What can a hotline tell us about 'People's City?'

For Professor Joseph Gregory Mahoney, a hotline can tell us about much more than simply how a city handles complaints. It can reveal how a government listens to its people, how public concerns enter the decision-making process and how the idea of putting people first is translated into everyday governance.

The US political science professor at East China Normal University spoke to CGTN during the 2026 Beijing Forum on Swift Response to Public Complaints, pointing to Beijing's 12345 hotline as a practical example of China's efforts to build a "People's City."

Serving the people has long been a principle in Chinese political thought, Mahoney said. In contemporary discourse, this is reflected in the emphasis on people-centered governance and putting people's needs first.

"What we see being actualized is a value that is now being put into practice," he said, referring to the combination of technological advances, renewed commitment to people-centered governance, and efforts to strengthen anti-corruption and discipline.

For Mahoney, the 12345 hotline offers a concrete way to understand how this vision is being implemented. By giving residents a channel to raise everyday concerns and seek solutions, the mechanism connects a broad governing principle with practical issues in people's lives.

He also noted that public expectations have changed alongside China's development. As people's living standards have risen, concerns have increasingly extended beyond economic growth to the quality and sustainability of urban life.

Beijing's environmental improvements, for example, reflect growing demands for cleaner air and a better living environment, the professor said. Residents also expect solutions to everyday challenges involving parking, traffic and public services.

Different cities, meanwhile, face different constraints. Beijing's expansive geography and protected areas create challenges distinct from those in the more densely built Shanghai, Mahoney observed. Effective governance therefore requires an understanding of local conditions and a more fine-grained approach to addressing residents' needs.

"People began to shift what they expected from government, and government responded," he said.

Mahoney sees further significance in the hotline: its connection with China's concept of whole-process people's democracy.

He connected this approach to the principle of the mass line – "from the people, to the people." In his view, the 12345 hotline enables people to engage directly with the government and communicate with officials whose responsibility is to serve the public and work in line with its interests.

The professor also highlighted how the mechanism can make the decision-making process more transparent. People often see a problem from only one perspective, he noted, while officials from different departments may approach the same issue with different responsibilities and priorities. Bringing them together allows them to communicate, better understand one another, and take relevant laws and considerations into account.

This process, Mahoney said, enables people to see how decisions are made and what factors need to be considered. It also allows them to participate in the process and become stakeholders in it, helping ensure that the solutions reached are both sensible and politically viable.

In this sense, he described 12345 as a powerful tool for putting whole-process people's democracy into practice.

Mahoney cautioned that comparing Chinese and Western approaches to urban governance can be complicated, particularly because administrative structures and divisions of responsibility differ.

He recalled conducting field research in London to examine whether the city had a mechanism comparable to Beijing's hotline. He found that divisions of responsibility among local authorities could complicate responses to seemingly simple problems.

As an example, the professor recounted a story about a road with potholes on either side of a street divided between two administrative districts. Although a local authority eventually repaired the road, it addressed only the side within its jurisdiction.

He said the example illustrates how administrative boundaries can affect the delivery of public services.

Rather than treating one model as universally applicable, Mahoney argued that cities need to understand how their governance arrangements work and where coordination can be improved. Beijing's hotline, in his view, offers a case study for other cities to examine as they consider ways to connect public feedback with government action.

For Mahoney, the value of examining a mechanism such as 12345 lies not simply in the hotline itself, but in the broader questions it raises: How does a government understand people's changing needs? How can citizens participate in decisions that affect their lives? And how can public institutions turn that input into practical improvements?

The answers, he suggested, can be found by looking beyond the terminology to the everyday interactions between people and the institutions responsible for serving them.