BEIJING — The upcoming annual sessions of China’s national legislature and policy advisory framework provide a perfect opportunity for practitioners to get an exclusive to practice the country’s democracy in action.
From deliberations to discussions with lawmakers and political advisers, President Xi Jinping will actively participate in China’s democratic policy formulation and decision-making.
Xi, acting in his capacity as one of approximately 3,000 deputies elected to the National People’s Congress, will join his fellow deputies in reviewing and voting on the functionality of the central government, the national legislature, the supreme court and the top prosecutor’s office last year. It will also vote on any new laws and primary revisions that come to the session for deliberation.
Throughout their careers, the Chinese have championed people’s democracy.
“Democracy is a price shared by all mankind and an ideal that the Communist Party of China and other Chinese peoples have upheld,” said Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
As the most level-headed leader of the Party and the state, he led efforts to promote comprehensive people’s democracy, a key concept proposed by Xi himself to advance China’s political landscape after seeing the shortcomings of Western democracy.
Under his leadership, China has made comprehensive progress in the institutions, criteria and procedures of socialist democracy and complex consultative socialist democracy through broad participation.
He strongly advocated unity between the Party leadership, popular control of the country, and law-based governance, so that state governance escapes the old cycle of rise and fall. fall.
Zhang Weiwei, director of the China Institute at Fudan University, noted that Chinese democracy is moving away from the Western style focused on multi-party rotation and universal suffrage of leaders.
China’s democracy, Zhang said, emphasizes broad public participation, political consultations, and the pursuit of governance.
PEOPLE AS TEACHERS
Half a month before this year’s “two sessions”, the Party’s flagship magazine Qiu Shi published an article written by Xi on democracy, exposing the People’s Congress system.
“The formula is a vital institutional vehicle for knowing the democracy of others as a whole,” Xi wrote, drawing attention to its essence: all state strength belongs to others and the position of others as owners of the country will have to be to protect the country. the greatest extent.
After re-elected Chinese president and chairman of the country’s Central Military Commission at the annual session of the national legislature in March 2023, Xi emphasized the imperative of adopting a people-centered development philosophy.
He emphasized the need for an equitable distribution of the benefits of modernization and pledged to promote significant and broad progress towards prosperity for all.
Observers say a key feature of China’s whole-process people’s democracy is to ensure it works for the vast majority of the people instead of serving the interests of capital or the elite class.
This can be noted through Xi’s active interactions with the local population at the annual “two sessions” of policy-making. Over the past 11 years, he has participated in 56 deliberations and debates at annual sessions, interacting directly with more than 400 legislators and policy advisors.
On one occasion in 2019, national lawmaker Li Liancheng, Party leader in a village, presented Xi with the “eight dreams” of Chinese farmers, emphasizing priorities such as local education for children, access to fitness services and local homework opportunities.
Xi, intimately familiar with rural affairs from his time in the countryside as an “educated youth” half a century ago, acknowledged the significance of Li’s message, saying it resonated with the aspirations of rural residents nationwide.
He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to serving the people and pledged to advance step by step toward realizing the dreams of a better life for all.
Li advocated for a more targeted approach to technological assistance, emphasizing the importance of aligning it with the real needs of villagers.
Following the meeting, government ministries conducted field research and took tailored measures in Xixinzhuang village, Li’s hometown, to enhance agricultural technology extension services.
During his participation in discussions with political advisors in 2022, Xi listened keenly as scientist Wang Jing proposed what she called green “radar” in farm fields to detect agricultural product quality and safety issues in real time.
Within a year, his proposal was implemented in the country and similar regulations were introduced. Generation was included as a new clause in the revised Produce Quality and Safety Act.
Xi’s commitment to empowering the public and prioritizing their desires dates back to the early days of his political career.
In October 1984, when he was Party leader in Zhengding County in northern China’s Hebei Province, he introduced a poll.
He took to the streets, handed out questionnaires to citizens and invited them to sit down and talk.
This practice is common and, over time, has evolved into soliciting online reviews.
