Execution of any law involves power. There is no exception with what chengguan (urban management) officers do when imposing fines for violations of urban management rules.

The controversy on how these officers should use their power is actually about to what extent their power can be defined and confined.

This explains why the Beijing municipal government issued a rule on the exact area chengguan officers can exercise their urban management power and how such power should be exercised in a reasonable and civilized manner.

The current chengguan system was introduced 10 years ago. The rules are made on the basis of experience and lessons accumulated in the past decade to strike a balance between the execution of administrative rules and providing service, and between imposing penalties and educating offenders not to commit the same offense again.

On this principle, the rules have specifications prohibiting chengguan officers from abusing their power and leaving channels for the penalized to appeal their cases, and the residents to report any irregularities by chengguan officers.

The rules reiterate that chengguan officers do not handle money in fines on principle, and those who are penalized must go to banks to pay the fines. This specification that has already been endorsed in other relevant laws, plugs the loophole that chengguan officers may pocket the money for their own use.

But a lack of detailed specifications on how chengguan officers should handle the small sums of money in fines that do not go directly to the government's coffer through the banks needs to be given more thought. This is because street peddlers without licenses often become targets for such fines and they are unlikely to pay their fines to the banks.

Without detailed specifications about how to impose and collect fines from these people, this is an area where chengguan officers could likely abuse their power.

What needs to be further clarified by the rules is the fact that there is no connection between the amount of money from the fines and the bonuses chengguan officers get.

What is even more important but lacking in the rules is in what specific way should the chengguan's work be gauged.

(China Daily December 6, 2007)