Can the value of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC) as a multi-party organization to exercise
democratic supervision over state policies and important issues
really be embodied in its proposals? Moreover, do its proposals
really get the attention of departments concerned? For answers to
these and other questions, a china.org.cn staff reporter
interviewed Yu Shenglong, a CPPCC member and a former vice-chair of
the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Since the fourth session of the Ninth Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC), CPPCC
members, democratic parties and people's organizations concerned
altogether submitted 3,737 proposals with the focus on those
important issues regarding the economy and social development of
our country as well as those prominent issues of concern to
society. According to the laws concerned, the CPPCC Committee for
Handling Proposals, after careful review, forwarded 3,566 to
government departments concerned for appropriate action. Among
them, 58 are from eight democratic parties and the All-China
Federation of Industry and Commerce, 33 from different member
groups, and the rest (1,845) are all from individual CPPCC members,
making up 79.8 percent of the total CPPCC members.
In
Yu Shenglong's opinion, the state is attaching more and more
importance to CPPCC proposals, which are reaching resolution more
effectively. For those key proposals, the CPPCC Committee for
Handling Proposals arranged various activities to facilitate their
settlement by organizing talks between those who put forward the
proposals and the government departments concerned, researching
individual subjects, and visiting the departments concerned by the
members who put forward the proposals and vise versa.
Yu
related his own story as an example: In 2000, he put forward a
proposal on enacting a law on traditional Chinese medicine. The
CPPCC Committee for Handling Proposals organized the members
concerned to hold a talk with State Administration of Traditional
Chinese Medicine, let the two sides fully exchange their views and
consult with each other. Later the committee arranged for some
members and the heads from departments concerned to go to
Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou for investigation and study, so as to
collect the opinions of local people. After the investigation, the
committee organized discussions, and wrote and forwarded a report
to the department concerned. It took only nine days before the
department gave its response.
Last year, when Yu proposed establishing a Traditional Chinese
Medicine Museum, the CPPCC again organized members concerned and
the heads of departments concerned to go to Shanghai, Tianjin,
Zhejiang for research. Yang Rudai, vice chairman of the CPPCC
National Committee, attended the discussions himself and handed the
report to Vice-Premier Li Lanqing. Vice-Premier Li wrote comments
on the report on the same day. Four days later, the opinion of
departments concerned was returned to the CPPCC. The Ministry of
Finance decided to invest 1 million yuan as initial funds to build
the museum.
In
addition to this, Yu said that the past two years have seen much
more emphasis being placed on the united role of Party, government
and the CPPCC in the process of handling proposals from CPPCC
members. Yu cited as an example the settlement of the proposal on
improving the work of exit and entrance in Shenzhen last year. Vice
chairman of the CPPCC National Committee Wan Guoquan chaired talks
among the CPPCC Committee for Handling Proposals, CPPCC members
from Hong Kong, Macao, and government representatives from the
State Development Planning Commission, Ministry of Public Security
and General Administration of Customs. State Councilor Wu Yi, after
learning about the problem through the newsletter, joined in the
resolution of the issue.
Reviewing his experience over the past fives years in participating
in the discussion of such affairs, Yu said that CPPCC members have
been playing a more active role in the discussion and
administration of state affairs and Party and the state are paying
more attention to the proposals so that the proposals are settled
more effectively.
(By Zhang Yan, china.org.cn staff reporter, translated by Zheng
Guihong April 2, 2002)