China'S Secrecy System Reset The Bottom Line

When the spokesman Shen Yong Club appeared in front of a crowd of reporters, his identity was news.

This is an official from the State Secrets Bureau.

On the morning of September 12th, the Ministry of civil affairs and the secret service jointly held a news conference in Beijing, the latter being the first to face the public with the role of News Publisher.

The news released by the sensitive department is also remarkable. Since August, the total number of deaths caused by natural disasters and related information are no longer considered as state secrets.

Four days after the news conference, the Ministry of civil affairs website announced: as at 16 o'clock in September 14, 2005, statistics showed that 1626 people died and 426 people were displaced in various natural disasters this year. 13 million 161 thousand people were evacuated immediately, 1 million 452 thousand houses collapsed, and the direct economic loss caused by disasters was 157 billion 140 million yuan.

"Similar cooperation is certainly not just the Ministry of civil affairs, but we will also introduce some new initiatives in the future."

The official information office of the state secret Bureau recently told reporters.

As early as the beginning of this year, the Information Office officials of the State Council have revealed that the revision of the "confidentiality law", "implementation of the confidentiality law" and the formulation of the "Regulations on the disclosure of government information" are in the process of brewing.

"Keeping state secrets and promoting information disclosure is complementary to each other."

Shen Yongshe, deputy director of the State Secrets Bureau, stressed.

In the six press conferences, two of the press conferences involving the two ministries and bureaus of the State Council have been deleted.

The document was drawn up by the general office of the Ministry of civil affairs. The Ministry of civil affairs and the state secret Bureau jointly issued the notice on the decryption of deaths caused by natural disasters and related information declassified in August 8th this year. (min FA [2005]116, hereinafter referred to as "Document No. 116").

The document No. 116 was revised by the surgical revision of document 71 5 years ago.

The fourth entry in the "secret level" Document No. 71 of the document "stipulates," the total number of people who fled the famine, beggars and deaths caused by natural disasters and related information in the whole country and provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government.

Document No. 116 deleted the total number of dead persons in the entry.

The document No. 71 was issued jointly by the Ministry of civil affairs and the state secret Bureau in February 29, 2000. It is known as "the provisions on the specific scope of state secrets and their classified levels in civil affairs" (min FA [2000]71). The state secrets matters in the civil affairs system are classified into "top secret", "secret level" and "secret level".

"If we take the number of deaths caused by natural disasters as state secrets, we will be quite passive in dealing with disaster relief work, and it will not be in line with international practice," he said.

An official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs relief and disaster relief introduced.

The "decryption" began in June this year.

An official familiar with the Ministry of Civil Affairs recalled that the secret office took the lead in submitting applications to the general office of the Ministry of civil affairs and was directly presented to Vice Minister Jia Zhibang after widely soliciting opinions from the relief and disaster relief department and the Financial Secretary (responsible for preparing the Yearbook).

Subsequently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs officially sent a letter to the state secret Bureau.

After receiving the letter from the Ministry of civil affairs, we attached great importance to it.

A state secret Bureau said.

According to its introduction, the state secret Bureau replies to the Ministry of Civil Affairs on the one hand, and sends the Commissioner to communicate with him regularly. On the other hand, he asks the office of the CPC Central Committee to take a higher level of support.

According to the needs of disaster relief work, the death toll of major natural disasters in recent years has been gradually disclosed.

Zou Ming, deputy director of the relief and disaster relief Department of the Ministry of civil affairs, said the two department issued the document in a systematic and standardized way.

However, Document No. 116 does not define natural disasters or man-made disasters.

"If we encounter a breach of a levee and cause a flood and a mine collapse, there may be double factors of natural calamities and human calamities. There is undoubtedly the institutional flexibility of information disclosure."

An expert from the Institute of law of the Academy of Social Sciences told reporters.

New China's secrecy history, "the 116 document was released in August 8th, has a special meaning."

An official from the State Secrets Bureau said that in August 8th it was the 30th anniversary dam break incident in Zhumadian, Henan. The decryption actually stems from a new attitude towards disaster history and disaster relief work.

