A draft amendment will enable local authorities to work together to improve legislative efficiency, Cao Yin reports.

In China, people may receive different punishments even if they dump the same pollutants into the same river.

That is because the violations occur in different stretches of the river, where authorities in different provinces make their own regulations and take their own measures to fight pollution.

Put simply, provinces lack a unified standard of protection. "That is, they don't form a joint lawmaking force," said He Aiqun, director of the legislative affairs commission of the standing committee of the people's congress in Xiangyang, a city in Hubei province.

Last year, to solve the problem, the standing committee of the Xiangyang people's congress, the local legislature, worked with legislative bodies from three other local authorities in Hubei to conduct research on legislation. As a result, they jointly formulated regulations to strengthen environmental protection in the north of the province, He said.

He described the move as a legislative innovation, saying that a similar joint initiative is being considered for the regional tourism industry. If successful, travelers' information would be shared in the north, and annual tourist passes could be used in the four areas.

"This concerted legislative effort will provide a stronger legal guarantee for high-quality regional development," he said, adding that he is delighted because, as a new work method, the legislation has been added to a draft amendment of the Organic Law of the Local People's Congresses and Local People's Governments.

The draft amendment clarifies that people's congresses at the provincial and city levels and their standing committees will be allowed to work together to make laws to meet the needs of coordinated regional development.

On Saturday, the document, which contains specific rules on the working methods of local legislative bodies and government organs, was submitted to the ongoing session of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, for deliberation.

In addition to joint legislation, the draft amendment has streamlined the workflows of local people's congresses, and it urges them to maintain close contact with the people. It also includes a requirement to advance law-based governance for local governments.

Deliberations, changes

Before the current deliberations, the draft amendment was twice reviewed by the NPC Standing Committee, in October and then in December.

Generally speaking, a draft becomes law after being reviewed three times by the NPC Standing Committee. However, if a piece of legislation is closely related to people's interests and fundamental national issues－such as institutional reforms of State organs or the regulation of basic civil behavior－it must be further discussed by all NPC members, rather than simply being adopted by the NPC Standing Committee.

Li Zongsheng, an NPC deputy, said the organic law fits the situation "because it focuses on the system of people's congresses, the country's fundamental political system, and specifies what local authorities should and shouldn't do".

"It's a basic law on the operations of local legislatures and governments, and the operations are related to the daily lives of all local residents as well as to local socioeconomic development," he added. "Therefore, it's vital that it should be further reviewed by the NPC."

As a lawyer in Liaoning province, Li said that he has often read the law, which was drawn up in 1979 and has already been amended five times to keep up with social developments and to ensure implementation of national reforms. It was last revised in 2015.

Over the past seven years, local people's congresses and governments have made new efforts in their work and encountered developmental problems, "so it is necessary to amend the law again", he said.

Putting the public first

Local people's congresses and governments are required to uphold a people-centered approach when dealing with issues and the implementation of "whole-process people's democracy", according to the latest draft amendment.

The term "whole-process people's democracy" was put forward by President Xi Jinping during an inspection tour of Shanghai in November 2019, when he emphasized that China is marching on a political development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and its people's democracy is a whole-process democracy.

Last year, while addressing a central conference on work related to people's congresses, Xi－also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission－underlined the further promotion of whole-process people's democracy that enables the public to be broadly involved in national governance.

To achieve that goal, the draft amendment requires standing committees of local people's congresses above county level to set up a system to contact deputies, stipulating that suggestions from deputies should be publicized in an appropriate manner.

Su Fei, an official with the standing committee of the Xiangyang legislature, said that handling deputies' suggestions is a major way of learning about people's needs, because deputies come from the people and are their voice.

The Chinese Constitution guarantees every deputy the right to make suggestions, "so it's essential to improve the collection efficiency and ensure that every suggestion can get a timely response", he said.

Su's team first reviews suggestions, then distributes them to the relevant offices. It is also responsible for checking whether the suggestions have been accepted and how deputies aim to resolve problems. Finally, it has to provide deputies with feedback.

Xiangyang's legislature has maintained close contact with the people and learned about the difficulties they face in their work and lives by selecting 17 places－such as businesses or education establishments－as stations for the collection of opinions about legislation, according to He, from the local people's congress.

"Many people want to share their ideas about legislative affairs with us, and some of their opinions help us develop a broader perspective in lawmaking," he said. "For example, when we drafted a regulation on the management of electric bikes, we solicited more than 800 suggestions from the stations, many of which involved the core issues of industrial development and social governance."

As of December, the stations had provided 1,130 suggestions related to 69 pieces of national-level legislation, and 169 of them have been accepted by the NPC Standing Committee. They had also offered 251 suggestions on 38 items related to Xiangyang's legislative affairs to promote the city's growth across more sectors, he added.

Special circumstances

The draft amendment to the law requires people's congresses at the provincial and city levels to add special committees on environmental conservation and construction of society, stipulating that countylevel legislative bodies may establish working stations in communities.

It also calls for local people's congresses to strengthen oversight of local budgets and final accounts by reviewing relevant work reports and conducting inspections.

Given that the COVID-19 epidemic has caused difficulties for interpersonal activities, it states that the standing committees of local people's congresses at or above county level can convene sessions earlier or later than normal if special circumstances arise.

According to the current law, local people's congresses should hold a session at least once a year, and standing committees can also convene meetings even when the session is closed. Wang Xiaolong, deputy secretary-general of the standing committee of the Xiangyang people's congress, welcomed the changes in the draft amendment, saying that optimizing the organizational structure will contribute to the efficient operation of local legislatures and also help them provide more targeted services for people.

He said it is a practical step to allow the standing committees of local people's congresses to flexibly determine when to open their annual sessions－especially as the COVID-19 epidemic is ongoing－adding that the move will further improve local legislatures' working efficiency.

Li, the NPC deputy from Liao--ning, said the draft amendment has raised requirements for local governments to advance their law-based governance.

"It's essential for the promotion of the rule of law across the country as the quality of services provided by local governments is not only related to improving their governance capacity, but also affects whether they can solve residents' problems at the primary level," he said.

He suggested that local governments should improve the transparency of their work and accept more supervision from the public.

This is not the first time a draft amendment to an organic law has been submitted to the NPC for further review. When last year's NPC annual session closed, it adopted the amended Organic Law and Procedural Rules of the NPC following deliberations.