Officials to get lessons on mass disturbances

• Source: Global Times
• [02:41 January 14 2010]
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By Zou Le

A government institute will start training officials from across the country how to deal with mass disturbances.

The Chinese Academy of Governance, which offers training to officials, is creating a training base to instruct government officials and will hold classes starting in a few months, according to the State Council.

"The preparation started last August and we are likely to see our first group of trainees as early as March this year," Zhu Lijia, professor of public administration at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times Wednesday. Details of the course schedule have not been worked out yet.

According to Zhu, the training is designed for grass-roots officials at the county level or in small and medium-sized cities.

"These are the authorities that have direct contacts with the public, and their abuse of power or corruption could easily trigger a mass incident," Zhu added.

Zhu said that each training session would last five to seven days. He said instead of formal lectures, officials would be pre-sented with real life cases to analyze and discuss.

Zhu cited the Shishou mass incident as an example. He said trainees could learn the importance of timely dissemination of accurate information through proper channels, as the incident was "intensified due to the circulating of rumors on the Internet."

Shishou is a city in Hubei Province, where the death of a restaurant cook triggered a protest with thousands of people who confronted armed riot police last summer. The public didn't believe he committed suicide and speculated that his death had something to do with corrupted local officials.