Voices for the people

The annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, starting from next week, are much-anticipated events.

People expect more from the upcoming sessions, as this year is being seen as the start of China's efforts in deepening reform. As the Chinese saying goes, a whole year's work depends on a good start in spring.

China's bid to comprehensively deepen reform needs to get off to good start with the successful convening of the two sessions, said an article in People's Daily on Thursday.

The people's congress system and the multi-party cooperation and political consultation system under the leadership of the Communist Party of China serve as the most important and effective organizational design for constructing and developing democratic politics with Chinese characteristics. Deputies to the National People's Congress exercise democratic rights on behalf of the people to govern the country, while the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference members fulfill their role of democratic supervision and political consultation with regard to major State policies and important issues concerning people's livelihoods.

The mechanism of the two annual sessions has evolved steadily over the past decades, enlarging the space for the development of socialist democracy. Having entered a new stage of development, China must embrace such institutional dividends, especially when the dividends from resources and its demographic advantage, which have bolstered national development over the past three decades, are on the wane and their dwindling has become a bottleneck in China's pursuit of sustainable growth.

In the following days, more than 5,000 NPC deputies and CPPCC National Committee members will participate in the two annual sessions. How to curb the hazardous air that chokes a string of Chinese cities, how to effectively streamline administration and delegate power, how to press ahead with the new type of urbanization in a scientific way, and how to modernize the State governance system and improve governance capabilities with detailed plans and actions, are all issues of widespread concern, commanding the deputies and members to speak and offer advice without reserve.

Only in this way can the two annual sessions produce concrete outcomes and serve as the harbinger of success for China's comprehensive deepening of reform.

(China Daily 02/28/2014 page8)