Thanks to the growth of its market system, more and more Chinese have come to recognize the proposition that honesty is the fundamental to establishing oneself in a materialistic society - in the long run.

In the short run, however, a lack of honesty seems to remain a nuisance that sometimes even the government finds it hard to cope with.

An official with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was quoted by Xinhua as saying at a forum on Tuesday that a lack of honesty has "harmed the majority of the people and cost society dearly."

Yet she ruled out harsher punishment of those found to be practicing dishonest activities. This, she said, was on the grounds that legislation is incomplete in this regard. She proposed government tip the scales with policies that favor honest businesses.

One thing encouraging about her remarks, however, is that the topic of honesty is once again in the limelight and people will think for a while.

But the NBS official, who is supposed to do her best to be accurate, is not entirely convincing this time by saying little can be done to make dishonest guys pay more.

Take the production of fakes for example. The public has become somewhat used to shocking reports about various fake products.

In the face of these extreme cases of dishonesty which not only deceive consumers and in some cases threaten lives, government officials should not comment in general terms that stronger countermeasures are legally unavailable.

It is unfair to ask every citizen to become an expert able to discern all the fakes and frauds out on the market by themselves. It is unfair to give a helpless wage-earner simply the option of going through exhausting litigation, only to have to wait months for a chance to win justice against dishonesty firms or individuals.

In many of the cases where dishonesty causes damages, the government could have prevented the problems, be it through checking business registrations, inspections of quality, quarantines, and so forth.

The law has also entitles government agencies with prescriptive measures such as the right to confiscate goods, impose fines, revoke licenses, and to inform procurators when suspected criminal offenses are involved.

At a time when rampant fakes and frauds are eroding the public's feelings of safety and confidence in business ethics, government agencies should contemplate their lawful responsibilities rather than simply blame arguably incomplete legislation.

The only thing they can rightly do is to fight more fiercely against dishonesty. That is clearly the government's mandate under the law: protect China's citizens.

(China Daily August 12, 2004)