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Pix credit Qiushi here (1st Session of the NPC 1964) |
Changhao Wei and Ying Sun, recently published a quite useful article: "Why Did China Amend Its Law Governing Delegates to People’s Congresses?" (The Diplomat 10 April 2025). The institution of peoples congresses, like other institutions in China, change with the times and reflect the Basic Line of the vanguard Communist Party as it formulates policies for implementing Marxist-Leninism in every stage of historical development of the nation. Wei and Sun provide a powerful description of that evolution in this portion of the historical development of China in its present "new era."
In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under General Secretary Xi Jinping has directed – and the people’s congresses have experimented with – various reforms, both procedural and institutional, to improve “delegates-related work,” though the specifics vary across jurisdictions. The overall goal is to make sure that delegates can – and do, in fact – effectively discharge their representative duties within politically acceptable bounds. Last month’s Delegates Law amendments codified many of those reforms, thereby both placing them on a strong legal footing and upgrading them to statutory requirements that apply nationwide. We highlight a few in this article. (Wei and Sun, "Why Did China Amend Its Law Governing Delegates to People’s Congresses?").Wei and Sun make several important points. The first touches on the cultures of responsiveness of NPC delegates within the parameters of the political system. The second is the role that NPC delegates play both in giving effect to the overall leadership of the Communist Party of China, and as a key element of the recently elaborated whole process people's democracy (for discussion on WPPD see, e.g. here). The alignment of the two gives efforts at elaborating a structure of Chinese socialist democracy its contemporary character. The third touches on the way in which delegates contributes to the four organs theory of the NPC system (which Wei and Sun nicely summarize)--as political organs [政治机关] responsive to CPC guidance and leadership, as that conscientiously adhere to the leadership of the CPC; as state organs [国家权力机关] that give effect to the administrative elaboration of political policy and direction; as mass line organs [工作机关] that give effect to the core policy of people being the masters of the state; and as representative [代表机关] that undertake the duties vested in them by the State Constitution in their function as organs of popular power. Wei and Sun also do an excellent job of describing the nature and fiction of the two contacts principle around which delegate duty may be elaborated--that state organs must maintain close contact with NPC delegates and that NPC delegates must maintain close contacts with the people. This principle is hardened into a set of rules. These rules, in turn, become part of a function of performance measures against which delegate 's work is measured. "The Delegates Law has long required directly elected delegates to keep the voters informed of their work and obligated the delegates’ supervisory bodies to organize regular briefing sessions with their constituents. The amendments not only extended the reporting obligation to cover all delegates (however selected), but also tasked their supervisory bodies with “keeping records on their performance of duties” and “disclosing delegates’ basic information and performance information to the public.”" (Wei and Sun, "Why Did China Amend Its Law Governing Delegates to People’s Congresses?").
For those seeking an excellent summary of NPC reforms the article is worth a read. It may be accessed in the original HERE, and follows below.
For those seeking to delve a little deeper into the theoretical basis of these reforms, it may be worth considering an official English translation (published 2020 from the Chinese version published in 2019 No. 18) of Xi Jinping, Speech at the Ceremony Marking the 60th Anniversary of the National People's Congress (5 September 2014) and published in Qiushi and available online HERE. It is edited from the original Chinese version which also follows below. The General Secretary laid out the pathways to reform that have appeared with regularity over the last decade, and the conceptual structures under which such reform is undertaken.
