Feature: Parliamentarians from developing nations witness how Chinese grassroots democracy works

This photo taken with a mobile phone on Aug. 24, 2024 shows parliamentarians from developing nations attending a consultation meeting at a liaison office of National People’s Congress (NPC) deputies in the Xinghualing Sub-district of Taiyuan, north China’s Shanxi Province. (Xinhua/Du Juan)
TIANJIN, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — By learning how law-making consultation works at grassroots liaison stations of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), parliamentary leaders and representatives from 32 developing countries had a closer look into the Chinese democratic system.
The events were a part of the 2024 Inter-regional Seminar on the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Parliaments of Developing Countries, co-hosted by NPC and the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
On Monday, at the grassroots legislative liaison office in Xiaobailou Sub-district, Tianjin, Kafilat Adetola Ogbara, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development in Nigeria, asked about the proportion of female deputies on the local level.
“I am highly impressed. (In) A lot of the places we’ve been to, I see that women are well represented.”
She added: “What you do is… community outreach, you reach out to the people and get their opinion.”
On Saturday, parliamentarians from developing countries attended a consultation meeting at an NPC deputies liaison office in northwestern Shanxi Province on draft regulations for sports development.
Deputies from the liaison station answered questions from foreign legislators, such as why an NPC deputy, who belongs to the top legislature, attends local-level consultation. The legislators also learned how the views of people in the Xinghualing sub-district, where the office is located, feed into the law-making process at the national level.
“Today I have watched democracy at work,” commented Lesotho’s National Assembly Speaker, Tlohang Sekhamane, after the legislative consultation session.
Sekhamane was particularly interested in observing how the deputies make their decisions. “I’m truly impressed,” he told Xinhua in an interview, adding that it was evident they were genuinely conveying the opinions of the people they represent as they spoke.
Peter Katjavivi, speaker of Namibia’s National Assembly, said that he was inspired to hear deputies discussing the issue of sports insurance during the consultation session.
“Your ideas and insights are essentially helping us understand how we can improve the system to ensure it is inclusive for everyone,” he noted.
“What is very important is that you do have integration of grassroots input in what you are deciding to do,” said Sebastien Pillay, a member of the National Assembly of Seychelles. “I attended meetings where I listened to deputies discuss how they engaged with the public, gathering input on the changes they were aiming to implement within the policy initiative.”
During several days of field trips to Beijing, Shanxi Province and Tianjin, parliamentary representatives from developing countries spoke highly of China’s whole-process people’s democracy.
“The public can go and write complaints, petitions and suggestions to improve the districts in which they live and receive responses,” said Edmund Hinkson, a member of parliament of Barbados, after visiting the Xinghualing liaison station.
“The goal is to have a system whereby you have people’s participation in the democracy,” he noted.
Puso Gaborone, chairman of Botswana’s House of Chiefs, told Xinhua that democratic systems vary across countries and states, emphasizing that “any system a country adopts must be one that works effectively for its people.”
Gaborone said one defining feature of China’s democracy is its people-centered approach. It takes “people along, making them part of the process so that they can benefit from the process and take the country forward.” ■