The Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Social Sciences Academic Press jointly released a report on the transparency of China's 26 provincial governments Monday. Among them, only eight pass national standards. Other statistics show that more than one third of people will choose the Internet to seek information, while only 6.4 percent will turn to the government to know.

Today's era has been dubbed the "information age." The importance of information has become more and more obvious. In our daily lives, widespread information technologies have completely changed the way people communicate.

For government, "electronic administration" has become an irreversible trend and will further influence the structure and operation of government work.

We can safely say that the Internet has changed Chinese society enormously, especially the way people show their sentiments. The protests over the Wenzhou high-speed train crash last year and the Red Cross dispute around Guo Meimei both made use of the Internet.

In contrast, although the concept of "electronic administration" was raised in the 1990s, official operations are still bureaucratic and remain at a standstill. The recent report offers proof of this.

Besides those statistics, we can see for ourselves that the content of some government websites is poor and rarely updated.

Some government microblogs mainly release positive news, which can hardly make a favorable impression on the public. The public needs to see honesty, not self-promotion.

While we do admit that the government has been trying to improve its transparency, we still hope it can do more to match people's rising sense of government accountability and the rule of law.

Southern Metropolis Daily