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Nation
Print Edition> Nation
UPDATED: March 15, 2007 NO.12 MAR.22, 2007
Democratic Shift
China's annual NPC and CPPCC meetings this year were more open and allowed greater debate than ever before
By LAN XINZHEN
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The participants of the two meetings had other complaints to make. On March 5, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered the government work report and held a discussion with the party deputies. At that meeting NPC deputy Ma Jinquan said, "With the establishment of a market-oriented economy, I think the government should make a shift of its role. For example, it should act as a 'referee' in making market rules and protecting fair dealing, not as an 'athlete' who also takes part in market competition."

Zhang Chengfen, a CPPCC member, added, "Some leaders have done bad things and everybody knows about it but they can still stay in their positions without being punished. This is because of the lack of grassroots democracy. The mass of the people don't use their rights well to supervise their leaders."

Multi-channels for public opinions

On the morning of March 4, Wang Quanjie, an NPC deputy came to the news center for the two meetings and asked to start a personal blog. With the help of the news staff he was running a blog on the state-run Xinhuanet.com website three minutes later and his first post was two proposals that he had submitted to the meetings.

This was a new phenomenon at the events. Deputies put their proposals on their blogs to solicit opinion from the public. In this way, the voice of the public was more easily heard by China's two top-level meetings.

Zhang Xiaomei, a member of the CPPCC, received 140 constructive replies from the netizens in two days after she published her proposals on her blog. Meanwhile, feature columns on the two meetings were opened on various websites in China, including both government-run sites and commercial websites such as Tianya.cn and Tencent.com.

"Deputies to the two meetings are quite busy at night these days writing blogs, some having Internet interviews to communicate online directly with netizens," said NPC deputy Peng Zhenqiu, adding that the communication between deputies and the public has led to a dramatic change from once total isolation, to two-way interaction.

For the first time the group discussions of the two meetings are broadcast live online. Every word from the deputies and members could be heard instantly on the Internet.

"Being open and transparent, it helps guarantee the public's right to know and is the best way of supervising how the deputies conduct their duties," said NPC deputy Luo Yifeng.

This year foreign journalists could also contact deputies for interview via the meetings' news center, or directly, which was not possible in the past. And for the convenience of reporters, the news center published the locations where delegations from around the country were staying. More than 800 foreign reporters covered the two meetings.

 

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