The “two sessions” in China, namely the annual sessions of China’s top legislature and political advisory body, offer a window into the dynamism and strength of the country’s whole-process people’s democracy.
During the just-concluded annual sessions of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, and the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s top political advisory body, nearly 5,000 NPC deputies and CPPCC members gathered in Beijing to perform their duties by submitting motions and proposals and making suggestions on major political and social issues of the country under the banner of democracy.
NPC deputies and CPPCC members stressed that it’s necessary to maintain and improve institutions, standards and procedures of law-based socialist democracy, continuously promote the construction of the whole-process people’s democracy, and make sure that the principle of the people being masters of the country is manifested in the Party’s governance policies and measures, in all aspects of the work of Party and state organs at all levels, and in the efforts to meet the people’s expectations for a better life.
China’s whole-process people’s democracy fully represents the people’s will, protects their rights and unleashes their potential to create, pointed out Go Khok, mayor of Lhasa, capital city of southwest China’s Tibet autonomous region, and a NPC deputy.
The journey of Tibet is a vivid demonstration of the practice of the whole-process people’s democracy, he said, referring to the region’s journey from its peaceful liberation when people of all ethnic groups became the masters of the region to its historically getting rid of poverty and comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held in 2012.
In recent years, Lhasa has consulted the people on governance, learned about their needs and sought their advice to ensure that various links of decision-making, enforcement and oversight take into consideration the people’s opinions and are under the people’s supervision, according to him.
“All the suggestions I made were appreciated by and received responses from relevant authorities,” said Tong Luwen, a NPC deputy as well as director of the academic center under the Party school of the CPC committee of Zhangjiajie city, central China’s Hunan province. The system of people’s congresses is an important institutional vehicle for realizing whole-process people’s democracy in China, Tong noted.
Tong has gained a deep understanding of the institutional advantages of the system of people’s congresses in the execution of her duties. By integrating the leadership of the CPC, the people’s status as masters of the country and the rule of law, China has fully tapped into the characteristics and strengths of its political systems, she pointed out.
