Govts, officials with bad credit records ought to be punished

THE STATE COUNCIL, China's Cabinet, has issued a guiding document calling for strict records of the creditworthiness of government officials and local government departments. Southern Metropolis Daily comments:

The top leadership has constantly advocated the construction of a credit system for local governments and officials as a means of promoting trust in government.

Government departments and government staff have power in hand, and some of them behave dishonestly. For example, some local governments sign contracts with enterprises, but then break the contracts at will, and some even issue a policy one day only to abolish it the next.