China issued freedom of information regualtion
China finally approaches freedom of information jurisdiction –Decree on release of government information passed on 24 April The State Council, China’s cabinet, announced on 24 April a long-waited regulation which empowers citizens to access to government information and explicitly requires government departments to be more open in information disclosures to boost official transparency. Premier Wen Jiabao promulgated this administrative regulation named “The Decree of Government Information Openness”(政府信息公开条例), which will take effect since 1 May 2008. Within the Chinese legal system, administrative regulation issued by the State Council is of general applicability, only subordinate to the constitution and the laws passed by the National People’s Congress. And it virtually acts as law in the absence of a law governing a given domain, which has been usually the case during China’s gradual legal reform of public law. In this regard, the
