Beijing Review: Chinese legislators act on public opinion to make positive change
BEIJING, March 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This is a news report from Beijing Review:
During the yearly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in early March, Yang Rong, a deputy from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, together with other lawmakers, had 10 items on the agenda, including the deliberation of key documents such as the government work report. Drafting suggestions and motions is another important task throughout their five-year term, which will conclude in 2023. More than 2,700 of the 2,951 NPC deputies attended this year's full session in Beijing.
Community police officer Yang's suggestions this year concerned advancing primary-level governance.
"We have implemented new management systems for neighborhoods with high population densities, which allow us to swiftly identify potential problems," Yang told Beijing Review.
The systems, however, sometimes fail to clarify responsibilities of diverse stakeholders. "So I have developed proposals to improve them and address the problems people face in daily life," Yang said, adding that she had conducted extensive field research and consulted experts.
Deputies to the NPC, the highest state organ of power with functions ranging from amending the Constitution to electing the president of China, are elected nationwide. They are the voices of the people they represent, with their suggestions usually relating to the regions they hail from, the fields in which they work, and the topics at play in society.
Deputy Su Bomin has been working in the Mogao Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, for three decades. Also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, the site consists of roughly 500 Buddhist temples carved into cliff faces and lined with one of the world's most precious Buddhist art collections.
Since his election as an NPC deputy in 2018, Su, also curator of Dunhuang Academy, the institution responsible for overseeing the grottoes, has presented a series of suggestions on cultural heritage preservation.
Chui Sai Peng, a deputy from Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), for his part, called for intensifying the region's role in cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries and promoting scientific and technological exchanges between Macao and the mainland.
The incumbent 13th NPC has 12 deputies from Macao SAR and 36 from Hong Kong SAR. There are also 13 deputies representing Taiwan, most of whom were born in the mainland but have ancestral roots tracing back to the island.
"Any legal revision has undergone a long, due process of deliberation as well as public opinion consultation," Lee Kwan Ho, a deputy from Hong Kong, told Beijing Review.
Every year, Lee assesses different surveys and studies, including those organized by the NPC. "It's all about getting the right information from the right people—namely, the grassroots," he said.
"By doing my duty, I can make people's voices heard and acted upon by the NPC. This is an embodiment of China's whole-process people's democracy," Yang said.
"Policy- or lawmaking should always be based on public consultation, extensive research and well-conceived procedures," Su said. During their five-year term, the NPC provides training sessions to help deputies study the related rules.
"Government agencies give their feedback on every suggestion and inform us of the procedures' progress," Su said.
According to the Report on the Work of the Standing Committee of the NPC, all 8,993 suggestions submitted by deputies during the 2021 annual session were forwarded to 194 agencies for examination and handling, a process which has now been completed. The 265 suggestions raised when the NPC was not in session were handed over to 98 departments.
If a deputy disagrees with the response to his or her suggestion, officials from the department concerned can fly from Beijing to wherever they may be to explain and further discuss the matter face to face, Lee said. "Of course, as deputies are elected, we also report our efforts and undertakings to our electors every year."
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