Moving Toward e-Government: The Status Quo and Prospective on Government Information Disclosure in China

The "Provisions of the People's Republic of China on the Disclosure of Government Information" has been put into implementation in China since May 1, 2008. This is actually the first national systematic administrative policy on government information disclosure and is a milestone for the e-Government development in China. This paper, based on a brief review of the history of information disclosure of the Chinese government, describes the status quo of information disclosure of the Chinese government, which involves legislation development of government information disclosure in China, legal systems of government information disclosure and the public's cognition towards government information disclosure. Secondly, it analyzes the problems in the information disclosure of the Chinese government. These problems involve the scope and extent, the legal coordination, the judicial remedies, the technical standards and the quality of information disclosure and so on. From the authors' point of view, the lacking of commercial models and market mechanism in the government information disclosure is one of the significant reasons for low efficiency of government information disclosure. Finally, it comes up with some suggestions for the improvement of government information disclosure, which involve: (1) constituting "government information disclosure law", to further improve government information disclosure system; (2) making an information confidentiality and privacy protection guidance; (3) clarifying judicial remedy approaches, perfecting the accountability system; (4) establishing principles to guarantee the quality of government information disclosure, including guidelines for information completeness, clear object, objectivity, and currency; (5) formulating and approving the technical standards for government information disclosure via Internet to facilitate the access to the government information network; (6) facilitating government information disclosure through market mechanism.