He nods his head and beams when others refer to him as a
"public hearing expert". Indeed, Cui Yansheng merits the title: In the last six
years, the 69-year-old has attended 21 public hearings in Hangzhou, capital of
East China's Zhejiang Province.
In other words, he missed only one meeting. "It occurred
to me that democracy was, in fact, within arms' reach when I attended the first
hearing in 2000," recalls Cui, who has lived in this city for more than half a
century.
The 1996 Law on Administrative Punishment officially
introduced the public hearing system, a brand-new notion to most Chinese. Under
the law, any Chinese citizen can appeal to the authorities if fined "a
significant sum of money" or for example, if his driving license were revoked.
A public hearing system was added to the Law on Pricing
in 1998: a hearing must be held by authorities before fixing the price of
certain public services, especially utilities. Borrowed from the West, the idea
quickly took off in China.
"I deem the hearing system a highly functional platform
for the presentation of our voice," says Cui, who before retirement in 1998 was
an engineer at the Hangzhou Machine Tool Group.
Cui can still recall his first hearing about improving
the administration of public gardens in Hangzhou, a famous travel destination in
China. That summer, Cui cycled through the city collecting visitors' opinions
and then surprised everyone by presenting them at the hearing.
"It was a really heated debate, quite different from the
symposiums I had seen before. But I was pleased to see the hearing worked -- the
administration ultimately cancelled ticket fees."
Neither Cui nor Hangzhou is the sole case.
More than 2,000 hearings had taken place across the
nation by the end of 2005. They covered a wide range of topics: educational
fees, ban on fireworks, air ticket pricing and even resettlement compensation
for households moved out of prime inner city real estate.
The hearing system fosters "awareness of public
participation", says a professor of the China University of Political Science
and Law. "People are more willing to cooperate with the authorities in
implementation of a public policy if they can contribute to the policy-making
process," says Ma Huaide.
Both administration and citizenry are shifting
mentality. Recollecting his own experiences, Cui says his "overall quality" has
improved a lot. He subscribes to nine daily newspapers and several magazines to
keep tabs on the latest developments in society.
"I'm neither a National People's Congress (NPC) nor a
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) representative, but I
can state with confidence that I'm a qualified spokesman for the people around
me," he says.
The NPC and the CPPCC are China's top legislature and
top advisory body, respectively.
