(a) an examination or assessment of legal knowledge before official
appointment,
(b) an internal system of legal review in the executive branch to ensure
the legality of delegated legislation and other governmental
regulations,
(c) broader consultation and public participation before making
decisions,
(d) decent combination of governance and service,
(e) openness and transparency,
(f) voluntary co-operation and acceptance of supervision from the
legislatures or superior administrations,
(g) improvement in mediation and litigation,
(h) annual report, etc.^20Transforming local officials into public servants is an ideal of both Confucians and
the modern Chinese leadership, and it seems to us that in the last decade the
leadership has been expecting that the strengthened principle of the rule of law
may help to reach this goal. In this section, we will illustrate this point with three
cases. In the first case, a governmental report to its respective legislature was
surprisingly rejected. The case thus challenges the ‘rubber stamp’ image of Chinese
legislatures, and also demonstrates the possibility that the public can supervise the
executive branch.
The Chinese constitution has provided the people’s congresses powers to appoint
and remove governmental and judicial heads, and also empowers the people’s
congresses and their standing committees to supervise the administrations of
respective levels. On 27 August 2006 the Law (Act) of the PRC on Supervision by
the Standing Committees of the People’s Congresses at All Levels was promul-
gated; it took effect on 1 January 2007. The new parliamentary act gives Chinese
legislatures a bigger say, whereas traditionally the legislatures were regarded as a
‘rubber stamp’ that would never take a direction different from that of the adminis-
trations. The 2006 Act stipulates the procedures and details of legislatures’ supervi-
sion by the administrations. It contains seven chapters in the main text, including
‘Hearing of and Deliberation over the Special Work Reports Delivered by People’s
Governments, People’s Courts and People’s Procuratorates’; ‘Examination and
Approval of Final Accounts, Hearing of and Deliberation over Reports on Imple-
mentation of the Plans for National Economic and Social Development and the
Budgets, and Hearing of and Deliberation over Reports on the Work of Auditing’;
‘Inspection of the Enforcement of Laws and Regulations’; ‘Keeping on File and
Reviewing of Regulatory Documents’; ‘Questioning and Addressing Inquiries’;
(^20) State Council Opinion on Strengthening the Government of Law (Guowuyuan guanyu
jiaqiang fazhi zhengfa jianshe de yijian)Guofa[ 2010 ]No 33.