through administrative reform

activities. The concurrent pursuit of these two seemingly paradoxical objectives is, in turn, motivated by Through e-government, China’s leaders expect to foster administrative reforms by transforming government functions, streamlining procedures, and enhancing administrative Government Information Quaterly 22 (2005) 20–37an explicit desire to modernize and make more competitive the Chinese economy. Considering what Chinese leaders mean by dadministrative reformT is a key to resolving the apparent contradiction between administrative decentralization and government oversight. In particular, this paper provides a number of illustrations of how Chinese e-government initiatives can be best understood as vehicles intended to support economic development through an increasingly transparent and decentralized administration while at the same time providing the central government the information and ability to efficientlymonito