A pilot program aimed at reducing violence caused by chengguan officers has been criticized as costly and ineffective.

The reform promotes a coordinated response from law enforcement to handle illegal street traders, instead of merely relying on urban management officers.

"Inspectors have been criticized for their heavy-handed law enforcement," said Xiong Wenzhao, a professor with the law institute of the Central University for Nationalities.

"But coordinated law enforcement may lead to overlapping supervision of government departments," he said.

The pilot project is taking place in Beijing's Shunyi district. Presently, the responsibility for managing illegal peddlers, illegal buildings and stopping illegal advertisements falls to chengguan.

They have been criticized for the harsh way they deal with offenders, who have occasionally died from altercations with the inspectors.

The pilot program requires the district's city inspectors to first take photos or videos of the illegal operation, then report the evidence to relevant district officials and set a deadline for the officials to rectify the problem.

Officials who have not rectified the problem within the deadline will be reported to the district inspection bureau, Zhou Tingjun, captain of the chengguan team in Shunyi district, told Beijing News.

Beijing set up the urban management bureau 10 years ago to eliminate duplicate law enforcement in urban management, said Shen Kui, a political law professor at Peking University.

"The reform could bring back the drawbacks of duplication, including buck-passing and over-punishment," he said.

It also would raise the administrative cost because several departments are involved, he said.

"I don't think the reform will help me live a better life," said Fei Junchuan, a 32-year-old illegal vendor from Henan province, who makes a living selling baked sweet potatoes in Zhongguancun, Haidian district.

Neither the municipal urban management bureau nor Shunyi district chengguan team were available for comment yesterday.

(China Daily August 25, 2009)