Do Not Let “Digital Empowerment” Become a “Digital Burden”

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC: “Implement the long-term mechanism for rectifying formalism and reducing burdens at the grassroots level, so that grassroots cadres have more energy to focus on implementation.” [1]1 The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, held in January 2025, is a key meeting for setting the Party’s discipline inspection and anti-corruption agenda. Formalism takes various forms at the grassroots level, and digital formalism is one of them that cannot be ignored. The grassroots level is the “last kilometer” for implementing the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, and it must not be bound by various forms of digital formalism.

习近平总书记在二十届中央纪委四次全会上强调：“落实整治形式主义为基层减负长效机制，让广大基层干部有更多精力抓落实。”形式主义在基层有多种表现形式，数字形式主义是其中不可忽视的一种。基层是贯彻落实党中央决策部署的“最后一公里”，不能被形式各异的数字形式主义束缚手脚。

In exchanges with some grassroots cadres, it was found that in the past period, their mobile phones often contained several government affairs applications. Opening the computer, instructions from different business systems came one after another, leaving many cadres busy with tasks such as “checking in” and “taking photos to upload,” making it difficult to find time and energy for other work. Some cadres also reported that after various digital platforms were built, their maintenance and operation became a long-term project requiring sustained technical and talent support. Some localities and departments, in their construction of digital government affairs, unilaterally pursued comprehensiveness and completeness, lacking overall planning, resulting in varying degrees of redundant construction. This not only wasted a great deal of human and material resources but also produced many “hollowed-out” digital government affairs platforms, making it difficult to truly realize the utility of digital empowerment for grassroots governance.

同一些基层干部交流时发现，过去一段时间，他们的手机里动辄有好几个政务应用程序。打开电脑，不同业务系统指令此起彼伏，搞得不少干部在“打卡签到”“拍照上传”等任务上忙得团团转，很难抽出时间和精力顾及其他工作。还有一些干部反映，各类数字平台建成后，其维护和运营也是一项长期工程，需要持续的技术和人才力量支持。有的地方和部门在数字政务建设中片面追求大而全，缺乏统筹规划，重复建设问题不同程度存在，浪费了大量人力物力不说，还搞出不少“空壳化”数字政务平台，难以真正发挥数字赋能基层治理的效用。

In August 2024, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the “Several Provisions on Rectifying Formalism and Reducing Burdens at the Grassroots Level.” This is the first time that institutional norms for reducing burdens at the grassroots level have been formulated and issued in the form of intra-Party regulations, demonstrating our Party’s clear stance and firm determination to persistently rectify the “Four Forms of Formalism” and unremittingly reduce burdens at the grassroots level. [2]2 The “Four Forms of Formalism” (四风) refers to formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance, a target of the Party’s rectification campaigns since 2013. Through sustained efforts, formalism at the fingertips has been effectively rectified. At the same time, in some localities and departments, “Internet + government services” still exhibits a tendency toward “digital formalism,” and “digital empowerment” may become a “digital burden.”

2024年8月，中共中央办公厅、国务院办公厅印发《整治形式主义为基层减负若干规定》，这是首次以党内法规形式制定出台为基层减负的制度规范，彰显了我们党持之以恒纠“四风”、坚持不懈为基层减负的鲜明态度和坚定决心。经过持续努力，指尖上的形式主义得到有力纠治。同时，在一些地方和部门，“互联网+政务”仍存在“数字形式主义”的倾向，“数字赋能”可能变成“数字负担”。

