Jiang Wenhui, Deputy Director of Chenggong Investment Promotion Bureau of Kunming City, dozed off during a lecture. The negligent official was severely censured by the Secretary of the Kunming Municipal Party Committee and then he was asked to resign. This is the first case of its kind since Kunming authorities issued their accountability system for local officials.

Qiu He, Party chief of Kunming City in southwest China's Yunnan Province, has enacted a series of innovative measures in more than two months, provoking many disputes. Qiu has made policies based on "negative reports" from the local media. He even asked the Kunming Daily to publish the duties and phone numbers of various local officials. Qiu also publicly criticized an official who dozed off during a lecture and asked the bureaucrat to quit his post.

Some people believe that such practices are ill advised while others feel that they conform to today's China in a practical way.

In fact 75.9 percent of those surveyed responded positively to the new measures, with 76.8 percent displaying optimism toward the reforms, according to a poll jointly conducted by the Social Investigation Center of the China Youth Daily and Sina. A total of 6,786 respondents participated in the poll.

The new measures have brought changes to the lives of local officials. One said that he felt pressured after the reforming measures were implemented.

China Youth Daily poll figures on February 18 indicated that 48.0 percent felt the reforms could improve the working efficiency of local officials, while 28.7 percent believed that the Kunming Municipal Government would be more transparent and efficient. "Leaders play a key role in the development of local areas and departments," a netizen wrote in his post.

Additionally, 75.5 percent preferred authoritarian leaders, while 68.8 percent hoped that officials would act responsibly.

In the poll 17.4 percent thought that some officials were just making public displays and 6.8 percent showed little interest to this kind of news coverage.

In fact, many officials similar to Qiu He have appeared since the reform and opening-up. They often take drastic measures at the outset of their new terms and draw much public attention - yet rarely do they satisfy public expectations.

Almost 30 percent of the respondents felt pessimistic about the iron-fisted official in Kunming. The polls stated that 14.0 percent believed there would be negative effects, while 9.3 percent thought that the new measures would produce little effect at all because individual power was limited.

"The reforms should be regulated and guided by laws and rules," a netizen in Shanghai wrote to the China Youth Daily. 15.5 percent agreed with the netizen, maintaining that reforms should be advanced step by step and disciplinarian leaders were not necessarily essential.

According to a survey, the public hopes that governments would improve their work in the following ways:

-- Improve administrative work transparency and supervision mechanisms (70.3 percent);

-- Enhance the sense of responsibility and respect public participation (62.0 percent);

-- Enhance the service sense (51.4 percent);

-- Improve work efficiency (46.3 percent).

(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, March 4, 2008)