EO: In the coming years, what will be the biggest challenge for or sticking point in China's administrative management system reform?

Shi: First, we must affirm the positive role of the system. If we deny this, then the great achievements it has made during the past 30 years would have been unimaginable. At the same time, we must admit that the current system has many problems, and limitsgovernments’ ability to perform their duty accordingly. If we don't change things, and continue economic, education, medical, cultural, scientific, and social reforms, all of them will encounter numerous road-blocks.

Consequently, in one aspect it should be seen that some of the problems are long-term and have historic, cultural reasons for emergence and solidification. It doesn't matter what domain, what level, what link they appear in, they are multifaceted and to truly solve them means not relying on loyalty or enthusiasm, but instead, rely on reason and intelligence. In short, to not reform the administrative management system is not OK, to deepen reform but not address these problems is not OK, and to ignore the complexities of these problems will lead to an inability to solve them.

EO: Hu Jintao said at the 17^th Party Congress, “We must seize and formulate the whole of the administrative management system's reform.” According to your understanding, what will the reform process be like down the road?

Shi: My understanding is that Secretary General Hu's “whole” is a matter of both domain and layers, of both time and space.

The five layers of government that make up the administrative management system has already become a string of dominoes, whatever happens at one layer of government can be traced to others. For this reason, reform of the system is not a matter of reforming just the central government; reform of the State Council is just one step. During the drafting of the reform scheme there should be ample consideration of how all forms of government are linked. Furthermore, reform of the system doesn't mean simply making functional or institutional adjustments, but also touch upon inter-relationships, restrictions, and functions.

And the reform plan can't just solve the problems over the next five years. There has to be consideration of the short, medium, and long term—it's absolutely not something that can be accomplished in one week or overnight. There is a spatial element as well—China's sheer size and the disparity within it necessitate bringing together of local governments to bridge their identities and disparities, their commonality and uniqueness.