The People's Congress System Is an Important Institutional Vehicle for Realizing Whole-Process People's Democracy

The major concept of whole-process people's democracy proposed by President Xi Jinping has established a clear theme for our efforts to advance socialist democracy on the new journey in the new era. The development of whole-process people's democracy is integral to Chinese modernization. We must resolutely follow the socialist path of political advancement with Chinese characteristics and uphold and improve China's foundational, basic, and important political systems. On this basis, we should enrich the forms of democracy at every level and ensure that the principle of the people running the country is manifested in concrete and practical ways in all aspects of national political and social life.

In China, all state power belongs to the people. People's congress deputies are elected by the people to form people's congresses at various levels in order to exercise state power. Administrative, supervisory, adjudicatory, and procuratorial organs at all levels are created by people's congresses, are responsible to them, and are subject to their oversight. From the nature and configuration of state organs to the distribution and exercise of state power, all facets of the state embody the principle that power comes from the people, must answer to the people, serves the people, and is subject to the people's oversight. This ensures, to the greatest extent possible, that it is the people who run the country.

The formulation and revision of the Constitution and the law by the NPC and its oversight of their implementation are vivid examples of whole-process people's democracy in practice. At the same time, these efforts also provide legal safeguards for the development of whole-process people’s democracy.

Practicing and developing whole-process people's democracy is not only an important duty of the NPC but also the key to its vitality. It is imperative that we improve the democratic platforms and vehicles through which the general public express opinions, enhance the rules of procedure for people's congresses, along with their debate, assessment, discussion, and hearing systems, and improve the working mechanisms for drawing on public opinion and pooling the wisdom of the people. With this, we will ensure that all work of people’s congresses is firmly underpinned by the will of the people.

The NPC Standing Committee has established and improved the mechanism for soliciting public opinion on draft laws. Since 2012, public opinion has been sought on 277 draft laws, with about 1.47 million submissions providing more than 4.15 million suggestions and comments.

Since 2015, the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee has established 45 legislative outreach offices covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government. These efforts have prompted provincial and municipal people's congresses to establish more than 7,300 such offices, thereby creating smooth democratic channels for community-level participation in national legislative work. Since 2020, the Budgetary Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee has established 13 community-level outreach offices and 2 university outreach offices, with a view to better assessing popular sentiment, gathering insights from the people, and benefiting the public in areas such as the examination and oversight of government budgets and final accounts, state-owned asset management oversight, government debt management oversight, and fiscal and tax legislation.

Better leveraging the role of deputies to people's congresses is an important manifestation of the people running the country and a crucial foundation for the work of people's congresses. State organs should support deputies in performing their duties in accordance with the law, improving the systems and mechanisms for communications with deputies, ensuring high-quality handling of deputies' proposals and suggestions, and seeing that the demands and will of the people, as conveyed by deputies, are incorporated into all aspects of work.

We must leverage the unique strengths of our deputies who come from and are rooted among the people by giving play to their professional expertise. We should enrich both the form and content of public outreach activities to ensure that the opinions and wishes of the general public are heard and conveyed to the relevant authorities. We need to develop and effectively utilize various mechanisms and platforms with a focus on ensuring that outreach activities enable deputies to carry out their statutory duties and effectively fulfill their roles. Doing so will allow us to create more pragmatic and effective windows into public opinion and bridges of connection with the people.

Editor: Zhang Xian