According to the public information, typhoon affected, from August 8, 1975 to September 5th, the dam of Banqiao reservoir in Zhumadian area of Henan collapsed, 150 kilometers east and West, and 75 kilometers north and south.

The death toll of the disaster has not been released so far.

In May of this year, the "ten major technological disasters in the world" featured by the US Discovery Channel took the first place. This was followed by the India Bhopal chemical plant poison discharge incident and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion in the former Soviet Union. The theme of this film is that its death toll is similar to that of Hebei Tangshan earthquake.

In September 16th, Zhao Yongshan, director of the Information Office of the State Secrets Bureau, said that the release of Document No. 116 was related to the frequent occurrence of natural disasters.

In a telephone interview, the confidentiality officer cited a series of natural disasters in the first half of this year.

According to a research material formed by the state secret Bureau, the history of China's government information disclosure and secrecy can be divided into two periods. The first period is the end of the founding of new China and the end of the "Cultural Revolution".

The "Provisional Regulations on Guarding State secrets" issued by the former State Administration of government in June 8, 1951, which contain 17 aspects of state secrets, has a wide range of practical work. "All information that is not disclosed is regarded as a state secret, and the information on public exchanges is relatively small".

During this period, there were two serious natural disasters, namely, the Tangshan earthquake and the Yunnan Tonghai earthquake.

In July 29, 1976, the Tangshan earthquake, the people's Daily published the Xinhua News Agency's report. The report focused on the fight against disasters, and only mentioned the loss of the epicenter area to varying degrees.

The Yunnan Tonghai earthquake occurred in January 5, 1970. Details are still unknown.

The second period listed in the research materials is the the third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee after the Communist Party of China.

In 1988, the "secret law", which was formally implemented in the following year, was completed and reduced the scope of state secrets to seven major aspects: major decisions in national affairs, national defense, foreign affairs, military affairs, public security and national security.

The death toll of the two major earthquakes in Tangshan and Tonghai was also disclosed during this period.

At the founding meeting of the Seismological Society of China in November 17, 1979, more than 240 thousand people were killed in the Tangshan earthquake, and the death toll was 15621 until the 30th anniversary session of the great earthquake until January 5, 2000.

In the third period, the two ministries and commissions were jointly led by the state secret Bureau.

In September 15th, Wang Yanbing, director of the secret office of the Ministry of civil affairs, told reporters.

Zhao Yongshan, director of the Information Office of the state secret Bureau, said that the initiative to hold a news conference is the first time for the state secret Bureau.

The state secret Bureau has no official website, and 114 can not query its office phone.

Although it is one of the 10 national bureaus managed by the ministries and commissions under the State Council, the State Secrets Bureau and the central secret Committee, directly under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, are two brands of an organization.

In this way, the provincial Party committee and the government have set up the State Secrets Bureau and the secrecy Committee.

According to introduction, the main responsibilities of the state secret Bureau include three major parts: first, the drafting, revision and reporting of the laws and regulations in charge of confidentiality; the implementation of the "confidentiality law" and its corresponding regulations; two, the large-scale inspection and decryption of the national secrecy work; and three, the development plan for the confidentiality technology and the organization and implementation thereof.

In September 12th, Shen Yongshe, deputy director of the State Secrets Bureau, said at the press conference that the secret bureau started late in communication with the media and the public, but it should also begin to do it and gradually standardize it later.

An official who worked for the state secret Bureau for more than 10 years, according to the current situation, has obviously been developing the "third period".

In his view, the initiative of the State Secrets Bureau has become increasingly evident with Xia Yong's new performance.

In June 7th this year, Xia Yong, a famous legal expert and director of the Institute of law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, took over the post of director of the State Secrets Bureau.

At the end of June, the investigation of secrecy concerning foreign affairs in some provinces and cities has been carried out.

Xia Yong, a jurist, was elected to the State Secrets Bureau, an official of the State Secrets Bureau. He said to Xia Yong that he was "very strong and very high".

"Like this, we are led by a jurist, and there are two or three in the country."

