14-15 April
Leiden, the Netherlands

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA SINCE
1978

Three months after its convening, at the moment of writing, the
IIAS is still receiving requests for copies of the papers
presented at the International Conference on Administrative
Reform in the People's Republic of China Since 1978 held by the
IIAS here from 14 to 15 April, 1994.
Mr Duan Yuying, Division Chief of the Department of Policy and
Regulations of the Ministry of Personnel of the PRC, was invited
from Beijing and delivered a keynote speech. Eight papers were
presented. They cover a wide range of topics on the
administrative law, civil service reform, and economic and
societal management.

By Dong Lisheng

"The positive responses to our call for papers and participants
as proved by your presence today convince us that the theme of
this conference is well chosen," Professor Stokhof, the IIAS
Director, told the opening session with an audience of more than
40 scholars and Ph.D students from other European countries as
well as the Netherlands.
In general, participants have commented favourably on the
conference and encouraged me to publish a volume of papers. Work
is well under way. Interested institutions and individuals can
contact IIAS to order the volume.

Three preliminary but important conclusions can be drawn from the
papers.
(1) The concept of public administration and administrative
reform in the PRC is much broader than the term is understood in
the industrialized democracies. Firstly, it covers government
organization and the civil service as well as state-owned
services and enterprises. This refers to the sphere. Secondly,
it involves not only the regulation of, but also direct
management of social and economic affairs. This refers, for
example, to the direct management of economic enterprises by the
government. The reforms can be summarized as a process of
de-control, meaning that the government withdraws from the micro
management of economic affairs and improves its macro-regulation
of, as well as supervision and provision of services to, the
society.

(2) Examining the omnipresent government intervention in economic
and social affairs before the reforms more closely, we discover
that it focused on the urban areas. The vast rural areas were
left in a state of laissez-all‚e. The aim of the administrative
reform in the rural areas is to create or strengthen government
responsibility for providing social services and
macro-regulation. This development has been shown in the fields
of the rural labour and land resources management. Another
important and urgent function is the provision of social
security.

(3) Generally speaking, the improvement in the government's
macro-regulatory functions requires a fairly well developed legal
framework and mechanism. This is significant for the following
points: firstly, lack of rule of law confused the situation when
the government was deeply involved in routine management of
economy and social affairs. Now that the government's function
is to be transferred to macro-regulation, the first priority is
to define by law its competencies and mode of management.
Secondly, those economic and social units that have become
autonomous since the withdrawal of the government's direct
management must have clearly defined rules of conduct. Thirdly,
as the government is separated from the economic and social
units, it is possible to introduce the concept and practice of
administrative disputes settlement. In this sense, administrative
law is a new field. Lastly, it is worth reiterating that the laws
enacted in the PRC assume the role of a vehicle for putting CCP
policy guidelines into practice. It is the CCP policy rather than
the public laws that will ultimately determine the course of
events in the PRC.