Editorial: Local Government Overreach Is Undermining China’s Economic Recovery

Recently, China’s State Council undertook its ninth accountability inspection, exposing multiple influential cases, including a widely publicized one in which local authorities in Yulin, Shaanxi province, fined a grocer 66,000 yuan ($9,564) for selling 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of substandard celery.

The cases reveal some common problems in stabilizing economic growth in different parts of the country— formalism, excessive fines, irregular charges, and officials taking advantage of their positions for their own benefit. Without timely solutions, these problems will undermine the local business environment, damaging confidence in the market, and thus hindering the goal of stabilizing macroeconomic performance.