Sixty-four-year-old Beijing resident Li Hua was surprised to find the other day that the community service center had set up a branch in his neighborhood, which saves him a lot of trouble.

"I need not walk several hundred meters to the community office and elbow with others for tiny things," said the old man who has lived in Jinsong community in Beijing's Chaoyang District for years.

Chaoyang District, like many other district governments in China, planned to set up many such service branches in blocks and neighborhoods.

Experts are placing more significance on the new actions of communities, which are usually reckoned as the lowest reach of the government.

The Chinese government, from the lowest to the highest level, is trying to get rid of bureaucracy to serve people better, said Tang Tiehan, vice president of the National School of Administration.

"Those now working in the community office have much better service and attitude than before," Li said.

Why things are improving is likely to be rooted in the fact that community heads, who were appointed by the local government for decades, are now chosen by direct vote.

Last year about 20 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities carried out direct elections for community heads.

In the countryside, China's 800 million rural residents have got used to voting for their village heads.

The government is pressed by dynamic economic growth and reform to change its administrative methods, said Li Jiangpeng with Beijing University.

Under a planned economy, the government managed and distributed all the resources and now as the country seeks a market economy, the government needs to change its image from the one which grants to the one who serves, Li said.

China's new leadership has reiterated the political reform and improvement of service to the public.

Chinese President Hu Jintao had said in a speech last year that governments of all levels should play a better role in serving the public while Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had once admitted that the country's public service framework remains weak.

The country has sped up updating its social security system, public health care framework and education.

In 2002, China's government expense on education, culture and civil affairs reached 592.46 billion yuan, or 26.87 percent of the total, up over 14.7 billion yuan in 1978.

Meanwhile more and more government officials are punished for dereliction of duty, especially in scandals where citizens' interests are seriously harmed.

On Wednesday, nine officials were dismissed or received disciplinary penalties for failing to prevent a fake milk powder scandal which led to 13 deaths and malnutrition of 189 babies in Fuyang City, east China's Anhui Province.

"The government is lowering its pose, but there is still a long way to go and persistent efforts to be made to reach our goal," said Prof. Qi Suyu of the National School of Administration.

Source: Xinhua