Grassroots democracy resolves villagers' woes

Rounds of applause and laughter filled a meeting room in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region's Minzhu village — or "Democracy village" in English — as Zhang Sanming was greeted upon returning to his hometown.

Zhang, the village Party chief and a delegate to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, shared his experience at the grand congress in Beijing and discussed plans for future development with fellow villagers.

In recent years, Minzhu has helped villagers participate in managing village affairs and whole-process Party affairs, and the village's major issues and accounts have been made public and placed under supervision. "Only when the people are fully informed and involved in major and minor issues can there be lasting enthusiasm to build, govern and share together," Zhang said.

Noting that the report to the 20th CPC National Congress laid out plans for improving primary-level democracy, Zhang said that he felt obliged to turn the villagers' organizational and governance strengths into management results to achieve greater stability on the journey toward common prosperity.

According to the report, primary-level democracy is an important manifestation of whole-process people's democracy. Democracy is not an ornament to be put on display but an instrument for addressing the issues concerning the people.

In Deqing county, Zhejiang province, the fact that about 30,000 pupils were only able to lay their heads on their desks for the after-lunch nap had long been of concern to their parents.

But not anymore. Pupils now have foldable desks and chairs, as well as nap mats. This is the result of a decision made at a meeting of the county people's congress.

The practice of making decisions on important issues by ballot among deputies to people's congresses has been implemented across Zhejiang, from the city to the township level. It ensures that the people make their own decisions on their affairs.

Efforts will explore more extensive and better practices of whole-process people's democracy to translate democratic values and ideals into institutions, governing mechanisms and a way of life in China, said Chen Jian, director of the standing committee of the people's congress of Deqing.

At a village center that connects deputies with locals in Xiaoyi city, Shanxi province, village cadres, villager representatives and people's congress deputies from nearby villages sat in a circle with municipal officials from Xiaoyi and talked for two or three hours. "We sort out complaints and pass them on to officials in charge," said Song Mingsheng, deputy Party chief of the village and a deputy to the municipal people's congress of Xiaoyi.

Several problems, such as issues with heating and road building, have been solved for the village, including completion of a road that had lain unfinished for a number of years. "Only when officials sit on the same bench as the people do they better understand what the people need," said Zhao Liang, an official from the municipal people's congress of Xiaoyi.

More efforts will be made to improve the mechanism for community-level self-governance under the leadership of a primary-level Party organization, and for the institutional and working systems for direct democracy at the primary level, according to the report to the 20th CPC National Congress.

Xinhua