The State Council's latest initiative to further shorten the list of matters and procedures that are subject to government approval, which this time places a greater emphasis on bringing new energy to the private sector and non-governmental social undertakings, will fulfill more than its immediate goals.

What's more, it will give a substantial boost to the uphill battle against corruption.

Matters that require government approvals often result in complaints about bureaucratic red tape. But low efficiency is only part of the story. Even worse, the former ubiquity of government reviews and approval requirements proved a fertile hotbed for the practice of rent-seeking. Many corruption scandals involving behind-the-scenes deals took place in the approval process.

A comprehensive government grip on economic and social affairs, a legacy of the days of the planned economy, is incompatible with a market economy for several reasons. For one, it restrains the free flow of resources and weakens market operations. The first attempts to cut red tape in approval procedures resulted from the pragmatic need to make the market function properly.

The work of maintaining a market economy is far from finished. And the task of regulating the invisible hand is taking on greater importance in the government's reforms.

Much has been said and done since the Communist Party of China started its high-profile fight against corruption in 1993. While the achievements and progress of that work have been substantial, they have fallen far short of both public expectations and authorities' promises.

A ranking corruption buster with the CPC's disciplinary watchdog is right to describe the situation of the anti-corruption campaign as being in a "tug of war" .

This, says the official, is because power has not been effectively kept in check. The chief task in the fight against corruption, therefore, remains restraining and supervising power.

Limiting administrative intervention is an obvious shortcut to achieving that. This is the central authorities' fifth attempt to shorten the list of items subject to government approval.

If anyone has anything to lose, it will be those engaged in the practice of rent-seeking. And their loss will only be a gain for the economy and the government.

(China Daily 08/24/2012 page8)