China improves lawmakers’ work efficiency, effectiveness in innovative ways

Lan Nianying, a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, has been busy visiting villages to hear local people’s voices and collect their opinions and suggestions over the past year.

Lan Nianying, a deputy to the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, shares stories about her execution of duties via video link, Sept. 27, 2021. (Photo/Courtesy of the information department of the General Office of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress)

“Zixi county has many national-level tourist attractions. After hearing about the county’s plan to promote rural tourism, many people told me that they hoped to receive some training in skills for tourism careers,” said Lan, who is also the secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) branch at Xinyue village of the She ethnic group, Wushi township, Zixi county, Fuzhou city, east China’s Jiangxi province.

Lan reported people’s needs to the CPC Zixi county committee and eventually brought training courses in tourism in a variety of forms and on diverse topics to villages of the county.

Lan takes great pride in helping villagers live a better life. Since she was elected NPC deputy, Lan has helped solve more than 100 problems for local people.

“With the people’s trust and support, I feel more and more energetic and motivated to make their voices heard and serve their needs,” Lan said.

The key to the strong vitality and significant superiority of China’s system of people’s congresses lies in its deep roots among the people. In order to better empower NPC deputies to maintain close ties with the people and bring into full play their capabilities in performing their duties, the Standing Committee of the NPC has taken many measures to facilitate their work, including establishing platforms for their execution of duties, guaranteeing smooth channels for the expression of public opinion, and improving mechanism for close communication between NPC deputies and the people.

The Standing Committee of the 13th NPC has established a mechanism for discussions with NPC deputies who attend meetings of the NPC Standing Committee as nonvoting delegates, in a bid to strengthen communication between NPC deputies and the Standing Committee and improve the mechanism for handling and providing feedback on lawmakers’ suggestions and proposals.

During the past year, a total of 151 NPC deputies have been invited to attend meetings of the NPC Standing Committee as nonvoting delegates and take part in discussions with members of the NPC Standing Committee. Meanwhile, all the 78 suggestions and proposals put forward by NPC deputies who have attended these meetings and discussions have been handled in a timely manner and received feedback.

Ran Hui (fifth from right), a deputy to the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislative body, has a discussion with local residents of Tianshanbao village, Youyang Tujia and Miao autonomous county, southwest China’s Chongqing municipality, to hear their opinions and suggestions, Feb. 16, 2022. (People’s Daily Online/Ran Chuan)

Besides discussions with NPC deputies, the NPC Standing Committee has also taken many other measures to enhance communication with NPC deputies. Through various forms and means, including discussion, visit, video call, phone call, WeChat, as well as mail, members of the NPC Standing Committee have enriched the content, expanded the depth, and increased the effectiveness of communication with NPC deputies, achieving tangible results.

An important way for lawmakers to maintain close ties with the people is talking with them at various points of contact established to help the public express their requirements. China has more than 220,000 such points of contact, which take various forms, such as liaison office, contact station, activity center, and online communication platform, and cover basically all the townships and subdistricts of the country. They make sure that Chinese lawmakers are deeply rooted in the people and the grassroots and are building closer ties with the people.

Providing training sessions and learning platforms serves as an important way to make sure lawmakers’ competence advance with the times.

During the past year, the NPC Standing Committee has held three offline training sessions and three online ones for lawmakers on knowledge and skills they were interested in and needed for the execution of duties, which have involved 4,618 participants.

Taking full advantage of the online college of the NPC, the NPC Standing Committee has made and posted videos of more than 120 online courses for lawmakers, which have been played for more than 1.4 million times.

The in-depth integration of online and offline training courses have effectively expanded the coverage of these training courses and satisfied lawmakers’ diverse and individualized learning needs, significantly improving their performance and competence.