The chief of the chengguan (urban management) bureau in Linwu county of Hunan Province has been removed from office after the death of a watermelon vendor during a clash with chengguan last week for selling watermelons on the street without a permit. The family of the dead vendor received 897,000 yuan ($146,200) in compensation from the local government.

The family apparently accepted the way the government has handled the issue, but the public do not. There have been rumors that the vendor's family was forced to accept the compensation, and netizens also question how the compensation came so quickly.

Linwu's chengguan has dragged the whole government into the spotlight. As for the case of chengguan violently enforcing the law, the Linwu government has no ground for explanation. Since Linwu sacked the chengguan chief, the authorities seem to have realized that some measure at the beginning of the event to maintain stability were crude and primitive.

Public opinion pointed out that the violence and brutality typified by Linwu's chengguan has deviated from what the job is supposed to be about. Chengguan should be there to serve vendors, not bully them. Such criticism is morally justified.

Meanwhile, some who are familiar with grass-roots governmental work, while believing chengguan should be punished for their misconduct, complain that the public has been too picky about the way the Linwu government handled the whole issue.

Such opinion comes from the belief that mainstream critics are mostly from first-tier cities which have more advanced city management techniques. However, most hotly discussed events take place in counties and towns, where the quality of the government cannot reach that of first-tier cities.

Opinions on the Internet view China as a entirety, but gaps between grass-roots areas and first-tier cities are realistically set. While human resources and powers move to the higher classes, difficult tasks have been set on the shoulders of grass-roots governments.

For example, the idea that "chengguan should serve the people rather than directing them" seems advanced, but if it is to be implemented in grass-roots areas, both chengguan and vendors need to change their habits. The process is not as simple as some critics think.

The most feasible way to narrow the gap between grass-roots areas and big cities is to strengthen the support of human resources and the distribution of power to grass-roots areas. In the Internet era, grass-roots areas have become the forefront of sensitive issues. Their negative political impact may have national influence. The situation needs to be urgently fixed.