A glimpse into how democracy works in China

Wang Yongcheng, who lost his sight in an accident when he was young, was elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's highest legislative body, in 2023, making him the country's only and first NPC deputy with visual impairment.  

As a representative of the disabled, Wang submitted a proposal for the publication of textbooks in large print for visually impaired students at last year's Two Sessions, which was followed with great attention by the relevant departments. 

In the same year, the Constitution and Law Committee of the NPC listened to Wang's advice when studying the draft law on creating a barrier-free environment for the disabled. Wang's suggestions were then incorporated into the law, which came into force in September 2023.

At this year's annual political meeting, he received a Braille version of the government work report. "This is tangible democracy that a blind person can touch," he said.

"Whether a country is democratic or not depends on whether its citizens are truly the masters of the country," Chinese President Xi Jinping once said.

People-centered democracy

There are nearly 3,000 NPC deputies across China. The total number of deputies in the people's congresses at all levels is over 2.5 million. Township-level and county-level deputies are directly elected by voters, while deputies at other levels are indirectly elected by the respective lower-level people's congresses.

In China, deputies to the people's congress are largely representative and often come from different regions, industries, professions and ethnic groups.

According to the General Office of the NPC Standing Committee, deputies, who are directly elected by more than 1 billion voters, make up about 95 percent of the total number of deputies. Of the more than 2.5 million directly elected deputies, 52.53 percent at the county level and 76.75 percent at the township level are grassroots deputies such as workers, farmers and technical personnel.

President Xi said "Democracy is not an ornament to be displayed, but an instrument to address the people's problems."

As representatives of the people, deputies must fulfill their duties, such as contacting the people, conducting research, attending training sessions for deputies and making suggestions to the NPC so that the people's problems, suggestions and advice can be better addressed and taken into account in the government's policies.

Enriched forms of democracy

In addition, China has explored various ways to improve the people's congress system and gradually developed whole-process people's democracy in national governance to ensure full political participation of the people.

For example, in recent years, the country has begun to set up deputy contact points in densely populated areas, where people can describe their problems to workers or call the deputies through their profiles displayed on the board. The deputies take the calls and help people solve their difficulties. 

However, if the problems are to be solved through litigation, administrative review or arbitration, they will help them find other competent agencies. According to the NPC website, there are over 200,000 such contact points throughout China, covering almost all cities.

In addition, the people's congresses at all levels have steadily improved their institutional guarantees to ensure people's democracy. Since 2008, the NPC has begun to widely solicit public opinions on draft laws. Official figures show by the end of March 2022, a total of 257 draft laws had been published on the NPC website for public opinions, and more than 1.5 million people had submitted nearly 5.3 million suggestions.

To cite an example, the first-ever Civil Code, which took effect in January 2021, was compiled over five years, during which around 425,000 people provided 1,020,000 opinions.

What's more, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body, is also a key element of China's whole-process people's democracy. It can make suggestions, conduct inspections and surveys, and participate in law revision discussions and important meetings organized by the Communist Party of China and the state, thus playing an important role in supervising the government, building the broadest possible political consensus and promoting people's democracy.

"Whole-process people's democracy in China integrates process-oriented democracy with results-oriented democracy, procedural democracy with substantive democracy, direct democracy with indirect democracy, and people's democracy with the will of the state," Xi said, adding "It's a democracy that covers all aspects of the democratic process and all sectors of society."

(Cover: A bird view of Fuzhou City, East China's Fujian Province, February 15, 2019. /CFP )