Openness of Government Affairs in China: Development in 2018 and Prospect for 2019

In 2018, which was the 10th anniversary of the promulgation of the Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information, the Center for Studies of National Index of the Rule of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Innovation Project Team on the Rule of Law Index of the Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences carried out the assessment of the situation of government information disclosure and openness of government affairs in 49 departments under the State Council after the institutional reform, 31 provincial-level governments, 49 governments of larger cities and 100 county-level governments, covering such aspects as openness of decision-making, openness of government services, openness of enforcement and results, policy interpretation and response to public concerns, and disclosure of government information upon application. The assessment shows that, in the 10 years of implementation of the Regulations, China has continuously expanded the scope and refined working rules on the open government work, made numerous progresses in the pre-disclosure of information about major decision-making, gradually improved the disclosure of information about government services, further standardized the release of policy interpretations and made it more convenient for the people, and enabled the openness of government affairs to play a more prominent role in safeguarding and improving the people’s livelihood, enhancing governance capacity, and promoting administration by law. This report analyzes the progresses made and problems encountered by various assessment targets in the open government work, summarizes the development of openness of government affairs in China in 2018, looks at the prospect of the open government work in the country in 2019, and puts forward corresponding countermeasure suggestions.