Top legislator lectures Party school on people's congress system

BEIJING -- China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang urged adherence and improvement to the people's congress system, China's basic political system, when delivering a report at the Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Monday.

Zhang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said the system of people's congresses is a choice of the history and the people, and must be cherished.

Ever since the CPC was founded, it has been striving to realize the goal of people being masters of the country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. After practical and theoretical explorations, it finally chose the people's congress as the fundamental political system of China, Zhang told about 2,200 attendees to the lecture.

The top legislator expounded on the distinctive features and advantages of the people's congress system.

Upholding the Party's leadership is intrinsic to the implementation of the system, Zhang said.

The greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics lies in the CPC's leadership while the people's congress system serves as an important institution through which the Party exercises leadership over the country, according to Zhang.

As the supreme form of Chinese people being masters of their own country, the people's congress system guarantees that the people, in accordance with the law, pursue democratic election, decision-making, management and supervision, and enjoy extensive democracy, freedom and rights that are prescribed by the Constitution and law, he stressed.

The system insists on safeguarding the authority of the Constitution and law, institutionalizes and legalizes democracy and enables the country's work of all kinds to be governed by law, Zhang said.

It "provides effective and reliable institutional support for implementing the rule of law," he added.

With democratic centralism as its principle, Zhang said the system determines how organs of state power are structured, how they work and how they are related to one another, and ensures all state organs carry out work both independently and in coordination with others.

Moreover, the system regulates the relations between central and local authorities according to China's actual conditions, he stressed.

It determines that China is a unitary state wherein, under the unified leadership of central authorities, local authorities are encouraged to exercise initiative, Zhang noted.

The system also effectively organizes the country's economic and social undertakings and pools strength in pursuing of socialistic modernization, he said.

It has "demonstrated tremendous political advantage and played a key organizational role" in promoting China's development, people's wellbeing, and the Chinese nation's rejuvenation, Zhang said.

Zhang stressed that the system of people's congresses is an integral part of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, as well as the basic political system that underpins state governance.

Zhang urged firm faith in the system and implementation of the stipulated obligations of the people's congresses while rallying behind the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as general secretary.

The 12th National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee have been improving the quality of legislations, stepping up oversight over enforcement of laws and the work of the government, and forging a closer bond with people's congress deputies and the public, Zhang said.