At the just concluded 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a great step has been taken toward democratic reform with the inclusion of a tenure system for delegates to Communist Party congresses at all levels in the Party's Constitution, .

The amendment, designed to empower delegates to supervise Party committees at all levels, was endorsed on October 21.

It enshrines the right of Communist Party cadres to elect, supervise, criticize and demand attention from the Party's leadership.

"The tenure system plays an active role in establishing the authority of the Party congress and activating the functions of both the Party congress and its delegates," commented Liang Yanhui, a professor from the CPC Central Committee's Party School, the party's top cadre-training base and a leading think-tank.

More functional

In China, the National People's Congress is elected for a term of five years. During the term the People's Congress deputy carries out his statutory duties. The tenure is same as that of the Party congress deputy, but he has no duties between national Party congresses.

Major decisions at the local level are made at local Party plenums, which are held every few years. There have been few meetings between plenums and this has contributed to the poor functioning of the Party's deputy system. Many Party members, including a considerable number of Party deputies, see Party membership as simply a political honor.

According to Zhang Xiaoyan, political science expert from the CPC Central Committee's Party School, the newly adopted tenure system guarantees the right of Party deputies to elect, supervise and criticize the Party's leaders and organizations, to demand attention from the leadership of the Party congress and to recall inept Party cadres.

From theory to Constitution

The CPC has always respected and safeguarded the democratic rights of its members over the Party's 86-year-long history.

It has been working to establish a Party congress system with regular annual conferences to promote inner-Party democracy since the very first generation of the Party leadership, said political expert Li Yongzhong.

Documents show that in 1956, Mao Zedong suggested adopting a five-year-term tenure system for the Party congress.

The second-generation Party leader Deng Xiaoping also proposed in a report on the amendment of the Party Constitution at the Eighth National Congress of the CPC that a system of Party congresses with regular annual conferences should be tried out at central, provincial and county levels.

Afterwards the 10-year "cultural revolution "(1966-76) wreaked devastation on the Party and the country. "The Party has drawn lessons from its turbulent history, and made collective leadership construction a shared notion among generations of Party leaderships," noted Huang Weiting, Associate Chief Editor of Red Flag Press.