A few days ago, the Chinese embassy in France released "Ambassador Lu Shaye and the French Association of Diplomatic Correspondents Exchange Record", because the exchange record covers a wide range of content and does not avoid sensitive issues, so the screen was quickly refreshed.
When talking about the anti-blockade protests that broke out in mainland China at the end of last month, Ambassador Lu Shaye attributed it to "some Chinese people were bought by external forces", "external forces quickly seized the opportunity to conduct politicized manipulation", "You can clearly smell the color revolutions that have occurred frequently in developing countries in recent years," and refuted the outside world's association of this protest with the 1989 incident. "It has nothing to do with the political turmoil in 1989." A relationship is someone deliberately connecting the two, and you can see what they're trying to do."
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In addition to external forces, Ambassador Lu Shaye also mentioned the issue of local governments.
"Unfortunately, the local government in China did not fully understand the intention of the central government. After seeing the number of new crown infections rising rapidly, the local government felt at a loss and returned to the old way of relying on the old way to control the epidemic, which made the people feel dissatisfied People from all over the country questioned, the central government wants to relax the control of the epidemic, why do you have to increase it? This is the real reason that led to the street demonstrations.”
When asked by reporters, "Are they (local governments) trying to challenge the authority of the central government? Or is there a difference between the local government and the central government?" Ambassador Lu Shaye repeated his previous answer, "There is no 'challenge'. ’, but some local governments did not correctly understand the central policy. They had some fixed thinking and failed to grasp the spirit of the “20 Measures” in a timely and accurate manner”, “Some local governments were not sure whether they really understood the central policy. The previous The policy orientation is strict prevention and control, and this time the central government asked for relaxation, and they failed to understand it accurately at the first time."
A few days ago, the Chinese embassy in France released the "Ambassador Lu Shaye's Exchange Record with the French Association of Diplomatic Correspondents" which attracted attention.
The picture shows Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye (second from left) and other guests at the commemorative stamp issuance ceremony for the Year of the Ox in Paris, France.
(Xinhua News Agency)
It is true that whether the "blank paper revolution" is characterized as manipulation by external forces, or the chaos of epidemic prevention is attributed to the local government, the answer depends not only on the merits of the matter itself, but also directly related to the interlocutor and the scene. .
In other words, Ambassador Lu Shaye practiced the basic ethics of "not telling lies, not telling the whole truth" as a diplomat, and also brought up a more thought-provoking question: Under China's current bureaucratic system, the relationship between local governments and the central government How to interact positively?
After all, from the local government’s concealment of the epidemic situation in Wuhan in the early stage, to the subsequent increase in epidemic prevention and control, it is necessary to return to the origin of the “central-local relationship”.
When Fang Ning, the former director of the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from "Hong Kong 01" after the outbreak in Wuhan, he mentioned the deep-seated problems behind the local government's practices in the early days of the epidemic.
"What are the behavioral characteristics of local governments and officials when they encounter unknown public safety risks? According to previous research and this observation, when local government agencies and officials face risks or major accidents and crises, they show a Behavioral tendency is the tendency to "handle it yourself". The problem this time may be here. Local governments and officials are not doing nothing. In fact, the governments of Hubei and Wuhan, especially the health management agencies, have issued many documents. Fast. But on the other hand, it is undeniable that local governments have a lot of concerns when facing a crisis situation. It is normal to hold the "two sessions" as usual to control the epidemic information, such as requiring layers to approve the reports of related cases. This is an example. The logic is to "solve it by yourself". The tragedy is that it may be right to do so in the past, but this time it is different! The tragic new crown pneumonia epidemic has no way to "solve it by itself", and finally caused a catastrophe."
In the later stage, to put an end to one-size-fits-all, layer-by-layer increase, and to oppose bureaucracy and formalism in the process of epidemic prevention have become high-frequency words in the official context.
But on the one hand, the central government has repeatedly emphasized and demanded to "resolutely put an end to it", on the other hand, it is a one-size-fits-all problem that has been repeatedly exposed in various places and caused public dissatisfaction.
Where is the problem?
In fact, local governments are not ignorant of the requirements of dynamic zeroing and precise epidemic prevention, but under the strict accountability system and "result-oriented goal", it is actually difficult to achieve, so they can only Path-dependent closure and silence.
In addition, we have to admit that the central government may also intensify and "encourage" local governments' bureaucracy and formalism in disguise in some policy guidance.
(For more information, please refer to "The Top-Level Design Question Behind Formalist Bureaucracy")
Anti-blockade demonstrations in Beijing on November 27.
(Getty Images)
A grassroots governance researcher who did not want to be named told the "Hong Kong 01" reporter that in the actual policy implementation, a multi-game structure will be formed, which actually involves three to four levels of government, and there are other local cases adjustment influence.
For the head of a local government, it is necessary to look at the policies of the central government, ask the opinions of the province, and also look at the results of problems in other cities.
Therefore, in terms of implementation, the higher the level of the draft, such as the municipality, the bolder it is, because their secretaries have participated in the decision-making meeting, so they have the confidence.
For other counties and cities, for the sake of insurance, there will be a wait-and-see process.
Looking back at the reform and opening up to the present, the relationship between the central and local governments at different stages will expose problems of different levels and degrees. There are not only political logic, but also interest logic and economic logic. The reasons cannot be explained in one direction.
The reform of the tax-sharing system in 1994 was undoubtedly a landmark event in the changes in the relationship between the central government and the local government. Through the reform of the tax-sharing system, the central government achieved political and economic centralization.
But any reform will have two sides. The problem of central-local relations exposed by the epidemic prevention this time is not simply "all the fault of the local government" and can be generalized. There are longer-term institutional roots behind it.
In the context of the three-year epidemic, the questioning and reflection on the relationship between the central government and the local government should not stay on the surface of "it is all the fault of the local government".
Otherwise, not only the early concealment in Wuhan cannot be avoided, but there is a high probability that the formalism and bureaucracy in the later period will come back and even be further intensified.
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