Public opinion will become the major criterion for selecting new CPC cadres while nearly 100,000 officials of the ruling Communist Party's committees at provincial,municipal, county and township levels are facing reelections in 2006-2007 period.

The information was released by He Guoqiang, head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee at the on-going Fourth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC).

The large-scale re-election of the CPC's local leading cadres, which will lay an important personnel foundation for the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to be heldin 2007, will adopt a new cadre appraisal system which focus on cadre's popularity amid the people, rather than their efforts in pursuing GDP growth.

In the past years, GDP growth was the most important criterion for appraising local cadres, causing that some cadres blindly pursuing GDP growth but failed to let ordinary people enjoy the fruits and interests of economic development. Some local governments even became debt-ridden due to the excessive economic expansion.

"The change of the cadre appraisal method demonstrates the important shift of the work priority of the ruling Communist Partyand the government," said Gao Xinmin, professor of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, adding that "the new cadre appraisal system will bring far-reaching impacts on local cadre's work style."

The new cadre appraisal system include such criteria as public opinion poll, political achievements analysis, face-to-face talk and comprehensive assessment, according to an official from the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

The new cadre appraisal system has been put into operation on the trial basis in provinces and autonomous region like Zhejiang, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia. By now, a total of 12,117 cadres have participated in the public opinion poll.

Chen Lina, an NPC deputy and a doctor of the Central Hospital of the Lishui City, east China's Zhejiang Province, where the new cadre appraisal system was put into trial, said "In the past, ordinary people were accustomed to hearing and obeying leading cadre's instructions, but nowadays we have the right to say in theselection of cadres".

During the process of the reshuffle of her city's Party committee, public opinion poll was conducted and the result of thepoll, which was released by news media, brought about a change inthe final candidate list of major cadre posts.

Lou Yangsheng, NPC deputy and Secretary of the Lishui MunicipalCommittee of the CPC, said the new cadre appraisal system forced cadres to pay much attention to ordinary people's life. And the cadres, who were selected in line with the new cadre appraisal method, always took much care of ordinary people and were capable of dealing with complicated social problems.

Song Fufan, Professor with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee said the new cadre appraisal method showed full respect for citizen's rights to know, to participate in political affairs,to select officials and to supervise governmental affairs. And thecadre appointment has shifted from the decision of a small number of officials to the decision based on the opinions of a majority of people.

Introducing public opinion as one of important criteria to select cadres also helped fight corruption. In the past, cadres always sought connections with higher ranking officials by taking bribes for promotion. The new cadre appraisal method will help tighten the public supervision over the CPC cadre reelection.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2006)