65 years on, China's political advisory body expected to play a bigger role

As the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) observes its 65th anniversary on Sunday, it is time to reflect its past and evaluate the role it has played in China's political system.

The first session of the first CPPCC National Committee, which was held on Sept. 21, 1949, not only proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China, but also adopted a "Common Program" which bore the nature of a temporary constitution.

It only ceased to act as the supreme organ of power in 1954 when the top legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC) was established, leaving a question -- what role should the CPPCC play in the future?

Credit should be given to the political advisors, who in the past 65 years exercised democratic supervision and participated in the discussion and the handling of state affairs concerning political, economic, cultural and social affairs.

As a patriotic united front organization of the Chinese people, the CPPCC serves as a key mechanism for multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Though not a decision-making body, the CPPCC has played a vital role because it helped steer decision-making on major issues ranging from each of five-year development guidelines and industrial restructuring to instituting the food safety law and establishing the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone.

The CPPCC has served as a complementary part in China's political system along with the system of people's congress and governments at all levels.

To some degree, it is a major innovation and manifestation of socialist democracy which is sharply different from the western system where parties jostle each other to hold office in rotation.

As China deepens reform, whether the CPPCC can still play the role of political consultation and supervision depends on whether it can put forward truly constructive ideas and suggestions.

When top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng brought up the three "don'ts" -- "don't pick on others for their faults, don't label other people, and don't use sticks to scare them" -- he was encouraging a more constructive voice.

The wisdom of the political advisory body matters and it can only play a bigger role when a better system is introduced.

There is never a shortage of criticism of the CPPCC, comparing it to "political flower vase" or a mere accessory to the NPC.

To rectify this notion, the CPPCC must evolve and continually renew itself.

Last October, the CPPCC held a symposiums on economic development. Since then, the consultation symposium has become a regular event, held every two weeks.

At each symposium, experts, government officials, regardless of their party affiliation, sit together to focus on particular area. On one occasion, attendees even argued heatedly over nuclear energy development.

Such constructive argument or discussion should not stop as China must find the highest common divisor amid increasingly diversified interests and voices to promote reform. It should become the new chapter of consultative democracy innovation.