyun Program’ Action Plan (2010–2015)” calls for:
implementing a series of major cloud computing projects of different levels and
functions in primary applied areas such as E-governance, focus industries, internet
services, e-commerce, and others; promoting the comprehensive transformation of
E-governance in the cloud era; making unified plans for and paying close attention
to the construction of a “government cloud”; and driving the beginning of city-wide
use of the cloud.
In Shanghai, the “Action Plan for Driving Development of the Cloud Computing
Industry (2010–2012)”2 calls for: building exemplary cloud computing projects in
such areas as E-governance, citizen services, industry, the modern service industry,
and small and mid-sized enterprise services; guiding informatization projects to
make use of cloud computing infrastructure; and decreasing the overall costs to
society of informatization.
In Fujian, the “Digital Fujian Cloud Computing Program Implementation Plan”3
calls for: establishing industry application models in such areas as E-governance,
internet services, and e-commerce; driving the use of cloud computing technology
by government departments to bring about integration and sharing of resources and
task coordination; innovating in models for constructing E-governance resources;
and implementing focus programs such as the government intranet cloud computing
platform program, the government extranet cloud computing platform program, and
others.

2
“Shanghai Plan for Promotion of Cloud Computing Industry Development (2010–2012)”.
3
“Digital Fujian Cloud Computing Program Implementation Plan,” Fujian Government General
Office No. 14 (2011).
4 Cloud Computing and E-governance Applications 167

In 2011, as successful cases in cloud computing emerged in all industries,

increasing numbers of government departments began shifting from observations
toward active exploration of the innovative application of cloud computing in
E-governance, on the foundation of informatization laid in years past.
In May 2011, the municipal government of Qingdao announced the construction
of the first E-governance private cloud computing platform anywhere in the
nationwide party and government system, to be led by the city’s E-governance
office. This was done to integrate resources of all departments at the municipal level
in the city; to reduce costs of construction, operation, and maintenance of infor-
mation systems; to increase returns on investment; and to increase the efficiency of
the use of information resources.
In July 2011, the foundational safeguard project “Beijing Xiangyun Program
China International Capital Corporation Cloud Platform” of the “Xiangyun
Program” was officially launched, making it the first cloud platform of the program.
This platform included construction of a cloud data center, a cloud resources
management platform, a cloud data entrusted management platform, a cloud-backed
operation and services support platform, a cloud-backed management system, and
others; emphasis was placed on the provision of “smart computers” in the “Smart
Beijing” program.
In July 2011, Gaoxin District, Xi’an City formally proposed and began imple-
mentation of the “Shuangyun (double cloud) Strategy,” which was composed of the
“Gaoxin Cloud” and the “Chang’an Cloud.” The “Gaoxin Cloud” primarily served
to integrate internal resources of Gaoxin District and to create a platform based in
cloud technology for social services and enterprise operations. The “Chang’an
Cloud” served to integrate science and technology resources and built a public
services platform based in cloud computing technology; this cloud included public
services, telecommunications, tourism, traffic, healthcare, and other areas of
public life.
In April 2012, Chongqing formally began construction on the “Liangjiang
International Cloud Computing Center,” with an area of 2.07 million m2 and
planned total investment of 40 billion yuan. The planned objective for the center
was to build a cloud computing base with an output value of upwards of one trillion
yuan, making it a global data development and processing center.
In addition, Hefei, Qingdao, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Jinan,
Shenyang, Harbin, Ningbo, Lanzhou, Hohhot, and other cities have initiated con-
struction of cloud computing services in consideration of the needs of local eco-
nomic development. Incomplete statistics indicate that at present, there are over 30
places in the country that have already proposed or established plans for the
development of cloud computing.
168 8 Application of New Technologies: Driving …

5 Internet of Things and Applications in E-governance

5.1 Characteristics of the Internet of Things

(1) Definition
There is still no universally agreed-upon definition for the Internet of Things (IoT).
Some hold that it is the RFID internet, and others hold that networks of sensors
comprise the IoT. Others hold that M2M (machine to machine) is the IoT, and still
others think that the IoT is the extension of internet clients between any two
physical objects.
There is no uniform standard definition for the IoT between different countries.
The generally accepted international definition is a network that uses data sensing
devices like RFID, infrared sensors, global positioning systems, and laser scanners
to connect any object to the internet per a previously established agreement, to
engage in information exchanges and information transmission, to bring about
intelligent identification, positioning, following, monitoring, and management.
The European Union’s definition of the IoT is as follows: “A dynamic global
network infrastructure with self-configuring capabilities based on standard and
interoperable communication protocols where physical and virtual ‘things’ have
identities, physical attributes, and virtual personalities and use intelligent interfaces,
and are seamlessly integrated into the information network.”
In 2010, the Chinese government gave the following explanation of the IoT in a
work report: “The IoT is a network that uses data sensing devices to connect any
object to the internet per a previously established agreement, to engage in infor-
mation exchanges and information transmission, to bring about intelligent identi-
fication, positioning, following, monitoring, and management.”
In summary, the IoT is a massive public information system and an all-inclusive
massive industry chain that affects all industries within the national economy and all
areas of society and life (see Fig. 4). The IoT’s structure is complex, but it can be
broken down into three primary components. First is the sensor layer, which is
responsible for information collection (intelligent cards, electronic labels, QRC
codes, sensors, and so on). Next comes the network layer, which is responsible for
information transmission (wireless networks, mobile networks, fixed networks, the
internet, radio and television networks, and so on). Third is the application layer,
which is responsible for information analysis and processing as well as controls and
decision-making; this layer is also where designated intelligent applications and
service tasks take place, allowing for differentiation and sensing between multiple
objects or between objects and people.
(2) Key Technologies
The International Telecommunication Union identifies four key applied technolo-
gies in the IoT: RFID used to label objects, sensor network technology used to
sense objects, intelligent technology used for consider objects, and nanotechnology
used to shrink objects (see Fig. 5).
5 Internet of Things and Applications in E-governance 169

Fig. 4 The omnipresence of the internet of things

Fig. 5 Key IoT technologies

170 8 Application of New Technologies: Driving …

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. RFID is an automatic

identification technology that does not require direct contact. It uses wireless radio
frequencies to identify target objects and obtain relevant information about them.
RFID technology can differentiate between objects moving at high speeds and can
identify a number of labels simultaneously; it is fast and convenient to operate.
When combined with the internet and telecommunications technologies, RFID
makes it possible to follow objects and share information about them anywhere in
the world. There are two hardware components to RFID: electronic labels and
electronic identifiers.
Sensor network technology. Sensors or transducers are “sensory organs” for
perceiving the material world, capable of reading signals in the form of sound, light,
electricity, heat, power, displacement, humidity, and more. These objects are
responsible for collecting, analyzing, and giving feedback for the most elemental of
information for the IoT. Sensor networks combine several forms of technology:
sensor technology, embedded technology, modern network and telecommunications
technology, distributed systems technology, and others. First sensors collect needed
information, while embedded systems conduct real-time computing of said infor-
mation. Then modern telecommunications networks transmit the elementary infor-
mation thus obtained, and finally higher-level servers analyze and process the
information. As nanotechnology and microelectronic technology have developed,
embedded chip technology has developed rapidly, and so now embedded chips with
low energy requirements, real-time processing capacity, and high computing power
are nearly everywhere. The development of wireless technologies such as 3G, 4G,
ZigBee, Wi-Fi, and others, as well as of next generation internet technologies based in
IPv6, will cause more objects to be conveniently, effectively connected to the IoT.
Intelligent technology. Intelligent technology refers to those technologies that
intelligently analyze and control vast amounts of information. It uses advanced
software to store and quickly process enormous quantities of information and send
feedback on analysis results to the various “controllers” in the IoT. Implanting
intelligent systems directly in objects allows for a certain degree of intelligence in
said objects, allowing for active or passive communication with users and the
accomplishment of a variety of functions.
Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter at a scale of
between 0.1 and 100 nm, and the application thereof. The development of nan-
otechnology has allowed for ever smaller objects to be incorporated into the IoT.
Nanotechnology has also driven the production of ever smaller electronic compo-
nents for sensors and embedded chips, making entire systems ever smaller, with
lower energy demands and faster feedback times.

5.2 Application of the IoT in E-governance

IoT technology is taking the new form of TaaS (things as a service) to create
multifunctional service projects targeting the people’s livelihoods with support
5 Internet of Things and Applications in E-governance 171

from high performance internet. Relevant applications will give more prominence
to information resource sharing and deep digging of resources. This will make
urban management more intelligent, government administration more efficient,
economic development more coordinated, public services better, and citizens’ lives
more convenient. Traditional government affairs are now trending toward intelli-
gent development, the results of which will benefit the entire population.
In recent years, more and more local government departments have begun
adopting automated monitoring and management using IoT technology in areas
such as transportation, environmental protection, and food and drug regulation. As
cities have grown more informatized, a slew of new applications of IoT technology
have emerged, including “single card passes” for city transit, electronic toll col-
lection (ETC) cards on public highways, hydrology and water quality monitoring,
environmental quality monitoring, tracing sources of foods and drugs, and other
areas (see Fig. 6).
To adapt to the needs of circumstances and development, governments in all
areas should place a great amount of focus on the development and use of the IoT
while drafting mid and long-term IoT development plans. Some provinces and
cities have established dedicated plans for IoT development, and have established
model programs for the use of the IoT. The primary contents of plans and program

Fig. 6 Applications of the IoT in E-governance

172 8 Application of New Technologies: Driving …

designs demonstrate that application of the IoT is gradually becoming an important

component of E-governance development in China.
In 2009, Jiangsu Province drafted the “Jiangsu Province Planning Compendium
for the Development of the Internet of Things Industry (2009–2012),”4 making it
one of the first governments to do so. The compendium proposed building 10 major
model programs in areas such as smart industry, smart environmental protection,
and smart traffic, using relatively mature IoT applications and projects as entry
points, by 2012. By 2015, the compendium called for promoting mature IoT
applications around the province, making Jiangsu a forerunner in the application of
the IoT with global influence. In public administration, the compendium called for
establishing model programs related to municipal infrastructure for construction
management, response to major sudden incidents, environmental monitoring in
focus areas, focus urban smart traffic and smart public security, smart environ-
mental protection, and smart disaster relief and prevention, in order to increase the
level of public administration. In the realm of public services, the compendium
called for promoting innovative application of the IoT in the public arena and the
construction of model programs in smart healthcare, smart in-home-care, and other
areas, with breakthroughs to be made at the joint application of the IoT and 3G
networks, in order to increase the living standards of the people.
In April 2010, the municipal government of Shanghai issued the “Shanghai
Action Plan for Promoting Development of the Internet of Things Industry (2010–
2012),”5 which called for the construction of 10 IoT application model programs in
Shanghai, in the areas of environmental monitoring, smart traffic, logistics man-
agement, energy conservation management in buildings, smart power grids,
healthcare, agriculture, the Shanghai World Expo area, application model areas, and
industry bases.
Also in 2010, the municipal government of Beijing issued the “Initial Plan for
Application and Development of the Internet of Things by Government
Departments,” which set three-year overall development objectives: using existing
E-governance infrastructure, build an open, shared government IoT framework
system; increase the administrative efficiency and decision-making capacity of
government departments; reduce administrative management costs; increase the
level of smart city management services; gradually form a new condition in which
uniform standards and norms for the application of IoT technology are established
across all government departments in order to bring about information sharing and
task coordination; build an urban government sensor system that leads the nation
and is at the cutting edge globally; drive development in Beijing industries related
to the IoT; develop a Beijing municipal government IoT; strive to initially establish
a support platform for the application of the IoT in Beijing within three years;
develop a relatively complete system of standards and norms for the government

4
“Jiangsu Planning Compendium for Internet of Things Industry Development (2009–2012)”.
5
“Shanghai Action Plan for Promoting Internet of Things Industry Development (2010–2012),”
Shanghai Economic and Informatization Committee, No. 162 (2010).
5 Internet of Things and Applications in E-governance 173

IoT; and lay a good foundation for the meeting the overall goals of constructing
“three Beijings” and “five cities.”
In November 2010, the municipal government of Hangzhou issued the
“Hangzhou Municipal Development Plan for the Internet of Things Industry (2010–
2015),”6 which called for actively promoting pilots and model projects in areas such
as urban management, the lives of ordinary people, industry and informatization,
ecological environment monitoring, and so on, taking the service of “digital city”
and the construction of a “quality of life city” as entry points, concentrating on the
key issues of improving the people’s livelihoods, benefitting the common people,
and building a harmonious society, and adopting such forms as cooperative mutual
construction between the government and enterprises, government purchasing of
services, and construction by enterprises with subsidies from the government. In
order to achieve the objectives of building a digital city and a smart city, the plan
calls for gradually incorporating IoT technology into pilots and model projects in
areas such as city operations, all links under management, focus transit projects,
urban management, and public security, with particular emphasis in areas such as
smart traffic, smart urban management, smart public security, smart tourism, and
energy-conserving construction, in order to gain the initiative in the industrializa-
tion of IoT applications.
In December 2010, Shandong Province issued the “Shandong Province Planning
Compendium for the Development of the Internet of Things Industry,”7 which
proposed the construction of 12 focus model projects, including smart urban
management, digital public security, smart healthcare, and smart in-home-care.
In addition to the aforementioned provinces and cities, Nanjing, Chengdu,
Guangzhou, Kunming, Shenzhen, Foshan, Qingdao, Wuxi, and many other cities
have also established dedicated plans or guiding opinions for the development of
IoT that are merged into the construction of digital cities and smart cities. On the
whole, however, the application of IoT in E-governance remains in the stage of
exploration in China; levels of standardization, systemization, and system intelli-
gence are all still low.

6 Geographic Information Technology and Application

in E-governance

6.1 Characteristics of Geographic Information

Geographic information technology is a general term for modern technologies that

obtain, store, manage, process, analyze, and apply geographic information.

6
“Hangzhou Municipal Development Plan for the Information of Things Industry (2010–2015).”
7
“Shandong Provincial Planning Compendium for Internet of Things Industry Development
(2011–2015).”
174 8 Application of New Technologies: Driving …

Its technological foundations are computers, databases, and network telecommu-

nication technologies. It is a modern information technology with “3S” technology
at its core, which combines spatial technology, sensor technology, satellite posi-
tioning and navigation technology, computer technology, and telecommunications
technology. It is also the product of intersections and a high degree of integration
between many scientific disciplines. Its objectives are the collection, processing,
management, analysis, expression, transmission, and comprehensive application of
spatial information. Geographic information technology includes geographic
information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS) technology, global positioning
systems (GPS), digital earth technologies, and others.
Geographic information systems (GIS) are an integration of computing sci-
ence, geography, remote surveying, environmental sciences, urban sciences, spatial
sciences, information sciences, and management sciences. GIS provides geographic
and spatial information needed for planning, management, decision-making, and
research. GIS processes and manages several kinds of geographic and spatial data,
as well as relationships between such data, including spatial positioning data,
graphic data, remote sensing graphic data, attributive data, and other kinds of data.
It is used to analyze and process various phenomena and processes in a certain
geographic range and to resolve complicated issues in planning, decision-making,
and management.
Remote sensing (RS) technology uses high-altitude or outer space platforms to
collect data about the earth’s surface using various sensor equipment (cameras,
scanners, radar, and so on), per the principle that different objects react differently to
different wave spectrums. RS relies on data transmission and processing to study
the shapes, sizes, locations, and natures of earthbound objects, as well as their
relationships with the environment.
The global positioning system (GPS) is a wireless time-measuring, positioning,
and navigation system based in satellite technology for highly accurate
three-dimensional navigation, positioning, and time services anywhere in the world,
regardless of weather, at high speeds. GPS is widely used in geodetic surveying,
engineering surveying, aerial photography, navigation and controls on means of
delivery, measuring the movements of the earth’s crust, resource exploration,
geodynamics, and other fields of science.
Digital earth technology is based in computing technology, multi-media
technology, and mass storage technology, relies on broadband internet, and
employs vast amounts of earth data to provide three-dimensional descriptions of
earth at different frequencies, different sizes, different times, and in different vari-
eties. These descriptions can be used as a tool for supporting and improving peo-
ple’s lives and the quality thereof.
6 Geographic Information Technology and Application … 175

6.2 Application of Geographic Information Technology

in E-governance

In recent years, as information and telecommunication technologies have devel-

oped, geographic information technologies have been rapidly applied in
E-governance construction in China, most particularly in the following areas:
(1) Macro Decision-Making Services
State controlling departments for surveying and mapping have built a slew of
systems, including the “State Council Comprehensive National Conditions GIS,”
the “State Council Flood Control and Meteorological Information System,” the
“State Council Great Development of the West Information System for Assisting in
Decision-Making,” the “State Council Electronic Map System,” the “E-governance
Model Spatial Program for Assisting in Decision-Making,” and the “China-ASEAN
Free Trade Zone Information System.” These systems have provided a variety of
information services to leading government organs in areas such as flood control
and meteorology, the Great Development of the West, and development conditions
in the ASEAN Free Trade Zone, thereby increasing the comprehensive processing
and scientific decision-making levels of leading organs.
State controlling departments for surveying and mapping have provided infor-
mation services regarding basic national conditions and electronic mapping for
domestic inspections and foreign activities of the National People’s Congress
(NPC) and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) by
developing dedicated series of maps and multi-media electronic maps, per the needs
of the work of domestic inspections and foreign affairs of the NPC and CPPCC.
State controlling departments for surveying and mapping have also cooperated
with affiliated departments of the State Council to build information services sys-
tems to assist in task management and decision-making, including the
China-Vietnam border negotiations information system, an administrative demar-
cation information system, a state land resources dynamic monitoring information
system, a population geography information system, a comprehensive radio and
television management information services system, an environmental protection
and dynamic monitoring information system, and a public security case-cracking
information services system. These systems have contributed to increasing the
levels of comprehensive management and decision-making of involved
departments.
Local controlling departments for surveying and mapping have, per the needs of
local governments and with the assistance of relevant departments, built a slew of
comprehensive provincial conditions and geographic information systems and
dedicated task operations systems for use by local governments, including com-
prehensive geographic information systems for provinces (or direct-controlled cities
or autonomous regions), flood control information systems, information systems for
returning farmland to wilderness, information systems for resources and the envi-
ronment, transportation management information systems, and others. The
176 8 Application of New Technologies: Driving …

construction of the aforementioned systems provided effective geographic and

spatial information services for the implementation of development strategies by
local governments.
(2) Surveying and Mapping Services for Construction of Digital Cities
Since the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM) initiated six geographic
and spatial framework pilots for digital cities construction in 2006, experience has
been gained in the construction of digital cities, which has gradually expanded. At
present officials have constructed the following: a number of basic geographic
information databases for cities and have begun to remedy the lack of geographic
information resources available for urban management and informatization; a
number of urban geographic information public services platforms; geographic
information systems to satisfy the needs of many State Council departments in
administrative management, affairs management, and information dissemination;
and a number of information systems based in geographic and spatial positioning
for urban traffic management, public security, firefighting, and population man-
agement. All of the above have expanded the applicable channels for E-governance.
This has given rise to urban management information and public services platforms,
which have provided convenience for the people in procuring clothing, food,
housing, and transportation.
(3) Surveying and Mapping Services for Major State Development Strategies
Surveying and mapping departments have worked with relevant dedicated depart-
ments to provide basic geographic information and 3S technology support services
of many sizes, many types, and many time phases for development strategies such
as the Great Development of the West, environmental protection, sustainable
development of the national economy and society, and revitalization of old
industrial bases of the Northeast, through the integration and deep development of
basic geographic information and dedicated data and statistical data.
(4) Surveying and Mapping Services for Major State Programs
The SBSM has worked with relevant departments to provide surveying and map-
ping support for irrigation and hydropower projects such as the Three Gorges Dam,
the Gezhouba Water Control Project, and the Xiaolangdi Dam, assisting in reservoir
construction, relocation of residents, geological disaster monitoring, and environ-
mental monitoring. The SBSM and relevant departments have also provided sur-
veying and mapping safeguards to major projects such as the South–North Water
Diversion, the West–East Gas Pipeline, the West–East Electricity Transmission
Project, and the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, as well as in the argumentation for plans,
engineering explorations, planning, design, and construction of nuclear power
plants such as those at Qinshan and Dayawan.
6 Geographic Information Technology and Application … 177

(5) Surveying and Mapping Services for Management of Sudden Public Incidents
and Emergencies
The SBSM has worked with relevant departments to build disaster monitoring and
assessment databases and disaster area three-dimensional geographic information
systems during the relief of the Wenchuan earthquake, the Yushu earthquake in
Qinghai, and the massive landslides in Zhouqu, Gansu, providing a basis for sci-
entific disaster relief, disaster assessments, and post-disaster reconstruction.
(6) Construction of the State Geographic Information and Public Services Platform
The public version of the state geographic information and public services platform,
“Tianditu (map of heaven and earth)” has been launched, and is now a new
informatized service platform. Since Tianditu came online, the site has accumulated
over 200 million visits from over 200 countries and regions. As Tianditu’s infor-
matized services for surveying and mapping geographic data are constantly being
expanded, the site has played an important role in the construction of many state
application systems, including the State Disaster Relief Center’s Disaster
Conditions and Geographic Information System. Tianditu has become a new
platform for informatization services in surveying, mapping, and geographic data; it
is an innovation in models for informatization services in surveying and mapping,
and its effects are already apparent.
Chapter 9
Assessing Results: Important Drivers
of Healthy, Sustainable Development
in E-governance

As E-governance construction has been relentlessly promoted in China, questions

related to the achievements of E-governance have received wide attention in gov-
ernment departments, in academia, and among the public. An important question
regarding the current status of E-governance construction that is in urgent need of
being studied is how to objectively, effectively assess the effects of the development
of E-governance and how to then use that assessment to drive further development
of E-governance.

