It is a question worth to be studied whether and how state audit can promote public participation. This paper used a panel data of 30 provinces， autonomous regions and municipalities’ audit institutions from 2009 to 2016 to examine the subject. We found that state audit can promote public participation through its supervision and information guarantee functions， and that government information disclosure plays as a partial intermediary in this process， and this intermediary effect is more outstanding in the district where the government is more efficient and less intervention to the audit institutions. Further results showed that in different fields the promotion degree of state audit to public participation is heterogeneous. This article reveals the main mechanism that how state audit can promote public participation and the key work direction of audit institutions under limited resources.