The leaders from the central committees of China's non-Communist political parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) joined a press conference held on Sunday, during the first session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Centering on their work of providing democratic supervision and political consultation to the state and the Communist Party of China (CPC), they briefed the media a range of major topics including poverty alleviation, private economy development, technological innovation, COVID-19 prevention and control, environmental protection, the Taiwan question, and the building of Healthy China.

Here are some highlights from the press conference: 

Development of private economy

To boost the confidence of private enterprises and accelerate the recovery of China's economy, the ACFIC has taken multiple measures, according to Gao Yunlong, chairman of the ACFIC.

"We have promoted the formulation of policies to support private enterprises, and increased policy support to ensure these pro-business policies are effective," Gao said.

He said that the ACFIC has more than five million members, 3,000 industry and commerce federations at or above the county level, and over 30,000 chambers of commerce across the country. Through various channels, the ACFIC can timely grasp the difficulties and problems existing in private enterprises, formulate policy suggestions and proposals, and report them to the Party and the government, which can promote the introduction of policies to support the development of private enterprises.

He added that the ACFIC had participated in the introduction of policies that cut taxes, administrative fees, interest rates and required reserve ratios last year.

Besides, according to Ding Zhongli, chairman of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League (CDL), who had participated in the democratic supervision of poverty alleviation efforts in central China's Henan Province, local CPC committees and governments at all levels attach great importance to their suggestions and proposals.

"As long as we do a good job in supervising, they will certainly take actions," Ding said.

The ACFIC also did solid work in optimizing the market and legal environment and reducing operation costs for private enterprises by various channels. For example, they create opportunities for enterprises by organizing investment activities, solve financing problems for private enterprises by promoting the connection between banks and enterprises, and do practical work to help enterprises launch projects and build up scientific research platforms by cooperating with the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Environmental protection and governance

Starting from 2021, China has launched a five-year democratic supervision campaign on ecological and environmental protection in the Yangtze River, and each non-Communist party has to pair with one or two provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities to supervise local government work in environmental protection and help them solve the problems they find during the supervision.

Ding Zhongli said the CDL is paired with southwestern China's Yunnan Province.

"Before the supervision started, we did extensive research. We sorted out 14 major problems that needed to be supervised, based on the Yangtze River Protection Law of the People's Republic of China," Ding said. "Then, we went to the grassroots to conduct research, and communicated with the ecological and environmental protection departments, and we finally sorted out about 600 key points that needed supervision."

To make their work more effective, the CDL built an information-sharing platform so that they can communicate with relevant local departments and point out their problems at any time.

As the CDL has a lot of experts in ecological and environmental protection, they also provide help to solve problems that local companies and departments face. For example, they had organized professors and graduates to do observations in Erhai Lake, Yunnan Province, and share their research results with local ecological and environmental departments.

Through their research and investigation in Yunnan, the CDL found four major ecological and environmental problems and made relevant suggestions to local and central governments.

"There is still a long way to go in the reform and protection of the ecological environment. Yunnan needs more support from everyone and more input from the government to solve their problems," Ding said.

The Taiwan question

Deepening exchanges between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, promoting integrated development across the Taiwan Strait and promoting China's reunification are the major tasks for the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League (TDSL).

According to Su Hui, chairperson of the Central Committee of the TDSL, they have submitted more than 220 high-quality research reports over the past few years, focusing on key topics such as integrated economic and social development across the Taiwan Straits and deepening cross-Strait people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. Their reports have contributed to the implementation of relevant policies and measures that benefit Taiwan compatriots.

Besides, they, together with relevant ministries, commissions and local governments, held a series of forums and seminars, and invited young people from Taiwan to participate in exchange activities in an experiential manner, which have helped build a platform for cross-Strait exchanges, boost cross-Strait integrated development and promote the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

Firmly opposing "Taiwan Independence", the TDSL had also held events to fight against it. One of the important activities is named "Dajiang Forum," which invites prominent anti-independence figures from Taiwan to jointly call for national reunification.

Building Healthy China

The report of the 20th CPC National Congress has laid out the blueprint for national rejuvenation and shed light on China's policy priorities. One of the priorities is building a healthy China, which aims to solve the problems of medical services for the public and improve China's public health system.

As one of the major political consultative party with medicine and healthcare as one of its main work coverage, the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party (CPWDP) takes the building of a healthy China and the reform of the medical care system as its key tasks of political consultation and participation, promptly discovering problems and putting forward suggestions to the government.

He Wei, chairman of the Central Committee of CPWDP said that the party in the past five years has focused on institutional issues such as the establishment of the National Healthcare Security Administration and the reform of the public health system including the emergency management mechanism. They also pay attention to the equity and accessibility of public healthcare, such as support for community-level medical institutions and the medical insurance system.

Besides, the high-quality development of China's healthcare service is vital, so they put forward proposals to strengthen cancer research, life science and technology and the construction of national and regional medical centers.

In the following five years, Ding said they will transfer their attention to addressing aging and low-birth rates and will conduct more research and make suggestions in strengthening the pension insurance system and improving the national birth rates. 

China's political party system

Different from Western political party systems, China's political party system has its distinct characteristics. It is a major component of China's political framework and makes a critical contribution to Chinese democracy.

Zheng Jianbang, chairman of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK), said at the press conference that China has been able to maintain long-term social stability and economic development over the past 70 years, and one of the important factors is China's political party system.

He said that before the founding of the People's Republic of China, predecessors had tried the parliamentary political system and the multi-party system, but all had been proven impractical and failed. However, in the long course of revolution, economic development and reform, and in the historic process of seeking happiness for the people and the rejuvenation of the nation, the CPC has withstood countless tests and become the vanguard of the Chinese people, and the political parties have evolved into a close political alliance, with their joint participation in the discussion and the handling of state affairs.

Under the political party system, the government can hear the voices and wisdom of all sides, and pool resources and strength for social and economic construction and development, which not only minimizes internal friction but enables the long-term implementation of national policies conducive to the country's stability.

"This is a good political system that conforms to both China's national conditions and the people's will," Zheng said, "Now, more than 70 years later, it's proved that the political party system does have its own unique advantages."