Full Text: Work report of NPC Standing Committee(7)

7. We effectively strengthened the Standing Committee's self-improvement efforts.

The Standing Committee always gave top priority to raising its intellectual and political standards; fully implemented the Party's basic theory, line, program, experience and requirements; thoroughly studied and put into practice the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speeches; consciously maintained a high level of unity with the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as General Secretary; resolutely implemented the Central Committee's policies and arrangements; and firmly safeguarded the work of the Party and country. We always adhered to the principle of democratic centralism, kept the rule of law firmly in mind, and did our work on the basis of procedures and in strict accordance with the law.

We intensified efforts to improve our style of work. The Leading Party Members' Group of the Standing Committee thoroughly carried out the campaign to heighten awareness of and implement the Party's mass line, and formulated guidelines and measures for adhering to the mass line and improving our style of work, which effectively brought about improvements in the Standing Committee's style of work. The Chairperson's Council of the NPC Standing Committee deliberated and approved the Measures of the Members of the Chairperson's Council for Implementing the CPC Central Committee's eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct and issued 19 specific provisions in six areas, such as improving investigations and studies. In investigations and studies on legislation and oversight, the Standing Committee paid closer attention to actual conditions and lower-level organizations, and directly solicited the views of the people and learned on the spot about pressing problems in a variety of ways, such as unannounced visits, field studies in selected locations, questionnaire surveys and online comments. The way Standing Committee meetings were held was effectively improved, democracy was brought into full play, participants eagerly awaited their turn to speak, and deliberation was more thorough. All this significantly improved the quality and level of the work of the Standing Committee.

The Standing Committee's group study sessions were well organized. We set the goal of making the Standing Committee a committee keen on learning, and made strengthening learning an important and urgent task throughout the whole process of all our work. We carefully studied and followed the guiding principles of the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee, and stressed the need to align our thinking and actions with the Central Committee's decision on and arrangements for comprehensively deepening reform and to get the NPC to fully play its role as the country's highest organ of state power in comprehensively deepening reform. We improved the system of Standing Committee lectures on special topics, selected lecture topics in line with the central work and meeting agendas of the Standing Committee, and strove to make sure that something useful was learned at the lectures.

We got the special committees of the NPC to fully play their role. Focusing on the central tasks of the NPC and its Standing Committee, the special committees made use of the abundant talent and immense knowledge of their members; vigorously carried out investigations and studies in line with their own functions and duties; conscientiously did research and deliberated and drafted bills related to their field; strengthened communication and coordination with relevant parties; and did a great deal of very fruitful work in improving quality of legislation, making oversight more effective, getting deputies to play their role, and developing foreign relations.

We increased ties with local people's congresses. We held three study courses for leaders of the standing committees of local people's congresses and one study course on the work of people's congresses in Tibet, held the Nineteenth National Conference on Local Legislation, had the standing committees of provincial-level people's congresses investigate compliance with laws, and kept local people's congresses informed about the work of the NPC Standing Committee. Members of the Chairperson's Council conducted investigations and studies in localities, solicited the views of leaders of the standing committees of local people's congresses and deputies to people's congresses at all levels in various ways, learned about local conditions, studied issues, and gave impetus to relevant work. All this made communication and exchanges between the national and local people's congresses closer and deeper.

The bodies of the NPC thoroughly carried out the campaign to heighten awareness of and implement the Party's mass line. As a result, their Party members, officials and staff further fortified their Communist ideals and convictions, heightened their awareness of the Party's purpose, boosted their morale, improved their style of work, and became noticeably better at assisting and supporting deputies.

Fellow Deputies,

The Standing Committee's achievements last year were made under the correct leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as General Secretary and are the result of the hard work of NPC deputies, members of the NPC Standing Committee and special committees, and the staff of the offices of the NPC; the joint efforts of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate; and the full support of the local people's congresses at all levels and their standing committees as well as the people of all of China's ethnic groups. On behalf of the NPC Standing Committee, I would like to express heartfelt appreciation to you all.

We are keenly aware that the work of the Standing Committee still falls well short of the expectations of the people and the demands of deputies. For example, the Standing Committee still has to strengthen its organization and coordination of legislative work; improve its mechanisms for follow-up oversight; address the problems of inadequate engagement with lower-level organizations and the people and inadequate response to people's concerns that exist in some investigations and studies on legislation and oversight; and do more meticulous and effective work in order to strengthen its ties with deputies. We will willingly accept the oversight of the people; listen to the views of deputies with an open mind; and get the NPC and its Standing Committee to better play their roles as the highest organs of state power, working bodies that carry out their functions and duties in accordance with the law, and representative bodies in close contact with the people.