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The First Step in the Long March: The Legislation and Practice of Open Government Information in China

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The Right of Access to Public Information

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Abstract

In the Spring and Autumn Period of the ancient China, Zi Chan and Shu Xiang, two politicians in the state of Zheng, once debated an issue: whether a law should be let the people know. Zi Chan released the criminal law to the public, but was strongly criticized by Shu Xiang, who believed that if the people knew the contents of that law, they would not show respect to the officials anymore. However, although this kind of tradition of disclosing laws has not wholly disappeared in the following over 2000 years, the legislation and practice of Open Government Information (OGI) in today’s China has little or nothing to do with this traditional legal legacy. In fact, it was mainly driven by the economic reform and opening up policies beginning with the year of 1978.

The authors thank to Bu Chao, Ph. D. candidate of PKU Law School, for his generous help in the preparations of this paper.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Zuo Qiuming, The Tso Chuan: the Sixth Year of Zhao Gong.

  2. 2.

    Liu Wenjing 2011, p. 987.

  3. 3.

    Clarke 2003, p. 97.

  4. 4.

    Zhou Liangjin, 2007 p. 710.

  5. 5.

    Piotrowski, Zhang, Lin & Yu 2009, p. 129–135.

  6. 6.

    Chen Zhifu 2007, p. 21.

  7. 7.

    Yong Chen & Booth 2011, p. 196, 199.

  8. 8.

    Zhou Hanhua 2002, p. 89.

  9. 9.

    Jiang Ming’an 2011, p. 77.

  10. 10.

    Horsley 2006, p. 5.

  11. 11.

    Shen Fujun 2009, p. 50.

  12. 12.

    Zhi Yan 2009.

  13. 13.

    See Center for Public Participation Studies and Supports 2011.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peking University, Beijing, China

    Ming’an Jiang

  2. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China

    Daoming Tan

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  1. Ming’an Jiang
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  2. Daoming Tan
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Correspondence to Ming’an Jiang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty for Economics, Law and Social Science, University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany

    Hermann-Josef Blanke

  2. School of Law, Fluminense Federal University, Niterói, Brazil

    Ricardo Perlingeiro

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Jiang, M., Tan, D. (2018). The First Step in the Long March: The Legislation and Practice of Open Government Information in China. In: Blanke, HJ., Perlingeiro, R. (eds) The Right of Access to Public Information. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55554-5_13

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