Low political participation among Chinese

BEIJING - Chinese people's low level of participation in policy making has been demonstrated by an annual report released by a leading public think tank on Friday.

Based on a 7,000-sample poll conducted in late 2011 in 10 provincial regions across the Chinese mainland, the report rated Chinese overall performance in political participation at 4.21 points out of 10.

Assessments of the Chinese public's level of knowledge about their rights and channels of participation, the importance, content and process of the policies, varied from 43.67 percent to 64.67 percent, according to the report issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

However, respondents' answers measuring "actual participation" turned out to meet just 11 percent of all the requirements, said the report, which added that "accepting the policies" was a basic characteristic of such participation.

The public's "willingness to participate" reached 3.37 points out of 5, while the "satisfaction level of participation" got just 2.8 points, though the results from different regions were extremely varied.

The best-known policies were those related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, plus subsistence allowance and healthcare reforms, while the public's knowledge of pricing policy and income distribution reforms tended to be very low.