Acclerating the Establishment of an Effective Emergency Response System to Improve the Government's Ability in Dealing with Public Crises

摘要

This paper calls for speeding up the establishment and improvement of response mechanisms against all types of emergencies and upgrading the national capability in dealing with public crisis, based on a review of China's public safety situation and both successes and failures of public emergencies handling in China as well as in other countries. It discusses the guidelines, principles, contents, methodology and notable issues in establishing and improving the emergency rescue system, in a view of people orientation and out of the scientific concept of development. Following victory in China's anti-SARS campaign in 2003, Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Some Issues Concerning Improvement of the Market Economy was adopted at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 16th CPC National Congress, a timely call for "establishing and improving all types of early warning and response mechanisms and enhancing the government' s capability in dealing with emergencies and risks". In his government work report this year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated on the need to "speed up the establishment and improvement of response mechanisms against all types of emergencies and enhance the government' s capability in dealing with public crisis". In China, to establish and improve response mechanisms against public emergencies is an essential requirement as well as a concrete step, of implementing the important thought of the "Three Represents", an important content of fulfilling the scientific concept of development and building a well-off society in an all-round way, a significant tool of maintaining public safety and social stability, and an urgent need for overall performing of government functions and improvement of the art of governance.