Public suggestions on legislation important to participation

China's top legislature has received more than 3.8 million suggestions on draft laws from people from all walks of life over the past decade, opening up an important public channel for participation in national legislation, an official said.

"The National People's Congress, the top legislative body, and its standing committee has been committed to doing work for the people and from the people over the past few years, making great efforts to establish and improve the means for listening to the public's ideas and soliciting their opinions," Song Rui, director of the research department at the NPC Standing Committee's General Office, told a news conference on Wednesday.

"We've solicited public opinion and provided regular feedback through the establishment of 22 sites for collecting ideas on legislative affairs," he said, adding that the sites have played an important role in helping the public give advice directly to the country's top legislature.

Song said that the NPC Standing Committee have also set up information platforms and legal databases to increase the means of collecting public opinion, and allow more people to take part in legislation.

"Enabling people to be more broadly involved in democratic practice and providing them with a way to share their ideas contributes to guaranteeing the people are the masters of the country and to implementing whole-process people's democracy," he added.

Song said that the top legislature has also forged closer ties with NPC deputies, who are members of the public, inviting them to attend NPC Standing Committee sessions as well as arranging for them to participate in legislative surveys and inspections of law enforcement.

"In the past five years, 4,648 motions and 84,028 suggestions provided by deputies were read and handled, helping solve a series of problems of concern to the public," he added.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the NPC and its standing committee have passed 69 new laws and amended 237, with adoption of 99 major legal decisions, according to a statement from the NPC Standing Committee's General Office.

Over the past 10 years, the NPC Standing Committee has also given full reign to supervision. It has reviewed some 150 reports, including those from government agencies and judicial departments, and inspected more than 50 laws to check whether they were working effectively, the statement added.

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn