Chen Zaixiong, a graduate of the law school at Renmin University, is awaiting a reply from the Ministry of Justice to his request for an administrative review.

Chen passed a recruitment test and interview conducted by the Shanghai Bureau of Justice last December, but was subsequently rejected for employment because of nearsightedness.

Chen's myopia is 1,100 degrees, which exceeds the 600 degree maximum for Shanghai's public servants.

Normally, serious myopia is defined as exceeding 600 degrees. But Chen thinks it's discriminatory for the government to refuse to hire people with myopia exceeding that standard.

Like more and more people, he resorted to legal action in the face of what he believes is a violation of his legitimate rights.

Chen should receive an answer in about two months, since his application was accepted April 12 according to the country's administrative review regulation.

If he doesn't get a satisfactory reply, Chen said he will file a lawsuit against the Shanghai Bureau of Justice.

Chen's case may be the first about eyesight, but it's not new in challenging governmental hiring policies in recent years.

Limits on applicants' height, gender, marital status, education and household registration have all been targets of complaints.

The most notorious case involved disclosure of information about hepatitis B virus (HBV), a liver disease, in the health exam. Zhou Yichao, a college graduate and HBV carrier, killed one official and wounded another last April after they rejected his job application for health reasons.

Zhou was later executed, but the case ignited nationwide discussion about government offices' discriminatory hiring practices and the lack of legal redress.

The tragedy led to reflection on discrimination and ushered in some improvement. Many provinces subsequently lifted their ban on non-infectious HBV carriers being employed by government agencies.

The limits on height in some recruitment regulations were also deleted.

Now along comes myopia.

A report indicates an increasing number of Chinese are having expensive laser operations to correct myopia in order to pass employment health checks. But obviously the cost and the risk are not acceptable for all.

More importantly, is it necessary to impose a limit on eyesight for government positions that do not affect the applicants from performing their duties well?

As pointed out in Chen's written application for administrative review, serious myopia is not a contagious disease and will not affect others' work. With appropriate eyewear his remedied vision in both eyes can reach 5.0, which is normal and competent for the general administrative job for which he applied.

Together with Chen, there must be thousands or even millions of people waiting for an answer from the Ministry of Justice as the number of people with myopia, though no concrete numbers are available, is very high in China. According to a 2002 survey conducted by the Ministry of Education, 72.8 per cent of senior middle school students and 77.95 per cent college students tested were myopic.

Let's see if they are lucky enough to get justice from the justice departments.

(China Daily May 24, 2004)