Observing China's whole-process people's democracy at 'two sessions'

Members of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) walk towards the Great Hall of the People for the opening meeting of the first session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing, capital of China, March 4, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Xin)

Grassroots voices heard

Gao, 33, was elected as an NPC deputy in January at the annual session of the Hunan Provincial People's Congress. Making her debut at the national legislature, she has submitted suggestions on innovating the bamboo industry and improving the construction of forest roads.

"We will focus on developing our special industries to make villagers more prosperous," she said.

Shen Changjian, another NPC deputy from Linli County of Hunan, cares more about agricultural modernization. "We need to develop smart agriculture and deepen innovation in the seed industry," the 55-year-old vegetable grower told Xinhua.

An amendment to the Legislation Law is under review at the NPC session. The draft amendment has twice been deliberated by the NPC Standing Committee, opinions on it have been extensively solicited, and it has been revised many times.

Sheng Hong, an NPC deputy and Party chief of a residential community in the Hongqiao Subdistrict in Shanghai, noticed that some suggestions put forward by her community's residents had been included in the draft.

Last November, at the legislative outreach office set up in Hongqiao by the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, a total of 45 suggestions regarding the draft amendment to the Legislation Law were collected through seminars and online opinion solicitation, and then were directly delivered to the commission, according to Sheng.

"The outreach office acts as a direct link between ordinary people and China's top legislature," noted Sheng.

Members of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) attend the second plenary meeting of the first session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 7, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

For people's better lives

Fan Yun, a national legislator and chairperson of Shanghai Fushen Appraisal and Consulting Group, shared two stories on performing her duties which brought her a sense of accomplishment over the past five years. The first is a suggestion concerning platform economy, which contributed to the release of the national anti-monopoly guidelines in the platform economy.

The second is that her speech during an annual NPC session captured the attention of the government. It was about a remote mountain village in east China's Anhui Province, which she had visited many times to do research. Finally, a concrete road was built to connect the village with the outside world, fulfilling the desire of generations of villagers, who became better off by developing homestay and tea industries.

Whether democracy is good or not depends on whether it ensures people a better life. The whole-process people's democracy ensures that development is for the people and by the people and that its fruits are shared by the people.

In the past five years, various departments under the State Council have adopted more than 18,000 suggestions and proposals from national lawmakers and political advisors, and subsequently introduced more than 7,800 policy measures, which boosted solutions to a large number of problems related to reform and development, as well as people's urgent needs.

"China's democracy is definitely not a sham, nor an ornament, but a truly effective democratic political system with Chinese characteristics," said Fan, who has served as an NPC deputy for 15 years.

Democratic supervision is an important part of the whole-process people's democracy.

For example, since 2018, the NPC Standing Committee has focused on prominent problems in the field of ecological and environmental protection, carrying out law enforcement inspections for five consecutive years. Last year, enforcement inspections of the Yangtze River Protection Law were conducted, promoting better protection of China's longest waterway in accordance with the law.

This aerial photo taken on May 19, 2022 shows a view of the Wushan section of the Yangtze River in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

Yang Huifang, a national legislator and a teacher at the preschool special education center in Quzhou County, Hebei Province, is concerned about the mental health of the left-behind seniors and children in rural areas, hoping that institutionalized support for these groups could be provided from the grassroots level. She believes that China's modernization is an improvement of the overall level, and attention should be paid to the improvement of the quality of life of vulnerable groups.

Jean Christophe Iseux von Pfetten, chairman of the Institute for East-West Strategic Studies in Britain, once took part in a municipal-level CPPCC session as a specially invited member in Jilin Province.

Based on his personal experience, he said that China's democratic practice is devoted to solving practical problems.