By Wan Qigang

The people's congress system is a great creation of the people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the history of human political systems.

Through the lens of history, one can gain a profound understanding of the arduous birth of this system.

After the Opium War in 1840, China was gradually reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, facing unprecedented political and national crises. Where is China headed? What kind of political system should China establish? The CPC, upon its establishment, took on the historical responsibility of realizing the liberation of the people and making them masters of the country. By integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China's specific realities, it engaged in long-term exploration and practice of people's democratic government and the fundamental political system of the state.

During the Great Revolution (1924-27), the CPC led the movement of workers and peasants, established striking workers' congresses and citizens' congresses in cities and formed peasant associations in rural areas, which were initial explorations of building state power.

During the Agrarian Revolutionary War (1927-37), the CPC led the people in establishing Soviet political power. "Soviet" is a transliteration of the Russian term into Chinese, meaning "representative assembly". It is the organizational form of proletarian dictatorship established after the October Revolution in Russia. Members of the CPC, primarily represented by Comrade Mao Zedong, pioneered a path of localizing and adapting the Soviet system in China. Zhou Enlai pointed out in the Research on the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China that "with respect to the Soviet, regardless of the appropriateness of the term, it is a representative assembly of workers and peasants, fundamentally different from the parliamentary system of the bourgeoisie. Vladimir Lenin said that Soviet power can be used not only in capitalist countries but also in colonial countries. Comrade Mao Zedong developed this idea, turning it into China's system of representative assembly." Innovations were also made to the Soviet system in Chinese practice. For example, some grassroots Soviet representatives were elected by competitive voting; and an audit supervision system was established, where the audit committee effectively performed their duty.

According to the Outline of the Constitution of the Chinese Soviet Republic, the Chinese Soviet Republic implemented a polity of people's congresses composed of workers, peasants and soldiers. By convening people's congresses at all levels, the masses of workers and peasants gained participation in the political power and were able to exercise their democratic rights. The Central Soviet Area successively conducted three large-scale democratic elections, electing Soviet representatives and Soviet governments at the township (city), district, county, province and national levels. This embodied the basic characteristics of the people's congress system.

During the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), the CPC led the establishment of a political power characterized by the Anti-Japanese National United Front. The Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan border region and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia border region successively implemented a senate system where CPC members, progressive non-CPC figures and centrists each accounted for one-third in the composition of senators and government officials at all levels. This marks the beginning of consultative democracy in China. In terms of the establishment of governmental institutions, the border areas, counties, and districts adopted a representative system, with each level having a senate, a government and a court, where the senate served as both the body of public opinion and the highest political authority.

During the War of Liberation (1946-49), the Liberated Areas gradually implemented the system of people's representative conferences. In April 1945, Mao Zedong stated in On Coalition Government: "The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history." This view of the people was deeply embedded in the organizational form of the new democratic state. This meant that "the organizational principle of the new democratic state should be democratic centralism, with the people's congresses at all levels making major policy decisions and electing governments." In 1948, Mao further articulated that the state's power organs "are the people's congresses at all levels and the governments elected by them." He emphasized, "we are a country of people's democratic dictatorship, and the word ‘people’ should be included in the name of governments and state organs at all levels, for example, the People's Court and the People's Liberation Army." This was intended to use the word "people" to define the nature of the state power, a practice that has been upheld ever since.

The North China Provisional People's Congress held in August 1948, the only institution and meeting under the name "People's Congress" prior to the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, later became the prelude and prototype for the National People's Congress (NPC). The meeting was undoubtedly of national significance.

After the preparatory meeting for the new political consultative conference and before the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a Meeting for Representatives from All Sectors of Beiping (now Beijing) was held from August 9 to 14, 1949. The CPC Central Committee attached great importance to this meeting, with key leaders including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Dong Biwu attending and delivering speeches. This meeting served as an exemplary model for the nation.

In September 1949, the First Plenary Session of the CPPCC was convened in Beiping. During this historic meeting, the CPPCC adopted the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which served as a provisional constitution for the newly established PRC. This document solemnly declared that the New China would implement the people's congress system.

At that time, conditions for implementing a nationwide system of universal suffrage for the people's congresses were not yet mature. Therefore, the approach of having the Plenary Session of the CPPCC exercise the powers of the NPC and having local representatives' meetings act on behalf of the people's congresses was adopted to gradually effectuate the transition.

In the second half of 1953, China experienced an unprecedented electoral enthusiasm, marking the first large-scale election in history. Over 5.66 million grassroots deputies were elected, and people's congress meetings were convened at successive levels. Based on this, 1,226 deputies were elected to the first NPC.

In September 1954, the First Session of the First NPC was held in Beijing. The session adopted the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, which explicitly stated: "All power in the PRC belongs to the people. The organs through which the people exercise power are the NPC and local people's congresses at various levels.” This officially established the people's congress system across the country.

The author is the director of the National People's Congress Library.