Survey: Strict governance over Party, rule of law top list of public concerns

Fang, a professor at Shaanxi Normal University specializing in environmental and economic development, has filed many suggestions regarding environmental protection, particularly the protection and development of the Yellow River drainage basin.

She said as an NPC deputy, she has felt the progress of rule of law in her work area. In recent years, the government has ramped up efforts in dealing with public interest litigation in environmental matters, and the legislation has also been fast-tracked in areas closely related to people's livelihoods and the environment, including the formulation of two protection laws for the Yangtze and Yellow rivers.

The survey also showed the public's overall satisfaction with progress made on the rule of law. A total of 64.9 percent of respondents thought the problem of big data-enabled price discrimination has been addressed and pricing has become more transparent, while 61.7 percent were pleased that a number of mobile phone apps suspected of collecting personal information have been removed from app stores.

In the next few years, people said they look forward to the strengthening of supervision of judicial activities, promoting judicial justice, improving the public legal services system and national judicial aid system, as well as rectifying the misconduct of political and legal workers.

The Party's anti-corruption campaign has always been a top issue at the two sessions. The survey indicated that people believe anti-corruption work has become more standardized and formalized, and their sense of security has increased as a result of the crackdown on gang crime.

In 2022, the public expects to see more disciplinary supervision in the areas of medical care, food safety, pensions, and law enforcement, the survey said. People also expressed hope of seeing less formalism and more close contact with the masses.

The ranking of social security as third showed respondents were concerned about health services for the elderly, protection of women's employment rights, and social assistance for the disabled.

In the development of social security, 62.3 percent of participants expected an increase in the basic pension for urban and rural residents, 61.4 percent hoped for improvement in the wage distribution system and reasonable salary increases, and 53.2 percent expected the expansion of unemployment insurance and work injury insurance coverage.

On boosting the birthrate, 69.7 percent said measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of employed women should be improved, 62.8 percent said parental leave and the maternity insurance system should continue being refined, and 45.3 percent said it is important to further improve taxation, housing and other support policies.