Full Text: Work report of NPC Standing Committee (12)

3. Giving full play to the principal role of NPC deputies and doing more to help them better maintain contact with the people

We will thoroughly implement the system whereby we maintain direct contact with NPC deputies, and solicit and give expression to, by multiple means, their comments and suggestions on the Standing Committee's legislative and oversight work. We will improve our efforts to brief deputies on the Standing Committee's important initiatives and solicit their opinions. We will promote the establishment of permanent mechanisms allowing deputies to observe Standing Committee meetings, participate in inspections of compliance with laws, and join the activities of special committees and working committees, making sure that all local-level deputies to the NPC have at least one opportunity to sit in on a Standing Committee meeting. In addition, we will establish a mechanism under which we solicit the opinions of deputies and people from all sectors of society before deliberating the national economic and social development plan and government budgets. We will organize specific-topic study sessions for deputies. We will urge the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate to strengthen their ties with deputies and open up more channels for deputies to learn about state affairs and the government's work.

We will formulate guidelines on improving the system by which NPC deputies maintain contact with the people, enhance working and online platforms to facilitate contact between deputies and the public, establish a sound mechanism for relevant government departments to handle and give feedback on the comments and requests from the public that have been referred by deputies, and establish broader channels for the expression of social conditions and public sentiment, so as to give full play to the role that deputies play as a bridge between the government and the people.

We will improve mechanisms and approaches for examining deputies' proposals and handling their suggestions, so as to ensure that the process of examining and handling proposals and suggestions becomes a process whereby state bodies maintain close contact with deputies and improve their work. We will ensure NPC deputies play a bigger role in the drafting and revising of laws, and earnestly study and draw upon their comments and suggestions. We will urge and coordinate the efforts of relevant departments to handle deputies' suggestions, helping these departments to improve their work through the handling of key suggestions.

In line with the CPC Central Committee's guidance on strengthening and improving the deputy-related work of the NPC, we will work to enhance the political integrity and conduct of deputies and support electoral bodies in strengthening their law-based supervision over deputies' fulfillment of their duties, so as to ensure that deputies cherish the power granted to them by the people, carry out their duties in strict accordance with the law, observe the Constitution and other laws in an exemplary manner, and take the initiative in upholding common moral values.

4. Making further progress in our work on foreign relations, information and publicity, and theoretical research while strengthening self-improvement

In accordance with the overall principles and plans of the CPC Central Committee for the country's diplomatic work, we will strengthen the planning and management of the NPC's foreign relations work, giving priorities to developing contact with the parliaments of major countries, China's neighbors, and other developing countries. We will expand the scope of mechanism-based regular exchanges with foreign parliaments and explore more diverse ways of conducting exchanges. In addition to top-level exchanges, we will also make full use of exchanges at various other levels, such as those conducted by NPC special committees, friendship groups, and local people's congresses. We will also promote multilateral contacts with foreign parliaments. We will make sure that these initiatives not only enhance China's international influence and its weight in international discourse, but comply with and serve the Belt and Road Initiative and China's overall development.

We will improve the NPC's information and publicity work. We will channel great energy into publicizing the system of people's congresses; strengthen publicity and explanation of the NPC's work regarding legislation, oversight, decision making, and election; and intensify activities to illustrate how exemplary NPC deputies perform their duties and how the work of local people's congresses is carried out. We will explore new ways of carrying out the NPC's publicity work, giving full expression to the functions of both traditional and emerging media, so as to improve the effectiveness of our publicity initiatives.

We will advance the NPC's theoretical research work, increasing our efforts to study and explain the new theories and practices with regard to upholding and improving the system of people's congresses and fully advancing the law-based governance of China developed by the CPC Central Committee headed by General Secretary Xi Jinping since the 18th National Party Congress. We will enhance the development of think tanks for the NPC's theoretical research, and actively study the features and underlying laws of the NPC's work. These efforts will help to provide theoretical and intellectual support for the sound performance of the NPC under new circumstances. (mo