Shanghai v.s. Central Government

For the first time I see a strong confront between Shanghai government and the central government in Beijing. It is for the car plate issue.

According to CCTV, a senior official from Ministry of Commerce commented that the car plate auction practice in Shanghai is illegal. It breaks the newly announced Road Safety Law.

Very soon, the spokesman of Shanghai gave firm response in a press conference that the auction is the right thing to do regarding the current situation and Shanghai will continue use auction as a market method to control the car ownership in Shanghai.

At the same time, rumors said the car plate auction practice will end no later than July. The spokesman claimed that he didn’t hear any official statement on this change.

Maybe due to the rumor (and the lower bidder v.s. car plate ratio), the lowest successful bid was only a little bit more than 10800 RMB this month.

Before this event, I never saw any incident that a local government in China speaks no to Beijing. This is a very good hint. Only debating and open discussion can lead to better decision.

4 thoughts on “Shanghai v.s. Central Government

  1. I cannot agree your statement “This is a very good hint. Only debating and open discussion can lead to better decision” in this case. I would say law is not negotiable.

  2. When we talk about a BETTER decision, we need to consider many facts from many perspectives and balance them. A better decision may be different in different time, different locations. A better decision needs negotiation, balance, and maybe compromise.

    When we talk about a DRAFT law, we may talk what is BETTER. But when we talk about a PUBLISHED law, we talk the law APPLYS or NOT APPLYS, only. No compromise, no balance, no difference based on time and locations … which means “law is not negotiable”.

    A decision made by published law will not be changed because it’s not BETTER.

    I might be totally wrong … don’t blame me. :)

  3. I can only assume that anyone who claims “law is not negotiable” has never spent time in the Peoples Republic of China.

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