President urges better use of internet to collect views
President Xi Jinping has urged better use of the internet to heed people's views and pool their wisdom in a recent instruction on the work of soliciting public views and suggestions online to formulate the country's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for economic and social development.
Saying that this is the first time in the history of drafting China's five-year plans that public opinion has been sought online, Xi urged departments to sort through and absorb these comments in a timely and earnest manner.
According to Xi, the move has involved significant involvement from the people and garnered a great number of constructive opinions and suggestions on a wide range of topics, clearly showing the people's new aspiration for a better life.
Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said the people's aspiration for a better life is the goal we strive to achieve, and the confidence and support of the people are the forces that move the country forward.
The experience gained from seeking public comments online should be reviewed to ensure the internet is better used to hear people's voices and pool their wisdom, he added.
The campaign to seek public input online for drafting the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) was conducted Aug 16 to 29. It received over 1 million opinions and suggestions from internet users.
Netizens were able to offer their opinions and comments under keywords that represented different topics in the plan, such as "digital economy", "opening-up" and "healthy China".
Among the comments solicited under the topic of "rural revitalization" at online platform Xuexi.cn, a comment liked by more than 2,300 people says that "attention must be paid to the issue of education of children in rural areas as well as the wages and treatment of rural teachers".
Xinhua contributed to this story.