The work of local people’s congresses is vital to the effective performance of people’s congresses under new circumstances. With a view to upholding and improving the system of people’s congresses and forming synergy in the work of people’s congresses so as to deliver more effective performance, the Standing Committee laid stress on developing closer working relations with local people’s congresses, enhanced guidance and support for their work, expanded the scope of cooperation and exchanges with them, and worked with them to ensure that the system of people’s congresses and its performance can keep up, improve, and develop with the times.

1) We took steps to strengthen the work and development of people’s congresses at the county and township levels.As the community-level bodies of state power in China and an important foundation of the local political power, people’s congresses at the county and township levels assume a fundamental position in the modernization of our country’s governance system and capacity for governance. In June 2015, the CPC Central Committee forwarded the guidelines of the Leading Party Members’ Group of the NPC Standing Committee on strengthening the work and development of people’s congresses at the county and township levels. This represented a major measure taken by the Party Central Committee under new conditions to strengthen the work of people’s congresses, especially those at the county and township levels, and promote socialist democracy and rule of law. In response to the guidelines, the Standing Committee promptly revised the Organic Law of the Local People’s Congresses and Local People’s Governments, the Electoral Law for the National People’s Congress and Local People’s Congresses, and the Law on Deputies to the National People’s Congress and Deputies to Local People’s Congresses, with the focus on revising and improving provisions concerning organizational and working systems, the election of deputies, and the work of deputies in people’s congresses at the county and township levels, thereby providing a legal basis and guarantee for strengthening the work and development of people’s congresses at the two levels. In September 2015, the General Office of the Standing Committee held a conference on strengthening the work and development of people’s congresses at the county and township levels, urging local people’s congresses at all levels to study and implement the guidelines of the Party Central Committee as well as the revised legal provisions. Local people’s congresses, in view of their own circumstances, took prompt measures to improve the relevant regulations and working rules and ensure implementation of all tasks and requirements.[/en

[en]2) We drew on the revised Legislation Law to improve local legislative work.The newly revised Legislation Law accords local legislative powers to all cities which have subsidiary districts, and thus sets out new requirements on strengthening legislative work and improving the quality of legislation. This represented an important measure to improve the legislative system and the work of local people’s congresses. In order to ensure full implementation of the revised Legislation Law, the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee held a national symposium on local legislation with the participation of leading members from the people’s congresses of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government as well as of more than 80 cities which have been granted local legislative powers. The participants engaged in focused discussions and exchanged views with regard to performing the dominant role of people’s congresses in legislative work and steadily advancing the work of granting local legislative powers to cities having subsidiary districts, thus further clarifying the direction of future initiatives.By strengthening fact-finding investigations and reviewing past experience, we also provided active assistance to the standing committees of people’s congresses of provinces and autonomous regions, helping them to establish processes and timetables for the cities, to which they have granted local legislative powers, to follow in formulating local legislation. We held three training sessions on the revised Legislation Law for 873 legislators from provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government as well as 178 autonomous prefectures and cities divided into districts, thereby supporting the efforts of local people’s congresses to strengthen their legislative workforce and improve their legislative competence.

The Standing Committee has continued to respect the principal position of deputies, believing that exerting their role is vital to strengthening our contact with the public and raising the quality of our work. We have improved our work mechanisms related to deputies in a constant effort to raise the standard of our deputy-related work.[/cn]

[en]1) We strengthened our ties with NPC deputies.We implemented the system whereby members of the Chairperson’s Council and members of the Standing Committee maintain direct contact with NPC deputies, and heard deputies’ comments and suggestions on the work of the Standing Committee in a variety of ways. We invited more deputies to observe meetings of the Standing Committee and increased their participation in the Standing Committee’s legislation, oversight, and research activities. Last year, more than 370 deputies observed meetings of the Standing Committee, over 300 participated in the Standing Committee’s inspections of compliance with laws, and more than 600 took part in fact-finding investigations organized by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

All 8,239 suggestions, criticisms, and comments submitted by deputies during last year’s session of the NPC have been handled, and feedback has been given to deputies by the departments handling them. The State Council, the Supreme People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, as well as relevant government departments attached great significance to the handling of deputies’ suggestions. The State Council convened an executive meeting exclusively to hear its departments’ reports on the handling of deputies’ suggestions, and set out clear requirements. The departments charged with the handling of suggestions strengthened their direct communication with deputies concerned and made dedicated efforts to improve the relevant aspects of their work and address the problems in question. According to statistics, 80.1% of the problems raised by deputies last year have been resolved or slated for gradual resolution. We grouped and condensed 185 suggestions jointly proposed by 2,638 deputies belonging to 13 delegations, ending up with 20 key suggestions to be addressed under our supervision. These suggestions were referred to 43 departments for implementation under the oversight of seven special committees of the NPC. Thanks to the efforts of all sides, notable progress has been made in the handling of these suggestions. In response to suggestions on, among other things, promoting the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt and turning China into a manufacturer of quality, the relevant departments formulated and introduced a number of plans, policies, and measures which have proven highly effective in advancing the relevant initiatives.