This is hardly the only nation where local bureaucrats sometimes run a bit too free. But in China, where many local officials are less than well trained and only the party can eject them from office, local governments’ dubious edicts are common enough that skewering them has become a favorite pastime of China’s Web users.
Also, the central government often uses the local governments as scapegoats. So criticism of "the government" on state-run media, for example, is usually directed at local government and not at the central government at all.