Editor's note: The week-long 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China concluded on October 22, with a blueprint mapped out for China's future development in the next five years and beyond. CGTN is publishing "How China Works – Charting the Future," a special series delving deep into a key report adopted at the Congress, to see how the country can fulfill the goals and tasks on the new journey of the new era.
China aims to improve the system of institutions through which the people run the country, according to a report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
The section in the report on whole-process people's democracy stressed the need to strengthen the institutions through which the people run the country, fully develop consultative democracy, actively develop democracy at the primary level, and consolidate and develop the broadest possible patriotic united front.
The people will be encouraged to participate in political affairs and guarantee their ability to engage in democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight in accordance with the law, according to the report.
Li Chaolan, a centenarian, casts her ballot in Xinhua Township of Tianquan County, Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, October 15, 2021. /Xinhua
Over the years, China has sought to encourage democratic values by ensuring the right of the people to participate extensively in state governance. In 2019, the Party advanced a key concept of whole-process people's democracy in responding to people's new demands and aspirations for democracy.
China's whole-process people's democracy, with the CPC leadership as its fundamental guarantee and the people's congress system as its institutional vehicle, is combined with electoral democracy and consultative democracy, covering the economic, political, cultural, social, eco-environmental and other fields.
Chinese lawmakers are now seeking to incorporate whole-process people's democracy into the country's Legislation Law. A draft amendment to the law has been submitted to the ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for review on October 27.
How is whole-process people's democracy practiced?
Primarily, China's democracy works institutionally via the formal processes of the people's congresses at various levels of political organization, culminating in the NPC, which is the highest organ of state power.
With the power to enact laws, the NPC as a whole meets annually in March, and its Standing Committee meets throughout the year on the preparation work for various pieces of legislation.
The deputies to people's congresses come from all regions, ethnic groups, sectors and social groups across China, and function at national, provincial, city, county and township levels.
At the end of 2020, there were 2.62 million people serving as deputies to people's congresses, with those at county and township levels accounting for 94.5 percent of the total.
From the first half of 2021 to the end of June this year, 2,629,447 deputies from China's 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities were directly elected to the county and township-level people's congresses, with 1.064 billion voters involved in the elections.
Since the launch of reform and opening up in 1978, about 3,000 NPC deputies have gathered in the presence of Party and state leaders at the NPC session each year to discuss plans for national development and problems affecting people's livelihoods.
Also, the NPC opens its website to solicit public comments before enacting draft laws and amendments. Since 2008, opinions for over 240 draft laws have been publicly solicited online.
During the compilation of the Civil Code, the first civil code in China that covers areas like real rights, personality rights, marriage and family, and inheritance, more than 1.02 million comments were collected from 425,000 participants.
In terms of social affairs, grassroots contact stations across China have become platforms to encourage people's participation in grassroots governance and democratic practices.
For instance, workers from contact stations in Shanghai gather residents to discuss issues related to community construction, including adding lifts to old residential buildings. In 2021, Shanghai authorities set a goal of adding 1,000 lifts to old buildings. Ultimately, 1,579 were added, three times as many as in the previous decade, and a further 2,000 are planned for this year.
"We will implement the concept of whole-process people's democracy throughout all aspects of our community governance. We will build up a structure where people can discuss and decide public affairs by the most real, widespread and effective democracy … and create a better community for everyone," Dai Tao, secretary of the Party working committee in Hongqiao Subdistrict, told CGTN.
Deputies to the 13th NPC leave the Great Hall of the People after the closing meeting of the fourth session of the 13th NPC in Beijing, China, March 11, 2021. /Xinhua
What's the origin of China's democracy?
Whole-process people's democracy refers to China's model of democracy, ensuring all major legislative decisions are formulated through democratic decision-making.
As a comprehensive and coordinated system focused on national development, social governance and people's lives, it covers a population of over 1.4 billion people from 56 ethnic groups, making sure that people's voices are heard and their wishes are represented in political and social life.
"China conceives democracy as broader, more encompassing, than free and fair multi-party elections," said Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a China political and economic analyst.
"Democracy in the Party-led system involves assessing and absorbing public opinion via feedback mechanisms at all levels of government and people's s congresses, such as polling to discern what people think."
"Whole-process people's democracy is a creation of the CPC in leading the people to pursue, develop and realize democracy," according to the full text of China: Democracy That Works published by the State Council Information Office of China.
The concept derives from the legacy of the CPC's democratic practices. During the revolutionary era in the 1940s, the CPC adopted various methods to mobilize illiterate farmers to vote in elections. The most popular one was "bean voting," whereby villagers put beans into a bowl behind the candidate they wanted to vote for.
Democracy in China is different in terms of the procedures and format from other countries, but it keeps China very dynamic, said Victor Gao, chair professor at Soochow University in an interview with CGTN.