1 Background and Significance of Assessing E-governance

Effectiveness

1.1 Emergence of a Global Crisis in the Effectiveness

of E-governance

E-governance is a totally new model for government management that first

appeared in Europe and North America in the 1990s and then quickly spread around
the world; it is also a modernized government operations method suited to the
information era and the development needs of the knowledge economy.
E-governance has displayed numerous advantages in promoting government
reforms and increasing government effectiveness, and is becoming the primary
method employed for modern government operations, as well as an important
measure for the government to better fulfill its management functions and service
functions. At present, the vast majority of countries in the world are promoting
E-governance to different degrees.1 In particular, the US, the UK, and other
1
United Nations Division for Public Economics and Public Administration and American Society
for Public Administration. Benchmarking E-governance: A Global Perspective—Assessing the
Progress of the UN Member States [EB/OL] [2002–05]. http://www.unpan.org/.

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 179
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0_9
180 9 Assessing Results: Important …

developed nations have established E-governance as important national strategies

and important means to pushing government reforms, and have made enormous
investments in its development and construction.2
E-governance is the linchpin to the state’s informatization strategy, and will
influence the informatization of all of the economy and society. After large
investments and wide-scale construction, there still remains a vital question for
governments of all nations: whether E-governance has truly been as effective as
anticipated. With government responsibilities and achievements daily becoming
more open, and as citizens are gaining more rights to knowledge of government
operations, when E-governance projects fail as a result of fiscal tightening, the end
result is not just a lost project, but more importantly, a decrease in public confidence
and support for the government.3 At the global scale, E-governance achievements
do not inspire optimism. The United Nations’ 2003 report “E-governance at the
Crossroads” emphasized that E-governance was overall not highly effective across
the board, in both developed and developing nations, but that E-governance
development was worse in developing nations, where project failure rates ran as
high as 60–80%.4 In November 2004, the World Bank’s lead informatics
specialistRobert Schware announced that it had been calculated that about 35% of
E-governance projects in developing nations end in complete failure, 50% in partial
failure, and only 15% in complete success.5
China is now facing a similar problem. In the 2007 World Bank report “China’s
Information Revolution: Managing the Economic and Social Transformation,” the
authors note that redundant construction of E-governance in China was creating
gradually worsening problems of low returns on investments, and that there were
gigantic differences in returns on investments in projects to construct E-governance
application systems. The results of the six investigations launched by the UN into
E-governance preparedness indicate that E-governance in China was slightly above
the global average level, but our E-governance preparedness rankings exhibited a
trend of “first progressing and then regressing.” China rose in the rankings for three
consecutive years from 74th in 2003 to 67th in 2004 and 57th in 2005, but then
began to fall, to 65th in 2008, then 72nd in 2010, and finally 78th in 2010. In recent
years, some domestic appraisal bodies conducted a survey into satisfaction with
government websites, the results of which indicate that in general, satisfaction
levels with services on government websites is low. Some well-known domestic
experts and academics have even warned against the “black hole of E-governance

2
Accenture. E-governance Leadership: High Performance, Maximum Value [EB/OL] [2004–05].
http://www.accenture.com.
3
Zhang Chengfu and Tang Jun, “E-governance Effectiveness Assessments: Reasearch in Models
and China’s Strategy,” Tansuo 2004 (2).
4
United Nations and American Society for Public Administration. UN World Public Sector Report
2003: EGovernment at the crossroads [EB/OL] [2003-08-28]. http://www.unpan.org/
egovernment2.asp.
5
Robert Schware.Most EGovernment Projects Fail [EB/OL] [2009-02-20]. http://sify.com/finance/
fullstory.php?id=13605188.
1 Background and Significance of Assessing … 181

investments” to prevent E-governance construction from falling into the “IT pro-
ductivity paradox.” All of this demonstrates that concerns over E-governance’s
effectiveness are a hot topic at present. How to measure and greatly increase the
effectiveness of E-governance is a common challenge facing E-governance workers
around the world.

1.2 Importance and Significance of Developing Assessments

for E-governance Effectiveness

The Chinese government is aware of the importance of assessing the effectiveness

of E-governance. As early as 2002, the CPC Central Committee General Office
issued the “Leading Group for National Informatization Guiding Opinions on the
Construction of E-governance in China” (Document No. 17), which clearly called
for “studying and establishing mechanisms for assessing E-governance effective-
ness.” Both the “2006–2020 National Informatization Development Strategy” and
the “Provisional Administrative Measures for Construction Projects of the National
E-governance Program” clearly called for assessments of the effectiveness of
E-governance construction projects. The “National E-governance Program for the
‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’” noted: “The environment and demands currently facing
national E-governance development are currently in a key transitional phase of
changing development modes, deepening applications, and prominent results…
Organize and launch comprehensive assessments of the development level of
E-governance.” In addition, the “Construction Plan for the National Government
Informatization Program During the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’” notes: “Relevant
departments should pay close attention to the research and establishment of an
assessment and indicator system for the effectiveness of the national government
informatization program. Assessments of project effectiveness should be made
during the appraisals of project completion and after projects have gone into
operation, and assessment results should serve as important references for receipt of
projects and for construction and design of projects in the future.”
Assessments of E-governance effectiveness are an effective baton for guiding the
work of government informatization. Such assessments should be made not only for
purposes of making rankings, but as a means for guiding government informati-
zation. Their goal is to help government departments discover problems lurking
within E-governance construction and to find solutions to those problems.
The Third Plenum of the 18th CPC National Congress proposed “promoting
modernization of the state’s governance system and capacity to govern,” calling for:
further increasing understanding of E-governance development under new condi-
tions; making E-governance an important component of promoting modernization
of the state’s governance system and capacity to govern; combining E-governance
with deepening of reforms to the administrative management system and trans-
formation of government functions; and elevating promotion of E-governance to
182 9 Assessing Results: Important …

the highest level of importance in the informatization of the national economy and
society. Given this background, assessments of E-governance effectiveness were of
both great theoretical and practical significance.
First, developing E-governance effectiveness assessments is a real step toward
fully implementing the spirit of the Third Plenum of the 18th CPC National
Congress and an important measure in promoting the deepening of administrative
system reforms. E-governance has become an important method by which the
government brings about changes in its functions in the information era, as well as a
new direction for reforms to the administrative system; E-governance effectiveness
assessments are also providing theoretical support and technical assistance to such
reforms through exclusive methods. Thus E-governance effectiveness assessments
bear an especially important practical significance to promoting reforms to the
administrative system and the construction of a service-oriented government.
Second, scientific effectiveness assessment methods are the basis for measuring
the level of development of E-governance and the results of E-governance con-
struction. As there are great shortcomings in China’s E-governance effectiveness
assessments, both in theoretical research and in practical application, it is difficult
for existing assessments systems and methods to bring about comprehensive,
objective, scientific measurements and appraisals of E-governance construction.
Research in E-governance effectiveness assessments can not only enrich the theory
of public administration, but can also facilitate the timely discovery and correction
of shortcomings in E-governance development, summarize the positive and nega-
tive lessons of E-governance construction, and guide E-governance onto a track of
positive development.
Third, setting reasonable goals for E-governance effectiveness and facilitating
them with corresponding institutions for effectiveness management can help gov-
ernment departments create intrinsic mechanisms for incentivizing and for limiting,
and can be helpful for resolving prominent conflicts and problems that present
themselves at deep levels of E-governance construction. The emergence and
development of E-governance can, by themselves, serve to increase government
effectiveness. By building a system for assessing the effectiveness of E-governance,
officials can increase understanding of effectiveness on the part of government and
government workers, and can also promote further increases to the understanding of
service concepts and responsibilities within administrative activities. Officials can
establish public satisfaction as the mission and guiding aim of government work
and create a public-oriented, “democratic” culture of effectiveness. Conversely, a
positive culture of effectiveness can promote long-lasting, standardized, institu-
tionalized work in E-governance effectiveness assessment.
Fourth, open, impartial E-governance effectiveness assessments are helpful in
improving the government’s image and strengthening the government’s credibility.
The government’s image is the public’s general impression and appraisal of the
characteristics and spirit of behaviors displayed in government operations. It is both
a subjective appraisal that the public makes and an objective reflection of gov-
ernment performance. Impartially assessing E-governance effectiveness and
announcing the results of said assessments to the public, no matter what those
1 Background and Significance of Assessing … 183

results may be, constitutes positive communication between the government and the
public regarding the amounts invested in E-governance and the results thus
achieved. This is a transparency that helps elevate the government’s work and is
beneficial to creating a government image of democracy and responsibility.

1.3 Present Feasibility of Promoting E-governance

Effectiveness Assessments

Conditions for promoting the work of assessing E-governance effectiveness in

China are basically all present.
First, in recent years, there has been major progress made in reforms to China’s
administrative system, providing a basic political environment for the smooth
implementation of E-governance effectiveness assessments.
Second, we can draw good lessons from the theory and practical experience
derived from mature assessments of E-governance effectiveness conducted in
developed nations in Europe and North America. Effectiveness assessments in
Western nations have been developing for over 20 years, and those governments
have made great progress in both theory and practice. Some countries have passed
legislation to create institutions for effectiveness assessments.
Third, the social environment for conducting E-governance effectiveness
assessments is forming. The enthusiasm of the masses for participating in state
administration through the internet is growing stronger daily, and issues of
E-governance effectiveness are drawing ever greater levels of public attention.
Fourth, theoretical research and practical explorations into E-governance effec-
tiveness assessments have already been begun domestically. Successful experience
has been accumulated in many areas, such as government website assessments,
E-governance project assessments, and assessments of the development levels of
E-governance, laying the foundations for further assessments of effectiveness.

2 Practical Experience and Characteristics

of E-governance Effectiveness Assessments in China

On the whole, E-governance construction in China is currently entering a new

development stage of more emphasis on tasks and applications and more promi-
nence given to efficiency and security; this is serving to constantly strengthen the
needs for E-governance effectiveness assessments. On the other hand, external
assessments made by third party assessment bodies and leading model work done
by some provincial-level governments are providing impetus to launch the work of
E-governance effectiveness assessments at the nationwide scale.
184 9 Assessing Results: Important …

2.1 Third Party Assessments

(1) China Electronic Information Industry Development Institute (CCID)

The China Electronic Information Industry Development Institute or China Center
for Information Industry Development (known as “Saidi” for short in Chinese, or
CCID), has provided nationwide effectiveness assessments for government web-
sites at the central and ministerial, provincial, prefectural, and county levels since
2003. CCID is one of the most renowned bodies for professional assessments of
E-governance in China. On November 28, 2013, the center issued its “General
Report on Assessments of Chinese Government Website Effectiveness, 2013,”
marking the center’s Nth consecutive year of work in assessing government web-
sites. Targets of assessment included 71 ministerial and central commission web-
sites, 32 provincial-level websites (including the Xinjiang Production and
Construction Corps for now not including the regions of Hong Kong, Macau, and
Taiwan), N prefectural-level city (and sub-provincial level city) websites, and 495
district/county government websites. The center’s system of indicators was estab-
lished at the administrative level of the parties hosting government websites, and is
composed of assessment indicators for government websites at the ministerial and
central commission, provincial, prefectural, and county levels. In 2013, website
effectiveness assessments included day-to-day supervision and year-end compre-
hensive assessments. The focus of assessments was on information openness,
interactivity, online handling of governmental affairs, the application of new
technologies, and the ability to guide expectations online.
A review of CCID’s assessments of development of China’s information
industry over the years reveals the following characteristics: ① The center employs
external assessment methods and adopts the client’s perspective in assessing the
effectiveness of government websites. ② The center focuses on content and uses
the functional positioning of government websites as the framework for its
assessments. ③ In terms of information openness, departing from the perspective of
the role played by web portals, the center seeks improvements at the three levels of
“supervision, integration, and service.” ④ The center guides website constructors
to make convenient services their core mission, adheres closely to the real living
demands of the people, and brings about comprehensively improved public
services.
Applied internet technologies that have relentlessly emerged and been improved
in recent years have not only satisfied the needs of internet users, but have also
influenced and changed the usage habits of those users to a great extent. CCID has
gradually strengthened its assessments of the application of new technology while
emphasizing the effects of strengthening the influence of government websites and
improving user experiences.
2 Practical Experience and Characteristics of E-governance … 185

(2) Govmade
Beijing Govmade Information Consulting Co., Ltd.,6 (hereafter referred to as
“Govmade”) is a professional organization engaged in E-governance consulting and
services. Govmade has accumulated abundant experience in assessing government
website effectiveness through years of work planning and assessing government
websites (and website clusters), not to mention its exploration into a “Govmade
unique system for measuring government website effectiveness.” This system
divides the development conditions of websites and web portals in governments
and departments at all levels into three stages: the elementary stage, the interme-
diate stage, and the advanced stage. They then make assessments in the three major
areas of foundational indicators, development indicators, and perfection indicators;
all major categories include a series of concrete references. At the same time,
Govmade has hosted the “Government Websites with Chinese Characteristics”
competition every year since 2005 to drive construction of government websites
and make local characteristicsobvious.
Govmade’s government website appraisal system was built on a “1 + 1” model,
meaning one set of Chinese language assessment indicators and one set of foreign
language assessment indicators. The Chinese indicators are mostly concerned with
information openness, online services, public participation, user experiences, and
specialized services.
(3) CCW Research
CCW Research is a professional research organization specializing in the infor-
mation industry under the CCW Media Group umbrella. In 2002, CCW Research
rolled out the first system of assessment indicators for government web portals in
China, while at the same time conducting the first comprehensive assessments of
government websites at the nationwide scale. CCW made assessments of nation-
wide government web portals every year from 2002 to 2007.
CCW Research’s newest system of indicators includes three tier-one indicators:
website content services, website functional services, and website construction
quality. CCW’s practical experience in conducting these assessments leads to this
conclusion: In order to increase the use of government websites, one must not only
strengthen norms in basic website construction, but must even more so augment
efforts in government openness, online handling of affairs, and other areas, to
provide effective public services to individuals and companies. Only through the
provision of diversified and individualized services can the government hope to
engage individuals and companies in online interaction, and bring about positive
development in promoting the use of government websites.
(4) Peking University Research Center for Network Economy
The Peking University Research Center for Network Economy recently published
its “China E-governance Research Report (2006),” in which the center assessed

6
Govmade [EB/OL]. http://www.echinagov.com.
186 9 Assessing Results: Important …

government web portals of 289 prefectural-level cities, 32 provincial capitals, and

31 provincial-level governments. The report offers deep assessments of
E-governance and the construction of service-oriented government concentrated on
seven major hot button issues, presenting selected results of representative
on-the-ground surveys and case studies into government websites.

2.2 Government Self-assessments

(1) State Forestry Administration

The State Forestry Administration (SFA) conducted nationwide forestry website
effectiveness assessments in 2010, 2011, and 2012. On the fourth round, the SFA
also issued its “2013 Nationwide Forestry Website Effectiveness Assessment
Report.” In 2013 the SFA’s assessments covered 47 websites of SFA divisions and
subordinate work units, 41 provincial-level forestry websites, 41 county-level for-
estry sites, and 84 dedicated topic sites.
In 2013 the SFA divided nationwide forestry website effectiveness assessment
indicators into four systems: provincial-level forestry website assessment indica-
tors, divisional and subordinate work unit website assessment indicators,
city-and-county-level forestry website assessment indicators, and dedicated topic
website assessment indicators. Assessments were made in consideration primarily
of information dissemination, online services, interactive communication, user
experience, website influence, and website management.
(2) Beijing
In 2005, the Beijing Municipal Economic Informatization Committee organized
and launched core work in E-governance effectiveness evaluations around the entire
city. After many years of explorations and improvements, the work’s organizational
forms and evaluation criteria are becoming increasingly mature. The committee
effectively ensures rapid development of informatization around the city by eval-
uating informatization conditions in all departments and all districts/counties
around the city.
The indicator system for bureaus and administrations in the city was built on the
principles of “few levels, low quantities, no redundancy, easy evaluations, and
simplicity” and in line with the general thinking of “three effects and one creation.”
The system gives prominence to sharing and services and embodies the city’s
general direction of comprehensively planned development. Committee assess-
ments are extended to the evaluation indicator framework from the year before in
order to ensure a single-level indicator system for evaluating effectiveness in city
government departments.
2 Practical Experience and Characteristics of E-governance … 187

(3) Hainan
In order to clearly understand the current construction status of major E-governance
projects in Hainan and increase the effectiveness of the use of E-governance sys-
tems, the Hainan Provincial Industry and Information Technology Department in
2013 commissioned the State Information Center’s Online Government Research
Center to make third party effectiveness assessments of the E-governance appli-
cation systems currently under construction in Hainan. The assessments covered the
period 2010–2012, and with approvals from provincial officials, all E-governance
application system projects that had been completed and were being used and
which cost over five million yuan in provincial or central fiscal investments were
subject to the assessments.
Assessments of E-governance projects in Hainan were made in consideration of
three areas: first, whether a project was completed per demands; second, what have
been the effects of the project since it went into use; and third, whether a project can
be used sustainably. These three comprised the first tier of indicators for project
management, yields, and effects; there were also 11 tier two and 26 tier three
indicators.
Hainan’s E-governance project assessment indicators system was built in con-
sideration of Hainan’s unique characteristics and the status of development of
E-governance projects. This allowed for both an objective reflection of the effec-
tiveness of these projects as well as a guidance of healthy project development. In
all, these measures were effective, scientific, reasonable, and highly operable.
However, the design and range of some individual indicators did not completely
conform to the actual situations of projects being assessed; some fixed indicators
were built on overly rigid standards, and so some adjustments and improvements to
the system are still warranted.
(4) Shandong
In 2013 the Shandong Provincial Informatization Work Leading Group Office
evaluated the effectiveness of E-governance projects of provincial departments and
48 work units of subordinate organs. These evaluations were based on
self-assessments made annually by the work units, a sampling on-site survey
conducted on some work units by the leading group, and comprehensive assess-
ments made by panels of experts.
Shandong’s evaluations of E-governance effectiveness were made primarily in
the eight areas of work organization systems, focus projects, dedicated funds,
infrastructure, information openness, application effectiveness, resource sharing,
and Cybersecurity.
(5) Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps
In 2013, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps General Office guided
E-governance effectiveness assessments, organized by the corps’ Information
Technology Service Center. The State Information Center’s Network Government
188 9 Assessing Results: Important …

Research Center served as a third party responsible for executing concrete work.
The 2013 assessments targeted 13 divisions and 50 departments of the corps.
The corps’ 2013 assessment indicator system included three major categories:
level of informatization, level of application, and level of comprehensive safe-
guards. Level of informatization was primarily assessed in terms of the construction
of task and application systems and the development and use of information
resources. The level of application was assessed in terms of the influence of
informatization on increasing administrative efficiency, decreasing administrative
costs, and increasing the levels of administrative management and services. The
level of comprehensive safeguards was assessed primarily in terms of safeguards on
informatization infrastructure and safeguards on systems and mechanisms.
(6) Guangzhou
To better understand the effectiveness of E-governance around the city, the
Guangzhou Municipal Informatization Office worked with relevant departments to
launch the city’s first city-wide assessments of E-governance effectiveness in 2007.
The work was divided into five stages: initiation, self-assessments by work units,
on-site sampling surveys, third party assessments, and comprehensive assessments.
The work targeted 43 government departments and 12 county/district level gov-
ernments in the city.
Municipal officials focused their investigation on the organization and guidance
of E-governance promotion, construction and application, real results, capital
safeguards, and degree of socialization. The indicator system used was weighted.
The investigation into E-governance projects included the following: basic project
status; progress made; fulfillment of the duty of work units to approve construction
contents; conditions of bidding and procurement of services, equipment, and
software; the extent to which equipment and services were procured domestically;
and components of construction projects adjusted and reasons for those adjust-
ments. Project implementation effectiveness was analyzed in areas including sup-
port capacity of work unit tasks and activities; economic and social benefits;
capacity for sustainable development; and results of propagation and use; successful
experiences and primary issues of project implementation; and recommendations
for E-governance project construction and management.
Governments in other places such as Ningxia, Shanghai, and Shenzhen have also
begun the work of assessing E-governance effectiveness. Some central ministries
and commissions are now making active explorations in this area. Looking at the
big picture, on the one hand, E-governance construction in China is currently
entering a new stage of development with more emphasis on tasks and applications
and more prominence given to high efficiency and security, one in which the
demands for E-governance effectiveness assessments are growing ever stronger. On
the other hand, the assessments of third party organizations and the effect of model
projects conducted by some provincial-level governments have played a vigorous
driving role on the work of assessing E-governance effectiveness. The work of
E-governance effectiveness assessments in China is now facing an important period
of development opportunities.
3 Development Trends of E-governance Effectiveness … 189

3 Development Trends of E-governance Effectiveness

Assessments in China

The “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period is a critical period in China for the com-
prehensive construction of a xiaokang (moderately prosperous) society and a period
in which we must persist in deepening Reform and Opening and accelerating
transformations of the mode of economic development. National E-governance
development is now facing a new environment and new demands, and is now
entering a key transitional period in which the development mode is changing,
applications are deepening, and results are becoming more prominent. The demand
for assessments of E-governance effectiveness are growing ever stronger, and new
characteristics and trends are emerging in such assessments.

