Listen more to voice from the grass-root deputies. They live among the people and work at the basic level. It’s they who understand social contradictions and the people’s aspirations. They are elected by the people, and their proposals reflect the grass-root people’s pleasures and sorrows. Many of the deputies sought opinions and suggestions from the common people before attending this annual session, so their proposals represent the voice of ordinary people. They dare to speak out with truthfulness, presenting clear-cut opinions that are valuable in improving the administration of government. The hot issues reported by grass-root deputies are key to the work of the government at all levels.

“The work of helping the poor by some local governments are always promoted highly on New Year’s Day or other festivals, but during normal time they take no notice of poor people,” said Dong Shufang, a farmer and deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC) from Dingxi County in northwest China’s Gansu Province. “Caring for the poor should not blow hot and cold,” she added.

Kang Longtian, a miner and a deputy, put forward a motion on preventing mine accidents. “Security in the mining production should be highlighted. This is a case involving human life, and the stretch of accidents occurring here and there around the country should be curbed without a delay,” said Kang, who has been working in underground mines for 24 years for the Xishan Coal & Electricity Group of Shanxi. A deputy from Yunnan Province, Zhang Meiqiong also said: “Overstatement in the statistics concerning governments’ achievements should be gotten rid of, otherwise this can damage the interests of both the country and the people.”

Listening more to voice of grass-root deputies is also a way to express socialist democracy, to which the two annual sessions give full play. Collecting opinions, and complaints and wisdom of the people, and reflecting the people’s will and rights to mastering their own country are the major functions of the “two sessions.”

Listening more to voice of grass-root deputies is to improve the style of meetings, which is important. To hold as successful the Fifth Session of the Ninth National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Fifth Session of the Fifth National Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC), we need to seek and grasp truths to improve the style of meetings, while complying with the requirements of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Fifteenth Central Committee of the Party. The “two sessions” should be taken as a pivot to enhance the contact between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the people, turn the will of the CPC into the will of the people, unit the people from all fields to struggle against hardship and strive forward.

(By Zhao Peng, Xinhua News Agency, March 4, 2002 translated by Zhang Tingting for china.org.cn March 9, 2002)