Society

Survey: 90 percent discard honesty, integrity

By Uking (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-06-25 17:29

Shanghai: More than 90 percent believe that qualities like being honest and keeping promises may suffer losses in a rapidly developing China, an indication of the breaking up of social rules, according to a recent survey in the economic powerhouse Shanghai.

The survey was organized by the Committee of Social and Legal Affairs under Shanghai People's Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body to the government, Legal Daily reported.

In the survey, 90.2 percent of respondents had negative expectations about being honest, and 44.2 percent believed that interpersonal trust levels had dropped from five years ago. "To lie can gain benefit,” a citizen said.

You Minjian, a member of Shanghai People's Political Consultative Conference, thought that the lack of trust and integrity in society was because those who abide by the rules don’t receive the deserved benefits, while the promise-breakers make profits, and there's a growing vigilance toward many things on the part of the public.

The quality watchdog in Shanghai recently checked 1,000 products, including seafood and meat, and found that only 40 percent met the quality standard and only 68.4 percent had the right weight printed on the package.

The newspaper commented that the increasing level of commercialism, false promotion methods, and the lack of effective market regulation all contributed to the public perception.