Development of Grassroots Democracy in Cities UrgedJiang Chunyun, a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), has urged to promote grassroots democracy among neighborhood committees in cities.Jiang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remark recently, when he led a group of lawmakers to inspect the implementation of the Law on the Organization of Urban Residents' Committee in Shanghai. As the head of a team of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), Jiang inspected a number of local neighborhood committees in this metropolis in east China. The lawmakers were informed that local community committees have carried out the law since it came into force on January 1, 1990. Currently, democratic elections have been popular among local grassroots authorities as some local community committees have adopted direct elections and tried new systems in running neighborhood affairs. In his talks with local officials, the NPC Standing Committee vice chairman emphasized the importance of building the grassroots regime by quoting President Jiang Zemin as saying, "If the foundation is not secure, then the earth will move and the mountains will sway." The law involves 400 million urbanites and over 70 million of China's "floating population" in the country, said the lawmaker who reiterated the importance of the law for developing grassroots democracy. He urged local community committees to study new problems which have emerged with the development of the market economy in China. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |