Officials no longer have to attract investments

The officials of an unnamed city are reported to have falsified data when writing reports about how much investment they have attracted for local development. Southern Metropolis Daily proposes ending the practice of judging an official's performance by how much investment he or she brings to the local economy:

Falsified investment data do not help promote local development, yet one after another officials have been reported to have done just that. Why?

The reason is clear: Better data, even if full of bubbles, can polish their job performance and promise them better chances of promotion.

It was in the 1980s and 1990s that local governments adopted the practice of judging officials' performances by the investment they were able to attract to the local economy. That encouraged officials to bring in investments during the years when China needed such investments. Yet it had negative effects, too, such as some officials blindly attracting investments at the cost of the local environment, or falsifying data for promotion.

Currently, after decades of high-speed growth, the Chinese economy has entered a new normal of medium-speed growth, and external investments should no longer be given priority. Accordingly, the old practice of judging officials' performances based on the amount of investment they bring in should also be dropped.

More importantly, it should no longer be the job of local officials to attract investments. It is the government's role to be the night watchman and supervise the investments to ensure they do not break the law.

Even if the leading officials hope to rally investments for local development, all they need and are allowed to do is to better defend the rule of law and protect everybody's legal rights, so that investors have the confidence to invest.