Public Service Reform in China and the Asia-Pacific: Theory and Practice

Date: 19-20 May 2012

Avenue: Beijing

Cohosted: School of Politics and Public Administration, China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL)

Conference report

Key themes in public service reform in China and the Asia-Pacific were addressed by an international group of scholars from China, Singapore, Korea, the US, France and New Zealand in Beijing. A total of 68 participants covered a wide set of international approaches stimulating a vibrant series of discussions and cross-fertilization of ideas and empirical cases on issues of reorganizing and restructuring the public services, rationalizing the relationship with government, the private sector and NGOs, and addressing the problem of increasing tensions between efficiency and equality in the provision and delivery of public services.

The conference was opened by Prof Chunlong Lu who welcomed the speakers to Beijing and introduced the first remarks. Prof Yajun Shi of CUPL, Tony Browne of the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, New Zealand Ambassador to China, Carl Worker, and Jiang Wu, President of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science, set a challenge for scholars to address the major themes in public service reform. China’s public service reform was situated within the broader international context.

A series of keynote speeches then introduced the main issues and debates. Bill Ryan took us through the recent history of public service reform debates moving from ideas of ‘government’ to ‘governance’ and the shift from ‘consumers’ to ‘citizens’ with a new focus on networks, facilitation, shared power and co-produced outcomes. Daniel Bourmaud then overviewed the history of decentralization in France before David Grossman spoke on the International City Management Association’s role promoting citizen engagement in public service reform.

Former New Zealand State Services Commissioner, Mark Prebble, delved into the history of public service reform in New Zealand identifying some of New Zealand’s earliest reforms promoting accountability and the independence of the bureaucracy as providing long-lasting importance to New Zealand. Citizens’ views and support for the government formed a major theme. Jingpeng Li of Peking University followed this by outlining the conditions for transition from control-oriented to service-oriented government. The market, democracy and service were stressed as Prof Li put forward citizenship, relaxation of departmental interests and control over resources, limits on government authority, the constitution and rule of law and community consultation and democracy as important conditions for service government.

Jiang Wu provided us with an important empirical case of public service reform in China, Pi County Sichuan, and outlined a model of moving from experimentation in public service reform to a clearer strategy. The challenge of standardization and localization formed a major theme of the conference. Junsheng Liu finished the first set of keynote speeches with a comparative analysis of educational spending in China, the US and New Zealand.

The following day and a half of discussions and presentations covered a wide array of public service reform issues. The first session focussed on the theoretical study of public service reform, followed by a session on how overseas public sector reforms speak to challenges in China. The three sessions on the following day covered a series of more specific cases in China’s public service transition, including rural and city-level reform, the role of local government in the international arena, and the provision of efficiency and equity in public service provision. A highlight from the last sessions was the room for debate and discussion aided by the instant interpretation services provided.

Concluding remarks by Prof Xiaoming Huang, Director of the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, and Prof Guilin Zhang, Vice-President of CUPL, echoed the conference themes and congratulated the speakers on their deliberations. The comparative approach of the conference highlighted how development, political systems, historical transition and local conditions have led to a series of divergent issues in China and abroad but also showed how the overarching similarity of public sector reform challenges facing governments in the Asia Pacific mean bringing international scholarship together through university cooperation can bring fresh understanding to these general issues and challenges. The success of the conference was followed by an announcement to continue CUPL-New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre cooperation through a follow-up conference to be held in New Zealand in 2013.