China exempts citizens from submitting thousands of unnecessary documents

BEIJING — Chinese authorities have exempted individuals and corporations from submitting more than 6,000 types of verification documents, a senior official with the Ministry of Justice said on Jan 29.

The progress was made through a large-scale campaign to cut red tape since June last year, said Jiang Haitao, a senior ministry official, at a press conference.

These documents, mostly about verification of facts such as family relations, identity and household registration, were often unnecessary, complicating administrative procedures, Jiang said.

In June last year, the State Council ordered the ministry to supervise the central and local government departments in reviewing their administrative procedures and to remove unnecessary requests of verification documents. The deadline was set at the end of 2018.

A petition gateway, opened by the ministry on the website www.12348.gov.cn in September, has received about 1,000 complaints from the public on this matter, Jiang said.

The ministry will continue using this gateway as a supervisory means to prevent the relapse and push government departments to publish complete lists of documents required, he added.