A strong central government is the political foundation for China's prosperity, while the country's vitality and stability comes from the grass roots. Governing capacity at local levels determines the quality of China's governance over society, and the capacity for initiative among grass-roots officials is a key link in the effectiveness of the system.

Due to increasingly severe competition, more Chinese officials at the grass-roots level will have to improve their abilities to stand out. The most important elements that influence their promotion are rules and the ethical environment within the system. They could become either bold and enterprising local officials, or cautious and intimidated marginal officials.

For a long time, the principles of being cautious and low key have prevailed in grass-roots official circles. "Not interested in gaining merit but only in avoiding making mistakes" became the motto of some officials. They made shortcuts around existing problems, with the intention of avoiding risks in the event they fail.

In the face of difficulties encountered in reform or major events, some officials dare not take immediate action, even when the problems are within their area of responsibility. They prefer to report them to higher levels and wait for instructions. In this way, they often miss the best timing for tackling problems, but their decisions can be risk-free and correct.

We shouldn't solely blame the laziness of officials. To fully cultivate initiative among grass-roots officials, a large-scale project is required which needs to include improvements to decision-making mechanisms, incentives for officials' performances and a system of accountability, to name a few measures.

We should firstly encourage officials at local levels to have beliefs and ideals. They shouldn't blindly compete for promotion, but should shoulder their responsibilities and solve problems for the country. Such thought building is the key to the cultivation of officials at local levels.

Officials at the front line should be entitled to the right to deal with problems, rather than being required to report problems and passively accept remote control from the top down.

Higher departments need to give more care and protection to grass-roots officials, for example, encouraging them to be brave and take on duties, awarding their accomplishments and sharing their responsibilities for mistakes. Officials should be responsible for the interests of the people and the country, not the higher level leadership.

China is in a transition period. Officials are in the position to best promote reforms. Society will move forward more quickly and smoothly if all officials could take the initiative to assume more responsibilities. They should be encouraged to perform duties based on law, and accept supervision and regulation.

Grass-roots officials have the ability to improve the level of local governance and they could be rising heroes.