Uphold and Strengthen the People’s Congress System

Uphold and Strengthen the People’s Congress System*

September 14, 2024

Since its 18th National Congress in 2012, the Party has oriented itself towards the new development stage. It has fully embraced new changes in the principal challenge facing our society, actively responded to the people’s new demands and expectations for democracy and the rule of law, and strengthened its overall leadership over the work of people’s congresses. It has vigorously developed whole-process people’s democracy, facilitated the modernization of China’s governance system and capacity, improved the systems that ensure the people are the masters of the country, and amended the Constitution to keep pace with the times. It convened the first Central Conference on the Work of People’s Congresses in its history, and helped deliver historic progress by improving the structures and processes of the people’s congress system.

We have adapted the basic tenets of Marxism to China’s realities and the best of its traditional culture, developed a profound understanding of the laws governing the development of socialist democracy, conducted a systematic review of the Party’s experience in strengthening socialist democracy, and consistently broken new ground in developing the theory and practice of the system of people’s congresses. We have developed the key concept of whole-process people’s democracy and emphasized that the people’s congress system is an important institutional vehicle for realizing whole-process people’s democracy in China. We must uphold CPC leadership, provide institutional safeguards to guarantee that the people remain the masters of the country, ensure that every dimension of governance is law-based, and commit to democratic centralism. We must keep to the path of socialist political progress with Chinese characteristics, modernize our system and capacity for governance, maximize the contribution of the deputies to people’s congresses, and strengthen the four-fold role of people’s congresses at all levels. These new visions, new ideas, and new requirements underpin the Party’s guidelines on upholding and improving the people’s congress system, and establish the fundamental principles for high-quality development of people’s congresses in the new era.

The 20th CPC National Congress made overall plans for advancing whole-process people’s democracy and ensuring that the people remain the masters of the country. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee specified the details for improving the institutional framework for whole-process people’s democracy. We must uphold, improve and run the system of people’s congresses to good effect in accordance with these requirements, to provide a solid institutional foundation for achieving the goals of the Party and the people on our new journey in the new era.

First, we must maximize the important role of people’s congresses in ensuring the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Constitution and the law. All organizations and individuals in our country must respect the authority of the Constitution and the law, confine their activities to the boundaries prescribed by the Constitution and the law, and exercise powers, enjoy rights, perform duties, and fulfill obligations in accordance with the Constitution and the law. No organization or individual shall be permitted to en joy special privileges that place them above the Constitution and the law. It is an important duty of people’s congresses at all levels and their standing committees to ensure that the Constitution and the law are strictly applied. On the new journey in the new era, all people’s congresses and their standing committees should fully perform their duties and functions, maintain consistency in laws and regulations, and uphold the dignity and authority of the law. They should ensure the effective enforcement of the Constitution and the law, and guarantee that all government departments perform their duties and functions within the scope stipulated by the Constitution and the law.

Second, we must capitalize on the leading role of people’s congresses in legislative work. To carry out lawmaking in a well-conceived and democratic way and in accordance with the law, we must uphold and improve the legislative framework under which Party committees play the leading role, people’s congresses are in charge of specific work, governments offer support, and all parties concerned are involved. On the journey ahead, to improve China’s socialist legal system, the National People’s Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee, together with local people’s congresses with legislative powers and their standing committees, should fully perform their legislative duties, devise sound plans for legislation, and improve the mechanism for leading the drafting of important laws and regulations. They should take coordinated steps to enact, revise, abolish, interpret and codify laws, strengthen legislation in key, emerging and foreign-related fields, and raise the quality of legislation. We should accelerate the delivery of a legal system that ensures equal rights, equal opportunities, and fair rules for all, and guarantee the effective exercise of all citizens’ rights. We should advance reform under the rule of law and secure unity between reform and the rule of law, ensuring that all major reforms have a solid legal basis and that relevant reform achievements are converted into laws in a timely manner.

