Years of Poems and Spirits

It was kind of funny that I was posting an entry bitching soccer in the middle of the best game in this World Cup, Brazil vs. France.

It was a pure attack football: both sides launched beautiful attacks and counter-attacks, each only ended in the box area. Zidane was spectacular. The Brazilian dance wasn’t bad either. After watching the England/Portugal game, this game felt like a thunderstorm in a muggy summer afternoon.

I stayed up till 5am to finish watching, never once felt bored or sleepy. It was a déjà vu experience: 20 years ago, when I was in highschool, I woke up at 3am to watch the same teams played in a world cup quarter final which ended in the same: the favored Brazilians were eliminated by a heroic French team after a game of constant fast attacks.

I always questioned whether European sportsmen had the same kind of desire to win as those touted in America. Here is one glimpse:
真正了解齐达内的是罗纳尔多，交手前，他不忘在《世界报》的专栏中向大师致敬：“齐达内是真正伟大的球员。……几个月前一次商业活动[sic]，我们一起到了柏林，下榻酒店的人说，这家酒店将为参加决赛的球队预留房间，当时，我和齐达内情不自禁的对视了一下。”

According to Christine Wong’s observation, the central-local contention in China is key to understand public governance.

Recently, some new developments:
1. 各地违规直接返还税款的问题已大为减少，但依然存在以补贴、奖励等名义，通过财政支出变相向企业返还税款的现象。In order to attract investment, local governments often refund business tax. This worsens fiscal picture and central government tries to curtail that practice.
2. 一些地方甚至在国务院明令禁止低价出让土地的情况下，采取先按国家规定签订土地出让合同，再返还土地出让金或者给予财政补贴等手段，变相低价出让土地。Similar vein.
3. 目前中央补助地方支出已占中央财政总支出的57%，占地方财政支出的45%。但由于目前中央补助地方支出预算编制还比较粗放，透明度还不高… In other words, the central transfer money is not properly captured by budgeting process.
4. 在补助地方支出中，专项转移支付资金使用分散、部门职能及项目内容交叉重复的问题还比较突出 … central transfer takes a highly ad hoc route.
5. 进一步深化部门预算改革，增强预算的刚性约束。This is something really important–regardless who is running the government. People should learn to live and die by budgets. (above see here)
6. 贺铿委员说， 大量资金掌握在中央部门手中，又是分散掌握，出现重复交叉、资金浪费，出现“跑部钱进”等现象是很自然的。.. 全国人大财经委主任傅志寰说，专项转移支付的问题共有二百多项，这种现象是不大正常的。(see here) Now too much Tiao. Remember someone wrote an journal article about the Tiao-Kuai struggle and saying some recent policies (mixture of both but put a lot into the hands of provinces) may breed “federalism”. See my notes of that article.

1. “突发事件应对法“: although the law is crafted to include many aspects of administering emergencies (rescue operations, policing, etc.), the most controversial part is how emergencies are reported in media: “新闻媒体违反规定擅自发布有关突发事件处置工作的情况和事态发展的信息或者报道虚假情况 … 由所在地履行统一领导职责的人民政府处5万元以上10万元以下的罚款.” The code is vague enough because it did not specifiy what amounts to “违反规定” or what can be charactered as “虚假情况”. Just a typical Chinese practice: make it appears legalistic by establishing laws but retains the old administrative prerogative by leaving everything to interpretation and enforcement.

2. “农业税“: Agriculture Tax issue: Zhou Feizhou’s lecture in UW, gradual phasing out since 2003/4(?). 2006 last year. At the same time, reconcentration of fiscal power to township level (hollowing out villages). “目前，只有河北、山东、云南三个省仍在征收农业税，但总计只有15亿元。彻底取消农业税，对目前年财政收入3万亿元的中国而言，已没有实质性影响。”
“中国目前有9亿农民，占中国总人口的比例高达70%。但2005年这些农民创造的农业总产值占GDP的比例只有13.2%。”
“取消农业税…会对农村基层政权造成严峻挑战。… 中西部地区省份乡镇政权普遍运转困难，面临巨大的机构、人员精简的压力。农村义务教育、农村公益事业、农村卫生投资都出现投入减少或短缺。税费改革后，中央财政每年为此增加转移支付数百亿元，2005年甚至达到664亿元。… 虽然湖南省2005年已经免征农业税，… 农民的教育收费等“搭车”收费也有增加。在河南，有的县市，农民到民政局办理结婚证，必须交纳高达200多元的各种费用。农民进城务工，也被要求在家乡办理各种证件，交纳不菲的费用。这些费用一般都成为当地政府的预算外收入，用于弥补经费的不足。”
“据专家估计，中国当前的乡村两级负债高达6000亿元.”

3. “反垄断法”: question: with capital market tightly controlled, some of the manufacturing industries highly fragmented and localism seemingly everywhere, why anti-trust? Some hints:
a. 全国人大财经委有关负责人表示，跨国公司通过并购在我国滥用市场支配地位、限制竞争，甚至会危害国家经济安全。
b. 对于电信、铁路、电力、民航、金融等行业的垄断行为，近来公众反映强烈.
Both quoted from here.
Wait: does it really mean to outlaw STATE monopoly in national economy?
Yes: 严防行政权力成为垄断推手草案作出专章规定 … (see here)
No: 《反垄断法(草案)》依然没有摆脱“部门立法”的范畴，带有浓厚的行政主导立法色彩。另一个让公众“不敢期待”的原因，是来自“精髓”部分“行政性垄断章节被删除”的消息。反垄断法尚无时间表. (here)
But: 一些经营者达成的某些协议虽然具有限制竞争的后果，但整体上有利于技术进步、经济发展和社会公共利益。首次提请全国人大常委会审议的反垄断法草案，对属于此类的六种情况不予禁止。(see here)
In summary: 有关学者和专家们迅速地为公众的期望热情泼下了一盆“冷水”：因为各种因素，民众不宜对《反垄断法(草案)》期望过高。

4. 义务教育法: There will be suits filed according to this law. The local courts will first reject the claims according to the law itself. After five more decades maybe, the first case will win and will be hailed as a breakthrough.