The plight of a former national sports champion has aroused widespread concern recently.

Most people, with the Chinese traditional heroism worship, found it unbelievable, and unacceptable, that an athlete who had won honor for the nation had been reduced to a state in which she scrubbed and washed backs for customers in a public bathhouse to make a living.

Questioned by the media in a press conference last week, the spokesman of the State General Administration of Sport said that "we would not forget those athletes who have made contributions to the nation" and "we hope that parties concerned will give attention to the situation of Mrs Zou Chunlan," the 1998 national champion in women's weightlifting, a woman who has broken many national and world records.

The official used typical bureaucratic jargon to shy away from the responsibility the public expected his organization to take.

"Parties concerned" or "department concerned" is a term frequently used by government officials, and the media, when referring to an unknown person or institution. For instance, a newspaper commentary would call for a "department concerned" to heed the complaint of a primary school headmaster about peddlers swamping the school gate selling unhealthy food or publications. Or an urban district government spokesman would say "co-ordinated efforts by parties concerned are needed" to address local residents' complaints about roads being repeatedly dug open by different units of public utilities.

These calls usually fall on deaf ears as nobody will come forward to claim to be the "party concerned."

Some government departments seem to loathe taking responsibility. They often try to shift it onto others. Many people have the experience of being passed back and forth among different government departments for a complaint to be heard or for an application to be approved.

What happened to a migrant worker in a suburb of Beijing last year typically illustrated such shirking of responsibility in government departments.

Chang Na, a woman from Shandong Province, had half of her right hand cut off by a machine in the plant where she was employed in Daxing, a suburban district of Beijing. The boss refused to pay the compensation she asked for. Her mother then sought help from the labor department of Daxing district government. But the officials said the case "does not belong to Daxing's jurisdiction" and she should go to "a department concerned" in Fengtai District.

In Fengtai, the labor authorities said they did not supervise the plant because it was a "black factory without a license." The woman was told that the social security department was responsible for the case. In that department, she was told to take the matter to the labor dispute arbitration department.

In this case, specific departments were contacted but none of them took the matter seriously. Given the fact, one can imagine what kind of a response the vague, general reference to "departments concerned" will incur. Calling for an unnamed "party concerned" to move amounts to appealing to nobody. The favor for the term either aims to shirk responsibility or demonstrates reluctance to pinpoint the party in responsibility. Media organization, in particular, should be more specific when they try to urge government departments to honor their responsibilities.

Too many "departments concerned" means no department will be concerned.

(China Daily April 5, 2006)