Guangdong official stirs controversy

An official in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong has stirred up controversy online with remarks about how the government should relate to its citizens.

In a report first carried by the Guangzhou Daily newspaper, a local deputy to China's National People's Congress, was quoted as saying the government can't give in to all demands its from citizens. Doing what the public wants, she said, makes citizens "spoiled."

"Spoiled citizens likely become unruly people, not obedient children," Fang Ming, an official in Foshan, was quoted as saying.

Her remarks come at a particularly testy time in Guangdong province, where citizen riots recently chased a local government out of town for several days in Wukan. China's government is known (and has been historically) for a top-down approach to dealing with demands from its citizens, but if online criticism is any indication, not everyone is happy about that style of governance today.