The SPC’s Interpretation to Avoid Dealing with Problems in Relation to “State Secrets” Is Regrettable(Excerpts)

• Author: Yang Tao

The Supreme People’s Court recently issued its “Provisions on Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Administrative Cases about Open Government Information”, which stipulates that the court must accept five categories of cases concerning open governmental information.

There are a variety of grounds that the government regularly cites for declining citizens’ requests for government information to be made public, the most common of which is that the information involves “state secrets.” For example, when three professors from the Beijing University Law School filed a request with the Beijing Municipal Commission on Development and Reform for the public disclosure of the figures on the total revenue and capital flow of the capital’s airport highway, their request was denied on the ground that such information constituted “state secret.”

The Supreme People’s Court’s newly promulgated Provisions still direct the courts not to authorize disclosure of government information that touches on state secrets...