Better communication improves ties with people

DURING the Spring Festival, Jiang Houcheng received two very special New Year gifts that pulled him out of his financial plight and raised his festive mood.

The 67-year-old and his wife, both without jobs, have to raise their granddaughter alone with a tiny income from the minimum living standard security programme.

"Our biggest concern is the high-school tuition of our granddaughter," said Jiang, who lives in the city of Chuzhou in east China's Anhui Province.

From this month, however, the ageing couple's allowance from the security programme has been raised and they have been told that a charity will sponsor their granddaughter's education in high school.

"We have to thank the mayor of our city. Without his help, we would not have solved these problems so quickly," said Jiang, pointing to the radical approach his local officials have taken to communicate with their charges.

As a normal citizen, Jiang does not have an easy access to the mayor. But, thanks to a policy in Chuzhou under which each government official is assigned a neighbourhood and asked to keep in regular contacts with its residents, Jiang Shan, mayor of Chuzhou, learnt about Jiang Houcheng's situation.

"After some research, I found out Jiang's wife met the requirement of raising her allowance as her leg was seriously injured in a traffic accident and has not fully recovered," the mayor said.

Also, the mayor and his assistants helped Jiang to apply for assistance from the Spring Buds Project, which sponsors vulnerable girls to return to school.

"Now my wife and I have a monthly revenue of about 1,000 yuan (around US$158) and do not need to worry about the tuition. We are so relieved," Jiang said.

The policy, issued by the city government in September 2010, aimed to establish better communication between government officials and common residents through officials' regular visits to communities.

Over the past 15 months, officials have gathered more than 12,000 requests from residents. Some of them were as personal as Jiang's and others as serious as environmental pollution.

Chuzhou's success with the policy should prove inspirational as local authorities around the country are being called upon to improve the lines of communication with their people. Living standards in China have improved as the country developed into the world's second-biggest economy, but the population's satisfaction with the government has not grown with it.

Several serious problems have emerged such as the enlarging gap between the rich and poor, inadequate public services, corruption of officials and misuse of power.

"Gradually, we have realised that, if we do not understand and meet the real needs of people, our economic growth will not contribute to governance," said Han Xiancong, party chief of Chuzhou.

At the ceremony to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China on July 1, 2011, Chinese President Hu Jintao noted that close ties with the people form the Party's main political asset.

He also warned that alienation from the people poses the greatest risk to the party after it has gained political power.

However, regular public relations measures involving the media and recourse to complaint letters or calls seem not to have done enough to consolidate relations between officials and the people.

Prof Wang Kaiyu, from the Anhui Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua that creative efforts should be made to create bridges between the government and the public so that politicians can work out policies addressing people's demands and negative social emotion can be eased.Xinhua