3.1 More Internal Emphasis on Levels of Informatization

Application

Although China has made great achievements in E-governance construction, the

internal application of informatization of government tasks remains a focus of
construction, particularly in prefectural-level cities and grassroots regions, where
levels of internal government informatization remain poor. First, there is a lack of
core transaction and application systems, and second, the work of developing and
using government information resources is lagging. Mr. Zhou Hongren once noted
that during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, there would still be a long, hard
road ahead for E-governance construction in China. There are also many important
information systems that support government core tasks which we must very soon
continue construction on. Thus, we must continue placing emphasis on promoting
the informatization of core tasks, and this direction must be embodied in our
assessment indicators.

3.2 More External Emphasis on Strengthening

Service-Orientation and Effectiveness Assessments

Questions for assessors that must be addressed first are how to properly understand
E-governance development objectives and how to objectively reflect the degree to
which E-governance objectives have been met within assessment protocols. On the
one hand, under guidance by the concepts of service-oriented government, the
service functions of E-governance construction are given more prominence, and
“public services” have become the focus of government reforms; therefore,
E-governance effectiveness assessments place more emphasis on
service-orientation. On the other hand, both international development trends for
190 9 Assessing Results: Important …

E-governance effectiveness assessments and the demands for development of

E-governance effectiveness assessments in China both place more emphasis on the
actual effectiveness of E-governance construction.

3.3 More Emphasis on Building Mechanisms to Manage

Effectiveness Assessments

Assessments are just one link in the chain of managing effectiveness. In order to
have effectiveness assessments play a role in E-governance, then we must establish
a complete set of E-governance effectiveness assessment management mechanisms.
The goal of assessments is not simply to establish rankings, but rather is: to serve as
a channel for guiding government informatization; to help find issues and
encourage sustained improvements; to guide better integration of “electronic” and
“government”; and to promote a transition toward service orientation of govern-
ment functions. Thus, effectiveness assessments must be incorporated within the
management system for development direction; we must effectively supervise and
manage effectiveness and ensure the meeting of effectiveness management goals.

3.4 More Emphasis on the Role of Third Party

Organizations

From the perspective of specialization of effectiveness assessments, E-governance

effectiveness assessments are a rather specialized form of work, from the estab-
lishment of plans using research to the design of indicators to the writing of
assessment reports. It is highly complex, highly technical work. Requirements on
government personnel executing assessments are high; third party organizations are
better able to provide professional management and services in such assessments.
From the perspective of the fairness of effectiveness assessments, third party
organizations are better able to maintain neutrality in performing assessments and to
ensure the impartiality of results; the government is incapable of replacing third
party organizations in this capacity. At present there are a number of professional
organizations in China specializing in E-governance consulting services, including
effectiveness assessments. Some have already grown to large sizes; this has laid the
conditions for a further expansion of E-governance effectiveness assessments.
Chapter 10
Innovative Models: Progress Made
by Local Governments

Since the dawn of Reform and Opening, practical innovations at the basal level
have provided unending, fresh models for reform and development in all areas of
the nation; E-governance is no exception. Over the past decade, some local gov-
ernments have made real autonomous progress in E-governance, giving rise to a
few “best practical implementation” representative cases. These cases have set
standards for the rest of the nation and are serving as models; some have even been
propagated across the nation. We will analyze and summarize the practical expe-
rience of these local governments, and present the six development models that
have exerted the greatest influence on E-governance development in China: the
Jiangxi model, the Qingdao model, the Dongcheng model, the Ningbo 81890
model, the Chengdu model, and the Jiyuan model.

1 The Jiangxi Model: Results Achieved in Intensive

Development

Jiangxi is neither an economically developed province nor a region of concentrated

talent in information technology. Jiangxi has, however, walked an E-governance
development road of “superior plans, complete functions, good results, and reduced
investments.” In simple terms, the “Jiangxi model” of E-governance can be sum-
marized as a “five unifieds” model of “unified organization and leadership, unified
planning and implementation, unified standards and norms, unified network plat-
forms, and unified security management.” In 2004 Jiangxi provincial officials
completed internal and external E-governance network platforms that covered party
and government organs at the provincial, municipal, and county levels. These
platforms constituted an “intense, unified, and integrated” model of E-governance
network construction and resolved problems of connectivity between the provincial
party committee, provincial people’s congress, provincial government, provincial

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 191
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0_10
192 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

people’s political consultative congress, and all other party and government organs
in the province. The system achieved network connectivity between state ministries
and commissions and provincial departments using a model of “a thousand net-
works above and one network connection below,” thus eliminating dispersed,
redundant construction of departmental networks. On this foundation, provincial
officials used government information networks around the province to compre-
hensively plan for the construction of government information resource sharing
directory systems, exchange systems, and technical standards. Officials strove to
create an information sharing platform and to establish management institutions for
information collection, sorting, processing, storing, exchanging, and disseminating.
This has gradually given rise to orderly integration and sharing of government
information resources in Jiangxi.

1.1 Persisting in “Five Unifieds” Planning of E-governance

Network Construction

(1) Unified Organization and Leadership

E-governance network construction in Jiangxi began back in 1997, when the
provincial party committee and government fixed the general ideology of intensive
construction of E-governance. Provincial party and government leaders reached a
consensus to build only one, unified in E-governance network for the entire pro-
vince and not support the dispersed, redundant construction of a vast array of
departmental networks. The provincial government issued several relevant docu-
ments making a clear call for all departments in the province to build transaction
and application systems for E-governance in accordance with the plan to build a
single unified provincial network. Those E-governance transaction systems and
networks that had already been constructed were to be gradually migrated onto the
unified provincial network, and all new transaction systems were required in
principle to use the new uniform network platform.
After many years of exploration and practical implementation, Jiangxi had
established and perfected an organization system for the development of
E-governance and E-governance promotion mechanisms defined by “unified party
committee and government leadership, great efforts made by controlling departments,
supervision and inspections made by regulatory departments, and technical support
from information centers.” In the area of organization and guidance of information
security, the Jiangxi Informatization Work Leading Group established a subordinate
Network Information Security Leading Group, to be directed by a deputy provincial
governor, and responsible for unified leadership and coordinated organization of the
work of ensuring information security around the province. In the area of the con-
struction, operation, and maintenance of the government information network, the
provincial government clearly stipulated that information centers at the provincial,
municipal, and county levels be responsible for construction, operation, and
1 The Jiangxi Model: Results Achieved in Intensive Development 193

maintenance of the provincial government information network; the government also

demanded the establishment of sound organizational bodies, the implementation of
staffing protocols and setting aside of capital for operations and maintenance, and the
feasible performance of “organization implementation, personnel implementation,
location implementation, and capital implementation.” In the area of internet outlet
services, the provincial government called for government information network
management centers at the provincial, municipal, and county levels to provide unified
internet services to government departments of all levels, in accordance with the
principles of “graded outlets at the provincial, municipal, and county (district) levels,
unified outlets for departments at the same level, and intensive management and
safeguarding of security,” which both effectively ensured information security and
also greatly saved on internet rental expenses.
At present, fiscal departments at all levels set aside a certain amount of funding
for operations and maintenance of network and telecommunications equipment for
information centers at their level. Information centers at all levels in Jiangxi have
implemented staffing protocols, and information centers at all three levels have
established fully functioning organizational systems. Together they are responsible
for E-governance plan writing, standard establishment, strategy composition, con-
struction and application, operations and maintenance, technical services, and
security safeguarding for all levels of the provincial government, thus giving rise to
a complete three-tiered E-governance construction, operation, and maintenance
organization system and becoming the main force responsible for the construction,
operation, maintenance, and management of E-governance around the province.

(2) Unified Planning and Implementation

First, to ensure unified, intensive development of E-governance, the provincial
government clearly called for the Jiangxi Provincial Development and Reform
Commission to not approve any dispersed, redundant wide area network projects,
nor for the provincial treasury to approve funding for such projects. The provincial
government also issued the “Jiangxi Province Provisional Measures on
Management of E-governance Construction Projects,” which greatly strengthened
unified planning. Officials also established and perfected working mechanisms in
for major E-governance projects in areas such as pre-approvals, project establish-
ment, bidding, construction supervision, project completion approvals, assessments,
and accounting. The principle was that major E-governance projects must first be
planned before a project could be established, first assessed and only then con-
structed, in order to avoid more blind investments and redundant construction.
Second, in the area of the early stages of work on E-governance construction, the
Jiangxi Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Jiangxi
Provincial Information Office jointly controlled project planning and arrangements.
Technical argumentation sessions conducted by provincial information office
appointed groups of experts were required for all E-governance projects under
construction, in order to fully give play to the role of informatization expert groups
and standardize investment budgets for project construction, as well as to enforce
unified construction of all public, foundational E-governance projects.
194 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

Cross-regional and inter-departmental projects were required to be jointly con-

structed, in order to ensure that all related work units could share systems and
resources, thereby effectively preventing dispersed, redundant network
construction.
Third, to strengthen project assessments, project approvals, and effectiveness
evaluations of E-governance construction projects and strengthen auditing and
oversight over capital used in E-governance construction projects, the provincial
government established an E-governance construction management accountability
system, rigorously enforced, in project approval, bidding, government procurement,
regulation, project completion inspections, and assessments. All E-governance
projects using government funds are required to use bids for procurement, and in all
cases where quality and prices are relatively similar, priority in procurement is
given to domestically produced equipment and software. The provincial govern-
ment established an effective mechanism for assessing the effectiveness of
E-governance construction and brought about reasonable allocations of provincial
E-governance construction funds and resources. The government strove to maxi-
mize social and economic benefits while minimizing investments.

(3) Uniform Standards and Planning

While promoting the intensive construction of E-governance, the provincial gov-
ernment in Jiangxi also attached a great deal of importance to, and strove to pro-
mote, the construction of an E-governance standards system. The provincial
government combined the state E-governance standards and norms system with real
needs in the province to conduct research on standardization of E-governance in the
province, gradually bringing local standards in line with international and national
standards, and creating a system of interface and other technical standards suited to
the development of E-governance in the province. Focus was placed on the
establishment of standards and norms in the areas of information infrastructure
construction and management, development, use, and management of information
resources, application of information technology, and information security safe-
guards; this was done to ensure interconnectivity, resource sharing, task coordi-
nation, and security management for E-governance networks and application
systems in the province. The province issued a slew of regulations and management
measures for E-governance, including the “Jiangxi E-governance Data Resources
Directory,” the “Technical Standards for the Jiangxi Provincial Government
Website Assessment Indicators System,” “Implementation Procedures and
Demands for the Jiangxi Provincial Information System Program,” the “Jiangxi
Province Measures for Protecting Computer Information System Security,” and the
“Several Opinions on Government Website Open Government Information.” The
province also wrote a series of technical standards and norms for E-governance
construction, including the “Jiangxi Province Plan for Government Information
Network Connectivity,” the “Jiangxi Province Government Information Network IP
Address Allocation Measures,” and the “Jiangxi Province Emergency Response
Command Standards and Norms,” which effectively ensured the healthy, orderly
construction of E-governance in Jiangxi.
1 The Jiangxi Model: Results Achieved in Intensive Development 195

(4) Uniform Network Platforms

Dispersed, redundant network construction by individual departments satisfies only
the network needs of a particular department or system, and cannot bring about
interconnectivity across departments and networks. To this end, the provincial gov-
ernment of Jiangxi proposed the construction of a uniform network platform, to meet
the vertical and horizontal network needs of all departments, and to bring about rapid,
convenient information exchanges and sharing via network interconnectivity. Jiangxi
raised funds for the construction of its government network platform independently,
with the Jiangxi Information Center responsible for construction and maintenance.
The project was divided into intranets and extranets, with two three-tiered networks to
support the transmission of data, voice, and images. Intranets are used primarily for
transmission of confidential information, and extranets primarily for transmission of
non-confidential information. Intranets and extranets are physically segregated, and
extranets are logically separated from the internet. On the uniform network platform,
party committees, people’s congresses, governments, people’s political consultative
conference divisions, and all subordinate departments are horizontally connected with
similar departments at their same level; vertical interface connectivity has been
accomplished between the provincial, municipal, and county levels. This has pro-
vided a highly secure, highly reliable, fast, convenient, manageable, unified
E-governance “information highway” for all party and government organs in the
province. Jiangxi became the first province in the country to simultaneously construct
E-governance intranets and extranets while at the same time providing services.
Jiangxi was also the first to complete construction on a provincial branch of the State
E-governance Extranet Center and the first to bring about effective connectivity with
the state government extranet, putting Jiangxi at the fore of E-governance network
construction and overall services.
Jiangxi’s uniform network platform was built in three stages, and its total invest-
ment was 180 million yuan. In stage one, the province constructed the provincial-level
party and government organ horizontal network platform, with an investment of 30
million yuan. In stage two, the province constructed the provincial-to-municipal level
party and government organ vertical connectivity network, with an investment of 80
million yuan. In stage three, the province built the municipal-to-county vertical
connectivity network, with an investment of 70 million yuan. The province divided
the funds raised for the project across treasuries at the provincial, municipal, and
county levels. Officials closely linked the work of horizontal connectivity between all
municipalities and counties (or districts), in order to bring about complete linkage of
all government information networks of all party and government bodies at the
provincial, municipal, and county (or district) levels.

(5) Uniform Security Management

Jiangxi attaches a great degree of importance to the construction of E-governance
information security safeguard systems. Provincial officials persist in active defense
and comprehensive guarding, and brought about coordinated development in
province-wide E-governance and information security safeguard capacity. Officials
also implemented the “three principles of synchronization” of “synchronized
196 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

planning, synchronized construction, and synchronized development” in the con-

struction of E-governance security systems and entities; optimized allocations of
information security resources; established and perfected graded protection insti-
tutions for information security; placed focus on protecting basic information net-
works and important information systems that touch on national security, key
branches of the economy, and social stability; strengthened development and use of
encryption technology; established a CA verification center; promoted
province-wide unified electronic verification services; used the “Yizheng Tong”
(single pass) method to provide province-wide E-governance and e-commerce
verification services; strengthened the work of information security risk assess-
ments; accurately ascertained potential threats and weak links in network and
information systems; constructed and perfected a monitoring system for informa-
tion security; increased the capacity to defend against and respond to information
security incidents; strengthened monitoring and controls over the internet; protected
information transmission security; prevented the propagation of harmful informa-
tion; placed a great degree of importance on the work of responding to and handling
information security incidents; shored up institutions for information security
emergency response command and security reporting; and improved pre-made
plans for responding to and handling information security incidents. Officials
proceeded from the actual situation; promoted sharing and mutual back-ups of
resources; strengthened disaster-preparedness construction; strengthened the dura-
bility and capacity to be restored after a disaster of information infrastructure and
important information systems; accelerated the development of talent in information
security; strengthened construction of the province-wide information security
safeguard system; and feasibly safeguarded information security.

1.2 Using the Uniform Government Network to Intensively

Develop Government Services

Officials were able, on the strength of their uniform government network with full
vertical connections and horizontal interconnectivity, to conveniently bring about
task interoperability and comprehensive management and planning of resources in
E-governance. In the construction of E-governance application systems, Jiangxi
emphasized the development of unified application systems software for use by all
departments. The unified development of software was advantageous to: vertical
and horizontal integration, up-and-down connectivity, and connected approvals of
E-governance applications; real-time, dynamic, complete oversight and control; and
economization of financial resources. At the same time, officials used the uniform
government network to build a province-wide, unified, platform for comprehensive
monitoring, used for centralized, unified oversight and control of administrative
approvals and transactions of public resources. This included real-time supervision
of E-governance processes using software as well as video surveillance of all
1 The Jiangxi Model: Results Achieved in Intensive Development 197

administrative behaviors captured on a single screen, allowing for completion of

projects within time limits, reporting of results, warnings and corrections, and
across-the-board surveillance and control.

(1) Using the Uniform Government Network to Construct Public Application

Systems
Officials built a province-wide E-governance video conferencing system covering all
municipalities and counties. They set up video conferencing systems in the provincial
party committee, provincial people’s congress, provincial government, and provincial
people’s political consultative conference, all using a single MCU television con-
ference system. Reserve systems were installed in the Jiangxi Provincial
Development and Reform Commission and Jiangxi Provincial Information Center,
and sub-systems were installed in municipal and county (or district) government
offices. As of now, governments across the province have used E-governance video
conferencing systems to conduct dozens of conferences, achieving very good results.
Officials built a province-wide “public servant email account” system, with unified
procurement of email software, related servers, anti-SPAM software, and several
anti-virus programs to provide 100,000 public servants with email access; provincial
officials also appointed dedicated staff to operate and maintain the system. “Public
servant email accounts” have been provided free of charge for use by public servants
in party and government organs across the province; this program has been met with
unanimous praise from all local governments and departments in the province.
Officials built a video broadcasting system to disseminate important meetings and
leader observations of conditions on the internet in a timely fashion. The system also
allows for the broadcasting of both live and pre-recorded news broadcasts from China
Central Television (CCTV) and Jiangxi Television. The system can also be used to
publish party information and education videos, warnings to maintain clean gov-
ernment, and cultural and entertainment videos on the internet, all of which have been
lauded by users.

