Qiushi Journal Issue Preview: No.4, 2024

The article by General Secretary Xi Jinping was published in this year's fourth issue of Qiushi Journal. The article is a compilation of excerpts from Xi's important discourses on relevant topics from December 2012 to June 2023. 

According to this article, the system of people’s congresses is an effective system that conforms to the national conditions and current realities of our country, reflects its nature as a socialist country, ensures that the people are the masters of the country, and guarantees that the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will be achieved.

Created by the people under the Party's leadership, the system is a great invention in the history of political institutions, and is an entirely new political system of major importance in the history of China's political development and even in that of the world, the article says.

It notes that since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee has deepened understanding of the laws governing the development of democracy, and put forward a key concept of whole-process people's democracy. Whole-process people's democracy in China not only has a complete set of institutions and procedures, but also has full-fledged civil participation. It embodies the unity between democracy in process and democracy in outcome, between procedural democracy and substantive democracy, between direct democracy and indirect democracy, and between people's democracy and the will of the state. It is a democracy that covers all aspects of the democratic process and all sectors of society, and is a socialist democracy to the broadest extent, of the truest nature, and to the greatest effect possible, according to the article.

The article notes that the people's congress system is an important institutional vehicle for realizing whole-process people's democracy. It also stresses the importance of strengthening the institutions through which the people run the country.

We will ensure that the people exercise the state power through people's congresses, and that people's congresses and their standing committees lawfully exercise the powers of enacting laws, conducting oversight, making decisions, and appointing and removing officials. We will improve the system under which people's congresses conduct oversight of administrative, supervisory, adjudicatory, and procuratorial organs, see that deputies to people's congresses are better able to carry out their work and improve working mechanisms for drawing on public opinion and pooling the wisdom of the people, and ensure that local legislative outreach offices are well-run.

Readers will find in this issue an editorial piece, inspired by General Secretary Xi Jinping's vision.

The CPC Leadership Group for the Working Bodies of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress elaborates on how to ensure steady high-quality development of the work related to people's congresses; the CPC Leadership Group of the Standing Committee of Chongqing Municipal People's Congress introduces its community-level work in developing whole-process people's democracy; and the CPC Leadership Group of the Standing Committee of Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress works to play a guiding and exemplary role in the work of people's congresses in the new era.

The Qiushi commentary publicizes and expounds upon the guiding principles of the meeting reviewing the education campaign on the study and implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

Lin Wu, Secretary of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of the Shandong Provincial People's Congress, illustrates Shandong's efforts to be a province with a thriving culture under the guidance of Xi Jinping thought on culture.

Yu Xinrong, Chairman of the China Agricultural Green Development Research Society, explains how to further the reform of rural operation system while promoting agricultural green development.

The article by Gu Xueming, Party Committee Secretary and President of Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Commerce, offers insights on promoting high-quality development through high-level opening up to the outside world.

The Party Committee of People's Liberation Army Navy tells the stories of the Party Committee of the Nanchang, China's first Type 055 guided-missile destroyer, which was awarded the title of "Role Model of the Times."

Bu Xianqun, a research fellow at the Institute of Ancient History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduces the culture of integrity in Chinese history.

Readers can also learn about deep-sea exploration from the article by Wang Pinxian, a professor at Tongji University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

This issue closes with a diagram released by the National Bureau of Statistics which shows major indicators for cultural and related industrial enterprises above designated size throughout the country in 2023.

Editor: Yi Xiaowei