would serve as a role model in promoting legislative hearings in China.

Soliciting public opinion

On July 10, 2005, the full text of the Real Right Law draft, which was adopted on March 16, 2007, and took effect on October 1, 2007, was publicized to solicit suggestions. By August 20, 2005, a total of 11,543 suggestions had been collected.

On March 20, 2006, the NPC Standing Committee publicized the Labor Contract Law to solicit public opinion. In only one month, a total of nearly 200,000 suggestions were collected through various channels, setting a new record. Of all these suggestions, about 65 percent came from grassroots laborers.

According to Guo Jun, a senior official of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, who took part in the drafting of the Labor Contract Law, said debate had accompanied the whole legislation process including investigation, drafting and deliberation. Different opinions had come from both labor and management and representatives of different interests groups.

On March 25, 2007, the Employment Promotion Law draft was publicized, becoming the third law to have a draft version released for suggestions in the five-year term of the 10th NPC Standing Committee.

The participation of the general public in creating laws is gradually moving on from raising suggestions to deciding what kinds of laws and regulations need to be made.

In 2005, the government of the central province of Anhui announced that citizens could raise suggestions on Anhui's legislative plans for 2006 by sending letters, emails, faxes or paying visits to government offices over the period of one month.

Yan Taifang, a 70-year-old retired civil servant, was the first to put forward her suggestions by visiting the provincial government. After her son passed away, Yan was not allowed to visit her grandson by her daughter-in-law. When Yan went to her local court to seek legal support, she found there was no law protecting her right to visit her grandson. So Yan suggested the formulation of a new law protecting the rights of grandparents to visit their grandchildren.

Normalization of public participation

Under current NPC practices around 90 percent of laws are drafted by a government body. Usually these government bodies are eager to draft laws as this allows them to define their powers and avoid their duties. Because of this, the credibility of the Electric Power Law, Civil Aviation Law, Railway Law and Postal Law has been under question since they came out.

Wang Xixin, Director of the Center for Public Participation Studies and Supports at Peking University, said whether draft laws are publicized to solicit suggestions is more than a mere technical matter. He believes that the legislation process is one that strikes a balance between different interest groups and allows all parties into this process to express their demands. Through this process it is possible to make a law that reflects the interests of parties and can be enforced effectively.

The problem for now is that inviting public participation into the legislation process has been written into China's Legislation Law, but not as a coercive measure. Cai said this means the transparency of the legislative process depends on the legislature's judgment.

Cai believes an open legislative process demands not only publicizing draft laws, but also opening up all the procedures to the public, so that the public can know how NPC delegates and members of the NPC Standing Committee deliberate a law. Only by doing this can the public really understand whether their suggestions have been given attention. If they see this is the case, they will continue to put forward suggestions to the legislature.