To promote the sale of local tomatoes by demanding officials buy them is actually a poor decision. However, in effect, this is legitimate trade between tomato farmers and local government workers, the latter paying the former for tomatoes. It's not just pure politics. Some blame the district government for abusing administrative power and argue that although they are using their administrative power in a positive way in this case, who is to say this same power cannot be abused in future. I believe the district government knows very well that this is a special case, and in order to save local tomato farmers from further losses, they had to take this course of action.

Zhang Yubao (Southern Metropolis Daily): Most of the government workers required to buy tomatoes are civil servants who have a stable income. They are obligated to solve troubles experienced by farmers when their interests are at stake. At a time when tomato farmers are faced with a big problem and civil servants can help, why shouldn't they?

Zhang Zhijian (hlj.rednet.cn): The Baiyun District Government and its attached departments have no right to tell their workers how to spend their money. Forcing government staff to buy tomatoes is an example of violating the citizens' legitimate rights. There is a clear legal limitation for the government as to what it can do and what it cannot do.

A great objective will not necessarily justify illegal actions. If so, should we grab wealth from the rich to help the poor in the form of government demands? After all, to help the poor is very noble. But in no way should we take property from the rich through government demands, as it is stipulated in the Property Law that private property is inviolable. Therefore, when we measure whether a deed is right or wrong, the final objective is not the only criterion.

Yang Weifeng (Xuchang Daily): China is practicing a market economy, and how to operate agricultural business in accordance with market rules is a big problem that has plagued farmers for some time.

Why do the farmers appear so helpless in the market economy? The main reason is that they have no access to updated market information. Governments at various levels, particularly grassroots governments, should keep a close watch on the plight of farmers. They need to improve their services to farmers, offering updated information on the supply and demand of agricultural products, providing guidelines to farmers in terms of the production and sales of farm produce and providing them with new technology. This would be preferable to just bailing out farmers when the going gets tough.

Deng Xuezhi (Sanqin Metropolis Daily): Caring for farmers is a matter of morality, so the government should not do so by way of an administrative order. It is illegal to force people to buy tomatoes or anything else, no matter how great the objective is. Almost all such actions need an organizer. Due to its power and prestige, the government always plays the role of organizer. However, the government only has the right to propose such ideas but should never force people carry them out.

Zhang Xixi (www.china.com.cn): Superficially, the Baiyun District Government was trying to help local tomato farmers out when they were faced with a static market. The reason for the embarrassing instruction is the district government's failure to provide a necessary daily agriculture service to the farmers. It does not provide proper market information to farmers, which has led to the excessively large area of tomato planting. Only when the farmers were unable to sell tomatoes did the government think of some remedial measures-but this seems to be ineffective.

The district government's action will deeply hurt the farmers' enthusiasm. It seems that tomato farmers are the biggest beneficiaries in this year's successful sale of tomatoes. But what about next year and the year after? We're afraid that the farmers will get used to turning to the government for help when they cannot sell farm produce. If this practice continues, farmers will never really learn to follow the pace of the market and never really get rich.

Li Chengzhi (Nanfang Daily City News): The important thing is that local government workers should not be forced to help out tomato farmers in trouble. It should be a voluntary action.

Compared with guiding the restructuring of the entire agricultural sector, it's much easier to create a favorable market environment within a certain region, but this practice is in nature abusing the government's administrative power.