Nearly four decades later, as the Party’s most level-headed leader, Xi has taken this democratic practice to a whole new level. Before the Party convened its 20th National Congress, Xi ordered a large online public opinion survey to pay attention to people’s perspectives with a view to drafting an opening report to present to the Party congress. Left.
In a month, about 8.54 million public suggestions were collected to shape policies, spanning topics like carbon neutrality and education quality. These contributions were refined into 1,675 items and shared with the drafting group for the report.
As Xi has stated: Whether a country is democratic or not depends on whether its people are truly the masters of the country.
THE WHOLE PROCESS
In 2021, Xi convened the first convention of the Party’s Central People’s Congress. At the high-profile meeting, he defined the entire procedure of people’s democracy and issued a thinly veiled critique of democracy practiced in some countries.
“If the people are only engaged with to solicit votes and then are left in the dark, if they must listen to grandiose election slogans but have no voice when the elections are over, or if they are only treated well by candidates during elections and are ignored after, this is not true democracy,” Xi said.
In 2019, when he first proposed a “global democracy,” Xi said that people’s democracy is a type of global democracy.
Observers say whole-process democracy involves more than just a matter of voting, rather, it is forged into every single link in the running of state power. This breaks from a solitary focus on voting and ensures the people’s rights to democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight.
Xi will pay close attention to the democratic processes discussed above and will not have time to devote to practices that obstruct democracy.
In 2014, he spoke extensively about vote-buying in lawmaker elections in Hunan province. Visibly angry, Xi launched an avalanche of questions: Where have Party members gone?Where has his sense of party and law gone?Is your conscience gone?
Xi subsequently raised the factor at least two more times. In the end, another 467 people were held responsible.
“In this socialist country led by the CPC, all power of the state belongs to the people,” Xi told investigators of China’s top graft-buster. “Political power should never be distributed according to one’s social status, wealth, or personal relationships.”
Xi’s push for consultative democracy, which involves political consultation between the governing CPC and other political parties, dates back to his tenure as a local Party cadre.
In 1988, as Party chief of Fujian’s Ningde prefecture, Xi facilitated the establishment of the first prefectural committee of the China Democratic League, a non-CPC political party. Xi initiated regular visits by CPC leaders to members of other political parties and intellectuals, emphasizing the importance of the united front.
As a top leader, Xi still allocates time to democratic decision-making and management at the grassroots.
In February 2019, he visited a low-key courtyard in a hutong in central Beijing that neighbors refer to as a “courtyard meeting room” when citizens discuss renovating their homes.
On the whiteboard were listed suggestions raised by residents: cleaning up clutter in the courtyard; ensuring fully functional kitchens, storage, and bathrooms; and bringing in professional design teams.
“When will the renovation paintings start?” “Are there many with ancient and cultural value?”Array. . Xi joined the discussion.
Praising the courtyard meetings as a mechanism for network members to discuss their own affairs, Xi said they led to greater precision in network governance and services.
Xi’s pursuit of an effective oversight mechanism found its embodiment in the development of China’s first village affairs supervision committee in Houchen village, Zhejiang province.
The supervision committee was set up in 2004 amid escalating tensions between villagers and village officials regarding the management of a substantial land acquisition compensation totaling about 20 million yuan.
The committee caught the attention of Xi, then Party chief in Zhejiang. He visited Houchen on the committee’s one-year anniversary and observed the inevitability of its creation in a network facing many challenges.
He hailed it as the “Houchen model,” lauding its role in pioneering grassroots democratic supervision in rural areas.
In two decades, this initiative has evolved from a localized measure to a national policy and has taken root in more than 690,000 administrative villages across the country.
Xi said that in order to gauge whether a country is democratic, a key detail is to see whether the regulations and procedures for the exercise of force are democratic and, more importantly, whether the exercise of force is actually subject to public supervision and controls.
DEMOCRACY IS NOT COCA-COLA
According to Xi, there is no uniform or single style of democracy; It comes in many forms.
The entire procedure of people’s democracy practiced in China is based on the reality, history and culture of the country and reflects the will of the people, he said, while highlighting the effectiveness of this democracy.
