Almost 9 out of 10 Chinese believe central government must exercise "direct control" over local governments, accused of wrongdoing in some fields, according to a survey released here Tuesday.

About 86 percent of the 4,531 people surveyed on the Chinese mainland by China Youth Daily and Tecent Information Center said a "lack of control" is the principal cause of local corruption.

Some local government officials fail to perform their duties properly despite their insider's knowledge of the local situation and local resources, said Zhou Shengxian, head of the State Environmental Protection Administration of China, adding that independent-minded local leaders regularly defy the central government's moves and deliberately obstruct central government policies.

More than 50 percent of those surveyed think that key topics such as environmental protection, statistics and auditing should be directly controlled by the central government.

Currently, only a few local departments -- such as state and local taxation, land resources and quality supervision -- are directly controlled from Beijing.

A quarter of the surveyed approved the activities of departments directly controlled by central government which are seen as having fulfilled their tasks.

As far back as 1998, Gan Guoping, then vice director of State Administration for Industry and Commerce of China, warned of the importance of controlling local government activity.

However, some people said that they were not pinning high hopes on tighter control by central government, because they believe the problems at local level are intractable.

Source: Xinhua