Voice of the public heard loud and clear

Opinion-collecting stations help to gather views from across the country

“The station acts as a bridge between the public and the top legislature, enabling more people to take part in legislation and ensuring different voices on legislative affairs are heard.” YANG FANG

Deputy head of the Xiangyang people’s congress standing committee’s general office

Lawmakers in Xiangyang city, Hubei province, have been busy visiting communities, enterprises and government agencies in recent weeks after being tasked by China’s top legislature with seeking public opinion on a draft valueadded tax law.

After talking to residents and conducting surveys with business operators and officials working in the financial and commercial sectors, the lawmakers collected more than 40 suggestions on the draft, mainly focusing on tax deduction and simplifying the methods used to compute the levy.

The suggestions have been presented to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislative body, through a “grassroots legislation opinion collection station” in Xiangyang.

The standing committee of Xiangyang people’s congress, the city legislature, acts as the station. The decision to set up stations was made by the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission in July 2015.

The NPC Standing Committee also told the standing committees of legislatures in Lintao, Gansu province, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, and Hongqiao sub-district in Shanghai to set up such stations.

Yang Fang, deputy head of the Xiangyang people’s congress standing committee’s general office, said, “The station acts as a bridge between the public and the top legislature, enabling more people to take part in legislation and ensuring different voices on legislative affairs are heard.”

She said she is delighted with this new work method, as the station has been added to a draft amendment to the Legislation Law, meaning that collecting public opinions will become an inevitable part of lawmaking.

The draft amendment states that legislative bodies at all levels should maintain close contact with the people and gather public suggestions on legislation by establishing such stations.

The draft revision was submitted to the first annual session of the 14th NPC for deliberation on March 5.

The revision also highlights the principle of “whole-process people’s democracy” and strengthens the review of normative documents to ensure they are consistent with the Constitution.

The draft amendment was reviewed by the NPC Standing Committee in October and December.

Generally speaking, a draft becomes law after being reviewed three times by the NPC Standing Committee. However, if a piece of legislation is closely related to the nation’s fundamental issues and people’s interests, such as institutional reforms to State organs or regulating civil behavior, it must be further discussed by all NPC members, rather than simply being adopted by the NPC Standing Committee.

Zang Tiewei, spokesman for the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission, said in October that the Legislation Law is an important law that defines the national legislative system and standardizes legislative activities.

This law, which took effect in 2000, relates to the introduction and improvement of every law and regulation, and is usually referred to as the “head” of all laws in China.

Yang, from Xiangyang, said she was excited to learn that the need to establish stations to collect public opinion had been written into the latest draft amendment, adding that this would help implement “whole-process people’s democracy”.

The term “whole-process people’s democracy” was put forward by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, during an inspection tour of Shanghai in November 2019, when he emphasized that China is marching on a political development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the nation’s people’s democracy is a whole-process democracy.

On July 1, 2021, when the Party celebrated its 100th anniversary, Xi stressed the need to develop whole-process people’s democracy, and the term was also highlighted in a report to the 20th CPC National Congress in Beijing in October.

Statistics released by the Xiangyang station show that since it was established in 2015, it has provided more than 5,000 opinions on 76 laws at national level. Over 200 suggestions it has received have been considered by the NPC Standing Committee.

In Jiangxi, the Jingdezhen station had gathered 2,390 suggestions from the public on 77 national-level laws by the end of last month, with more than 300 suggestions accepted by the NPC Standing Committee.