Open accounting

One paradox in Chinese administrative reality has been governments that invariably address themselves as "the people's" yet keep their account books away from us.

The rhetoric about public oversight of the government sounds hollow when society is kept in the dark as to how taxpayers' money is being spent. The recent push toward greater financial transparency is an inescapable move to make the establishment truly "the people's".

We share Premier Wen Jiabao's worries that the budgetary information available lacks specifics and falls short of public expectations. He proposed that information sharing be broader in scope, rich in details, and accessible to the general public and said that budgetary transparency is of essential significance for democratic politics.