Institution building urgent for social development

Such questions, by the way, are not meant to deny the fact that Chinese people's living standards have improved a great deal compared with those before 1978.

But Chinese people should have got much more than they actually own had institutional progress been made simultaneously with the two-digit economic growth.

If power had been placed in a cage of laws, the billions of yuan that flowed into the pockets of corrupt elements by way of taking bribes or embezzling public funds could have been used in supporting more public projects and social security.

With better urban management and reasonable budgets under tight supervision, most of China's urban streets or roads would not have been dug up as frequently as they have been.

With reasonable and mature organization of social communities, garbage classification, which has been a failure in most Chinese cities until present, should have successfully facilitated the safe disposal of urban trash and should thus have relieved most cities of the embarrassment of being surrounded by landfills.

True, the country's crackdown on corruption is gathering momentum and does send an inspiring message that the majority of officials will hopefully behave themselves and think twice before taking bribes. But what is really needed is a desirable institutional system that leaves no room for officials to neglect their duties or fail in performing their duties.

Rome was not built in a day. Yet, there is no time to lose for China to catch up in the building of social institutions, the lack of which is a bottleneck to the building of a society with real rule of law.

Among other things, a reliable institutional system that can ensure people have the convenience of getting things done will provide residents with a sense of security. In other words, good institutions make a government trustworthy, which is the very foundation of political and social stability.

In the forthcoming Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the theme will be the rule of law. This is a good sign since the rule of law is the very foundation for the needed social institutions. That the rule of law is made the major topic of a ruling Party's strategy-making meeting speaks volume for the importance the leadership attaches to the building of institutions.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily. zhuyuan@chinadaily.com.cn