news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

han zhiming, special commentator of the paper

from the 110 hotline in the 1980s to the current 12345 hotline, the government has been providing convenient service hotlines for more than 40 years. the government hotline is a hub connecting the public and the government. its main purpose is to accept consultations, requests for help and complaints from people who need help, and to solve the difficulties encountered by individuals or groups.

china has a long tradition of "going to the court to hear complaints" to break down the barriers between the government and the people and ensure that the people's opinions are heard by the government. however, these systems lack stability, immediacy and reliability. the government hotline is connected through information technology, which not only records the opinions of both parties involved in the case, but also keeps a detailed record of the entire process, making the entire process understandable and visual, thereby clarifying the responsibilities and processes of all parties and improving efficiency.

however, in recent years, unreasonable and non-compliant "cross-border" demands have also increased accordingly, turning the government hotline into a "wishing pool". previously, many places have posted a batch of unreasonable demands received by the 12345 hotline, including some very bizarre cases. the problem of the 12345 hotline being increasingly overloaded should be taken seriously.

a large increase in non-compliant and unreasonable demands

starting in the 1980s, cities such as changchun and shenyang began to establish 12345 mayor hotlines, which then gradually spread to cities across the country. after decades of development, the 12345 hotline has become increasingly mature, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, formed a closed loop, and achieved extensive governance effectiveness. for example, in the first half of 2024, beijing's 12345 hotline received a total of more than 11.2 million reports, and received 140 million reports from the public and enterprises in five and a half years. the huge numbers reflect the intensive interaction between the government and the people, and faithfully record the beating pulse of every corner of the city.

in the past period, in order to improve the efficiency of serving the people and make it easier for the people to find government departments, local city government departments have established their own hotlines, such as housing and construction, taxation, market, sanitation, etc. almost every city has dozens of citizen hotlines. these hotlines have built a bridge between the people and government departments and provided a channel for solving problems, but there are too many hotlines, which makes people lost in a large number of numbers and dazzled.

later, local governments tried to explore the merger of hotlines, integrating the hotlines of multiple departments into a city-wide hotline, and ushered in the era of convenient hotlines centered on the 12345 hotline.

in 2021, the national level began to promote the optimization and merger of government hotlines, basically forming a hotline service pattern with two hotlines, 110 and 12345. by merging other non-police or non-emergency hotlines into the 12345 hotline, the 12345 hotline has become the general customer service for non-emergency requests, further enhancing the authority of the 12345 hotline and gaining wider recognition and trust.

however, in the past few years, a large number of non-compliant and unreasonable demands have emerged on the 12345 hotline. at present, the rate of such demands can usually reach 20% or even more than 30% from the city operation centers in various places. for example, the data of "12345 linyi first release" shows that from january to august 2023, among the more than 3 million demands accepted by the city's 12345 hotline, 53,000 were non-compliant, an average of more than 200 per day.

by reviewing the policies and regulations of various places, we can see that the currently identified or recognized non-compliant and unreasonable demands can be roughly divided into four categories:

first, claims outside the scope of the 12345 hotline, which must be resolved through litigation, arbitration, discipline inspection, administrative reconsideration, government information disclosure and other procedures. second, illegal claims: relevant claims involve violations of laws, regulations and social morality, and are matters that are not accepted by laws, regulations and other regulations. third, repeated claims: relevant claims have been in the process of being handled or have been completed in accordance with relevant procedures, but the same or different claimants are not satisfied with the handling results and still repeatedly complain through the hotline. there are also repeated inquiries about policy consultation or service guidelines that have been clearly answered for various reasons. fourth, invalid claims: they are unreasonable demands or expectations, such as complaints such as "the barber shop cut my bangs badly and asked me to restore them to their original state" and "i want to abandon my child and hope the government will take him in".

