5. We facilitated improvements in the work of local people's congresses.
The work of local people's congresses is vital to the effective performance of people's congresses under new circumstances. With a view to upholding and improving the system of people's congresses and forming synergy in the work of people's congresses so as to deliver more effective performance, the Standing Committee laid stress on developing closer working relations with local people's congresses, enhanced guidance and support for their work, expanded the scope of cooperation and exchanges with them, and worked with them to ensure that the system of people's congresses and its performance can keep up, improve, and develop with the times.
1) We took steps to strengthen the work and development of people's congresses at the county and township levels.
As the community-level bodies of state power in China and an important foundation of the local political power, people's congresses at the county and township levels assume a fundamental position in the modernization of our country's governance system and capacity for governance. In June 2015, the CPC Central Committee forwarded the guidelines of the Leading Party Members' Group of the NPC Standing Committee on strengthening the work and development of people's congresses at the county and township levels. This represented a major measure taken by the Party Central Committee under new conditions to strengthen the work of people's congresses, especially those at the county and township levels, and promote socialist democracy and rule of law. In response to the guidelines, the Standing Committee promptly revised the Organic Law of the Local People's Congresses and Local People's Governments, the Electoral Law for the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses, and the Law on Deputies to the National People's Congress and Deputies to Local People's Congresses, with the focus on revising and improving provisions concerning organizational and working systems, the election of deputies, and the work of deputies in people's congresses at the county and township levels, thereby providing a legal basis and guarantee for strengthening the work and development of people's congresses at the two levels. In September 2015, the General Office of the Standing Committee held a conference on strengthening the work and development of people's congresses at the county and township levels, urging local people's congresses at all levels to study and implement the guidelines of the Party Central Committee as well as the revised legal provisions. Local people's congresses, in view of their own circumstances, took prompt measures to improve the relevant regulations and working rules and ensure implementation of all tasks and requirements.
2) We drew on the revised Legislation Law to improve local legislative work.
The newly revised Legislation Law accords local legislative powers to all cities which have subsidiary districts, and thus sets out new requirements on strengthening legislative work and improving the quality of legislation. This represented an important measure to improve the legislative system and the work of local people's congresses. In order to ensure full implementation of the revised Legislation Law, the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee held a national symposium on local legislation with the participation of leading members from the people's congresses of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government as well as of more than 80 cities which have been granted local legislative powers. The participants engaged in focused discussions and exchanged views with regard to performing the dominant role of people's congresses in legislative work and steadily advancing the work of granting local legislative powers to cities having subsidiary districts, thus further clarifying the direction of future initiatives.
By strengthening fact-finding investigations and reviewing past experience, we also provided active assistance to the standing committees of people's congresses of provinces and autonomous regions, helping them to establish processes and timetables for the cities, to which they have granted local legislative powers, to follow in formulating local legislation. We held three training sessions on the revised Legislation Law for 873 legislators from provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government as well as 178 autonomous prefectures and cities divided into districts, thereby supporting the efforts of local people's congresses to strengthen their legislative workforce and improve their legislative competence.
3) We conducted research in preparation for the election of new people's congresses at the county and township levels.
Beginning in 2016, elections will be held for new people's congresses at the county and township levels across the country, during which more than 900 million voters are expected to directly elect over 2.5 million deputies. This will be a major political event in China, and an important step in the development of socialist democracy. Bearing this in mind, we established a research task force which, based on a review of past experience and opinions from a wide range of sources and an analysis of new developments and problems in elections, has prepared a guiding document for the elections.
4) We strengthened ties with local people's congresses.
We continued to invite leading members of the standing committees of provincial-level people's congresses to observe meetings of the Standing Committee; held briefings at regular intervals to keep local people's congresses updated on the work of the Standing Committee; and improved mechanisms through which we solicit legislative opinions from local people's congresses.
When carrying out inspections of compliance with laws, the Standing Committee requested the assistance of the people's congresses of the relevant provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government. The special committees of the NPC and working bodies of the Standing Committee strengthened their contact and coordination with the relevant bodies of local people's congresses through symposiums, briefings, and training sessions that served to facilitate the sharing of experience and discussion of particular issues. The Standing Committee actively promoted the application of information technology in local people's congresses. Over the past three years, we have provided training for the chairperson or vice chairpersons of the standing committees of more than 2,850 county-level people's congresses across the country. Local people's congresses provided full support for the work of the Standing Committee, doing a great deal to assist us in inspecting compliance with laws, conducting research on special issues, ensuring services for deputies, and carrying out foreign relations work.
6. We deepened and expanded work related to deputies to the NPC.
The Standing Committee has continued to respect the principal position of deputies, believing that exerting their role is vital to strengthening our contact with the public and raising the quality of our work. We have improved our work mechanisms related to deputies in a constant effort to raise the standard of our deputy-related work.
