CGTN: A look at China's democracy: What is the essence?

Beijing, March 19, 2023 (Archyde.com) /PRNewswire/ – Carrying the hopes and expectations of his villagers, Long Xianwen, of the Miao ethnic group, traveled from his remote village in central China’s Hunan province to Beijing in early March to meet with the Chinese leadership and nearly 3,000 other lawmakers in China’s national legislature to talk about social and economic development.

As a deputy of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), Long introduced his proposal to support the development of deep integration of the tea tourism industry in Hunan’s Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.

What distinguishes Chinese democracy from the Western monetary policies and power-for-money deals is that the Chinese people are the masters of the country.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said that whether a country is democratic depends on whether its people are truly the masters of the country, whether the people have the right to vote and, more importantly, whether they have the right to participate fully.

The composition of deputies to people’s congresses sheds light on why China’s people’s democracy as a whole ensures the people’s status as rulers of the country.

Extensive and universell

There are five levels of people’s congresses in China – township, county, city, provincial and national. So far, 2.77 million people have served as deputies in people’s congresses at all levels nationwide.

Of these, 95 percent were at the district and community levels, which are directly elected by the citizens of their districts. The top three levels of MPs are elected by the lower level MPs

The latest elections elected more than 2.6 million deputies to people’s congresses in city and county regions after the conclusion of municipal elections in June last year.

According to statistics, 921 million voters, accounting for 86.49 percent of the registered voters, cast their votes to elect deputies to the county-level people’s congress. The election of deputies to the municipal-level people’s congresses attracted 623 million voters, accounting for 85.63 percent of registered voters.

Since the beginning of reform and opening-up, China has held 12 direct elections to municipal-level people’s congresses and 11 direct elections to county-level people’s congresses.

Deputies use their close connection with the people and conscientiously fulfill their duties by receiving and transmitting the people’s suggestions and advice through various forms and channels.

Full representative of the people

The annual people’s congresses are held first at the grass-roots level, then at the municipal, county, city and provincial levels, and finally at the highest national level, in order to take full notice of the people’s aspirations and transmit them to the higher levels.

The MPs of the 14th NPC, elected from 35 constituencies across the country, represent a broad cross-section of the people, with each region, ethnic group and sector of society having an appropriate number of representatives.

According to the 14th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, 442 of the 2,977 MPs representing all 55 ethnic minorities in China are from ethnic minorities.

The lineup includes 790 female MPs, accounting for 26.54 percent of the total, 1.64 percentage points more than the 13th NPC.

A total of 497 MEPs are workers and farmers. Their share has increased by almost one percentage point to 16.69 percent of all MPs.

The technical staff, 634 in all, accounts for 21.3 percent of all MPs, a 0.73 percent increase over the previous NPC.

A total of 969 MPs are the Chinese Communist Party and government officials, whose share fell 1.38 percentage points to 32.55 percent.

In addition, 36 deputies were elected from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and 12 from Macao SAR. 13 MPs representing Taiwan province also sit in the national legislature. 42 MPs represent overseas Chinese who have returned to the motherland.

As representatives of the people’s will, the NPC deputies have discussed national development plans and issues affecting people’s lives, and have placed the people’s expectations in state affairs at the top of the agenda. Many of their motions and proposals were carefully considered at the annual session of the National People’s Congress and then incorporated into the policy decisions of the state organs.

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