“The County Government Compound in Shucheng, Anhui Allows ‘Casual Entry,’ Sparking Debate; County Chief Says: We Are All the Masses, No Inconvenience”

On November 15th, a short video released by the WeChat video account “Zhangshang Liuan” introduced that the government compound in Shucheng County, Lu’an City, Anhui Province had recently become “popular” online. Netizens affectionately referred to it as a government compound that is easier to enter and exit than their own residential community.
According to the video, the Shucheng County Government compound allows free entry and exit without a card, and free parking. A resident of Shucheng said, “Since we can remember, the gate has always been open, and we have never seen anyone being stopped outside. Food delivery guys, or sometimes when there is no place to park the car, it is very convenient for people to come and go.”
After the video was released, many netizens gave it a thumbs-up. Some comments said, “This is a government that serves the people.” “Residential communities are private property, and entry and exit should be strictly verified. The government compound is a place to serve the people, and indeed should not have high thresholds. Give a thumbs-up to the good government.”
On the evening of November 16th, Wang Wanxi, Deputy Secretary of the Shucheng County Party Committee and County Mayor, accepted a telephone interview with a reporter from The Paper and talked about the popularity of the county government compound online.
Regarding whether the Shucheng County Government compound would continue to be open after becoming “popular”, Wang Wanxi said that the compound would continue to be open, as the Shucheng County Government compound has always been open.
It is said that the opening of the Shucheng County Government compound to the public has brought convenience to the people, but some netizens still have questions. Is it easy to find the county mayor? Besides parking, are the government cafeteria and restrooms also open?
In response, Wang Wanxi told the reporter from The Paper that Shucheng County has always had many measures to benefit the people, and everyone is welcome to come to Shucheng to experience it firsthand. “The restrooms are all publicly open, not just in the county government compound, but also in our government agency restrooms. There is no issue of convenience regarding the opening of the compound; everyone is a member of the public. As for the cafeteria, everyone has a choice. Some people eat here, some eat outside, and there are different cafeteria systems.” Wang Wanxi explained.
In fact, for many consecutive years, during major holidays, Shucheng County has opened some parking lots of government agencies, institutions, and social organizations in the urban area to the public for free, addressing the “difficulty in parking” for the masses and ensuring traffic safety and smoothness to the greatest extent possible.
In July 2019, the Shucheng County Government Office issued the “Shucheng County Government Open Day System”. The document pointed out that the main entities implementing the “Government Open Day” activities are the county government, various townships, streets, government departments, directly affiliated agencies, as well as subordinate enterprises, institutions, and service window units that are closely connected with the masses within the jurisdiction. The open objects are citizens who work, live, study, and are concerned about economic and social development in the locality, are 18 years old or older, and have full capacity for civil conduct, mainly including representatives of the people’s congress, members of the political consultative conference, ordinary citizens, talents introduced, entrepreneurs, employee representatives, community workers, representatives of netizens, and representatives of advanced figures from various industries.