The documentary “From Village Hall to Great Hall – How Whole-process People’s Democracy Works”, broadcast on CGTN and various social media platforms, offers a fascinating, in-depth insight into the inner workings of this uniquely Chinese form of democracy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=citJtxBfNFo
Whole-process people’s democracy in China is applied through a combination of elections, consultations, decision-making, management and oversight. To discover how Chinese people’s political rights have evolved and are reflected in these five aspects, we visit urban communities, rural villages, and legislative liaison offices.
In Baini Village in Hubei province, 60-year-old Tong Zhengzhang, chairman of his local work group, is facing re-election. In China’s villages, the grassroots leadership is elected directly by the residents themselves. In Baini, every villager is keen to exercise their political rights, since they realize that their vote is a means by which they express their opinions and aspirations.
A thousand kilometers from Baini, in Beijing, people are equally enthusiastic about making their voices heard. Through democratic consultation, everyone is given the opportunity to express their view concerning community affairs – for example, regarding the proper use of an electric bike shed in the city’s Qianmen area.
As Professor Wang Xixin from Peking University Law School puts it, “Where 100 people gather, 101 opinions will be aired. It’s a process that allows individuals to speak and be heard.”
But how are grassroots opinions heard at the national decision-making level? The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference serves as a bridge. The CPPCC National Committee holds regular consultative discussions on proposals from different sectors and places. Reasonable, valid suggestions may be submitted to the policy-making process.
In a democratic society, an effective legal system is essential. The National People’s Congress, as China’s top legislative body, has established grassroots legislative liaison offices across the country. These gather public opinion on planned legislation, for example, on a draft revision of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics.
As lawyer Zhang Zhe puts it, “Local legislative outreach offices, by providing a platform for sharing opinions on legislation, allow people’s voices to be heard by senior legislators.” Zhang believes that the foresight of high-level officials coupled with grassroots opinions creates an ideal combination of theory and practice.
Last but not least, democratic supervision, the final element in whole-process people’s democracy, ensures the effective constraint of the exercise of power.
Li Hengdi, a deputy to the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, is attending a meeting with the city’s financial bureau to discuss the allocation of funding for a project to support scientific talent. As a representative of the people, he considers it his duty to see that they get the best value from the city’s budget.
“From Village Hall to Great Hall – How Whole-process People’s Democracy Works” reveals how democracy has been tailored to China’s conditions. It concludes that there is no such thing as the “best form of democracy” in the world, and that whole-process people’s democracy, since it’s ideally suited to the Chinese reality, will be a crucial guiding principle for the country’s future development as it strives to further improve its democratic system and develop more diverse forms of democracy on which to build a better life for its people.