State Council Circular Establishes Emergency Response Office

The State Council issued a Circular on the Establishment of the State Council's Emergency Response Office on April 10, creating the Office and ordering it to handle four types of emergencies: natural disasters, industrial and environmental accidents, disease outbreaks and other health emergencies, and threats to public order and "mass incidents." The circular grants the Office the authority to coordinate government efforts to identify, prevent, and respond to such emergencies.

Chinese authorities have acted to improve official capacity to respond to the types of large-scale emergencies that have occurred in 2005 and 2006, including coal mine accidents, environmental pollution, social unrest, and infectious diseases. On November 16, 2005, the State Council issued emergency response regulations for animal disease epidemics. On February 6, the State Environmental Protection Agency announced new reporting procedures that require environmental accidents to be reported within one hour to government authorities at or above the county level, according to a February 7 China Youth Daily article reprinted on the Xinhua Web site. Revised People's Liberation Army regulations that took effect on April 1 include a new chapter on "organizing and guiding responses to emergency incidents," according to a March 19 Xinhua report.

Government interest in strengthening emergency response systems is linked in part to official efforts to deal with citizen protests. For Chinese officials, the term "mass incidents" includes mass petitions, public demonstrations, and riots. Top Party and government officials have set a goal in 2006 to reduce the number of mass incidents; this policy goal is reflected in policy documents and press statements emphasizing the need for social order. While some officials have denied that mass incidents are increasing, senior Chinese officials acknowledged in 2005 that social unrest is increasing. Government and Party leaders, however, have ruled out political liberalization as a policy response.