Petitioners appeal to leaders for assistance

Two-thirds of the letters received by the State Bureau of Letters and Calls are addressed to the national leaders, especially President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, 12 national legislators and political advisers were told when they visited the organization on Tuesday.[Special coverage]

The bureau is responsible for receiving petitioners and handling written and online petition letters. Staff members open an average of 2,000 letters every day.

National People's Congress deputy Abudula Abbas, a professor of life sciences at Xinjiang University, said thousands of people were standing in line at the bureau's reception center in Beijing as they waited to present their appeals for help.

At the department that deals with letters, the legislators and advisers saw cabinets filled with correspondence from across the country. Each province or autonomous region has its own cabinet.

Legislator He Jihua, deputy mayor of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, picked up a number of envelopes from a pile and saw that they were all addressed to Xi. He and the other visitors were surprised that so many letters were sent to the president.

Fan Xiaomao, the bureau's deputy director, said that on average, 15 percent of the letters contain suggestions concerning national development and social reforms.

"Some of the letters are forwarded to the leaders as they were written, while with others we draw up a list of the main points or compile extracts before sending them on."

Abudula saw the written instructions and comments made by Xi and Li on some of the letters.

"I could see that the leaders are not only concerned about national development as a whole, but also care for every individual in the country and hope to help solve their problems," he said.

The bureau handled millions of petitions last year.

"The workload of the staff members at the bureau is very heavy," Abudula added.

He suggested that people send in appeals for help and petitions online, as the bureau is required to respond to online submissions within a week. "Online petitions can reduce people's travel and accommodation costs, and the outcome is the same as when people come to the bureau in person," he added.