(2) Using the Uniform Government Network to Build Horizontal and Vertical
Transaction and Application Systems
Not a single department in Jiangxi constructing E-governance transaction and
application systems has built its own separate physical network. The information
resource application systems of provincial departments and encrypted messaging
systems of provincial party and government bodies subordinate to the provincial
party committee and major provincial bureaus, in particular, are run on the
provincial uniform government network platform; this has played a modeling and
guiding role. The operation of provincial the local tax system vertically connected
at the provincial, municipal, and county levels on the unified E-governance network
platform has saved a great deal of resources. The provincial treasury department
successfully migrated its systems away from a dedicated network and onto the
provincial uniform network platform, while also further constructing fiscal
department dedicated networks at the provincial, municipal, and county levels;
these have been applied in many areas, such as centralized payments from the
198 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

national treasury and strengthening management over fiscal expenditures and rev-
enues. Other horizontal and vertical transaction and application systems that have
been moved onto the province-wide unified E-governance network platform include
those of provincial departments such as the provincial industrial and commercial
department, the provincial statistical department, the Jiangxi Provincial
Development and Reform Commission, the provincial education department, the
provincial justice department, the provincial irrigation department, the provincial
office for foreign cooperation, the provincial department of information and
industry, the provincial quality supervision department, the provincial earthquake
department, the provincial department of letters and visits, and others. Other vertical
and horizontal task and application systems built on the province-wide unified
E-governance network platform include the provincial commission of politics and
law, the provincial court system, the provincial procuratorate, the provincial
department of labor, the provincial department of civil affairs, and others. The
effects of the unified E-governance network platform are growing more evident
daily.

(3) Using the Uniform Government Network to Build Comprehensive,

Inter-Departmental Transaction and Application Systems
A comprehensive services system to support provincial government policy-making is
being constructed. This system provides comprehensive, cross-departmental
E-governance construction projects that facilitate decision-making directly to
provincial government leaders, including six major task and application systems and
six major databases. The goal of the construction of this project is: to serve provincial
government leaders in order that they promptly, completely, and accurately under-
stand political, economic, and social development information, and to provide support
and assistance to provincial government leaders in macro management, scientific
decision-making, and administering in accordance with the law. The provincial
government has called for the provincial government general office to run this pro-
gram, with all organizational components of the provincial government participating,
and the provincial information center providing technical support. The project is
currently being built, and progress has been smooth. This year it will be completed and
go into operation, at which point it will be a comprehensive “dragon head” (major
exemplary) project driving the application of E-governance by all provincial gov-
ernment departments. At the same time, construction on the “Creditworthy Jiangxi”
project is accelerating. Under the unified guidance of the provincial government, over
20 departments directly subordinate to the provincial government have jointly built a
credit ratings system for companies and individuals, into which records of legal
business operations, tax payments, loans taken and repaid, and any falsified state-
ments or falsification behaviors of individuals and companies are included. This
system will increase the degree of punishments on violators of credit rules, and will
build a good soft environment in the province of obeying the law, being honest, and
keeping faith. The construction of an online joint administrative licensing system will
bring about single-bureau applications filing, linked processing, finishing of pro-
cessing within a fixed time limit, high quality, and high efficiency in the handling of
1 The Jiangxi Model: Results Achieved in Intensive Development 199

enterprise affairs by government departments; this is a practical way to bring con-

venience to companies and the public.
A unified public data exchange platform for all government departments is being
constructed. This platform will address such issues as redundant development of
data resources by various government departments, segregation and separation of
data resources, and the fact that all transaction and application sub-systems for
cross-departmental tasks hitherto required the construction of corresponding data
exchange platforms. Jiangxi will use its province-wide uniform government net-
work platform to launch the construction of a two-tiered (provincial and municipal
levels) government department public data exchange platform. Public data
exchange platforms are unified data exchange platforms built to span the gaps
between the application systems of government departments; they are base-level
platforms for transaction and application systems that bring about horizontal and
vertical data exchanges between all government departments. Their primary func-
tion is to bring about data transmission and exchanges of data in different formats
between different operating systems, different kinds of databases, and different
regions. Using unified data exchange platforms, officials can build public basic
sharing databases for all departments to bring about data exchanges and sharing
between government departments. Such platforms can run many kinds of
cross-departmental transaction and application systems and bring about logical
independence of cross-departmental task and application subsystems; they have laid
a good foundation for the standardized, orderly construction of E-governance task
and application systems around the province.

(4) Using the Uniform Government Network to Provide Intensive Social and
Public Services
In accordance with the demands of the “Regulations of the People’s Republic of
China on Open Government Information,” officials used the province-wide gov-
ernment information uniform network platform to build and activate the Jiangxi
provincial open government information platform, which the provincial govern-
ment and all provincial departments use for centralized dissemination of public
information on the internet. The provincial government open information platform
is a centralized, unified open government information platform built on the
provincial government’s web portal. It consolidated the open information of all
administrative regions and all departments subordinate to the provincial govern-
ment; no department is allowed to build an independent open information platform.
Government information subject to disclosure includes primarily the eight major
categories of general situation information, laws and official documents, develop-
ment plans, dynamic working statuses, human resources information, financial and
economic information, justice and law enforcement, and public services. The public
can click on the open government information column on the provincial people’s
government website to instantly receive “one-stop” open information services and
quickly obtain government information. At the same time, the public can access
even more open government information by filing an information disclosure
application. As of 2010, 11 cities divided into districts and 62 government
200 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

departments directly subordinate to the provincial government have launched

information openness work, disclosing to the public, free of charge, 458,000 items
of open government information.
A province-wide system for joint ratings of social creditworthiness is being
constructed. To accelerate construction of the Jiangxi social credit system, officials
created a good market environment and development environment for honesty,
creditworthiness, and compliant operations, and the province initiated construction
of the aforementioned system. This system operates in such sectors as finance,
taxation, industry and commerce, environmental protection, quality supervision,
housing construction, customs, food and drug oversight, labor protections, state
land resources, the courts, public security, safe production, foreign trade, inspection
and quarantines, and small and mid-sized enterprises, and encompasses the con-
struction of two platforms, one database, one website, one comprehensive ratings
system, and one set of standards and norms. The two platforms are a unified
enterprise credit information exchange platform and a service platform for pub-
lishing and searching for enterprise credit information built on the Jiangxi
provincial government information network. The one database provides credit
information searching, publishing, and other online services. The one compre-
hensive ratings system is a comprehensive ratings system for enterprise credit. The
one set of standards and norms is a set of standards for enterprise credit information
and standards and norms for exchanges thereof. The Jiangxi provincial government
also issued the “Jiangxi Province Provisional Measures for the Collection and Use
of Public Credit Information,” which set clear guidelines for the collection and
lawful publishing of public credit information as well as exchanges of said
information.

2 The Qingdao Model: Using Centralization

and Decentralization to Drive Progress

The municipal government of Qingdao began construction on its E-governance

program in the mid-1990s, and since then city officials have constantly explored,
comprehensively planned, and integrated the development of E-governance,
resulting in the “Qingdao model” of unified management of E-governance typified
by “four centralizations and one decentralization.” Qingdao officials have managed
relatively well to deal with both the concentrated demands for comprehensive
superstructure planning of E-governance development and concrete methods of
different demands for using dispersed methods and flexible usage within the pro-
cess. Officials have also effectively overcome the obstacles commonly encountered
in E-governance construction of management by multiple leaders, mutual restric-
tions, departments all doing things their own way, and dispersed construction.
These officials have made beneficial explorations in the construction of the
administrative management system for E-governance.
2 The Qingdao Model: Using Centralization … 201

2.1 The “Four Centralizations and One Decentralization”

Mechanisms Ensure Intensive Development
of E-governance

The administrative management system is the key to the success or failure of

E-governance construction. In 1996, the 66th meeting of the Standing Committee of
the Seventh Municipal Party Committee of Qingdao resolved to establish a municipal
committee and Qingdao Municipal Government Computing Center (a public insti-
tution at the bureau level). In 2003 city officials added under the center’s umbrella an
E-governance office, and in 2008 renamed the center the E-governance Office, and in
2010 again renamed it to the E-governance and Information Resources Management
Office, managed jointly by the municipal party committee general office and the
municipal government general office, but primarily by the municipal party committee
general office. The office was responsible for unified planning and construction of
automated systems for the municipal party committee and government and for
management of operations and applied services (in 1999 the responsibilities of the
office were expanded to include managing and serving the municipal people’s con-
gress and people’s political consultative conference). Henceforth, the work of
E-governance in Qingdao (work automation) was unified between the party and
government, and there gradually emerged a “four centralizations and one decentral-
ization” management system; this later became the most important institutional
assurance for the promotion of low-cost, large-scale E-governance.
The first of the “four centralizations” is centralization of mechanisms. In other
words, the municipal E-governance office is responsible for management, com-
prehensive planning, coordination, promotion, and technical support for the party
committee, people’s congress, government, people’s political consultative confer-
ence, and all other municipal organs. All 12 subordinate districts and cities of
Qingdao have established four major centralized E-governance management and
technical support organs per municipal demands, with guidance from the municipal
E-governance office. When the E-governance office conducts comparisons and
evaluations of E-governance work in the districts, it pays attention to neither
whether a given E-governance organ is subordinate to the party committee or the
government, nor whether a body is deployed under a secret or important depart-
ment; officials pay attention to only whether there is unification of the party and
government. If there is not party and government unity, a negative result is
immediately forthcoming. The second is centralized planning, or in other words
using planning measures to guide healthy, orderly development of E-governance in
the city per the guiding principles of “forecast demands well in advance, plan well
in advance, and construct at the appropriate time.” The E-governance office orga-
nized and convened an “E-governance strategy and technology symposium” in
2001, where officials worked to make overall E-governance plans and plans for
technical systems. In early 2002, the municipal party committee general office and
municipal government general office jointly issued the “Planning Compendium for
the Qingdao Municipal E-governance Program, 2002–2005” for thorough
202 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

implementation across the city, in which officials established goal of the con-
struction of an “integrated government” in the network environment, with the
overall objective of providing “one-stop services” for the public, and initiating the
“451” technical system construction program. In April 2006, the party committee
general office and government general office jointly issued the “Planning
Compendium for Qingdao Municipal E-governance Development During the
‘Eleventh Five-Year Plan,’ “which established the principle of centralized, intensive
development and major tasks such as the construction of the “861” technical system
and formation of the “2 + 5 + X” application system. In 2011, the Planning
Compendium for Qingdao Municipal E-governance Development During the
‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan’” will soon be issued. The plan requires the E-governance
office to upgrade and construct core technology equipment at the appropriate time,
to satisfy the needs of departments and prevent departments from acting on their
own or building dispersed networks. The third is decentralization of networks. In
other words, the party committee and government clearly disallow in principle the
independent construction of vertical and cross-departmental networks by any
department. Any connectivity between different levels of government or different
departments must be accomplished on the city-wide uniform network platform. The
fourth is centralized software. In other words, for all application systems to be used
across the city or in multiple city departments, the E-governance office is solely
responsible for the development or purchasing of applications software, to be
applied in unified manner across the city. At present applications software that has
been subject to unified promulgation across the city has come in areas such as basic
telecommunications, circulation of official documents, gathering and editing of
information, information openness, online approvals, electronic surveillance, online
law enforcement, supervision and investigations, evaluations, community and vil-
lage management services, and multimedia telecommunications.
The “one decentralization” refers to promotion of E-governance differentiated by
level. In other words, on the foundation of the “four centralizations,” all districts
and city departments are responsible for the promotion of system construction in
their own region or sector.

2.2 Pushing Forward E-governance Application

and Information Resource Integration

The municipal government has, on the foundation of the “four centralizations and
one decentralization,” used infrastructure sharing, platform sharing, and application
sharing, to unremittingly promote integration of city public organ information
resources in areas such as computer facilities, networks, servers, fundamental
software, and applications. Since 2001, fiscal investments in program to build and
perfect the “861” core technology system at the municipal and district levels have
exceeded 200 million yuan. The system comprises eight platforms and six centers:
2 The Qingdao Model: Using Centralization … 203

the government network platform, the security support platform, the public services
portal platform, the fundamental public services platform, the information man-
agement system platform, the procedure management services platform, the mul-
timedia coordination platform, the knowledge management services platform, the
application services center, the information exchange center, the government data
center, the sharing platform services center, the verification and authorization
center, and the in-case-of-emergency data back-up center. There is also a directory
services system. This program has created a platform for E-governance sharing with
strong support capacity. Qingdao officials have built and promulgated a large,
comprehensive, general use, multimedia, multifunction, integrated platform for
handling work: the “Jinhong E-governance Cluster System.” There are now 15,420
active users of the Jinhong network in organs at all three levels of the city; the
system electronically processes all tasks of the municipal party committee and
government, including public documents, information, monitoring and inspections,
evaluations, conferences, letters and calls, receiving of guests, and others. All
document and information transmission between organs at all levels in the city can
now be accomplished online. All 12 subordinate districts and cities and 100% of
departments subordinate to the municipal government have now created an inte-
grated, single network, coordinated working environment for internal network
tasks. In 2010, the Jinhong network handled 16.17 million transfers of documents
and information.
On the foundation of the city’s unified E-governance platform, officials in
Qingdao also established a goal of increasing the government’s public adminis-
tration capacity and continuously promoted application of E-governance and
information resources integration. As of 2011, the municipality of Qingdao had
used the “861” system to: provide hosting services for 28 departments; build online
working systems for 99 departments; build online approvals systems for 47
departments; build online law enforcement systems for 44 departments; build
internal information sharing systems for 20 departments; build over 70 public
services websites for 52 departments; build public information seeking, information
seeking, and complaint systems for over 60 departments; build online interview
systems for 18 departments; and provide network, email, virus protection, and
official version software services for over 100 departments and work units. The
system was also used to build over 50 dedicated systems for departments in such
areas as supervision, letters and visits, proposals, archives, oversight and inspection,
safe production, medicine and healthcare, cultural law enforcement, civil affairs,
emergency response, financial resources construction, and fixed asset management.
At present, the Qingdao Municipal E-governance Information Exchange and
Sharing Center has brought real-time exchanges and sharing of 3.17 million articles
of taxation information between 24 departments; supervised the investment of over
30 million yuan in 464 major projects; supervised the collection of 20.5 billion yuan
in taxes from 10,000 focus tax-paying enterprises, accounting for 80% of all local
taxes collected in the city; increased tax revenues by 802 million yuan through
comparative analysis of taxation information; established comparative basic
information on 6.71 million people through the construction of a population basic
204 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

information database by bringing about information sharing on natural persons

from the citizen card program, public security organs, human resources and social
security organs, planned birth organs, public funds, and other relevant organs;
established basic comparative information on 160,000 enterprises through the
construction of a population basic information database by bringing about infor-
mation sharing on from the digital enterprise certification program, industrial and
commercial organs, taxation organs, quality inspection organs, human resources
and social security organs, and other relevant organs; basically completed con-
struction on a citywide geographic information sharing platform, which has enabled
mapping and geographic mapping services in tasks such as industry cluster sear-
ches, safe production grid management, food and drug oversight, regional health-
care and disease control and prevention management, management of floating
population and planned birth, city government guard information and supervision,
cultural and market law enforcement, and others; and constructed an internal
information sharing website for over 20 departments, including the municipal party
committee general office and municipal government general office using a platform
for information integration and dissemination, increasing the overall levels of
management and services.

2.3 Taking Advantages of New Technologies to Constantly

Innovate in New Public Administration Models

Officials in Qingdao have given full play to the advantages of internet technology
and have constructed a “city-wide online approvals platform that is “integrated
across the city, concentrated in two levels, with transfers on one network and
one-stop services,” integrating on-the-spot joint processing and online coordination,
and increasing the efficiency of approvals processing services. In March 2009, the
platform went into operations at the same time as the municipal administrative
approvals service hall, creating a new mechanism for approvals services typified by
“hall + network” double concentration, making Qingdao a forerunner in the nation.
All 386 approvals procedures of 47 municipal-level departments and the over 3600
approvals procedures of districts, neighborhoods, and towns/townships could now
be processed online on the unified platform, bringing about vertical and horizontal
coordination, gentle formulation, and hard operations of approvals procedures,
strengthening cross-departmental cooperation, standardizing approvals procedures,
and increasing the efficiency of services.
Over the ten-plus years of construction and development since the Qingdao
government network went online in 1998, it has become an important channel for
disclosure of government information and an important window for handling affairs
for the people The cellphone version of the Qingdao government network formally
went online on May 18, 2010. More than 60 departments and 12 subordinate
district and city governments came together to build the “Government Online”
2 The Qingdao Model: Using Centralization … 205

system, which receives over 30,000 letters from citizens every year, and has
brought about unified receipt, processing, and reflection of citizen requests for
information, requests for assistance, recommendations, criticisms, and complaints,
thoroughly resolving problems of departments not receiving letters from citizens,
receiving letters but not handling the matter presented, or handling the matter but
not publicizing the results. Fifty-seven city government departments hold “online
political participation” and “reporting to city citizens, listening to opinions from
city citizens, and asking city citizens for appraisals” events at fixed intervals on the
government network, coming online en masse to receive oversight and jointly
resolve citizen issues; the program has received widespread praise. To further
expand and clear public opinion channels, officials in Qingdao have integrated
government email accounts, online interviews, online surveys, opinion collection,
online hearings, online news briefings, and other channels to construct the
“Government Online” comprehensive government-public interactive platform,
which utilizes new online communication technologies such as computer websites,
cellphone websites, text messages, instant communications, microblogs, and
information subscriptions, to provide concentrated, unified, multi-channel,
multi-method, all-weather, comprehensive, interactive services to the public.
Per the municipal government’s resolution regarding the work of electronic
signature verification, city officials launched the “corporate services e-station pass”
program, based in digital certificates. This program allowed for remote, online
processing of 225 management and service procedures of 19 departments that deal
with businesses, in areas such as national taxation, local taxation, industry and
commerce, construction, land resources, and statistics. In the next phase, the pro-
gram will use the electronic signature certificate functionality of city resident cards
to build a “city resident services e-station pass” with local people’s livelihood
departments, truly making E-governance a booster of public administration.
City officials also plan to extend the city-wide unified E-governance network
down to the level of communities (and villages). They have already established
comprehensive E-governance platforms for communities (and villages) in district
and subordinate city-level network centers, thus providing “virtual” internal affairs
management systems, information management systems, and external public ser-
vices websites for all communities (and villages). In May 2008, the city party
committee general office and city government general office issued the “Notice on
Constructing City-Wide Unified Community Networks and Comprehensive
Community E-governance Platforms,” which extended E-governance networks and
applications to the community level. All departments now use community (or
village) networks and comprehensive E-governance platforms to conduct
E-governance work, resolving issues of many departments independently extending
their networks to communities (and villages), creating a centralized online services
system for communities (and villages) and their residents tailored to local charac-
teristics. At the same time, serve-the-people agent stations were established in
communities (and villages) to help residents obtain online services, bringing online
government public services into communities (and villages), benefitting the
majority of families, and effectively resolving the “digital chasm” problem.
206 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

2.4 Using Institutions to Ensure Intensive Development

of E-governance

To solidify the “four centralizations and one decentralization” administrative

management system, city officials paid attention to adjusting and enriching the
institutional protocols and management functions of the E-governance office at
appropriate times. In July 2003, the municipal organizational structure committee
approved the addition of the E-governance office under the umbrella of the
Municipal Government Computing Center, endowing it with functions of manag-
ing, comprehensively planning, coordinating, promoting, and providing technical
support for E-governance across the city, increasing the center’s number of internal
divisions from three to four, and increasing the staffing limit from 25 to 28 people,
to be managed in accordance with state public servant protocols. In January 2008,
member of the city party committee standing committee and deputy mayor Wang
Shujian convened a conference on the topic of comprehensive planning and inte-
gration of informatization in the city, at which it was resolved that the city would
build a city-wide E-governance sharing platform; that there would be no further
special demands; that departments would no longer build their own platform-level
E-governance systems; that no more server rooms would be built; that no more
information centers would be built; and that any new E-governance construction
projects must be approved in advance by the E-governance office. In November
2008, the municipal organizational structure committee resolved to formally rename
the computing center to the “Municipal E-governance Office,” which was to be
managed jointly by the municipal party committee general office and municipal
government general office, but with the government general office playing the
dominant management role. The staffing limit was increased from 28 to 39, and the
number of internal divisions was increased from four to six. In July 2010, the
municipal organizational structure committee resolved to rename the municipal
E-governance office to the “Municipal E-governance and Information Resources
Management Office,” again increasing the staffing limit from 39 to 79, and
increasing the number of internal divisions from six to nine.
Officials effectively avoided redundant investments and construction and
ensured the smooth promotion of the intensive model through strict standardization
at every link in the chain, including planning, funding, and approvals of
E-governance. In November 2008, the Qingdao party committee general office and
government general office jointly issued the Qingdao Municipal Management
Measures for E-governance Construction Projects,”1 which made the following
clear stipulation: “Construction and application of E-governance in this city shall
proceed in accordance with the principles of concentration and centralization,
intensive development, interconnectivity, resource sharing, emphasis on real
results, and safeguarding of security. The municipal E-governance office is

