Revolving Doors

Two-way flow

Sun Lei, 47, recently made a newsworthy decision. The former vice mayor of Nansha District in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, left his position to become president of the Hangzhou Transfar Tech City Co. Ltd. in east China's Zhejiang Province.

Why did Sun leave the government for a private company? Cheng Jun, Vice President of the Transfar Co., said that this is a question the media have frequently been asking him recently.

"I was the matchmaker (between Sun and the Transfar Co.)," Cheng told zjnews.com, a news portal based in Hangzhou. He said that he first met Sun in 2009 during a trip to Guangzhou. In March of this year, when he visited Guangzhou again on a business trip, they met again.

Sun, who holds a doctoral degree in industry economics, has worked in a number of government positions, in charge of attracting private investment and promoting economic and technological development. Before he served vice mayor of Nansha District, he was deputy director of Guangzhou's Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and held a number of positions in the Guangzhou Economic and Technology Development Zone.

The Transfar Co. is a subsidiary of the Transfar Group, which ranked 131st among the Top 500 Chinese Private Enterprises. The group, in partnership with the Xiaoshan District Government of Hangzhou, has built a technology park to foster innovation.

On August 29, Sun met the media and unveiled the technology park's development plan. Seven organizations including Zhejiang University's Technology Research Institute and the Marine Biotechnology Center of Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences had signed agreements to move into the park.

Sun's career choice has sparked discussion among academics. Chen Tianxiang, a professor at the School of Government of Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, said that two-way flow of talented people between public and private sectors is healthy. He explained that due to the high prestige traditionally attached to officials, talented people tend to flock from companies into the government, which can cause an imbalanced distribution of experience and knowledge.

"Two-way personnel flow between the government and businesses is frequent in some developed countries, so it is not something that is unusual," said Yu Shuhua, a professor at the South China University of Technology.

Nonetheless, Cai Xiaowu, a professor at Zhejiang University's College of Economics, calls for efforts to prevent and block the "revolving door"—a term used to describe personnel flow between public and private sectors. He said that although officials' powers will be reduced after leaving office, it is still possible for them to profit from the connections they built while in office.

"If former civil servants use their previous connections and influence when running their businesses, it will undermine fair competition. Also, corrupt officials may take the opportunity to launder money," Shen Youjun, a professor at Beijing Normal University, warned.

The Civil Service Law stipulates that officials are banned from joining companies or other for-profit organizations, or engaging in any for-profit activities, which are directly related with their former positions within three years after they quit or retire from public office, while other civil servants cannot do so in two years after quitting or retiring.

To prevent former civil servants from abusing their previously held power, it is important to improve government transparency. Chi Fulin, President of the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development, said, "We should find an effective way to supervise the exercise of power and make sure power is exercised effectively and fairly."