reported whether they ultimately received all the requested information,the local government subsequently held a hearing on the toll fee issue and announced elimination of the fees as of January1,2009.[33] More strikingly,OGI requests for detailed budget information,which was previously considered a state secret,have led to changes in national disclosure policy and promises quickly to revise the 1994 Budget Law itself.After the Regulations were adopted,a number of lawyers,professors and other professionals started asking local and national government for government expenses and other budget information.One,a prominent securities lawyer from Shanghai named Yan Yiming,made national headlines in January 2009 by requesting the Ministry of Finance(MOF) and National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC)to release information about the draft national budget for 2009 and China's 4 trillion RMB stimulus plan.[34]While he failed to obtain disclosure of the draft budget and all the information requested about the stimulus plan,he did elicit a public promise from the NDRC that it would publish information once the budget was approved by the National People's Congress(NPC).[35]In fact,the MOF released more detail about the approved budget than had ever been disclosed. Still not satisfied,Yan filed a lawsuit to compel the NDRC to release more details but was ultimately defeated on appeal,when the Beijing High Court found that his case was not within the court's jurisdiction.Undaunted,Attorney Yan repeated his information disclosure requests to the MOF and NDRC in January 2010. Meanwhile,a financial analyst with a Shenzhen private asset management company had been filing requests for budget information from multiple governments and agencies over recent years, with uneven success.He established a website to share information he did manage to obtain. called http://www.budgetofchina.com.In October 2009,he also made national headlines when the Guangzhou Municipal Government,which had rejected a similar request the year before, agreed to publish the budgets of 114 government departments on its website,even while the Shanghai government refused to do so on the grounds such information is a state secret.[361 A deputy to the Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress was quoted as observing,"Revealing the budget to the public is a huge and significant step on the path of government information disclosure and it will satisfy the taxpayers'right to know what their money is being used for."[37] The disparate government responses triggered heated public discussion of the public's right to know about how government is spending their money. The debate culminated in an announcement by the NPC Standing Committee Budgetary Affairs Commission at the annual NPC meeting in March 2010 that all budgets submitted by local governments will be made public and all government budgets that are approved by the NPC will be disclosed to the public,including the budgets for ministries and departments under the State Council.[38]Guangdong subsequently became the first provincial-level government to announce it will publish its previously secret financial budget in 2010,[39]and the central government and its ministries have started to release budget information,even though the information is being criticized as too obscure or hard to understand.[40] More broadly,information disclosure is spreading to institutions not technically covered by the Regulations,including the courts and the Party.The Supreme People's Court(SPC)has freedominfo.org 4-23-2010 Page 6freedominfo.org     4‐23‐2010  Page 6  reported whether they ultimately received all the requested information, the local government subsequently held a hearing on the toll fee issue and announced elimination of the fees as of January 1, 2009.[33] More strikingly, OGI requests for detailed budget information, which was previously considered a state secret, have led to changes in national disclosure policy and promises quickly to revise the 1994 Budget Law itself. After the Regulations were adopted, a number of lawyers, professors and other professionals started asking local and national government for government expenses and other budget information. One, a prominent securities lawyer from Shanghai named Yan Yiming, made national headlines in January 2009 by requesting the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to release information about the draft national budget for 2009 and China’s 4 trillion RMB stimulus plan.[34] While he failed to obtain disclosure of the draft budget and all the information requested about the stimulus plan, he did elicit a public promise from the NDRC that it would publish information once the budget was approved by the National People’s Congress (NPC).[35] In fact, the MOF released more detail about the approved budget than had ever been disclosed. Still not satisfied, Yan filed a lawsuit to compel the NDRC to release more details but was ultimately defeated on appeal, when the Beijing High Court found that his case was not within the court’s jurisdiction. Undaunted, Attorney Yan repeated his information disclosure requests to the MOF and NDRC in January 2010. Meanwhile, a financial analyst with a Shenzhen private asset management company had been filing requests for budget information from multiple governments and agencies over recent years, with uneven success. He established a website to share information he did manage to obtain, called http://www.budgetofchina.com. In October 2009, he also made national headlines when the Guangzhou Municipal Government, which had rejected a similar request the year before, agreed to publish the budgets of 114 government departments on its website, even while the Shanghai government refused to do so on the grounds such information is a state secret.[36] A deputy to the Guangzhou Municipal People’s Congress was quoted as observing, “Revealing the budget to the public is a huge and significant step on the path of government information disclosure and it will satisfy the taxpayers’ right to know what their money is being used for.”[37] The disparate government responses triggered heated public discussion of the public’s right to know about how government is spending their money. The debate culminated in an announcement by the NPC Standing Committee Budgetary Affairs Commission at the annual NPC meeting in March 2010 that all budgets submitted by local governments will be made public and all government budgets that are approved by the NPC will be disclosed to the public, including the budgets for ministries and departments under the State Council.[38] Guangdong subsequently became the first provincial-level government to announce it will publish its previously secret financial budget in 2010,[39] and the central government and its ministries have started to release budget information, even though the information is being criticized as too obscure or hard to understand.[40] More broadly, information disclosure is spreading to institutions not technically covered by the Regulations, including the courts and the Party. The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has