1
Qingdao Municipal Government General Office Issuance No. 20, (2008).
2 The Qingdao Model: Using Centralization … 207

responsible for centralized planning and construction of the city-wide E-governance

basic sharing platform, and is also responsible for developing and deploying
applications systems, the use of which is to be centrally spread to the entire city.
Dedicated departmental application systems should be developed, deployed, and
operated on the basic sharing platform. In cases where there are no special needs, in
general no more independent construction of E-governance basic platforms (in-
cluding server rooms, cross-departmental networks, vertical networks, security
equipment, primary servers, basic software, general use software components, basic
information management systems, and other auxiliary equipment that can be
shared) by individual departments will be allowed. Gradually all E-governance
systems in the city will be integrated and migrated onto the central platform. Some
can be operated directly on the central platform, and some can be managed by the
municipal E-governance office on behalf of departments.” Officials also designed
detailed management and working mechanisms for E-governance project applica-
tions, project establishment, construction, inspection upon completion, effective-
ness assessments, operations, maintenance, and every other link in the chain,
standardizing the departmental construction of E-governance at the procedural
level. As of the end of 2010, city officials had completed pre-approvals of 31
E-governance construction departments from 26 municipal departments, including
the city health bureau, tourism bureau, and intermediate court, the budget for all of
which was 320 million yuan. Officials raised 152 opinions and suggestions for
amendments, realizing a savings of over 35 million yuan from the city treasury,
thereby controlling E-governance construction costs right from the source, laying a
good foundation for the healthy, orderly, and highly effective implementation of
city E-governance construction projects.
Officials actively explored the establishment of potent effectiveness assessment
mechanisms for E-governance. The first was to incorporate major city-wide
E-governance projects and applications in areas such as online office work, online
approvals, online law enforcement, and interaction between the government and the
public into the city’s overall effectiveness evaluations system. The second was the
issuance of the “Qingdao Municipal Effectiveness Assessment Indicators for
E-governance,” which targeted E-governance areas such as systems, mechanisms,
networks, security, and applications, giving comprehensive appraisals and rankings
of all 14 major and 49 minor projects of districts and subordinate cities and 13
major and 38 minor projects of city departments by promoting optimizing the
political environment and driving innovations in management and services in
E-governance, effectively driving up the levels of application of E-governance in all
districts, subordinate cities, and departments.
208 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

3 The Dongcheng Model: Integration of Management

and Services

Dongcheng District, Beijing, has made full use of the advantages of information
technology in promoting E-governance, giving rise to a new model of
E-governance development that takes grid management as its foundation, is char-
acterized by meticulous management, uses measures of proceduralized manage-
ment, targets an objective of individualized management, and incorporates service
innovation within management innovation. We call this the “Dongcheng model,”
which experts herald as a revolution in new urban management methods. The
Dongcheng model has been widely praised by both central leaders and municipal
leaders in Beijing. Dongcheng’s E-governance has won a series of important
awards, including “Exemplary Environment for Human Habitation in China,” the
gold prize in “Nationwide Outstanding Geographic Information System Programs,”
the “Huaxia Science and Technology Award,” and others.

3.1 The New “Grid Management” Model of Urban

Administration

At the end of 2004, the government of Dongcheng District formally rolled out the
new E-governance construction and management models called the “Wanmi Unit
Grid Management Method”2 and the “Urban Component Management Method.”
The “Wanmi Unit Grid Management Model” refers to the use of grid mapping in
urban administration. The system’s base unit is 10,000 m2, and so all area under
jurisdiction of Dongcheng District is divided into a grid composed of 10,000 m2
units, which urban management supervisors monitor around the clock. The system
also establishes responsible staff members for each portion of the grid system,
allowing for management divided by levels, grades, and areas. The new model uses
both the district’s natural geographic distribution and arrangement of administrative
partitioning to divide the 25.38 km2 of the district into 1652 grid units, per such
principles as territorial management, geographic distribution, management of pre-
sent conditions, convenient management, and integrity of management targets. The
model allows for the spatial division of Dongcheng District into four levels: the
whole district, the 10 neighborhoods, the 137 communities, and 1652, 10,000 m2
grids, with responsibility for management of the different levels allotted to,
respectively, the district government, neighborhood offices, community commit-
tees, and on-the-spot units and the “three doorstep responsibilities” system
appointees. District officials established a completely new, comprehensive,

2
Wanmi means 10,000 m in Chinese. This system takes blocks of 10,000 m2 as grid units.—
translator’s note.
3 The Dongcheng Model: Integration of Management … 209

three-dimensional, all-encompassing system for spatial management of reasonable

distribution in order to implement the new model. This, in turn, allowed for the
transformation of urban management from being extensive to being highly precise,
providing a vehicle and foundation for the new model of urban management.
The “urban component management method” refers to managing physical
objects subject to urban management as individual components (the new model
refers to the physical targets of urban management as “urban components”). Under
this method, officials use geographic coding technology to position urban compo-
nents onto the Wanmi grid map using their geographic coordinates, in order to
break them down into different classifications for management on the urban grid
management information platform. The new model allows officials to perform
cast-net-style surveys and create positioning maps and codes for all urban com-
ponents in the district, including municipal public infrastructure such as roads,
bridges, water mains, power lines, gas lines, and heat lines; other public infras-
tructure such as parks, green spaces, and old trees; and non-public infrastructure
such as number plates on houses and advertisements. Officials have classified all
168,339 urban components and 35,319 extended meters of facilities (guardrails,
bicycle racks, and so on) per their functions into six major categories and 56
sub-categories, which have been compiled into multiple databases. This allowed for
a transition in urban management from blindness toward precision, from manage-
ment by people into management by information.
The new model resolved problems of overlapping functions and responsibility
very well and greatly increased the district’s operational efficiency in public
administration. Under former models, urban management departments lacked
external supervision, as responsibilities for discovering problems, handling prob-
lems, and regulation were all contained within one department. The more problems
the department discovered, the greater that department’s workload, and since
nobody wants more work than is absolutely necessary, there were many problems
in the system, with nobody caring how many problems were discovered, how
quickly problems were discovered, whether problems were quickly handled, or to
what extent a given issue had been resolved. The new model resolved the problems
of petty departmental disputes, passing the buck, and multiple parties responsible
for management. Under the old model, the question of which department was
responsible for pick-up of mixed garbage was a long-term headache for urban
managers, owing to a city regulation that made the municipal construction com-
mittee responsible for construction garbage and environmental sanitation depart-
ments responsible for domestic garbage. Once these two kinds of garbage became
mixed, the departments had ample reason to pass the buck back and forth. There are
too many such examples for us to enumerate here. Under the new model, however,
all specialized departments and neighborhood bureaus involved with the work of
urban management had to take orders directly from the comprehensive urban
management committee on issues related to urban management, bringing about
coordination between specialized departments.
The new model also very well resolved problems of people’s livelihood services,
to which the public pays great attention. Under the old model, the government
210 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

could obtain only outdated information pertaining to urban management, and was
passive in its handling of problems. Frequently the government moved to resolve
issues only after they had caused harm or danger to the public and had been
exposed by the media, causing dissatisfaction on the part of the public. Now urban
management supervisors go right into communities for “zero distance” contact with
residents, as though the government had 137 antennae reaching right into residents’
homes, influencing aspects of urban management that touch upon the work and
lives of the public but also on the “trivial matters” affecting residents. This new
model allows for fast resolution of problems by putting urban supervisors right on
the ground for handling government relations; this has been met with great approval
by the public. Urban management problems often touch upon the direct interests of
the public, and so poor handling thereof often leads to social conflicts. Ever since
the new model went into practice, it has been used to resolve over 16,000 urban
management problems. The new model truly realizes the rights of the public to
know about, participate in, and oversee urban management. In the past, if one
wanted to report a problem in urban management, one had to seek an audience with
an important leader in the district government, which required passing through a
dozen or more layers of bureaucracy. Many layers also had to be traversed in
reporting issues through letters and visits, and in many cases, letters and visits
yielded no results anyway. Under the new model, the public can go directly to
urban management supervisors in a supervisory center to report problems for res-
olution. They can also call the urban management service number 13910001000, or
send a message directly to a relevant district leader (relevant leaders in dedicated
departments, neighborhood bureaus, and the district government all have computer
terminals). Now there is an “express car” for reporting urban management prob-
lems, which has reduced the bureaucratic layers and brought about flattening of
management organizations, creating positive interaction between citizens and the
government and allowing for common management of cities.

3.2 The Path to Integration of “Grid” Management

and Services

The successful implementation of the Wanmi urban grid management model in

Dongcheng District has increased the management and service provision capacities
and efficiencies of the district government to an extreme degree while also reducing
administrative costs. Community residents have distinctly felt clear improvements
in their living environments, and government work has become more open,
transparent, pragmatic, and efficient. Even more important is that the grid model of
urban management has truly brought about data integration and sharing in all
sectors related to urban management, such as basic topographical information,
image information, urban management target information, urban management
process information, urban component geographic and spatial coordinate
3 The Dongcheng Model: Integration of Management … 211

information, and other dynamic deployments and comprehensive planning man-

agement areas. The use of GIS, RS, GPS, (see above for details on these three
acronyms), wireless telecommunications, coordinated work, geographic codes, and
other information technologies has brought about complete coverage of all sectors
and “urban components” of urban management, as well as round-the-clock,
cross-departmental, closed-loop supervision and maintenance. The new model has
exerted an enormous driving effect on management and services within the oper-
ations of urban E-governance.
In recent years, Dongcheng District has further deepened application of
E-governance on the foundation of its grid management system. Officials made a
great step forward in community public healthcare services, making the district a
national forerunner, by truly realizing the “concept of embedding management
within services.” The district’s new community healthcare services system incor-
porates information technology within community healthcare services, using the
district’s government network and the internet, establishing the community
healthcare services management center as their network applications center and the
Dongcheng District E-governance center as the center of network and data
exchanges, and making full use of the spatial data resources on the district’s grid
management information platform, in order to: integrate modern information
technology, statistics, epidemiology, and all other fields of medicine; consolidate
community healthcare service resources; build a community healthcare grid man-
agement information platform; create vertical and horizontal relationships between
relevant government organs, district hospitals, and commanding bodies; and bring
about sharing of community healthcare services management information and
resident health information in the entire district.
The construction and operation of the district’s community healthcare services
system relied heavily on the basic platform effect played by Wanmi grid technol-
ogy. District officials, per such principles as territorial management, convenient
management, workload equilibrium, and allocation of resources per needs, used
grid information technology to divide neighborhoods and communities into com-
munity healthcare services work grids and management grids, establishing com-
munity healthcare services stations (central stations) and general practitioner offices,
thus creating a three-tier management system of community healthcare services
management centers, service stations, and doctors’ offices, with corresponding
district personnel responsible for all tiers. This brought about grid management of
community healthcare resources, resident health statuses, the distribution and
characteristics of focus diseases, and other information resources, thus bringing
convenience to the people. The entire district is divided into 10 neighborhoods, 126
communities, 44 working grids, and 1593 management grids. Each of the 44
working grids contains a community healthcare services station. The 82 commu-
nities without these stations contain general practitioner offices. This grid
arrangement has made it possible for citizens in any corner of the district to have to
walk fewer than 10 min to receive services, thus demonstrating the accessibility and
convenience of community services in the district.
212 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

The district’s healthcare services system combines Wanmi grid technology,

large-screen technology, geographic and spatial technology, database technology,
and topographical imaging technology on the foundation of grid technology.
District officials now have access to 86 image layers falling under 13 major cate-
gories, including healthcare service resources, population, general practitioners, and
other medical resources. Officials can use the Wanmi grid system to search for
geographic and spatial data, housing and address data, and health data of specific
individuals across the entire district, bringing all information on community resi-
dents under the management of the grid system via its information platform,
bringing about an information environment for community healthcare services,
management, and dispatching that consolidates quantities, natures, positions, ima-
ges, and documents for service targets. This has provided real-time, flexible,
observable, and comprehensive data support and decision-making tools per needs in
community healthcare resources, and brought about integration of spatial and
geographic grids, resident need grids, service resource grids, and healthcare man-
agement grids, truly humanizing services and making management more meticu-
lous. If there is ever an outbreak of avian flu or some other emergency situation, it
will be easy for district officials to get to the bottom of the situation and discover
where the outbreak started, what present conditions are, and which doctors are
responsible for controlling the situation; this has resolved problems of direct
observation and dynamic supervision of operations of district healthcare resources.

3.3 Information Technology: Catalyst for Integration

of Management and Services

A sweeping overview of the district’s E-governance development in recent years

reveals that information technology has played an indispensable role in
Dongcheng’s construction of an urban and social comprehensive management
system based in grid management. One could say that it was precisely the abundant
use of modern information technologies such as spatial information technology,
database technology, grid transmission technology, mobile telecommunications
technology, multimedia technology, information security technology, and elec-
tronic signature technology that allowed district officials to create an E-governance
resources management system that organically combines government resources
with public resources, truly realizing an E-governance model that embeds services
within management.
Dongcheng District officials made comprehensive use of many kinds of network
technologies (ATM, ADSL VPN, GPRS), service websites, text messaging centers,
call centers, and other information technologies in their community healthcare
services system. They used great integration of telecommunications technology to
bring about diversification of methods for providing community healthcare ser-
vices. They brought about seamless connection between community residents and
3 The Dongcheng Model: Integration of Management … 213

the service system and eliminated potential technical obstacles that could prevent
residents from enjoying healthcare services. They also ensured usability and ease of
use of community public services, making possible the realization of a ubiquitous
community healthcare services system (i.e. UPHS, or ubiquitous public health
service). The consolidation of and innovation in information technologies was most
prominent in the call center. The district’s community healthcare service system’s
comprehensive call center consolidated several dozen forms of information tech-
nologies, including spatial information technology, database technology, network
transmission technology, mobile telecommunications technology, multimedia
technology, information security and electronic security technology, and others.
The center employed many database clusters, with GIS technology as their core,
allowing staff to search for health conditions of residents, dynamic changes in
treatments, and the working conditions of nursing staff at any time. This integrated
all aspects of management work, from treatment, to pharmacies, to equipment, to
finances, to human resources, and so on, and allowed for pre-warnings of outbreaks
of contagious diseases; this was an innovation in technological consolidation.
In recent years, district officials have made many other explorations into vehicles
for informatization and grid management technology other than in the healthcare
field. They have expanded application of the new model into 13 areas, including
dedicated Olympic safeguards, floating population management, rental housing
management, pollution control, cultural object protection, cultural market regula-
tion, public services, and economic operations monitoring, gradually bringing about
the universal use of modern information technology in the many areas of urban
operations, laying a solid foundation for the construction of “Digital Dongcheng”
and “Smart Dongcheng.”
In the area of education, district officials implemented the “blue sky program”
and “administration divided by school zone,” drawing on informatization and grid
management methods to achieve connectivity and conglomeration. Using “ex-
tracurricular activity cards,” primary and middle school students in the district can
engage in activities at over 560 social resources work units, over 300 activity
centers, and over 100 curriculum resource bases; this program has extended edu-
cation from the classroom out into society. Officials have built a campus without
walls for students using information systems. The entire district was divided into
five school zones, consolidating resources such as teacher power in different
schools, teaching equipment, and curricula all at the district level. Officials also
established mechanisms for resource sharing, which drove balanced, quality
development of education. These two programs have received praise since their
inauguration, both receiving first-tier prizes at the 18th China Education
Symposium. The “blue sky program” has been promoted around the country by the
Central Civilization Bureau.
In the area of people’s livelihoods, Dongcheng District established a digitalized
social assistance system. At the end of 2006, officials established a social assistance
information platform to drive assistance resource integration and information
sharing, establishing the first district-level digitalized social assistance system in
Beijing. The system comprises 16 departments, 10 neighborhoods, and 79
214 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

assistance projects, and brought about integrated management of assistance. The

system established standards for the entities, targets, and procedures of assistance
projects and standardized assistance behaviors; made detailed classifications of
assistance resources, established point-to-point matching between resources and
need, and made intelligent resource allocations; made clear assessment indicators
for the characteristics and quantities of each project; and made supervision and
assessments scientific. As of now, over 20,000 people in hardships, divided into 16
categories, receive timelier and more efficient assistance.
In the area of economic management, Dongcheng District established a com-
mercial real estate economy monitoring platform based on the collection of basic
data of all 162 commercial buildings in the district. The system effectively employs
geographic information system software and technology, network technology, and
database technology to consolidate economic census data as well as data from
departments in areas such as national and local taxation, industry and commerce,
statistics, and fiscal affairs. The system enables reporting on both general economic
development and commercial real estate development in the district at the micro and
macro levels, providing timely information on increases and reductions in the
building market, trends of economic operations, businesses moving in or out of the
district, and taxes paid outside of the district, while also providing a platform for
coordinated management of multiple departments’ work and an information plat-
form for building investment attraction, providing decision-making assistance for
management and adjustment.