"12345, if you have any problems, go to the government." this sentence is powerful and represents the government's solemn promise to the people. it also expresses the courage and determination of the 12345 hotline to serve the people. however, just like "if you have any difficulties, go to the police," this sentence has very vague boundaries and scope, is full of ambiguity, and is difficult to understand. what kind of difficulties are the "difficulties" in "having difficulties" and what type or characteristics of "problems" are there? there is a lack of clear rules and boundaries.

therefore, the slogan of the 12345 hotline, "if you have any problems, go to the government," easily creates an expectation of being able to meet unlimited promises, as if everything is responsive and omnipotent. at the same time, slogans such as "100% completion rate or satisfaction rate" are certainly intended to demonstrate the good efficiency of the hotline, but they also provide evidence for the government's imagination of being omnipotent. the assessment of completion rate and satisfaction rate directly drives front-line staff to run around and face the people's bizarre or unreasonable demands, and they are caught in a dilemma.

social governance requires a multi-party symphony

in fact, looking back, the history of the development of the 110 emergency call also faces the problem of unreasonable overload. as early as 1996, the 110 emergency call service station in zhangzhou, fujian, made a public promise to the society: "we will answer any call, help in any difficulty, rescue in any danger, and respond to any request." this is commonly known as the "four musts" and the "16-character policy." this promise was subsequently promoted by the ministry of public security to public security agencies across the country and became the slogan and slogan of the 110 emergency call platforms in various places.

due to the great popularity and influence of the 110 police platform, many people indiscriminately use the 110 phone to report situations and problems, hoping to get attention and response from government departments. a large number of non-police demands have emerged in various places, which has put great pressure on the public security departments and even affected their main responsibilities and business to a certain extent. as a result, many local public security systems have gradually deleted or abandoned the "four haves and four musts" and strived to return to the main work of the public security.

the development of the 12345 hotline not only allows citizens to actively reflect their personal demands, but also speeds up the operation of government departments. however, various non-compliant and unreasonable demands have not only overloaded the 12345 hotline, but also damaged the expectations of the people, leading to mutual distrust.

in terms of response measures, in order to solve the problem of non-compliant and unreasonable demands, many places have issued relevant policy documents to clarify the scope of responsibilities of the 12345 hotline and the boundaries of the demands that the public can make. specifically, it mainly stipulates the categories of non-compliant and unreasonable demands by enumerating or giving examples, strictly screens and filters such demands by strengthening the work process, and makes the public aware of them through the internet or media, etc.

these practices actually acknowledge that the government's power is limited, find a reasonable way to deal with the people's demands rationally, and then form a self-conscious focus on the main responsibilities and main business. as for the people, they must realize that 12345 is a public product, and its responsibilities are bounded and limited. what is needed is to do what should be done well, rather than to do everything. therefore, they must put forward their respective demands reasonably, legally and appropriately.

the development and application of the 12345 hotline has shortened the distance between the government and the people, formed a stable mechanism for close interaction between the two, and especially improved the efficiency of problem solving and the accuracy of government governance. it can be said to be a classic example of modern government using science and technology to solve social problems. however, it is precisely the success of the 12345 hotline that has induced the spread and growth of non-compliant and unreasonable demands, which has interfered with the main responsibilities and business of 12345.

in the final analysis, government services cannot be all-powerful, nor can they be omnipotent. we must try to abandon the presumption and popular imagination of the omnipotence of 12345, and prevent the public from having inappropriate expectations and demands on government hotlines.

promoting the modernization of national governance is an important part of achieving chinese-style modernization. it is necessary to vigorously build a government of the rule of law, a responsible government, and a responsive government, and improve the government's ability to respond to the demands of the people. social governance is an important aspect of national governance, but social governance is not a "one-man show" of the government, but a "symphony" of the government, the market, and society. the key is to clarify the responsibilities, rights, and boundaries of different subjects, achieve a benign interaction among multiple social subjects, and achieve governance that is within one's capabilities and moderately balanced. only in this way can we achieve better benign interaction, better play the role of the government hotline, and improve the level of modernization of social governance.

(the author is a professor at the school of international and public affairs, shanghai jiao tong university)

senior editor of this issue zhou yuhua