Here is an amusing view of the Chinese bureaucracy, which points out that rather than being an organization to govern, bureaucracy is often designed for the purpose of evading responsibility. A closely allied purpose is to evade responsibility for saying, “No!” Which reminds me of a true story…
There was once an intellectually intrusive foreign graduate student in Chinese politics studying Chinese language for the summer in Beijing. This was back in the very old days when only three sources of information published in China were made available to foreigners (the party daily, the military daily, and one other), so sniffing out internal political discord was tricky business. Our graduate student was painfully aware that a special classified newsletter was circulated among officials with, supposedly, far more revealing discussions of internal affairs and Chinese views of international relations than ever appeared in the three open media sources, so he resolved to apply for a Beijing Public Library card and start reading this absolutely, positively NO FORN material.
He applied and could easily have been slapped down with a bluff, “Not only no but hell no; library cards are for citizens.” But that would have been rude, and being egregiously rude to a guest who aspired to become a China hand might eventually have backfired, and Chinese are nothing if not farsighted (at least in comparison with impatient Americans). But, to stick to the facts, in the event, the hospitable Chinese bureaucracy of course granted the guest his desire and with his new library card, he began combing the stacks of the Beijing library. An infinite array of political science periodicals were there for the reading. No one interfered. But there were also no copying machines. And it just happened to be the last day of summer school. Soon his eyes glazed over, and then he left for his own country, carrying with him no secrets whatsoever.
And no one will ever convince that graduate student that this whole scenario was not carefully planned by the Chinese bureaucracy. How do you say “das schloss” in Chinese?
Officialdom Novels 官场小说 