Opinion-collecting stations gather views from across the country

Lawmakers in Xiangyang city, Hubei province, have been busy visiting communities, enterprises and government agencies in recent weeks after being tasked by China's top legislature with seeking public opinion on a draft value-added tax law.

After talking to residents and conducting surveys with business operators and officials working in the financial and commercial sectors, the lawmakers collected more than 40 suggestions on the draft, mainly focusing on tax deduction and simplifying the methods used to compute the levy.

The suggestions have been presented to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislative body, through a "grassroots legislation opinion collection station" in Xiangyang.

The standing committee of Xiangyang people's congress, the city legislature, acts as the station. The decision to set up stations was made by the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission in July 2015.

The NPC Standing Committee also told the standing committees of legislatures in Lintao, Gansu province, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, and Hongqiao subdistrict in Shanghai to set up such stations.

Yang Fang, deputy head of the Xiangyang people's congress standing committee's general office, said, "The station acts as a bridge between the public and the top legislature, enabling more people to take part in legislation and ensuring different voices on legislative affairs are heard."

She said she is delighted with this new work method, as the station has been added to a draft amendment to the Legislation Law, meaning that collecting public opinions will become an inevitable part of lawmaking.

The draft amendment states that legislative bodies at all levels should maintain close contact with the people and gather public suggestions on legislation by establishing such stations.

The draft revision is due to be submitted to the first annual session of the 14th NPC for deliberation on Sunday.

The revision also highlights the principle of "whole-process people's democracy" and strengthens the review of normative documents to ensure they are consistent with the Constitution. Such documents, which are frequently seen in China, cover judicial interpretations, regulations and administrative rules, among other issues.

'Head' of all laws

The draft amendment was reviewed by the NPC Standing Committee in October and December.

Generally speaking, a draft becomes law after being reviewed three times by the NPC Standing Committee. However, if a piece of legislation is closely related to the nation's fundamental issues and people's interests, such as institutional reforms to State organs or regulating civil behavior, it must be further discussed by all NPC members, rather than simply being adopted by the NPC Standing Committee.

Zang Tiewei, spokesman for the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission, said in October the Legislation Law is an important law that defines the national legislative system and standardizes legislative activities.

This law, which took effect in 2000, relates to the introduction and improvement of every law and regulation, and is usually referred to as the "head" of all laws in China.

Feng Yujun, a law professor at Renmin University of China, wrote in an article published in Law Science Magazine in June that in view of new problems and efforts made regarding legislation in recent years, the Legislation Law, which was partly amended in 2015, needs urgent and further revision to continue playing a leading role in regulating legislative activities.

As public demand for the rule of law has increased, people also expect problems to be solved and justice to be realized through legislation in the new era, "or simply put, the public need for legislation is no longer based on whether it exists or not, but whether it works," the article stated, adding that legislators must meet higher requirements.

Putting people first

Yang, from Xiangyang, said she was excited to learn that the need to establish stations to collect public opinion had been written into the latest draft amendment, adding that this would help implement "whole-process people's democracy".

The term "whole-process people's democracy" was put forward by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, during an inspection tour of Shanghai in November 2019, when he emphasized that China is marching on a political development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the nation's people's democracy is a whole-process democracy.

On July 1, 2021, when the Party celebrated its 100th anniversary, Xi stressed the need to develop whole-process people's democracy, and the term was also highlighted in a report to the 20th CPC National Congress in Beijing in October.

Statistics released by the Xiangyang station show that since it was established in 2015, it has provided more than 5,000 opinions on 76 laws at national level. Over 200 suggestions it has received have been considered by the NPC Standing Committee.

In July, for example, Liu Li, an official responsible for the station, began seeking opinions with her colleagues on a draft law aimed at fighting telecom and online fraud.

When they arrived in Fancheng district, Wang Zunyi, head of the local Gaozhuang community, suggested that legislators add a clause to fight such fraud by rewarding people who provide tip-offs about possible offenses, as this would encourage more recruits to join the anti-fraud team.

Liu said this advice was added to the law against telecom and online fraud, which took effect at the end of last year.

In August, when the Xiangyang station gathered ideas on a draft revision to the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, Jiang Pengyu, from Gucheng subdistrict, suggested that legislators allow women who experienced sexual harassment to initiate civil lawsuits, in addition to seeking help from the police.

Liu said the suggestion, which was considered by the NPC Standing Committee, was included in the final version of the revised law, which came into force at the beginning of this year.

Yang said, "These examples reflect a people-centered approach to legislation, demonstrating that the station offers an effective channel for the public to offer advice directly to the nation's top legislature, enabling more people to take part in lawmaking."

Meanwhile, in Jiangxi, the Jingdezhen station had gathered 2,390 suggestions from the public on 77 national-level laws by the end of last month, with more than 300 suggestions accepted by the NPC Standing Committee.

Duan Xiaohong, director of the legislative affairs commission for the standing committee of Jingdezhen people's congress, the city's legislative body, said, "The process of collecting legislative suggestions from more walks of life demonstrates that people are the masters of the country."

In her view, this shows that China puts the people first and demonstrates the effectiveness of "whole-process people's democracy".

After seeing the success of the first group of stations, the NPC Standing Committee introduced more such sites, not only among standing committees of legislatures at provincial and city levels, but in colleges and technological zones. These stations have now been established nationwide.

More importance

In recent years, China has attached greater importance to implementing the Constitution, prompting legislators to step up reviews of normative documents to ensure they do not contradict the Constitution.

Such documents that conflict with the Constitution or its spirit or principles, must be corrected to safeguard the authority of fundamental law.

To enable reviews and further uphold the authority of the Constitution, the latest draft amendment to the Legislation Law states that the NPC's Constitution and Law Committee should provide reports with opinions after reviewing draft laws or revisions. In these reports, the committee needs to explain whether the draft laws or revisions are consistent with the Constitution.

The draft amendment states that if necessary, the committee will be permitted to review normative documents involving a special industry or concerning a topical issue, in order to make such reviews more targeted.

Feng, from Renmin University, wrote in his article that amending the Legislation Law is being put forward to align with the latest amendment to the Constitution unveiled in 2018.

"It is also to lay the foundation, pave the way and set the standard to comprehensively advance law-based governance in all respects," the article stated.