Shanghai Advances the Cause of Open Government Information in China

Jamie P. Horsley, The China Law Center, Yale Law School

5/09/2008
(Original Publish Date: 4/15/2004)

While the Chinese State Council mulls over a draft of China’s first freedom of information legislation, the bustling metropolis of Shanghai, home to some 16 million people, adopted China’s first provincial-level open information legislation on January 20, 2004. The Provisions of Shanghai Municipality on Open Government Information (the Shanghai Provisions) represent the most comprehensive framework to date in China for accessing government-held information, containing more detail than the pioneering Guangzhou Municipal Open Government Information Provisions adopted in 20031 and other lower-level local Chinese legislation to date.2 The Shanghai Provisions are scheduled to go into effect May 1, the same day that Shanghai will launch its “Transparent Government Program.”