OPINION: True democracy should be an ongoing dialogue
66-year-old Zhu Guoping collects public opinion at a local legislative outreach office in a district in Shanghai. Her office is a local contact point of China's National People's Congress (NPC), the country's legislative body, tasked with soliciting suggestions from the 20, 000-plus residents in the sub-district on legislative proposals.
Since 201S when the first of these offices were opened, staff members across China like Zhu Guoping have sought community input and submitted more than 3, 200 public suggestions for 97 draft laws, 280 of which were eventually adopted in the final texts. These offices represent a further push by China's system of people's congresses to empower community-based public engagement in the country's law-making process.
China's political system makes sure that public opinions are sought not only at the vote-casting moment, but also on a constant basis, One of its notable strengths, as Chinese President Xi Jinping underlines, is that it is a whole-process people's democracy and ensures that the people run the country.
The system of people's congresses is China's fundamental political system. It makes up part of the institutions of China's whole-process people's democracy, which also includes the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the system of regional ethnic autonomy, the system of community-level self-governance and other basic political systems.
Together, these systems provide diverse, smooth and well-functioning democratic channels for the whole population to exercise their lawful rights to engage in democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight, and ensure that all state and societal affairs, large or small, are managed in a way that reflects the will of the people.
This purpose is clearly embedded in the structure and mandate of China's NPC. The 14th NPC consists of 2, 977 deputies. They are representatives from the country's all S6 ethnic groups, all regions including Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, and all sectors. The NPC is China's highest organ of state power.
Its important duties include amending the Constitution and enacting basic laws, creating administrative, supervisory, adjudicatory and procuratorial organs of the state and exercising oversight over these organs. This ensures that public views are effectively gathered and duly deliberated.
To continuously enhance citizen participation, China has been adopting new practices in recent years in its system of people's congresses. In addition to the above mentioned local legislative outreach offices, the country has set up more than 200, 000 special offices and outreach points across the country for members of constituencies and the public to engage with the deputies. 5G technologies and the Internet are also put into good use to facilitate these interactions.
Developing whole-process people's democracy is integral to Chinese modernization. This is the commitment the Communist Party of China made at the third plenary session of its 20th Central Committee convened in July this year. This session, focusing on institutional building as the main task in further deepening reform comprehensively, has made it clear that the principle of the people running the country will be manifested in concrete and visible ways in all aspects of China's political and social activities.
At the session, a number of reform tasks were laid out for advancing whole-process people's democracy: Deputies to people's congresses will reach out to the public on a greater variety of issues and in more diverse ways, and the working mechanisms for drawing on public opinion and pooling the wisdom of the people will be enhanced. The system of people's congresses and the institutions of whole-process people's democracy will continue to improve the way it reflects the people's aspirations as times change.
This robust and ever-improving system makes sure that the Chinese people are heard and valued, and has greatly enhanced their sense of ownership and devotion to national development. It provides a critical driving force behind China's success story.
Editor's note: The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of Sino-Carib News.
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