V. We respected the principal position of deputies and ensured and improved our services for them.

Deputies to the NPC are members of China’s highest organ of state power. Respecting their rights means respecting the rights of the people, and ensuring that the deputies perform their duties in accordance with the law means ensuring that the people serve as masters of the country. The Standing Committee needs the support and participation of the deputies to do its work well.

1. We increased our ties with the deputies to the NPC.

We established and put into practice a sound system for members of the Chairperson’s Council and members of the Standing Committee to maintain contact with NPC deputies. Members of the Chairperson’s Council maintained direct contact with 87 deputies, and members of the Standing Committee maintained contact with 333 other deputies. Contact and communication with the deputies were maintained through meeting with them, calling them, and keeping up written correspondence with them. We invited deputies to participate in Standing Committee activities, such as research on pending legislation and inspections of the enforcement of laws, and we listened to their comments and suggestions with an open mind.

We continued to increase the participation of NPC deputies in the work of the Standing Committee. Last year we invited more than 300 deputies to attend Standing Committee meetings as non-voting observers, and for the first time, we invited some deputies to take part in the preliminary review of China’s annual draft budget and draft plan. We improved the system for keeping deputies informed about important work within the Standing Committee, the special committees, and the working committees, and solicited the opinions of deputies about relevant work. The State Council, the Supreme People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate maintained close ties with deputies and actively responded to the concerns of the deputies and the public.

2. We worked conscientiously in deliberating on deputies’ proposals and handling their suggestions.

Special committees completed deliberation on all 468 deputy proposals that were referred to them by the Presidium of the Second Session of the 12th NPC. The Standing Committee has deliberated on and adopted 6 legislative items addressed in 23 of the proposals; has completed the implementation of 4 oversight tasks brought up in 5 proposals; is currently deliberating on 6 legislative items mentioned in 83 proposals; and has included 69 legislative items discussed in 160 proposals in the long-term or annual legislative plans.

In the course of formulating and revising laws, we examined the items that deputies raised in their proposals line by line, proposal by proposal, and invited deputies who had a leading role in each proposal to participate in research for pending legislation as well as in assessments of laws prior to their promulgation. In deliberating on the draft Amendment IX to the Criminal Law, the Standing Committee adopted all relevant suggestions set forth in 81 proposals submitted by deputies to this NPC.

The 8,576 suggestions, criticisms, and comments submitted by deputies have all been handled, and feedback has been given to deputies by the departments handling them; 79.8% of the problems raised have been solved or plans have been made for solving them in due course. The General Office of the Standing Committee intensified coordination in and oversight over the handling of suggestions, selecting 19 key suggestions which had been distilled from 147 suggestions put forth by 611 deputies from 14 delegations.

The competent special committees worked hard to oversee the handling of deputies’ suggestions, while the departments handling suggestions conscientiously performed their duties and their leaders actively took part in studies and discussions on how to handle suggestions. As a result, more than 100 policies and measures have been developed, aiding in the resolution of a number of major issues of immediate concern to the people. The State Council devoted an executive meeting exclusively to listening to a report on how deputies’ suggestions have been handled, and put forth the requirement that relevant departments must regard the handling of deputies’ suggestions as an integral part of improving their own work and accepting the oversight of the people, and that they should plan and carry out this work in coordination with their main duties.