Third, we must maximize the important role of people’s congresses in the supervision framework of the Party and the state. People’s congresses at all levels and their standing committees should assume their responsibilities for oversight assigned by the Constitution and the law. They should improve their scrutiny of the work of the people’s governments, supervision commissions, people’s courts, and people’s procuratorates at the same level, and strengthen their oversight of the application of the Constitution and the law. They should strengthen the review of budgets and final accounts and increase supervision over the management of state-owned assets and government debts. They should help promote the implementation of the Central Committee’s decisions and plans, ensure the exercise of power by all government departments in accordance with the law, and guarantee the protection and realization of people’s legitimate rights and interests. Administrative, supervisory, adjudicatory and procuratorial offices at all levels should readily place themselves under the oversight of people’s congresses while performing their own supervisory duties, ensuring that power is exercised with institutional constraints.

Fourth, we must capitalize on the leading role of people’s congresses in strengthening the connection with the people. All government departments and their staff members must foster a strong sense of service to the people, put the people above all else, listen to the people’s opinions and suggestions, and maintain close ties with the people. Shouldering the honorable duties entrusted by the people, deputies to people’s congresses should take a firm political stance, faithfully represent the will and interests of the people, participate in the exercise of state power in accordance with the law, and serve as a bridge through which the Party and the government maintain contacts with the people. Government departments should provide support and safeguards for deputies to people’s congresses to fulfill their duties in accordance with the law. Relevant systems and mechanisms should be improved for communication with deputies and to ensure that deputies reach out to the public on a greater variety of issues and in more diverse ways.

Party committees at all levels should strengthen their overall leadership over the work of people’s congresses, hear work reports from Party leadership groups of people’s congress standing committees on a regular basis, and study and resolve major issues in the work of people’s congresses. They should support people’s congresses and their standing committees in performing their duties and exercising their powers in accordance with the law, and strengthen the leadership teams of people’s congress standing committees and the staff members of people’s congresses. Party committees at all levels and relevant departments should coordinate and cooperate with their counterparts in the people’s congresses to create a strong synergy in the work of people’s congresses.

The Party leadership groups of the NPC Standing Committee and the standing committees of local people’s congresses at all levels must always uphold the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, implement the systems ensuring CPC leadership, keep to the correct political orientation, and fulfill their primary responsibilities for exercising full and rigorous internal Party governance. Following the requirements on the four-fold role of people’s congresses, they should strengthen the political foundations, ideological work, organizations, conduct, and discipline of people’s congresses. To improve their work on the new journey in the new era, people’s congresses should improve the composition of their standing committees and special committees, and build work teams that are politically committed, serve the people, respect the rule of law, promote democracy, and work with diligence and a strong sense of responsibility.

People’s democracy is a glorious banner that the CPC has always held high. We must stay firmly on the path of socialist political progress with Chinese characteristics and uphold and improve our country’s fundamental, basic and important political systems. We must improve the institutions that ensure the people are the masters of the country and diversify the forms of democracy at different levels. We must expand the people’s orderly political participation, give full expression to their will, protect their rights and interests, and spark their creativity.

Democracy is a shared value of humanity. The Chinese people have achieved great strides in developing people’s democracy under the leadership of the CPC, enriching the theory and practice of democracy around the world and contributing China’s ideas and solutions. We should draw on the achievements of political civilization of humanity, but never copy the models of Western political systems. We stand ready to continue to work with all the countries and peoples that subscribe to peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, to explore the path to extensive, genuine and effective democracy, and to make new contributions to the political progress of humanity.

In his opening speech at the First Session of the First National People’s Congress 70 years ago, Mao Zedong called on the people to strive to build a great socialist country. Today, China has embarked on a new journey towards building a modern socialist country in all respects, and the process of national rejuvenation has become irreversible. The whole Party and the entire nation must unite more closely around the Party Central Committee, stay true to our original aspiration and founding mission, actively develop whole-process people’s democracy, and make further socialist political progress. We should better leverage the distinctive strengths of the people’s congress system and work together to build a great modern socialist country and achieve national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization.

* Part of the speech at a meeting to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the National People’s Congress.

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)