4 The Ningbo 81890 Model: Service Is Beautiful

On August 18, 2001, the Ningbo 81890 (the numbers 81890 sound similar to “just
dial for results” in local dialect) assistance services center formally opened; it has
been in operation for 11 years as of now. Officials organically combined the
development of E-governance, e-commerce, and e-communities, and organically
merged one-stop service halls with one-stop service via telephone or the internet to
create a positive interactive environment embodied in the 81890 hotline, which the
government directs, businesses enthusiastically participate in, and city residents
actively respond to. In so doing, officials created a new model for E-governance
public services and created a new example in comprehensive innovation of
E-governance. The “Ningbo 81890” model increased the level of urban manage-
ment and also became a bond linking together the public with a large amount of
credible businesses; integrated a large quantity of government resources, enterprise
resources, and social resources; introduced market mechanisms; built a credit
system; drove healthy development of related service industries; and played a
positive role in guiding the construction of public services in other cities around the
nation.
4 The Ningbo 81890 Model: Service Is Beautiful 215

4.1 The “Fourth Party” Service Platform Integrating

the Government, Markets, and the Public

An important current topic in innovating in public administration is how to fully

make use of the enthusiasm of the government, businesses, citizens, and other
areas; create new mechanisms for government guidance and coordinated partici-
pation by businesses and citizens; and effectively resolve the problems that exist to
differing degrees of information asymmetry and unlinked supply and demand
between the government, markets, and the public. On the one hand, as society and
the economy have rapidly developed, the living standards of city residents have
undergone constant increases, but at the same time, there have been large changes
in ways of life, and the lives of city residents are exhibiting trends of becoming
more diversified and individualized; city residents often don’t know where their
vigorous demands can be coupled with reliable services. On the other hand, as the
service industry has grown exuberantly, there has been fierce market competition
among a great deal of small and mid-sized service companies, which are anxious to
find market demand for their services, in order to expand their market shares. To
this end, they expend a great deal of financial and human resources to distribute
small advertisements, but things often go contrary to their wishes, as what they earn
from their efforts is more often lack of trust from residents than increased business.
It is not possible to rely upon only the government or markets to resolve these
problems. Although the government can exert a major effect on supply and demand
of services, with enormous resources at its disposal and its prestige, it is unable to
completely satisfy the many facets and levels of service demands of all the people
and all businesses. Although markets possess advantages in flexibility of supply and
demand for services and offering of all services imaginable, as there is not yet a
perfect public credibility system, it has been difficult for credibility and reputation
to form well, most notably among the multitudes of small and mid-sized companies
offering living services.
Under these conditions, we need a “fourth party” organization capable of inte-
grating and deploying third party information and service resources. This organi-
zation would need to be led by the government, and would have to be both
influential and authoritative for the public. It would also need to attract social
resources from far and wide, giving it the ability to provide complete services. At
the same time, it would have to fully use all manner of information technologies to
be able to provide fast, convenient services to the public. The mission of the 81890
service center is just that. As a bridge between the government, markets, and the
public, 81890 plays an important role in linking up information from all parties,
storing important data, and realizing high-efficiency management. It is the gov-
ernment that builds this bridge, the bridge being 81890. City residents can use this
bridge to find service companies they can trust. Service companies can also use this
bridge to find consumers in need of their services. Here, 81890 provides a service
that city residents need, but which neither the public nor the markets are capable of
performing well. Here, the government employs its prestige, credibility, and
216 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

organizational capacity to create an interactive, trustworthy service platform, suc-

cessfully linking the masses of city residents and their needs with the thousands of
service entities that can meet those needs. This has been a positive experiment in
employing the principles of scientific development on public administration under
new conditions. As a service organization guided by the government, 81890 is both
highly prestigious and trustworthy, and is also capable of providing high quality
services as it has effectively integrated government, company, and public resources;
this has allowed the service to rapidly build a reputable brand for service provision
across the entire city. On the strength of all its brand advantages, the 81890 system
has become a highly efficient, comprehensive information platform with ideal
capabilities in information collection, exchange, and storage that achieves complete
coverage, interconnectivity and sharing, complete functionality, and practicality
through its digitalization of data in areas such as nature, geography, culture and
history, economic and social development, and government resources.
In concrete terms, the 81890 service model’s core is information processing,
which is employed to closely unite the three parties of planners (the Haishu District
party committee and district government, i.e. the builders of “81890” are respon-
sible for planning, organization, funding, and supervision of public services),
providers (the companies, volunteers, not-for-profit organizations, and government
bodies that join the “81890” program, which are responsible for providing service
products), and users (individual residents, social organizations, companies, and
government organizations both have demand for services and are the coordinators
and supervisors of services), creating a service model in which the government
creates the platform, markets contribute operations, and the public participates. The
81890 service platform’s organizational framework includes: the connections
division, the execution division, the operations and maintenance division, the
quality supervision division, as well as the 81890 service industry association, the
81890 volunteer association, and other derivative social organizations. The con-
nections division is primarily responsible for listening to, processing, and
responding to demands for services. The execution division is primarily responsible
for effectively gathering information, attracting service companies, and dispatching
public service information. The operations and maintenance division is primarily
responsible for information integration, online dissemination, and network main-
tenance. The quality supervision division is responsible for assessments and
supervision of the 81890 service platform.

4.2 Service Integration: The Cornerstone of the 81890

Model

Convenient services and responding to all requests are the promises of Ningbo’s
81890 assistance services center makes to city residents. The center delivers on this
promise by integrating service resources and improving service functions.
4 The Ningbo 81890 Model: Service Is Beautiful 217

First is the integration of government service resources, which allows for timely
processing of the demands, opinions, and suggestions city residents make about
urban public management. Although some government service departments and
work units also possess all manner of hotlines, there are many of them, and they are
widely dispersed, making city residents feel they are inconvenient. City residents
can call the hotline to report their concerns, opinions, and suggestions to relevant
departments and work units to coordinate or supervise a resolution to issues
reported. Interaction between 81890 and government functionary departments is
achieved through the services network. All functional departments and some ser-
vice work units built by the government that work closely with the people’s lives
can hear reports from the public in a timely fashion and can then resolve real
problems of the people. Here, 81890 serves as an intermediary and a bridge for
communication between city residents and the government. To further strengthen
connection between government resources and business needs for information,
officials established the 81890 enterprise services platform, on which the service
functions of all 56 party and government organs in the district are included; there
are 868 services on the platform falling into 14 categories, including policies, laws,
and financing, in order to provide all-weather, complete, all-encompassing
follow-up supervision services. From January to December, 2010, the platform
processed 731 cases of enterprise assistance, of which 373 were handed off to party
and government organs. All reports were answered, and the system achieved “three
100%”: within-five-minutes response rate, completion rate of processing reports,
and satisfaction rate. Officials also resolved anxious matters, difficult matters, and
vexing matters that emerge within a company’s development, and the system has
been widely praised by companies and the public.
Second is the integration of market service resources, which satisfies the living
service needs of city residents in a timely manner. The 81890 system relies on its
over 800 affiliated service companies and their over 27,000 employees to provide
189 service items falling in 19 categories, such as clothing, food, housing, trans-
portation, and many other human needs. The system provides complete, all-weather
living services to city residents. Many affiliated companies find a great market for
services through the system, as opposed to the past, when companies had to “do
battle” on their own. Many companies actively apply to join the services network;
there are now several hundred companies on the waiting list.
Third is integration of social service resources, which provides opportunities for
enthusiastic participation by volunteers eager to make contributions to society.
Officials in the 81890 program built a team of over 100,000 red-hat volunteers with
special skills to provide individualized services to vulnerable groups; this gave rise
to a diversified system of safeguards that ranged from caring for the material living
standards of vulnerable groups, to caring for the spiritual lives of vulnerable groups,
to caring for the security and well-being of vulnerable groups. As of now, over
20,000 people have enjoyed free services, and a total of over one million yuan in
maintenance and other fees have been exempted or reduced. Examples include the
provision of theaters, libraries, internet cafés, and clubs specially designed for the
blind. At the same time that the system has actively guided service targets toward
218 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

assistance, it has also provided those services it can to other people and contributed
to social harmony. These volunteers play a role not only in correcting omissions
and deficiencies, but more importantly add a ray of sunshine to social ethics con-
struction and urban civilization. The process of serving and being served is in
reality the process of implementing the “Enforcement Outline for Citizen Ethics.”
The government, markets, and the public are the three guiding forces behind the
for-the-people services of the 81890 program. The three are brought together and
given free rein on the 81890 platform, comprehensively increasing the capacity of
social services, and satisfying city resident needs to the greatest extent possible.

4.3 Service Management: Safeguards of the 81890 Model

Ningbo’s 81890 assistance services center runs on the 81890 information platform,
and promotion of government trustworthiness brings about comprehensive service
quality increases. The service center has established a set of service and manage-
ment institutions, providing basic protections for service quality and maintaining
public interests rather well.
First is the establishment of mechanisms restricting the behaviors of service
companies. The 81890 program signs rigorous quality assurance agreements with
affiliated companies and maintains a serious system for citizens to give quality
feedback. The system maintains rigorous controls on service companies and places
focus on recommending companies with good reputations. There are also punish-
ments for companies that renege on their quality commitments; this leads to stan-
dardized, normalized directional development in the service industry. If a resident
has a bad experience with a company, the 81890 program gives a yellow card
warning to that company, and a red card for the second time. Those with three
violations are removed from the affiliation and kicked off the network. Relations
have been terminated with three service companies to date. This mechanism inte-
grates services within management, causing service behaviors to gradually become
more standardized.
Second is the establishment of educational and training institutions. The 81890
assistance services center has established a subordinate community services training
center that draws from national service standards to provide standardized training to
all manner of service personnel in the service industry, deepen the development of
star-graded training for service personnel, and foster individualized service talent at
different levels and for different needs. The program requires that new personnel of
affiliated companies receive training at the center prior to beginning work, thus
laying a foundation for the creation of a standardized service industry force.
Companies in Haishu District, Ningbo, including the Lanfu Housekeeping Services
Co., Ltd.; the Leleyuan Housekeeping Services Co., Ltd.; and the Dongfang Yuesao
Housekeeping Services Co., Ltd., discovered that there was great potential for
development in the market for “yuesao” (women who care for new mothers for the
first month following birth) and then selected several dozen women to be trained in
4 The Ningbo 81890 Model: Service Is Beautiful 219

the profession at the center to become regular “yuesao,” meeting a welcoming

reaction on the market. At present, “yuesao” is the service that brings in the most
business for these housekeeping companies.
Third is the establishment of institutions to ensure service quality. To ensure
service quality, the 81890 center hired legal consultants and consumer service quality
inspectors to handle any disputes arising from service quality or pricing disagree-
ments. The center also built a team of volunteer supervisors, who make monthly
assessments of the service attitude and service quality provided on the 81890 platform,
thereby constantly driving up the level of services. The center also established a
service company association and an 81890 volunteer association, which brought
about self-management and industry discipline. To ensure the proper handling of
every single assistance request, the center established a system for managing service
quality and in April 2002 received ISO 9001-2000 quality management system cer-
tification. In October 2004, officials established graded standards for housekeeping
companies and star-rated standards for housekeeping personnel. In January 2007,
officials issued classification standards and enforcement standards for home services
business. In July 2008, officials issued pricing information for housekeeping services
in Ningbo. In 2009, the 81890 program was established as a pilot work unit in
nationwide standardized construction of the community housekeeping industry by the
National Standards Commission. In August 2010, officials established a secretariat in
the 81890 program’s Ningbo housekeeping services industry standardization tech-
nology committee. In November 2010, the 81890 program drafted six standards:
“Home Mother and Child Care Services Norms,” “Household Goods Moving
Services Standards,” “Home Sanitation Services Standards,” “Housekeeping
Personnel Qualification Grading Standards,” “Housekeeping Enterprise Grading
Standards,” and “Affairs Agency and Purchasing by Agent Service Standards,” all of
which were examined and commented upon by experts. These standards were issued
on November 15, 2010, and went into practice as local standards for Ningbo on
December 1, 2010.

4.4 Service Innovation Is the Quintessence of the 81890

Model

Service innovation is the soul of modern services. As the 81890 service center has
developed and grown, it has in all its components been permeated with the spirit of
innovation. At present, most services provided by the center fall within three cat-
egories. The first is information services. For example, when citizens request traffic
information, weather forecasts, and so on, personnel in the connections division
obtain the requested information from a database and pass it along. The second is
living services. When city residents request moving, nanny, or other services,
personnel from the connections division make work orders per the three principles
of proximity, priority given to excellent companies, and fairness. Upon receipt of
220 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

the work order, a company provides standardized services to the client, and the
connections division follows up on the work within half a day. The third is public
services, such as requests to service public infrastructure, like street lights, roads, or
environmental and sanitation concerns. Once the connections division makes a
record, that record is passed onto the execution division, which then conducts an
investigation of the affected area. If the report is found to be true, the execution
division sends a report to the responsible department or work unit to fix the situ-
ation, and then responds to the original complainant. Procedures are similar for
assistance requests that come in via the internet, text message, or telephone. The
81890 center is constantly promoting service innovation through the use of new
technologies an innovations of new service measures in the three above service
categories.
In the area of applied technology, the 81890 center is established on a call center
technical foundation, communicating through means such as telephones, the
internet, and text messages to provide three levels of services: information requests,
appointment making, and special services. These three levels encompass 17 major
categories of services, including clothing, food, housing, transportation, and
healthcare, all hosted on the urban public services information platform. The call
center platform system contains many models for multidimensional analysis, on a
foundation of data collection in areas such as city resident service needs and service
procedures and performance of affiliated companies, to provide all manner of
analysis and decision-making assistance for all urban and public services. Officials
have used this system to build a public services platform that provides needed
communication and interaction between citizens, the government, and businesses,
effectively resolving the problem of information asymmetry between the three. The
system has played an active role in establishment of operating rules for service
companies, strengthening company oversight, guaranteeing service quality, and
promoting the healthy development of service companies.
In the area of the creation of new services, the 81890 center has built an
emergency call system targeting the special needs of senior citizens, resolving
living and security issues for seniors living at home alone or with multiple health
problems. The senior citizen emergency call system is divided into three primary
components:
The first is the one-touch-call machine for seniors. The 81890 program provides
custom-built special telephones to seniors in need. These are ordinary telephones
with a special 81890 button installed, which automatically rings the 81890 service
in event of an emergency. The 81890 button is 50% larger than the other buttons
and colored blue, located conspicuously at the top right of the device, which seniors
can push instead of having to dial the whole number. In consideration of the living
habits of seniors, officials designed the phone so it can be charged directly over the
phone line, with no need to be plugged into an electric socket and no need to
replace batteries. As seniors may experience a stroke, or be unable to talk or use
their hands, if the telephone is off the hook for eight seconds, it will automatically
call the 81890 emergency center. These phones can be plugged into existing phone
4 The Ningbo 81890 Model: Service Is Beautiful 221

lines. There is no need for additional equipment or renovations. Seniors can use the
devices just like normal telephones or use them in case of emergencies.
The second is keeping of records of basic conditions of senior citizens. All those
who wish to register with the 81890 emergency call service must provide basic
information on seniors who may use the service. The form has three parts. The first
is basic conditions of seniors, including: neighborhood and community in which
they live, name, sex, birthdate, home address, home telephone number, employment
prior to retirement, and profession. The second is the health information of seniors,
including medical history and sources of allergic reaction. The third is information
pertaining to care for seniors, including the contact numbers of family members,
contacts within the community, in-home care providers, volunteers, physicians
ortherapists, and contacts at place of employment, if any. All this information is
entered into the system once verified. When calls from seniors come in, the
information management system can recognice the number and retrieves pertinent
records from the database.
The third is emergency response for seniors. When the 81890 system receives a
request for assistance from a senior, staff members quickly get in touch with the
emergency contacts listed in the system and dispatch professional assistance to the
senior’s residence.
On the strength of high-efficiency, coordinated, pragmatic provision of services,
the 81890 assistance service center has evolved out of nothing into a large service
provider, its daily average of service requests having grown from 40 to 3300, its
number of affiliated companies having grown from 90 to 840, and its scope having
grown from Haishu District to encompass all of Ningbo. In 10 years, the 81890
center has processed over 4.60 million requests for assistance, and achieved a
processing completion rate of 100% and a satisfaction rate of 99.87%. The system
is centered on the original 81890 center platform in Haishu, but now works with 56
party and government departments and over 840 affiliated companies. Center
officials have established sub-centers in Yinzhou, Zhenhai, Beilun, Fenghua,
Ninghai, Xiangshan, Yuyao, and Cixi and have built an enormous service system
consisting of 22:24 h hotlines. The system is gradually becoming a model in service
agglomeration platforms for the entire province and even the entire country, with
over 100 cities around China having copied the model.

5 The Chengdu Model: U-Shaped E-governance Driven

by Needs

In recent years, the municipal government of Chengdu has gradually created an

E-governance U-shaped online services model typified by “web portal information
collection, work orders dispatched behind the scenes, centralized processing of
departmental tasks, and web portal results dissemination + administrative perfor-
mance electronic surveillance,” per the concept of E-governance development
222 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

being guided by user needs. Chengdu officials, looking closely to the needs of
citizens, have promoted systems interconnectivity, network interconnectivity, and
expansion of service functions. The primary entities of the Chengdu system are
government web portals, which make it convenient for city citizens to access
information services through multiple channels and methods. Officials have initially
established mechanisms for E-governance construction and development that
combine comprehensive urban planning, sharing of resources, and universal
services.

5.1 Standardizing E-governance Service Provision

as Driven by Need

The general objective of Chengdu officials is to build a service-oriented govern-

ment. To do so, they have established government web portals as the vehicle of
E-governance development and proposed U-shaped E-governance as the funda-
mental ideology of government web portal construction. U-shaped systems are
platforms for collecting the various appeals of the public and businesses based in
the integration and centralization of government web portal construction, which are
run by intelligent scheduling platforms. Every department of the government and
their application systems host these systems, and they are extended to the public
and businesses on centralized information platforms integrated on government web
portals, thus allowing for a “digging system” that collects and analyzes user needs
for E-governance construction. They reconstruct mechanisms for E-governance
development using innovative bottom-to-top driver models where the needs of
users are placed above the needs of providers. To accomplish this objective, city
officials have in recent years made constant optimizations of their E-governance
procedures and added vigor to the construction of service-oriented government
through such means as strengthening E-governance productivity, promoting com-
bined approvals, and driving online disclosure of administrative authorities.
(1) Promoting Performance Management; Ensuring Scientific Development
of E-governance by Establishing Institutions
To ensure the standardized, orderly construction of need-oriented E-governance,
Chengdu officials in recent years have strengthened E-governance performance
oversight and achieved their goal of scientific development of E-governance
through supervision of authorities by issuing relevant policies, designing control-
ling bodies, and other methods. In 2009, Chengdu issued the “Chengdu Municipal
Measures for Supervision of Administrative Performance.” In 2011, the Chengdu
party committee and government formally established the Chengdu Municipal
People’s Government Administrative Performance Construction Office (hereafter
referred to as “the performance office”), a bureau-level organ, under which were
established an administrative performance promotion division, a government
information openness division (into which the mayor’s open telephone office was
5 The Chengdu Model: U-Shaped E-governance … 223

incorporated), and a first and second division in E-governance. The performance

office’s primary function is to organize and promote administrative performance
construction in government organs around the city. It is responsible for promoting,
guiding, coordinating, and supervising city-wide government information openness
and organizational coordination, and also for inspecting the work of government
openness around the city. The office is also responsible for work related to
E-governance in city government bodies as well as the guidance and supervision of
the construction of E-governance systems and government web portals around the
city. The performance office’s establishment effectively resolved problems that
currently exist in China related to departments all acting on their own and lack of
comprehensive planning in areas such as government openness, performance
monitoring, and website construction. The office also became the guiding force in
the deployment and comprehensive planning of U-shaped E-governance, effectively
guaranteeing the scientific development of E-governance in Chengdu, and making
the office a great positive point in the construction of E-governance and innovation
in administrative institutions in Chengdu.
City officials also placed a great deal of emphasis on the work of monitoring
E-governance performance. The Municipal Supervision Bureau, Legislative Affairs
Bureau, Regulation Compliance Bureau, Information Office, and other work units
came together to draft the “Chengdu Municipal General Plan for Electronic
Supervision Systems” and the “Chengdu Municipal Working Plan for Phase One of
the E-governance Supervision System Program Construction,” after which both
were implemented. Phase one of the program organized and standardized 467
procedures and nearly 3000 processing links in 44 municipal departments; brought
about construction of a city-wide centralized administrative approvals services
platform; gradually promoted application in all districts, counties, and subordinate
cities; brought about complete connectivity of government services at the four
levels of the municipality, district (or subordinate city), town/township, and com-
munity and such city-wide government applications service functions as data
resource concentration, unification of applications, and graded task management;
shored up and consummated the unified application system covering the entire
municipality; created the work of city-wide administrative approvals electronic
supervision via approvals and information exchanges and sharing among all
departments on public exchange platforms; and increased the working efficiency
and service levels of administrative approvals departments by implementing
real-time oversight and controls and warning and error correction over adminis-
trative approvals.
(2) Promoting Linked Approvals; Driving Reconfiguration of Government
Work Procedures by Increasing Administrative Efficiency
Since the work of reforming administrative approvals institutions was initiated in
Chengdu in 2000, officials have looped in the work of constructing standardized
service-oriented government to greatly drive reforms of all approvals institutions
using one-stop service platforms in government service centers and on government
web portals, while focusing on reforming the administrative system, innovating
work models, and improving operational mechanisms, thereby making great
224 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

progress in such areas as reducing the number of things for which approvals are
needed, improving the approvals work flow, reducing application processing time,
and implementing uniform standards and codes of conduct.
In practice, Chengdu officials have experimented with many models that have
been inspired by experiences of other countries. The first is “advanced notice of
approvals,” with notice being given prior to instead of during the processing,
sparing applicants the hassle of constantly having to ask for status updates. The
second is “attaching greater importance to services,” which is meant to redress the
hitherto lopsided emphasis on granting approvals at the expense of providing ser-
vices post-approval. The third is “single-counter processing,” which changed
one-stop approvals into one-window services, establishing just one public-facing
window in every approvals department, resolving the problems of applicants having
to run back and forth between several windows. The fourth is “internal operations,”
which shifted the onus of running between departments in approvals from the
applicant onto the government, decreasing the cost of applying for approvals for the
public. The fifth is “parallel approvals,” which changed the former “relay race”
style of approvals into a synchronized process, effectively increasing the efficiency
of approvals. Working groups researching these topics are not only limited to the
working needs of approvals departments, but must also pay abundant attention to
the needs of applicants. The above mentioned experiments represent a breakthrough
in the traditional model of administrative approvals; simplified the work required on
the part of applicants; established simulated procedures for applicants; made
applicants clearer on what they must do; and brought about a change in adminis-
trative approvals toward being service-oriented.
At present, Chengdu’s parallel approvals information network system has
achieved connectivity and two-way interaction with government web portals,
providing to concerned parties such services as advanced notice of approvals,
online information requests, online applications, and searches for application status.
The system has online transmission of approvals information between compre-
hensive windows and approvals departments as well as between the various
approvals departments. At the same time, the system provides for follow-ups of
approvals process statuses in all departments as well as supervision and manage-
ment thereof. Online supervision of these departments drives progress in this work
as well as evaluations thereof, thereby realizing “simplicity, standardization, high
efficiency, and transparency in approvals procedures,” and deepening the con-
struction of a standardized service-oriented government. Municipal officials won
the “Fourth Annual Local Government Innovation Award” and the “China Urban
Progress and Management Award” for their one-window parallel approvals work.
(3) Driving Openness of Authorities; Promoting Standardization of
Government Services Through Administrative Transparency
In recent years, municipal officials in Chengdu have actively promoted the work
of making government authorities open and transparent online, establishing an
objective of constructing a first-class E-governance system, setting government web
portals as the core, with support from government website clusters. Online gov-
ernment halls and government web portals have brought about sharing and
5 The Chengdu Model: U-Shaped E-governance … 225

reciprocity of data in the three areas of government information openness, openness

of administrative authorities, and platforms for seeking information or submitting
complaints; they have also created directories of codes divided by class of
administrative licensing, administrative punishment, administrative tax levying,
administrative force, and other authorities that have been ratified and approved by
organizing existing directory systems. Officials have promoted sunshine govern-
ment. They have recreated and optimized the 107 administrative approvals proce-
dures that were deemed necessary to retain and issued them in an open city-wide
document along with the municipal government’s 7437 administrative authorities,
thus driving open, transparent operations of administrative authorities online;
bringing about openness of the contents of administrative authorities; disclosing the
exercise of authorities; disclosing the results of the exercise of authorities; and
building a Chengdu network platform for online disclosure of open, transparent
exercise of administrative authorities. Officials ultimately promoted construction of
standardized, service-oriented government by using openness to drive standard-
ization, impartiality, convenience, and efficiency.

