Officials tested live on TV(2)

Televised controversy

Lin said that the move has brought some changes. "We have done several projects in recent years that we didn't even dare consider in the past."

Many think that the improvement in the city environment since 2010 is the most significant among all those changes. Another resident surnamed Zhou said it was hilarious hearing the local housing and construction bureau say that during the past year the city had planted trees for the following six years. "However, Wenzhou has gotten much cleaner," Zhou admitted.

On the other hand, residents all said that the gap between the policies and the public's real feelings, along with the lack of public involvement, had limited the effectiveness of government policies.

Some residents have been enraged by a program involving the demolition of illegal buildings which has been taking place since 2010, Zhang, a member of the city's resident supervision group, told the Global Times.

Last year, 25.88 million square meters of properties were destroyed, with local small and medium-sized enterprises being the major victims.

Zhou Dewen, director of the Wenzhou Council for the Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, said that while the policy was a step in the right direction, the policy shouldn't be carried out without considering how these small businesses came into being in an unregulated state.

"It should be conducted gradually, for example, by building up an industrial zone. The city has basically stopped demolishing boundary walls, but lower-level officials are still doing it to finish their quota," Zhou said.

On the local forum bbs.703804.com, posts that complain about some policies are deleted.

"It is essential to address those problems in a transparent manner, and residents should be involved in evaluating officials," said Zhang, the resident supervision group member.

Just a spectacle?

A similar show was screened in Wuhan, Hubei Province. The five-episode program, in which 29 officials directly faced questions from the public, was broadcast live and attracted an audience three times as large as popular soap operas.

In the show, a host posed questions to the officials regarding different social problems after showing the investigative video clip. Fifty on-site audience members could also raise questions and express their attitudes.

According to the city government, 44 out of the 54 problems exposed were solved within 10 days.

Ding Huang, a professor of the School of Political Science and Public Administration with Wuhan University, who was also a commentator on the program, told the Global Times that the project was creative and encouraged public supervision while improving administrative efficiency. "Its effect should not be exaggerated, the government should improve the ability to radically untie those knots."

Zhou Dewen also suggested it be expanded nationwide, saying that implementation is the key to good governance. "This is a good move to put officials under real pressure."

Wu Jing, a professor of communications with Peking University, said the public should be cautious and not turn the new measure into entertaining drama. "Officials are rarely trained to face the public, not to mention the media. The two sides have to adapt to each other to construct a healthy public political culture by cultivating their media savvy and political literacy."

Chen remains confident. "We are working hard to improve it and to get the public involved. It will become the new normal," he said.