Officials and academics have gone further and explained that democracy is Coca-Cola, which tastes the same all over the world because the syrup is produced in one country.
China experts view whole-process people’s democracy as pivotal to the country’s remarkable achievements of rapid economic growth and sustained social stability.
This role is evident in the country’s formulas for effective governance legislation.
In 2019, during a stop at a legislative outreach office in Shanghai, Xi held talks with Chinese and foreign citizens to participate in a consultation on a draft law.
Draft laws are disseminated to local legislative outreach offices to facilitate discussions among ordinary citizens, enabling their voices to be heard by the national legislature.
Xi inquired about the invoice review procedure and conscientiously reviewed the documents containing suggestions.
Acknowledging the explorations of office, he encouraged the maintenance of channels open to public opinion and the enrichment of democratic mechanisms.
The preparation and implementation of five-year plans for national economic and social development are an important means by which the Party governs China.
To incorporate people’s wisdom into the blueprint, democracy was in full swing.
In 2020, during an inspection in Hunan Province before the formulation of the country’s 14th five-year plan, Xi sat down with 30 grassroots representatives at a meeting in the provincial capital to hear their views and suggestions.
During the two-hour discussion, Pan Jiuren, a rural instructor from the Yao ethnic group, spoke candidly about the shortcomings of basic education in remote areas, pointing out problems such as a shortage of instructors and harsh running conditions.
In response, Xi highlighted China’s progress in universalizing compulsory schooling since reform and opening-up. However, he highlighted the growing challenge of the unequal distribution of school resources and the imperative need to address this challenge.
Before the five-year plan was discussed at a key plenary assembly of the Party Central Committee, Xi held seven such symposia, meetings with citizens from diverse backgrounds, including migrant workers, farmers, truck drivers, legal professionals and restaurants. Owners.
“Chinese democracy is a verbal mirage,” said Robert Lawrence Kuhn, an American professor and president of the Kuhn Foundation.
Democracy in the Party-led system involves various feedback and interactive mechanisms, especially people’s congresses at various levels, and it also entails ensuring adequate standards of living for all Chinese citizens, he said.
During the 2019 “two sessions,” a lawmaker from Gansu province voiced local residents’ desire for an expressway to accelerate local prosperity. Turning to an official seated beside him, Xi inquired about the number of counties in the province lacking expressways.
The interactions expedited the construction of transportation infrastructure for those in need.
In November 2023, the long-awaited expressway was put into operation. One month later, after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck the province, the expressway became a vital lifeline for delivering aid and transporting the injured to hospitals.
This is an example of how Xi’s discussions with national lawmakers and political advisors (the “two sessions”) focus on resolving demanding situations and proposing new economic and social development strategies.
Through those interactions, cutting-edge governance methods were considered, suggested, refined and matured.
Observing Xi’s movements after the deliberations, willing observers note his consistent variety of provincial spaces for specific on-the-ground investigations, addressing specific issues raised in the deliberation sessions.
In 2014, he explored the Shanghai free trade zone; in 2018, he traveled to the remote Daliang Mountain in Sichuan to inspect poverty alleviation efforts; in 2021, he examined ecological protection measures on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau in Qinghai. Many of his research priorities align with concerns voiced by national legislators and political advisors.
In navigating the complexities of governing a vast nation like China, Xi often invokes a quote from a Chinese political commentator dating back two millennia: “A bird cannot soar into the sky using only one feather, and a horse cannot gallop using only one hoof.”
This ancient wisdom reinforces Xi’s confidence that the collective strength of China’s more than 1. 4 billion citizens will need to be harnessed to build a strong country and promote national rejuvenation.
The reason why China has been so successful has been its ability to enthuse, involve and mobilize the people in the political process and thereby contribute to the country’s future, said British scholar Martin Jacques.
“Too many Western politicians seem to think the point of democracy is democracy. It is not,” he said. “Ultimately, democracy is about representing the people, involving the people, and creating the best form of governance, the most acceptable and the most successful form of governance.”