5.2 Innovating in E-governance Public Services, Driven

by Demand

In recent years, there has been rapid development in the construction of

E-governance in Chengdu, and the quality and level of public services have both
risen markedly. Chengdu officials used the existing E-governance network system
to build government web portals, online government halls, a central information
system for government services, an information sharing and exchange system for
creditworthiness information and basic information about companies, a digitalized
urban management municipal-level platform, an urban wireless telecommunications
system for linked emergency response, a monitoring system for urban waterlogging
and flood control, a management system for new rural medical insurance and drug
delivery, a system for the mutual aid fund for youth medical care, a command
system for emergency response to sudden public health incidents in Chengdu, and a
slew of other information systems serving the people’s livelihoods. The government
has made some outstanding achievements in exploring demand-guided innovations
in E-governance public services.

(1) Innovating in Public Services with Government Web Portals Serving as

Vehicles
Government web portals are important platforms and windows for disclosing
government information to the public, online handling of affairs, and online
interaction, and for the provision of “one-stop” government services. Emphasis is
placed on the three major service functions of web portals in information openness,
online handling of affairs, and public participation. Officials have endowed them
with the three major functions of “government openness, online handling of affairs,
226 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

and interaction between the government and the people.” Officials have also
established five major specialized web portal channels of the “News Center,” “Get
to Know Chengdu,” “Living Peacefully in Chengdu,” “Entrepreneurial Chengdu,”
and “Charming Chengdu.” Officials have integrated these sections on the front page
and added a great quantity of applicable information, establishing reports on ded-
icated topics, daily suggestions, and frequently asked questions as focuses, grad-
ually giving rise to a complete online services system. In the area of open
government information, municipal officials implemented the “People’s Republic of
China Regulations on Open Government Information,” using government web
portals to develop a unified open government information management system;
standardize the reporting and issuance of all government information disclosed in
the city; give full play to the primary channels of government information disclo-
sure; and make searches and use of said information by the public convenient. In
the area of government services, in accordance with the demand that the govern-
ment carry out its functions, proceeding from the aim to satisfy the demand to
provide the ever-growing quantity of services required by businesses and the
public, officials have actively integrated and expanded the amount of services and
procedures that can be accessed online. Officials have actively promoted online
information searches, online applications, and online procedure handling services
and strengthened the service functions of web portals using the model of receipt of
request by the web portal, handling of request behind the scenes by departmental
task systems, and reporting of the results of the request on the portal. In the area of
interactive services, officials have strengthened communication and interaction
between the government and the public through the mayor’s email account, col-
lection of public opinion, online dialogues, recommendations and proposals, sug-
gestions from the public, online voting, policy explanations, and other means of
public participation. The municipal government of Chengdu has also launched the
online interview show “Chengdu Face-to-Face—Inside Line on Government and
Industry Trends” in collaboration with Chengdu Television; leaders of municipal
departments come on the show at fixed intervals to listen to reports and appeals
from the public and provide prompt resolution and implementation. This has been
met with approval from city residents.
At present, Chengdu municipal government web portals, as important platforms
for E-governance in the city, have realized openness of government information,
democratic participation and harmonious communication, online handling of public
services, online searches for hot button services, dedicated topic reports on hot
issues, and integration of municipal-level and district (county) websites; it is now
possible to handle many kinds of affairs directly on these sites. In addition, these
websites have improved and optimized directories of open government information,
open government administrative authority directories, public institution and work
unit openness directories, and directories for disclosure of government investment
projects. Officials have used open government information to drive public institu-
tion services and steadily increase the level of service provision of public
institutions.
5 The Chengdu Model: U-Shaped E-governance … 227

(2) Extension of Public Services to the Basal level Driving Integrated

Urban-Rural Construction
Integrated urban-rural construction is a major strategic objective of the municipal
party committee and municipal government, made in light of actual conditions. To
drive construction of reform pilots in comprehensive urban-rural planning,
Chengdu officials actively promoted extension of E-governance to the basal level.
Officials integrated information resources of agriculture-related departments and
work units to actively drive the extension of information networks, information
systems, and information services from core urban zones to the village level.
Officials have built a “Three Rurals” basic information resources database to pro-
vide support for information sharing and service development between
agriculture-related departments. Many forms of information services have been
extended to the countryside, greatly increasing common development and mutual
prosperity between urban and rural areas.
Beginning in 2006, the municipal party committee and municipal government
have, for many consecutive years, established the entry of broadband internet into
villages and the construction of village (and community) information service cen-
ters as the objectives of people’s livelihood programs. At the same time, city
officials have engaged in intensive construction of service networks comprised of
sharing networks, terminals, and platforms, promoting services in areas such as
social security, employment agricultural techniques, health, culture, and govern-
ment. Officials have used channels such as radio, television, telephones, and the
internet to extend services to the countryside and strengthen the service capacity of
E-governance. In one example, Xinjin County, Chengdu, comprehensively rolled
out an agency system for the people to handle government affairs, covering 28
administrative approvals procedures in six major categories, including rural housing
construction, labor and employment, civil affairs, family planning, and services for
persons of disability, as well as 10 service items including the distribution of
contraceptives. Villagers can access these services free of charge either at the 106
village-level convenient service offices or on the internet, realizing the vision of
“information running around, not people.” Now that villagers no longer need to
leave their villages to handle these affairs, it has become very convenient for them
to both access services and obtain information. In 2008 alone, village-level service
centers in the county handled over 40,000 government affairs for villagers, effec-
tively increasing administrative performance and promoting the construction of
standardized, service-oriented government.
In 2005, municipal officials initiated the work of constructing a network system
for integrated urban-rural social assistance, making active explorations into the use
of E-governance to build and consummate an integrated urban-rural social assis-
tance system, bring about informatized management of social assistance, ensuring
effective operations of the social assistance system, and establishing highly effective
operational management mechanisms. In accordance with the demands of “in-
formatization, standardization, and normalization,” officials made explorations and
then established a city-wide integrated social assistance system information plat-
form and built an integrated urban-rural network system that covers all
228 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

municipal-level assistance functional departments in the city, as well as similar

departments at the levels of districts (or counties), towns/townships/neighborhoods,
and communities/villages. Officials incorporated all 43 assistance programs of the
11 functional departments within the interconnected system, bringing about
real-time sharing of assistance information between relevant departments in online
applications, approvals, notices, and searches. Over the entire year of 2008, a total
1.52 million requests for information were processed on the system.
In September 2011, the Chengdu municipal open comprehensive service plat-
form formally went into operations. Nineteen districts (and subordinate cities and
counties) plus Gaoxin District all launched service platforms. An abundance of
information is searchable on the platform, ranging from open village affairs
information, open fiscal affairs information, party affairs open information, affairs
handling service, conditions of focus reform work in comprehensive urban-rural
planning, down to employment and hiring notices, neighborhood mutual aid,
notices of people seeking employment, agricultural product trade information, and
other practical information. The platform also disseminates notices on the condi-
tions of village-level public services and the usage of public administrative funds,
with detailed information listed out, searchable by project name, year, category,
village name, county or district of location, and so on. After three months of
operations, the platform covered 315 towns/townships (and neighborhoods), and
2972 villages (and communities), providing over 450,000 entries of information in
all categories, accumulating eight million visits, and becoming a new bright point in
the construction of E-governance in Chengdu. The platform extended E-governance
methods down to the basal level, not only pressing closely to the real needs of
grassroots citizens in Chengdu, but also providing an important window through
which the government could assess public opinion and sentiment; this was a
pioneering undertaking in local E-governance construction in China.

(3) Making User Needs the Primary Basis for Improving Public Services
In the area of grassroots democracy and political participation, municipal officials
cleaved closely to the guiding ideology of “listen to public opinion, concentrate
popular wisdom, ask the people for strategies, and ask the people for plans,” giving
full play to the advantages of the internet in establishing many major interactive
segments on government web portals, including the “Mayor’s Email,” “City
Resident Topics,” “Chengdu Face-to-Face,” “Public Opinion Collection,”
“Legislation Collection,” “Internet user Investigations,” “People’s Political
Consultative Conference Proposals,” “People’s Congress Agenda Items,” “Delegate
and Committee Member Forums,” and others; these constituted an important
channel for democratic participation, harmonious communication, supervision by
the entire population, and contribution of policy suggestions on government web-
sites. The “Mayor’s Email” alone has received 76,594 emails since its inception,
with a 100% response completion rate, winning support and trust from city resi-
dents. “One-Stop Interaction Between the Government and the People,” with
multiple segments and levels, is one of the three core functions of E-governance;
this function in turn brings about four more major functions of finding the
5 The Chengdu Model: U-Shaped E-governance … 229

government when something is the matter, reflecting social sentiment and popular
opinion, participating in government, and contributing policy suggestions. By
creating these functions, officials have established a three-dimensional, multi-level
system for interaction between the government and the people, greatly expanding
channels for public participation in government, further closing the distance
between the government and the public, increasing the level and capacity of
decision-making for the municipal party committee and municipal government, and
playing an important role in promoting the construction of a political civilization
and a harmonious society.
During the construction of Chengdu’s government websites, the collection and
digging of user demands was always an important basis for improvement of gov-
ernment web portal improvements. In 2010, the municipal government web portal
launched the “Sincere Invitation of Paizhuan”3 activity, calling on internet users to
provide opinions and suggestions regarding government web portals. During this
event, the municipal government hired some supervisory personnel to oversee the
web portal and further normalize and standardize opinion collection channels, such
that city residents and internet users came together to “open the door and build the
website.” In March 2011, the Chengdu municipal government website officials
collaborated with the State Information Center to build a performance-oriented
government website based in user experience. Officials adopted leading global
government website intelligent analysis systems (E-gov Web Dessector and GWD)
to collect data on every single click on the website, analyze behavior patterns of
users, and discover the service needs of users to plan website service functions
guided by user experience and with focus on public demands. Officials also pro-
posed commonly promoting the “dual-wheel driver” model of optimization and
improvement of government websites from the two perspectives of user experience
optimization and service provision standardization; this met with great success.

6 The Jiyuan Model: County-Level E-governance

Development Based on the Internet

In 2005, the city of Jiyuan, given prerequisites of “moderate security, beneficial

application, and comprehensive safeguards,” without installing a single dedicated
line or dedicated network, employed innovations in technological routes to establish
an E-governance information security support platform completely based in the
internet, that satisfied demand, used advanced technology, and was safe and reli-
able. City officials thus succeeded in: building a city-wide unified E-governance
work system, project management and approvals system, and new rural information
services system; improving the 12345 convenient services hotline system; and
finding a new road to E-governance construction on the internet, making Jiyuan the

The term means roughly “thrown bricks,” and refers to online criticisms, often playful.
3
230 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

first city in the nation to launch E-governance work completely based in the
internet. Experts have called this method the “Jiyuan model.”

6.1 Efficient Network Construction

To make full use of internet resources and efficiently build a city-wide integrated
government network at low cost, Jiyuan city officials took full advantage of their
relatively good informatization infrastructure, fiber optic connections to all towns/
townships (and neighborhoods), and the ubiquity of the internet, to make bold
explorations and comprehensively use commercial encryption technology and
virtual private network (VPN) technology to build a unified city-wide E-governance
network based completely in the internet. Officials achieved secure network con-
nections between all of the over 120 party and government departments and 16
town/township and neighborhood government bureaus in the city, providing ser-
vices such as remote querying and mobile office work, and building a low-cost,
expandable E-governance network, all the while eliminating “information silos,”
establishing connectivity between networks and systems, and laying a network
foundation for the running of departmental tasks and applications on the internet. In
2009, Jiyuan’s E-governance network was securely connected first to the provincial
and then to the national E-governance extranet, bringing about three-tiered con-
nectivity and resource sharing at the state, provincial, and city levels. Jiyuan offi-
cials greatly reduced the costs of constructing their E-governance network by doing
away with dedicated cables and networks, and city officials achieved a savings rate
of 48.3% of the funds generally required for conventional E-governance con-
struction projects.

6.2 Orderly Promotion of Systems and Applications

While conducting pilots, Jiyuan officials developed and constructed applications

systems for government work, project management, convenient services hotlines,
and new rural information services, all from considerations of actual conditions. In
order to expand the achievements of pilot construction, once the pilots ended, city
officials built a series of application systems in areas such as electronic archive
management, pollution source monitoring and control, direct statistical reporting,
community information management, and website cluster management, all based in
existing networks and security protection platforms, and all running over the
internet. City officials integrated agriculture-related service resources to build a
three-tiered rural information services platform based in the principles of “centers in
the city, stations in the town/township, and points in the village.” In 2008, Jiyuan
led the province in establishing “information for every village” service stations in
administrative villages, accomplishing the provincially established planning goal 4
6 The Jiyuan Model: County-Level E-governance … 231

years ahead of schedule. The E-governance work system built in Jiyuan’s pilots
offered primarily document management, outgoing message management, confer-
ence management, guest hosting management, and other functions, bringing about
interconnectivity between all party and government departments and public insti-
tutions in the city, at low cost. At present, the Jiyuan city government work system
is being used in all party and government organs and second-tier organs in the city,
with 5038 users, accounting for 98.5% of all potential users. An environment of
coordinated work has formed in the city, which has initially realized the goals of
“online work, online conferences, and online affairs.” The development and use of
the government work system has enabled the city party committee and city gov-
ernment to transmit documents and government information to all administrative
jurisdictions in the city over the advanced government network in a matter of
minutes, greatly increasing the time-effectiveness of the execution of government
orders. The evolving “paperless” working methods have increased the efficiency of
drafting and producing public documents and have greatly reduced office costs. The
project management system has made online direct reporting possible in 1077 city
projects, reducing the time needed to complete such work from 15 to two days. In
July 2009, city officials commenced construction on a mobile E-governance project,
building a government text message conference notification system, as well as
cellphone versions of city web portals and the government work system; this laid a
foundation for mobile office work performed anywhere, any time, and organically
combined secure work with open services.

6.3 Innovations in Public Services

The upgraded 12345 convenient services hotline system made possible three modes
of connection: phones, cellphone text messages, and the internet, bringing great
convenience to the public. Both the processing rate of citizen complaints and public
satisfaction rate with the system have held above 99%, increasing service quality.
Systems for direct statistical reports and community management extend services to
the level of the town/township (or neighborhood), village (or residential commit-
tee), and community, further expanding the coverage area of government services,
and effectively driving increases to the quality of departmental management and
services. Jiyuan’s new rural information network provides a comprehensive
information exchange platform to rural citizens. Rural citizens can announce
information or ask questions to experts online, giving them access to greater room
for development, and increasing their capacity to grow rich. By building an online
administrative licensing convenient services center, officials allowed for online
processing of credentials such as private education licenses, project proposals,
private non-governmental organizations licenses, organizational code certificates,
and others. The online approvals system led to innovations in administrative
approvals methods, increased the transparency of approvals procedures, increased
internal working efficiency, and augmented external convenience to the public.
232 10 Innovative Models: Progress Made by Local Governments

Convenience for the people, standardization, honesty and cleanliness, and high
efficiency—these are the common feelings that local common people express about
the administrative licensing convenient services center.

6.4 Ensuring Information Security

Adhering to the principles of appropriate security and comprehensive safeguarding,

Jiyuan city officials built a security system based in the internet in their pilot
programs. During construction, city officials earnestly implemented the “five inte-
grations” design concept of identity verification, authorized management, graded
protections, safe encryption, Cybersecurity, and application security, comprehen-
sively balancing security risks and construction costs, ensuring that confidential
information not go online, and that information going online not be confidential.
They dug into the problem at the two levels of technology and management
resolving information security issues related to E-governance hosted on the internet.
City officials built a VPN system, a unified identity verification and authorized
management system, a network virus protection system, a system to prevent errant
changing of webpage content, an intruder detection and network accounting system,
and a desktop security and defense system, as well as a complete set of standardized
management institutions (called “6 + 1” for short), thereby creating a city-wide
unified E-governance security safeguard system, ensuring organic integration of the
information security of E-governance work on the internet and the provision of
open services to the public, providing security guarantees to the tasks and appli-
cations being run by government departments on the internet. Officials from the
China Information Technology Security Evaluation Center assessed Jiyuan’s
E-governance security system as being of standard design, effective security mea-
sures, and being able to satisfy the security needs of E-governance construction on
the internet. Since the system went into operation, not a single security incident has
occurred. The greatest characteristic of the “Jiyuan model” is that it runs over the
internet; encryption technology allows for the provision of E-governance services
and guarantees Cybersecurity. At the nationwide E-governance information secu-
rity pilot summarizing on-the-spot exchanges convention, held at the end of 2006,
the “Jiyuan model” was tested and upheld by the state E-governance information
security pilot expert panel and was approved by relevant departments of the central
government. So one can say that the ubiquitous internet and Cybersecurity are not
necessarily antagonistic, but that they may be developed together, in harmony.
Although E-governance systems run over the internet have long possessed
advantages of low costs and high efficiency, security issues have long been a bot-
tleneck inhibiting their widespread use and development. Jiyuan’s successful expe-
rience building an E-governance system that runs entirely over the internet proves that
county-level E-governance networks can absolutely be built to run over the internet.
The State Council Informatization Work Office and State Informatization Expert
Consulting Committee jointly conducted a meticulous investigation of Jiyuan’s
6 The Jiyuan Model: County-Level E-governance … 233

government information, and found that only 3% of information disclosed thereon

was confidential. A further analysis on the degree of confidentiality of that 3% of
information could also be conducted. If we disregard that 3%, then the remaining 97%
of government information was not confidential, and could be exchanged over the
internet. Government information security issues are closely correlated with admin-
istrative levels. The higher the administrative level, the stronger the demands for
information security, and vice versa. For the vast majority of Local governments, it
would be prudent to develop more E-governance systems that run on the internet,
thereby decreasing costs and increasing connectivity; this is also easy to accomplish.
To this end, Jiyuan’s model has been extremely successful, as it reduces over 60% of
investments in E-governance construction.
Appendix

Chronology of Major Events (2001–2013)

2001
August 23, 2001. To further strengthen leadership over the promotion of
informatization and maintenance of the work of national information security in
China, the CPC Central Committee resolves to re-establish the Leading Group for
National Informatization. The Leading Group is responsible for deliberating and
approving the national informatization development strategy, macro planning,
related regulations and laws, drafts, and major policies, as well as comprehensive
coordination of the work of informatization and information security. At the same
time, the State Council Informatization Work Office, the administrative body of the
Leading Group, is formally established, responsible for the daily work of the
Leading Group.
December 27, 2001. Director of the Leading Group for National Informatization,
Zhu Rongji, convenes and hosts the group’s first meeting, at which the working
rules of the group are ratified, and group members listen to a report on initial
considerations and focus work in 2002 in national informatization work during the
“Tenth Five-Year Plan” period. The meeting resolves to establish a National
Informatization Expert Consulting Committee composed of experts from all areas,
primarily responsible for providing decision-making advice to the Leading Group
for National Informatization in such major issues as policies, planning, promul-
gation, application, and network and information security.

