Efforts should be made to eliminate illegal government documents, says an article in China Business Times. An excerpt follows:

A senior official from the Legal Office of the State Council, China's Cabinet, recently disclosed that a mechanism to regulate government documents will be set up in the next two to three years to ensure they are not at odds with current laws.

In recent years, cases of government documents found to conflict with laws have been reported from time to time - a problem that has become a source of annoyance.

Those government papers, often with their title written in red ink, are referred to as red-titled documents, which are issued by administrative bodies.

In order to favour their own parochial interests, many government departments put their interests ahead of others' when drafting documents.

Red-titled documents have often become a means for supporting departmental interests or, in some cases, even for personal gain.

Many places launched campaigns trying to stop the widespread illegal red-titled documents. But many that were dealt with have staged comebacks. Even if these documents are later corrected, their previous adverse impact is hard to erase.

According to the current Administrative Litigation Law, citizens are not entitled to pursue legal proceedings as a result of red-titled documents issued by administrative bodies even if they are found to conflict with existing laws. They can only complain to higher government to try to have illegitimate documents corrected.

As such, the best way to stamp out the scourge of illegal red-titled documents is to screen them before they are issued.

The pre-screening process would not only regulate government power, which could prevent abuse, but also ensure documents are in line with the law.

So if these documents themselves contravene laws, they will have widespread and serious consequences. As such, the issuance of illegal red-titled documents should be dealt with seriously.

Only by placing red-titled documents under the legal framework and strengthening supervision can we ensure that government documents be legal and administrative power be exercised correctly.

In this sense, the recent decision to set up a nationwide mechanism to supervise and regulate government documents is an encouraging move.