A country's political system is determined by and reacts to its economic and social foundations. Among all of a country's various institutions, its political system plays the key role. Therefore, to boost confidence in the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we must first boost our confidence in the Chinese socialist political system, and enhance our confidence and determination in following the Chinese socialist path of political advancement. [一個國家的政治制度決定於這個國家的經濟社會基礎,同時又反作用於這個國家的經濟社會基礎,乃至於起到決定性作用。在一個國家的各種制度中,政治制度處於關鍵環節。所以,堅定中國特色社會主義制度自信,首先要堅定對中國特色社會主義政治制度的自信,增強走中國特色社會主義政治發展道路的信心和決心。]
* * *
Developing socialist democracy is an essential part of our efforts to modernize China's governance system and governance capacity. The overall goal of comprehensively furthering reform, which was set at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, is comprised of two parts: improving and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and modernizing China's governance system and capacity. The first part designates the fundamental orientation, which is the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and no other path. The second part makes clear the direction we will take to improve and develop the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics under the guidance of this fundamental orientation. Together the two parts constitute a whole. [發展社會主義民主政治,是推進國家治理體系和治理能力現代化的題中應有之義。黨的十八屆三中全會提出的全面深化改革總目標,是兩句話組成的一個整體,即完善和發展中國特色社會主義制度、推進國家治理體系和治理能力現代化。前一句規定了根本方向,我們的方向就是中國特色社會主義道路,而不是其他什麼道路。后一句規定了在根本方向指引下完善和發展中國特色社會主義制度的鮮明指向。兩句話都講,才是完整的。]
The key to developing socialist democracy is to increase and expand our strengths and unique qualities, rather than weaken and reduce them. We must uphold the core role of the Party in exercising overall leadership and coordinating overall initiatives, enhance its capacity to govern in a scientific, democratic, and law-based manner, and ensure that the Party leads the people in governing the country effectively, so as to prevent the Chinese people from becoming aimless like a ship with nobody at the helm or divided like a heap of loose sand. We must uphold the principle that all power in the country belongs to the people, guaranteeing not only law-based democratic elections but also law-based democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision, so as to avoid the phenomenon of politicians making wild promises in the elections process that they are unable to deliver later on. We must uphold and improve the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC, and strengthen cooperation and coordination of various social forces, so as to avoid factional strife between different political parties. We must uphold and improve the system of regional ethnic autonomy, consolidate socialist ethnic relations of equality, solidarity, mutual assistance, and harmony, and enable people of all ethnic groups to live together happily, work together for a common cause, and develop in harmony, so as to guard against estrangement and conflict between ethnic groups. We must uphold and improve the system of community-level self-governance, develop community-level democracy, and ensure that the people directly exercise their democratic rights in accordance with the law, so as to prevent the emergence of a situation in which the people have nominal but not real power. We must uphold and improve the system and principles of democratic centralism, urging various state organs to become more capable and efficient, enhance coordination and cooperation, and form strong synergy in national governance, so that they do not hold each other back or waste valuable energy on quibbling with each other. [發展社會主義民主政治,關鍵是要增加和擴大我們的優勢和特點,而不是要削弱和縮小我們的優勢和特點。我們要堅持發揮黨總攬全局、協調各方的領導核心作用,提高黨科學執政、民主執政、依法執政水平,保証黨領導人民有效治理國家,切實防止出現群龍無首、一盤散沙的現象。我們要堅持國家一切權力屬於人民,既保証人民依法實行民主選舉,也保証人民依法實行民主決策、民主管理、民主監督,切實防止出現選舉時漫天許諾、選舉后無人過問的現象。我們要堅持和完善中國共產黨領導的多黨合作和政治協商制度,加強社會各種力量的合作協調,切實防止出現黨爭紛沓、相互傾軋的現象。我們要堅持和完善民族區域自治制度,鞏固平等團結互助和諧的社會主義民族關系,促進各民族和睦相處、和衷共濟、和諧發展,切實防止出現民族隔閡、民族沖突的現象。我們要堅持和完善基層群眾自治制度,發展基層民主,保障人民依法直接行使民主權利,切實防止出現人民形式上有權、實際上無權的現象。我們要堅持和完善民主集中制的制度和原則,促使各類國家機關提高能力和效率、增進協調和配合,形成治國理政的強大合力,切實防止出現相互掣肘、內耗嚴重的現象。]
Wei and Sun provide an excellent analysis of the way on which these conceptual structures now manifest themselves in the latest set of reforms in the NPC system.