Zhao Yongshan, director of the Information Office of the State Secrets Bureau, told reporters.

Xia Yong, born in 1961, was born in Jingzhou, Hubei.

The personal resume shows that Xia Yong enrolled in the Southwest Institute of political science and law in 1978 (now Southwest University of Political Science and Law) for 10 months, and studied in July 1982. He served as a teaching assistant and lecturer.

Xia Yong, a colleague of the Institute of law of the Academy of Social Sciences, was admitted to the Law School of Peking University in 1989 after obtaining his master's degree. He graduated from the school of law and served as an associate researcher and researcher of the Institute of law, and was appointed director in March 2002.

Xia Yong was once a visiting scholar at the Law School of Harvard University during his stay in the Institute of law of the Academy of social sciences.

In 1995, he was awarded the first "China's ten outstanding young and middle-aged jurists" by the Chinese law society.

In the past 20 years, Xia Yong has studied the world of good reputation with the theory of human rights and the rule of law.

It has been named "the origin of the concept of human rights - the historical philosophy of rights", which has been reprinted four times.

In recent two years, he has continuously published several works on the theme of "political law", "civil rights philosophy", "running the country according to law" and "constitutional construction".

In the "Chinese civil rights philosophy" published in September 2004, Xia Yong put forward the theory of "new people based theory". The main idea is: the people should be the foundation of the state, the right is only the people, and the moral is the right.

It is believed that "people oriented and civil rights must be correctly positioned under the rule of law and constitutional system. The core value of the rule of law is human dignity and freedom".

Thus, he is called "human rights expert" in the academic circles.

An expert from the Institute of law, academe of Social Sciences, said that there are two main points in the innovation of "new people-oriented theory": one is to fulfill the people's foundation with the procedural rules of civil rights, and to construct the noumenon of people with the help of the concept of rights; the two is to put forward the concept of "moral rights", which provides a path for scholars to deepen the traditional Chinese civil rights ideology.

In September 22, 2000, Xia Yong, who was only 39 years old, became the keynote speaker of the lecture on the legal system of the Zhongnanhai. In front of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and more than 50 ministers, his lecture entitled "the development of the West and the rule of law to speed up the development of the central and western regions".

In May 2004, Xia Yong published a resume in his capacity as a guide. His title also includes: the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the Basic Law Committee of the Hongkong, the Supreme People's court's special consultant, the National Youth Federation standing committee, the vice president of the Chinese law society, and the president of the Chinese Law History Research Association.

As a basic law expert in Hongkong, Xia Yong has visited Hongkong for many times to participate in the basic law discussion or to publish relevant articles. It is called "one of the four protectors" by the media in Hong Kong.

Xia Yong, a legal expert who worked with Xia Yong for many years, introduced the "rule of law" published before his political career, showing his maturity in politics.

The book clearly defines democracy as people's democracy, that is to say, the Chinese regime must reflect public opinion.

"Following this train of thought, a series of measures that will easily be welcomed by the public will be launched one after another."

The legal expert appraise.

An official from the State Secrets Bureau said that the document No. 116 had been received from the secret service for more than a month. "He has brought a new atmosphere to the low-key state secret Bureau."

The Central Document No. 1 is also a secret.

In August 25th, Xia Yong appeared in a number of Party and government organs and military enterprises in Beijing.

According to the Beijing TV station, the national secret work inspection team led by Xia Yong conducted a two day inspection of the above-mentioned institutions in Beijing.

The information that can be querying shows that this is the first time that Xia Yong has appeared in the news media since he took office.

An official of the State Secrets Bureau said that the inspection is to further implement the CPC Central Committee's decision on strengthening secrecy work under the new situation and the confidentiality law, which is planned to be rolled out across the country in the near future.

"State secrets are like landmines. You don't know when to step on them."

An official of the general office of the Hunan provincial government said.

For example, a friend wants to photocopy the opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the promotion of farmers' income in 2004.

When he found the documents printed by the provincial Party committee, he found that the top of the front page was stamped with "secret" two.