Less red tape
For deputy manager Lin Zhiwei of the environmental construction coordination department of the headquarter office, the charm of the Olympics is not in "its grandiosity" but "its parallel to force majeure."
As governments, both at the central and municipal levels, have summoned all resources available to honor the promise of a "Great Olympics," even grassroots governmental staffers were aware the Olympics-related work stood at the top of the daily agenda. "This has turned the Olympics into a giant impetus to end buck-passing culture and curb red-tape bureaucracy," Lin said.
On Yuegezhuang Bridge, across the Fourth Ring Road in western Beijing, the dangerous but frequent sight of hawkers moving between stopped automobiles to distribute advertising leaflets finally disappeared several months ahead of the Olympics.
Shadow boxing has long been played. The parapolice, responsible for illegal business on the streets, refused to handle it in the first place, arguing it happened on trunk roads where traffic police were posted.
Traffic police took over the enforcement only to bite their nails after failing to find any legal basis to penalize the hawkers. Recognizing some of these distributors of business cards, flyers, maps and driving accessories, among others, were minors, they kicked the ball to the civil service departments who acknowledged their duty to take care of those under-aged. But they also asserted their jurisdiction was confined only to relief stations.
The real reason behind the nonfeasance by the parapolice, Lin noted, was that enforcing laws on highways risked triggering car accidents, which might have injured or killed the hawkers and in turn, brought trouble to the law enforcers.
Following a field survey and mediation that took months, Lin and his team figured out a solution where police officers would remove the hawkers away from the traffic first. Parapolice would then step in to issue fines for adults or to escort minors to relief stations run by civil service agencies.
To cut red-tape bureaucracy, the headquarter office also drafted dozens of rules to tackle grey areas. These included highway leafleting and clarifying the duties of different departments in the city facelift, ranging from environmental protection, Hutong refurbishment, greening, street make-over to the setting of public facilities on sidewalks.
