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| 00:00, September 28, 2004 |
| Open up a bright road to socialist democratic politics: Commentary |
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A red sun rises in the East of the world.
The People's Republic of China was born on October 1, 55 years ago. Over the past 55 years, the Chinese people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), have been working hard in starting undertakings and engaging in unremitting struggle, they have not only recorded tremendous achievements in socialist economic construction, but have also opened up a bright road in socialist democratic political construction. With vigorous economic development and all-round political progress that complement and set off each other, they have written a glorious chapter in the socialist modernization drive.
Unremitting pursuit--History has chosen the CPC that has led the people in setting up a brand-new people's democracy
Comrade Mao Zedong solemnly declared: "The Chinese people have from now on stood up!" The founding of the People's Republic marks a great leap forward in the advance of China's politics toward people's democracy and has opened up a new era in which people are masters of their country that is unprecedented in Chinese history. "People become masters of their own affairs".
"All powers of the People's Republic of China belong to the people."
In 1953, an unprecedented general election, the first in Chinese history, was carried out nationwide and, on this basis people's congresses were held level by level from the bottom up, thus laying a legal and organizational base for the founding of the National People's Congress (NPC). On September 15, 1954 the First Session of the First National People's Congress was held in Beijing, this marked the establishment of the people's congress system nationwide and ushered in a new stage in China's people's democracy.
Building a prosperous, strong and democratic country is the goal of struggle being unremittingly pursued by the Chinese Communists. People still remember that Yan'an, the capital of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Area, experienced unprecedented democratic construction under the guidance of the Communists. Here, the Communists mobilized the strengths of the people to jointly cultivate an experimental plot of New China and jointly take a new democratic road unprecedented in the past.
But how difficult it was to find out a democratic system and democratic mode suited to China's national conditions! To this end, numerous people with lofty ideals made search and exploration and went around campaigning for this objective, people of various classes and strata and various social forces put forward their propositions on what kind of political system and form of political power should be established in China and went through a tortuous course in their explorations. History has chosen the CPC that led the people in setting up a brand-new people's democratic political system, under which the people became genuine masters of the country for the first time. China's socialist democratic politics thus marched into a new age.
Marching toward rule of law--Democratic construction of the People's Republic takes big strides ahead by promoting democracy and strengthening the legal system
A road has been opened up through constant exploration and practice for socialist democratic construction.
The political enthusiasm as expressed in "speaking out freely, airing views fully, holding great debates and writing big-character posters", radical mass movements, egalitarianism and "the big pot"-these were what we once mistook as the contents of people's democracy; the ideological trend of bourgeois liberalization, the political modes such as the "multi-party system" and the "tripartite political system" of the West once interfered with people's thought. With regard to China's democratic political construction, the CPC has always maintained a sober mind, it deeply realizes that socialist democratic politics with Chinese characteristics is what we want to develop, so we must proceed from China's national condition, summarize our own practical experiences and at the same time draw on the useful achievements of the political civilizations of humanity for reference, and we must never mechanically transplant the mode of the Western political system. We should make major efforts to strengthen systemic construction and realize the institutionalization, standardization and sequencing of socialist democratic politics.
In order to guarantee people's democracy, it is essential to strengthen the legal system. Democracy must be institutionalized and legalized, so that this system and laws will not change with the alteration of leaders and change with the change of leaders' views and attention". This was the important ideology put forward by Deng Xiaoping in December 1978 at the crucial historical juncture of clarifying confusion and bringing things back to order. The development of history has fully proved the farsightedness of Deng Xiaoping.
"Everybody is equal before the law", "No organization or individual has the privilege of transcending the Constitution and law." Socialist democratic political construction is taking firm and forceful steps forward and is playing an ever-bigger role in social life. The general rule of the civil law, the law governing administrative procedure and the electoral law have been published one after another, Property right and civilians suing officials have entered people's daily life. Hundreds of thousands of judges, public procurators, lawyers and other professionals use legal knowledge to protect people's rights.
Bidding farewell to mystery and randomness, and advancing to openness and transparency. The public announcement released on June 10,1998 and the first visitor's certificate of the Beijing Municipality's No.1 Intermediate People's Court are kept in store in the Chinese Revolutionary Museum. From that day on, the public judicial system was put into effect, under which citizens can freely attend as observers the trial. The Republic has taken firm and distinct steps on the road to a democratic legal system.
The stipulations "The State respects and guarantees human rights" and "Citizens' lawful private property is protected against infringement" were written for the first time into the Amendment to the Constitution in March this year. Safeguarding rights and interests through legal procedures has become the general choice for solving disputes.
It is imperative to continually perfect the legal system in order to realize people's democracy. At the crucial moment when the planned economy was being transformed into a market economy in September 1997, "governing the country according to law and building a socialist state ruled by law" was formally stated for the first time in the report of the 15th CPC National Congress. The Second Session of the Ninth National People's Congress in March 1999 passed the Amendment to the Constitution, the words "governing the country according to law" were written into the Constitution.
