(5) The right to know

The state makes active efforts to keep the public informed of government affairs, and takes effective measures to guarantee citizens' right to know. On the basis of the Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information, and the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Implementing the Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information, the State Council, in October 2010, issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Building of a Government Ruled by Law. Thus, the system of keeping the public informed of government affairs took initial shape.

By the end of 2010 some 75 departments under the central government had adopted the practice of publicizing their budgets; 18 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government had begun to publicize their public financial and government fund budgets; 12 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government had begun to publicize their budgetary performance every month or quarter. A government affairs service system connecting provinces, cities, counties, townships and villages has taken initial shape. A total of 2,842 government affairs service centers and 25,000 township and neighborhood administrative service centers have been set up in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government.

In June 2010 the State Council passed the Regulations on Natural Disaster Relief, which contains specific regulations on issues concerning the disclosure of information about natural disaster relief work. It is stipulated in the Regulations that when a natural disaster takes place and meets the conditions to activate the emergency plan for natural disaster relief, the central government should inform the public of its measures against the disaster as well as what precautions they should take, and that the government should inform the public of the source, quantity and use of state relief funds and materials, and public donations. The mechanism of a joint meeting for determining the liability in major production accidents has been established to conduct regular special inspections on the investigation and handling of suspected cover-ups of production accidents.

The government news release system and the spokesperson system have been improved. The spokesperson systems for committees of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and for governments at county level have been established. In 2010 the CPC Central Committee promulgated the Opinions on Establishing the Spokesperson System for Party Committees, to vigorously promote the setting up of the spokesperson system in related departments of the Party Central Committee and Party committees in provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government. At present, 13 departments and units of the Party Central Committee and Party committees of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have established the spokesperson system. The news release work of Party committees is becoming institutionalized and standardized. In the past two years all ministries, commissions and departments, and provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government held a total of 3,522 press conferences.