Research On Customs Cooperation At Customs Level From The Perspective Of Holistic Governance

As China will remain at the primary stage of socialism for a long time, it makes the eradication of smuggling a difficult task over a long period. Combating smuggling is an important function granted to customs by our country. Under the counter-smuggling mechanism of "joint suppression, unified handling and comprehensive governance", the anti-smuggling department within customs becomes the primary agency responsible for the suppression of smuggling activities. Ever since its establishment, the anti-smuggling department cannot maintain a good cooperative relation with other customs departments in actual work despite its reliance on them for normal operation. It is particularly so between subordinate customs and its anti-smuggling sub-bureau due to structural or institutional reasons. This discordance, if cannot be changed, will undoubtedly affect the overall work of customs.Holistic governance theory with its basis on the research of public management in countries such as UK and Australia points out that fragmentation is a problem in New Public Management; functional divisions should not be over emphasized, department-oriented ideology should be avoided, and coordinative and integrative measures should be applied to overcome the fragmentation in government. The discordance between subordinate customs and its anti-smuggling department fits the characteristics of "fragmented government":targets reinforce each other, but measures conflict.Therefore, this article applies holistic governance theory to study the problems in the cooperation between subordinate customs and its anti-smuggling sub-bureau, and puts forward ways through information exchange, forming cooperative mechanism, process reengineering and resources integration to tackle problems. Through researching into foreign customs operation modes as well as domestic customs’exploration in cooperation in this aspect, it also raises the practical way to enhance cooperation between customs and its anti-smuggling department at current stage.The innovation of this article lies in its selection of grass-roots level customs as its target and applies holistic governance theory to analyze cooperation between subordinate customs and its anti-smuggling sub-bureau. It demonstrates that the functional objectives of subordinate customs and its anti-smuggling sub-bureau are unified, thus points out the incentives for cooperation. It also shows through collaboration and integration, deeper or even seamless cooperation could be achieved.