On the surface, the reason “digital empowerment” becomes a “digital burden” lies in the improper use of digital technology. Tracing its root cause, it is that some leading cadres have a misplaced outlook on political performance, a lack of sense of responsibility, and work that is divorced from reality, causing formalism to don the cloak of digitalization and informatization. For example, some localities and departments equate “putting work online” with reform and innovation, are keen on opening numerous government affairs applications with various names, regard download counts and click rates as visible political achievements, and concentrate assessment indicators on superficial data such as login rates, response rates, and like rates. In this way, digital government tools are reduced to props for “window dressing.” Another example: some localities have “data coming from multiple sources,” forming data silos and fragmented digital government affairs. This forces grassroots cadres to repeatedly fill in similar data and information across multiple portals, completing identical tasks assigned by different departments. As a result, digital technology not only fails to empower grassroots governance but instead leads to problems of reduced efficiency and increased burdens. Once “digital empowerment” becomes a “digital burden,” grassroots cadres are tripped up by tedious tasks such as signing in, forwarding, liking, and uploading forms, pictures, and videos from multiple sources. They find it difficult to go to the front line, get to the grassroots level, and solve the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the masses face-to-face and in a down-to-earth manner. The alienation of “digital empowerment” into a “digital burden” may also foster the bad practice of “armchair strategizing at the fingertips” and pursuing false “digital political achievements.” Such “digital formalism” not only wastes administrative resources and drains grassroots energy but also affects the image of the Party and the government.

从表面上看，“数字赋能”变成“数字负担”的原因在于数字技术使用不当，究其根源，则是一些领导干部政绩观错位、责任心缺失、工作脱离实际，使形式主义披上了数字化、信息化的外衣。比如，一些地方和部门将“工作上网”等同于改革创新，热衷于开设名目繁多的政务应用程序，把下载量、点击量视为显性政绩，把考核指标集中在登录率、响应率、点赞率等表面数据上。这样，数字政务工具就沦为了“装点门面”的道具。又如，一些地方“数”出多门，形成数据壁垒、碎片化数字政务，使得基层干部经常要在多个端口重复填报同类数据信息，完成不同部门下达的雷同任务，如此一来，数字技术非但没有赋能基层治理，反而导致效率降低、负担加大的问题。“数字赋能”一旦变成“数字负担”，基层干部就会被签到、转发、点赞，以及多头上传表格、图片、视频等繁琐事务绊住手脚，难以身至一线、心到基层，面对面、实打实为群众解决急难愁盼问题。“数字赋能”异化为“数字负担”，还可能助长“指”上谈兵、追求虚假“数字政绩”的不良风气。诸如此类的“数字形式主义”，不仅空耗行政资源、消磨基层精力，更会影响党和政府的形象。

The “digital burdens” derived from “digital formalism” come in many forms and varieties. Preventing “digital empowerment” from becoming a “digital burden” requires comprehensive measures and targeted efforts. On the one hand, we should educate and guide Party members and leading cadres to firmly establish a correct outlook on political performance, take mass satisfaction and problem-solving rates as the core indicators of “digital empowerment,” abandon falsification that uses digital tools for window dressing, and vigorously foster an atmosphere of entrepreneurship and work where the emphasis is not on how flashy “key-to-key” interactions are, but on how busy “face-to-face” work is, where people spend less time “shouting in group chats” and more time “walking in the fields.” This means shifting from “judging heroes by traces” to “judging heroes by actual results,” and turning the “ledger of people’s livelihoods” into a “list of happiness.” On the other hand, we should adhere to systematic thinking, streamline and integrate various digital government affairs platforms, strive to break down data silos, promote the sharing of data resources, and solve the problems of filling in data from multiple sources and repeatedly through “one-stop online services” and “one form for all uses.” This will allow grassroots cadres to travel light, concentrate on solving problems and doing practical work, and turn the “data flow” into a “flow of happiness” for the masses.

由“数字形式主义”衍生出的“数字负担”名目繁多、方式各异，防止“数字赋能”变成“数字负担”，需要综合施策、靶向发力。一方面，教育引导党员领导干部牢固树立正确政绩观，把群众满意度、问题解决率作为“数字赋能”的核心指标，摒弃靠数字装点门面的弄虚作假，大力营造不比“键对键”有多炫酷、而比“面对面”有多忙碌，少在“群里吼”、多在“田间走”的干事创业氛围，变“痕迹论英雄”为“实绩论英雄”，变“民生账单”为“幸福清单”；另一方面，坚持系统思维，精简整合各类数字政务平台，着力打破数据壁垒，推动数据资源共享，通过“一网通办”“一表通用”解决多头填报、重复填报问题，让基层干部轻装上阵，聚精会神解难题、办实事，把“数据流”汇成群众的“幸福流”。

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