Your Suggestion, Our Legislation | How one word got two committees working together

Can a residents' committee supervise an owners' committee? This question once troubled Yi Fei, secretary of the residents' committee of the Hongqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone in Hongqiao Subdistrict, east China's Shanghai.

The issue came to a head when pieces began falling from the exterior wall of a building in the area, posing a danger that called for urgent repairs. The building's owners' committee was about to end its term and planned to leave the repairs to the next committee. However, the safety issue could not wait.

The previous version of the Organic Law of the Urban Residents' Committees of the People's Republic of China did not give residents' committees the authority to supervise owners' committees. As a result, the residents' committee could not step in to push the repairs forward, and the matter reached a deadlock.

In July 2025, the Legislative Outreach Office of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (Hongqiao Subdistrict) carried out consultations on the draft amendment to the law. Eleven legislative suggestions were eventually adopted, including Yi's proposal to add the word "supervision" to the law, giving residents' committees oversight of owners' committees. This filled an institutional gap in grassroots governance.

Since its establishment, the Legislative Outreach Office of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (Hongqiao Subdistrict) has held public consultations involving more than 48,000 participants and collected 6,576 legislative suggestions. Of these, 511 have been studied and incorporated into relevant laws and regulations, turning grassroots public opinion into real legal force.