Editorial: The ‘Full Practice’ of Standardizing Administrative Approval

Recently, during a State Council executive meeting, it was decided to fully practice list-based management for all items requiring administrative approval, by adopting the “List of Items Requiring Administrative Approval Set by Laws, Administrative Regulations and the State Council (2022 edition).” The meeting also required that all provinces, cities and counties should compile their own lists of items by the end of this year, covering all items requiring administrative regulations. Such lists have been available in previous years, but this meeting highlighted their “full practice” and declared the key issue of rescinding any “disguised” approvals. In particular, the meeting stated that “no administrative approval should be required or implemented against the law over any item outside the lists,” in an effort to tackle the “lists beyond lists,” a thorny issue in the reform of administrative approval. The central government has identified the problem and made a targeted solution, making the reform worth looking forward to.