Democracy developed rapidly in villages

China's village-based democracy has developed rapidly during the 30 years of reform and opening up, according to experts from the China Rural Issues Research Center.

More than 400 million farmers in 17 provinces took part in villagers' committee re-elections in 2008, said Xu Yong, director of the center at the Huazhong Normal University in Wuhan, Hubei province.

Xu said most of China's 6 million villages had held elections at least seven times by the end of last year, while more than 98 percent had drawn up self-governance memorandums and township agreements, and more than 90 percent were making village affairs public.