From the lecture on the legal system given in Zhongnanhai (the seat of the Party and government) to the popularization of legal knowledge among all people, from the supremacy of power to the supremacy of law, from ordinary Chinese people looking for their organizations to going to the law court, and from stressing obligation and despising right to attaching equal importance to right and obligation, a modern legal system under which everybody is equal before the law has gradually taken root in the hearts of people.
Our country has gone through a long process from taking administrative order as the main management method to exercising administration according to law, the state has formulated a series of laws and regulations such as the Law on Administrative Procedure, the Law of State Compensation and the Law of Administrative License and has preliminarily established a basic legal system under which administration is exercised according to law.
Making state affairs public, open-door enactment of law, hearing on pricing, and the government advancing to democracy in an open way; the system of collectively making decisions on major issues, the experts consultation system, the public announcement and hearing system and the decision-making responsibility system have made government decision-making more transparent, and the degree of public participation has been greatly raised.
In March this year, the central government promulgated the outline of comprehensively pushing forward the exercise of administration according to law, with an aim of basically setting up a government ruled by law in around 10 years. Up to August this year, the State Council had abolished 1,806 items subject to administrative examination and approval. The rule of law has marked out a distinct route for government administration in the change from a universal government to a limited government, responsible government and service government.
The light of civilization--Persisting in the combination of Party leadership, people being masters of the country and governing the country according to law represents China's new contribution to the world's democratic mode.
Developing socialist democratic politics and building socialist political civilization is an organic part of the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and an important target of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects. Since the initiation of the reform and opening up program, China has actively and steadily pushing forward political restructuring, expanding socialist democracy, perfecting the socialist legal system, building a socialist country ruled by law, and consolidating and developing a democratic and united, vivid and lively, stable and harmonious political situation, as a result, great achievements of world attention have been registered in the construction of political civilization.
Practice has proved that the people's congress system as China's fundamental political system is the inevitable choice for China's social development since the dawn of modern times. The system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC is a political party system adapting to China's national condition and having Chinese characteristics. Upholding and perfecting the system of regional ethnic autonomy is conducive to consolidating and developing the socialist ethnic relations featuring equality, unity and mutual assistance. Under the guidance of the basic strategy of "administering the country according to law", our people's democracy has been more fully guaranteed.
The integration of persisting in Party leadership, making the people masters of the country and governing the country according to law is our Party's understanding of the law governing socialist political construction, and represents China's new contribution to the world's democratic method. As members of the ruling Party, we have made a profound summary of the historical experiences and drawn lessons from the world's ruling political parties in their rises and falls, and have vigorously promoted inner-party democracy. On July 24, 2002, the central authorities promulgated and implemented the "Regulations on the Work of Selecting and Appointing Party and Government Leading Cadres". Democracy has been further expanded in various links-recommendation, assessment, consideration, discussion, decision and supervision-in the selection and appointment of cadres; the masses have been provided new guarantee in their rights to know, to participate, to select and to supervise in respect to the selection and appointment of cadres. Establishing underhand connections, trying to get things done through the back door, running after and asking for official posts and buying and selling official posts will have no place to hide under the light of democracy. On February 17, 2004, there came into existence of the first "Regulation on Inner-party Supervision of the Communist Party of China" in the history of our Party. Discipline inspection commissions at all levels took the initiatives to supervise Party and government chiefs' correct exercise of power, expansion of inner-party democracy made it possible to supervise beforehand and curb corruption from the source.
Our Party pays high attention to expanding grass-roots direct democracy and has created various forms and experiences of direct democracy. In rural areas, hundreds of millions of farmers showed soaring enthusiasm in participating in state affairs. From the scenes of the direct elections of thousands upon thousands of village committees on the vast land of China, one can perceive the vigorous villagers autonomous mechanisms under the leadership of Party organizations. In cities and towns, leaders of communities are directly elected, community residents concern themselves with and participate in elections, from which one can feel that urban residents autonomy is being constantly improved. In enterprises and institutions, the workers congress and other forms of enterprises' and institutions' democratic management systems are also being continually perfected.
The Chinese people are heroically marching forward on the road of building a relatively affluent society in an all-round way. A glorious mission entrusted to us by history is to incessantly promote the harmonious development of socialist material civilization, political civilization and spiritual civilization. Fifty-five years' experience has proved that doing everything on the basis of reality and following our own road will enable us to blaze a path to socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics on this piece of land of China. The CPC and the Chinese people are full of confidence in the political development road they themselves have chosen, and they will unswervingly push forward construction of socialist politics with Chinese characteristics.
The above commentary by PD correspondents Dong Hongjun and Pei Zhiyong is published on the front page of this leading newspaper on September 27, 2004 and translated by People's Daily Online
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