2002
January 8, 2002. The State Council Informatization Work Office and the
Standardization Administration of China (SAC) establish the Overall Group for
E-governance Standardization in Beijing, fully launching the work of E-governance
standardization.

© Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 235
P. Du et al. (eds.), The Development of E-governance in China,
Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1014-0
236 Appendix

March 6, 2002. The State Council Informatization Work Office convenes and
hosts a symposium on the work of E-governance construction in Beijing to study
how to standardize and promote the construction of E-governance in China.
Officials propose basic principles and primary tasks to be persisted in within the
work of E-governance construction in China.
July 3, 2002. The second meeting of the Leading Group on National
Informatization is convened. The meeting ratifies the “Dedicated Plan for
Informatization of the National Economy and Society” and the “Guiding Opinions
on E-governance Construction in China,” and attendees discuss the issue of
invigorating China’s software industry.
July 3, 2002. Tsinghua University’s E-governance laboratory is officially
established, becoming one of the first organizations in China dedicated to research,
education, and consulting in the field of E-governance.
July 26, 2002. The nationwide informatization work video telephone conference
is convened. The theme of the convention is: thoroughly implementing the spirit of
the two meetings of the leading group, uniting consensus, summarizing experience,
deploying work, and actively, stably promoting further informatization work in
China.
August 5, 2002. The CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council
General Office jointly issue the “Notice on the CPC Central Committee General
Office and State Council General Office Reissuance of the ‘Leading Group For
National Informatization’s Guiding Opinions on E-governance Construction in
China,’ 1 “calling for “the focus of establishment of E-governance construction in
China at present and for a time to come to be on informatization work, in which the
government will lead the way, and lead the development of informatization of the
national economy and society,” clarifying the guiding ideology and principles of
E-governance construction and proposing primary goals and tasks of E-governance
construction.
August 29, 2002. The State Development Planning Commission and State
Council Informatization Work Office jointly convene the “E-governance
Construction Department Working Conference” to discuss the implementation of
focus tasks in the first stage of the E-governance program.
October 18, 2002. The “Tenth Five-Year Plan for Development of the National
Economy and Society Focus Dedicated Informatization Plan” is approved and
issued by the Leading Group for National Informatization. This is one of the 10
focus dedicated project plans for development of China’s national economy and
society during the “Tenth Five-Year Plan” period and is the first national
informatization plan drafted in China.
October 28, 2002. The Reader for Cadre Information on E-governance in
China, part of the Information Technology and E-governance Series, the first
complete set of textbooks on E-governance targeting all of society, but particularly

1
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 17, (2002).
Appendix 237

party leaders and party members, is released for the first time in the Great Hall of
the People in Beijing.
November 8, 2002. The 16th CPC National Congress is convened, further
clarifying the guiding policy of “informatization driving industrialization, and
industrialization promoting informatization,” as well as “promoting E-governance.”
December 11, 2002. The conference on E-governance technology and applica-
tions in China is convened in Beijing, jointly hosted by the Chinese Academy of
Sciences, the China Council for Promotion of International Trade, and the China
Association for Science and Technology.

2003
July 22, 2003. The Leading Group for National Informatization holds its third
meeting in Beijing, where the “Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Work of
Information Safeguarding” are approved.
July 26, 2003. The nationwide informatization work video telephone conference
is convened, fully implementing the spirit of the Leading Group on National
Informatization’s meeting, and making deployments for the implementation of
focus plans and the guiding opinions on E-governance construction.
September 7, 2003. The CPC Central Committee General Office and State
Council General Office jointly issue the “CPC Central Committee General Office
and State Council General Office Notice on the Retransmission of the ‘Leading
Group for National Informatization Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Work
of Information Safeguarding,’”2 making deployments in the work of information
security safeguarding, clearly proposing tasks of graded protections of information
security, and noting that information systems on which state secrets are stored must
be protected in accordance with party and state confidentiality regulations.
November 20, 2003. Under the guidance of the State Council Informatization
Work Office, the first annual China E-governance application conference is held in
Beijing. The theme of the conference is: increase coordinated governing capacity,
protect urban public security, give free rein to market mechanisms, and strengthen
E-governance effectiveness.
December 1, 2003. The Social Sciences Academic Press formally publishes the
Blue Book on E-governance: E-governance Development in China Report No. 1.
This is the first annual report on E-governance in China. The book comprehensively
summarizes E-governance construction development and performance in China,
year by year.

2004
March 24, 2004. State Council Premier Wen Jiabao convenes and hosts a meeting
of the State Council Standing Committee, where the principles of the “People’s
Republic of China Electronic Signature Law (Draft)” are discussed, and the draft is
approved.

2
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 27, (2003).
238 Appendix

April 8, 2004. The State Council Informatization Work Office convenes a

symposium on an investigation into the development status of government web
portals made in 2003. The investigation indicated was initiated in November 2011
and concluded in March 2004, and the four months of observations written into the
“2003 Investigation into the Development Status of Government Web Portals in
China Report.” The report indicates that on the whole, government web portals in
China remain in an elementary stage of development.
April 26, 2004. The China Information Industry Association, State Information
Center, Shanghai Municipal Informatization Committee, and Shanghai Municipal
Information Association jointly convene the “2004 E-governance Public Services
Symposium” in Shanghai.
July 30, 2004. The “Hunan Provincial Regulations on Informatization” are
approved by the 10th meeting of 10th Hunan Provincial People’s Congress
Standing Committee, going into effect on October 1, 2004. This is the first com-
prehensive law on informatization in China.
August 28, 2004. The “People’s Republic of China Electronic Signature Law” is
approved by the 11th meeting of the 10th People’s Republic of China People’s
National Congress Standing Committee, going into effect on April 1, 2005. This
law for the first time gives electronic signatures equal legal force as written sig-
natures and also establishes market entry protocols for electronic verification ser-
vices, to ensure the security of electronic trading.
September 30, 2004. The National Development and Reform Commission
(NDRC) formally approves project creation for stage one of the national
E-governance extranet program. On November 2, the NDRC formally approves the
feasibility report for the program, and the program is initiated.
October 27, 2004. The Leading Group for National Informatization holds its
fourth meeting in Beijing, where the group discusses the “Several Opinions on
Strengthening the Work of Development and Utilization of Information Resources”
and “Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of E-governance in
China.”
December 13, 2004. The CPC Central Committee General Office and State
Council General Office jointly issue the “CPC Central Committee General Office
and State Council General Office Several Opinions on Strengthening the Work of
Development and Utilization of Information Resources,”3 which raises several
guiding opinions regarding the work of developing and utilizing government
information resources.

2005
April 25, 2005. The CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council
General Office jointly issue the “CPC Central Committee General Office and State
Council General Office Opinions on Further Promoting Government Openness,”4

3
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 34, (2004).
4
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 12, (2005).
Appendix 239

which clarify the guiding ideology, basic principles, and work objectives of the
promotion of government openness, proposing further promotion of the primary
tasks and focus contents and forms of government openness, call for the estab-
lishment and perfection of laws and institutions for government openness, and
feasibly strengthen organization and guidance of the work of government openness.
June 2, 2005. The State Council General Office issues the “State Council
General Office Opinions on Properly Performing the Work of Safeguarding Content
on Central Government Web Portals.”5
July 27, 2005. The State Council Informatization Work Office publishes the
“2005 China Informatization Development Report,” the first government report on
national informatization development published by a government organ.
October 1, 2005. Trial operations begin on the People’s Republic of China
central government web portal (gov.cn).
November 3, 2005. The fifth meeting of the Leading Group on National
Informatization is held in Beijing, where the “National Informatization
Development Strategy (2006–2010)” is discussed and approved.

2006
January 1, 2006. Gov.cn is formally launched. It is a comprehensive platform for
the provision of online services and publishing of government information on the
World Wide Web of the State Council, all State Council subordinate departments,
and the governments of all provinces, autonomous districts, and direct-controlled
cities.
March 14, 2006. The fourth meeting of the 10th National People’s Congress
approves the “Eleventh Five-Year Planning Compendium for the Development of
the National Economy and Society of the People’s Republic of China,” which
contains the following: “Promotion of E-governance. Integrate network resources;
construct a unified E-governance network; build an information network plat-
form,data exchange center, and digital verification center for E-governance; and
promote information sharing and task coordination between departments.
March 19, 2006. The Leading Group for National Informatization Publishes the
“Overall Framework for National E-governance,” clarifying the overall demands
and objectives of the national E-governance framework and the creation of an
overall framework.
March 19, 2006. The CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council
General Office jointly issue the “2006–2020 National Informatization Development
Strategy,” again clearly noting that “the vigorous promotion of informatization is a
strategic measure that encompasses the entire situation of modernization in China”
and that “promotion of E-governance” is one of nine strategic focuses.
May 8, 2006. The Chinese Academy of Governance and State Information
Center jointly host the “2006 China E-governance Forum” at the Chinese Academy
of Governance. This is the first annual session of the forum, which is convened in

5
State Council General Office Issuance No. 31, (2005).
240 Appendix

accordance with the principles of “scholarliness, for public benefit, openness, and
pragmatism.”
May 20, 2006. The CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council
General Office jointly issue the “CPC Central Committee General Office and State
Council General Office Notice on the Retransmission of the ‘Leading Group for
National Informatization Opinions on National E-governance Network
Construction,’”6clarifying the principles, objectives, administrative management
system, work deployments, and safeguard measures for E-governance network
construction.
June 12, 2006. The nationwide E-governance work symposium is held in
Beijing.
September 6, 2006. The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region’s “one-stop website” (http://www.gov.hk) is launched, providing compre-
hensive online government information and services.
September 7, 2006. The State Council General Office issues the “State Council
General Office Opinions on Better Performing the Work of Safeguarding Central
Government Web Portal Content,”7 calling for further increasing the intensity of
government information publication, feasibly strengthening website service func-
tions, stably promoting interconnectivity, and establishing and perfecting highly
effective mechanisms for the work of safeguarding content.
December 29, 2006. The State Council General Office issues the “State Council
General Office Opinions on Strengthening the Work of Government Website
Construction and Management,”8 which provide 10 guiding opinions on
strengthening the work of government website construction and management.

2007
February 8, 2007. The Leading Group for National Informatization issues the
“Notice on Launching the Work of E-governance Inspections,”9 noting the group’s
decision to launch a comprehensive inspection of the implementation of the group’s
guiding policies in all areas of the country in the first half of 2007.
April 5, 2007. Premier Wen Jiabao signs State Council Order No. 492 and
formally issues the “People’s Republic of China Regulations on Open Government
Information.” The regulations go into effect on May 1, 2008, and are comprised of
five components: general principles of openness, the scope of information to be
disclosed, methods and procedures for information disclosure, oversight and safe-
guards for the work of disclosure, and supplementary articles.
September 1, 2007. The “Provisional Measures for Management of National
E-governance Program Construction Projects” (People’s Republic of China and
NDRC Directive No. 55) formally go into force. This is the first systematic standard
for the management of E-governance projects in China.

6
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 18, (2006).
7
State Council General Office Issuance No. 61, (2006).
8
State Council General Office Issuance No. 104, (2006).
9
State Informatization Office No. 1, (2007).
Appendix 241

September 30, 2007. The national E-governance network’s central-level trans-

mission backbone network is formally launched, symbolizing the basic formation of
a unified national E-governance network framework.
October 24, 2007. In the report of the 17th CPC National Congress, Hu Jintao
raises a demand to “accelerate reforms to the administrative management system,
build a service-oriented government… promote E-governance, and strengthen
public administration and public services.”

2008
March 15, 2008. The 11th National People’s Congress approves a resolution to
reform State Council organs. The resolution calls for the creation of the Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), consolidating under the newly
formed ministry the NDRC’s responsibility for management of industry, respon-
sibilities of the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National
Defense excluding nuclear energy management, and the responsibilities of the
Ministry of Information Industry and the State Council Informatization Work
Office. Those last three bodies cease to exist.
April 24, 2008. The “National Golden Card Program Nationwide IC Card
Application Development Plan (2008–2013)” is issued.
July 10, 2008. The State Council General Office issues the “State Council
General Office Rules on Primary Functional Internal Government Organs and
Staffing Protocols.” The rules make the State Council General Office’s internal
office of E-governance responsible for the government informatization plans,
construction, technology, and security safeguarding of the offices and organs of
leading comrades of the State Council, as well as for conferencing and multimedia
technology services for the northern district of Zhongnanhai. The office is also
responsible for organizing and launching the work of constructing, operating, and
managing central government web portals and safeguarding content thereupon, and
for the work of constructing and managing computing networks to connect the State
Council General Office with people’s governments in all provinces, autonomous
regions, and direct-controlled cities, as well as with all departments of the State
Council.
July 11, 2008. The State Council General Office issues the “Ministry of Industry
and Information Technology Rules on Primary Functional Internal Government
Organs and Staffing Protocols.” The newly established MIIT is endowed with 24
internal organs, of which the Informatization Promotion Bureau is responsible for
promoting informatization work, the coordination of major issues in informatization
construction, guidance of coordinated development of E-governance and
e-commerce, and so on, as well as assuming the concrete work of the former
Leading Group on National Informatization.
December 12, 2008. The MIIT convenes a symposium on deepening local
E-governance information sharing and task coordination work in Hangzhou.
242 Appendix

2009
February 28, 2008. State Council Premier Wen Jiabao is interviewed on gov.cn and
xinhua.com, communicating with internet users domestic and foreign, answering
their questions live. The interview receives 360,000 comments and 49,000 cell-
phone messages. During the two-hour interview, Premier Wen answers 30 ques-
tions asked by internet users, and the interview page receives 237 million visits.
April 14, 2008. The NDRC and Ministry of Finance jointly issue the “Notice on
Accelerating the Work of Promoting National E-governance Extranet
Construction,”10 further clarifying the objectives and tasks of national government
extranet construction and raising demands for the promotion of E-governance
extranet program construction, tasks and applications, security safeguarding, and
operations and maintenance services.
April 28, 2008. To further guide and drive the healthy development of gov-
ernment websites and deepen the application of E-governance, the MIIT issues the
“Government Website Development Assessment Core Indicators System (Trial).”
The system is built around three core areas, including government information
openness, the handling of affairs online, and interaction between the government
and the people, establishing nine major indicator categories, for local governments
in all areas to use as references in addition to actual working conditions.
August 12, 2008. The MIIT formally approves establishing Huangshi City,
Hubei Province, as the country’s first TD E-governance pilot city. The plan was
completed in three years, achieving complete coverage of the city’s urban and rural
areas with a TD-SCDMA network.
November 21, 2008.The news office of the people’s government of Yunnan
Province registers the nation’s first government microblog, “Microblog Yunnan,”
which delivers up-to-the-minute information on topics the public is concerned
about and policies. Deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee’s
publicity department Wu Hao registers a microblog called “Yunnan Wu Hao” on
the same day, making him the first official in China to open a microblog.

2010
January 6, 2008. China’s first wireless city web portal, “Guidance by the
Government, Holding Hands with Operators,” is officially launched. Citizens in
Guangzhou need only sign onto a government WLAN to access all content on the
web portal for free.
October 8, 2008. The State Information Center officially establishes under its
umbrella the “National E-governance Extranet Management Center,” per the
Central Institutional Organization Commission’s “Official Reply Regarding the
State Information Center’s Establishment of an E-governance Extranet
Management Center.”11 Under this center are established an extranet management
office and an electronic verification office, which assume the work of managing

10
NDRC High-Tech No. 988 (2009).
Central Institutional Organization Committee “Fuzi” No. 288, (2010).
11
Appendix 243

national E-governance extranet planning, construction, implementation, operations,

and maintenance.

2011
March 17, 2011. The “Twelfth Five-Year Planning Compendium for the
Development of the National Economy and Society of the People’s Republic of
China” is issued. In the area of E-governance, the plan calls for “vigorously pro-
moting national E-governance construction; promoting interconnectivity, informa-
tion sharing, and task coordination between important government information
networks; and constructing and perfecting systems for network administrative
approvals, information disclosure, online letters and visits, electronic surveillance,
and accounting.”
April 21, 2011. The State Council General Office issues the “State Council
General Office Notice on Further Strengthening the Work of Government Website
Management,”12 raising demands to further strengthen the work of managing
websites.
August 2, 2011. The “CPC Central Committee General Office and State Council
General Office Opinions on Deepening Government Openness and Strengthening
Government Services”13 are issued, reiterating the importance of deepening gov-
ernment openness, clarifying the overall demand for openness, and clearly raising
important contents of open government information at all levels.

2012
February 21, 2012. The MIIT issues the “National E-governance Program for the
‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan.’”
March 12, 2012. The State Information Center’s Network Government Research
Center is established. The center is the largest state-level research organization
dedicated to government website research.
May 5, 2012. The NDRC issues the “National Government Informatization
Program Construction Plan for the ‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan.’”
July 19, 2012. The “State Council Several Opinions on Vigorously Promoting
Informatization Development and Feasibly Safeguarding Information Security” are
issued.
November 30, 2012. The ninthnational informatization expert forum is held in
Beijing. This year’s theme is “informatization driving balanced regional develop-
ment in China.” Forum attendees discuss how to study and thoroughly implement
the spirit of the 18thNational CPC Congress and use informatization to drive bal-
anced regional development.
December 3, 2012. People.cn’s Public Sentiment Monitoring Office issues its
2012 Sina government microblog report, which notes that as of the end of October

12
State Council General Office Letter No. 40, (2011).
13
CPC Central Committee General Office Issuance No. 22, (2011).
244 Appendix

2012, a total of 60,064 verified government microblogs from governments around

the nation are hosted on Sina. Statistics indicate that the over 60,000 government
microblogs have issued 31,894,816 posts, for an average of 531 posts per
microblog.

2013
May 3, 2013. The NDRC promotes E-governance program construction manage-
ment. The NRDC issues the “Opinions on Strengthening and Perfecting National
E-governance Program Construction Management” and the “Guiding Opinions on
Further Strengthening Government Department Information Sharing Construction
Management,” both of which are aimed at promoting the common construction of
informatization projects in E-governance and establishing and perfecting govern-
ment information sharing mechanisms. The government’s promotion of the gov-
ernment informatization program will provide opportunities for the information
network equipment industry and software and hardware industries.
May 7, 2013.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs launches its “Waijiao
Xiaolingtong” (foreign affairs information) microblog, the first central
ministerial-level microblog account.
May 19, 2013. The “Beautiful China—2013 China Government Information
Unobstructed Public Benefit Operation” is formally launched. The operation’s
theme is “building a beautiful information China, sharing a harmonious information
civilization.”
July 1, 2013. The State Bureau for Letters and Calls opens its website for online
complaints. The bureau will take a series of actions to ensure that complaints
received online are converted into action.
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‘Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information.’” (State
Council General Office issuance No. 36, 2008).
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‘Twelfth Five-Year Plan,’” (MIIT plan No. 567, 2011).
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No 1202, 2012).