The Ministry of Civil Affairs has announced that 876 townships in some 20 provinces have been dissolved or incorporated in the first nine months of this year, cutting around 86,400 jobs among civil servants and 864 million yuan (US$104 million) a year in financial expenditure.

The downsizing campaign was carried out under central government requirements to streamline township administration, relieve farmers' financial burdens and bolster the rural economy.

The move is encouraging considering its scale and speed. By economic standards, the removal of so many rice bowls supported by public money will substantially benefit local people.

Yet it should by no means be the end of township administration reform as much remains to be done.

Ministry officials have admitted that finding new jobs for all those laid-off civil servants is a major problem. How to support them without simply spending what has been saved by sacking them is a question reformers must answer.

They are also just the tip of the iceberg, with thousands of other township administrations needing trimming down.

Township authorities all over the country are reported to have been recruiting two or three times the number of staff they are supposed to have.

Many township authorities have become bureaucracies simply feeding mouths when the money should be going on public services like education and health care.

It is difficult to condone so many grassroots authorities for remaining stubbornly overstaffed and inefficient despite years of reform efforts.

There is no simple answer to a reshuffle of the township administrative system. It will be an intricate and time-consuming job to turn what were bureaucracies into sound public service providers that any modern society needs.

The hope is that the constant economic and social progress nationwide, combined with the government's reforms, will push township restructuring - not only in quantity but also in a substantial change in their performances.

(China Daily November 17, 2004)