Being a core doctrine in political outlook of China since revolution till Xi Jinping’s modern era, the system of political consultation and supervision has become a barometer of all-round achievements. It has exploitable potential to go a long way towards reforming political order with Chinese characteristic because it functions taking on board its members from all social and industrial sectors, political parties and ethnic groups which reflect the interests of people from all walks of life.
In an opening ceremony of National People’s Congress (NPC) on 5 March 2018, Xi Jinping’s words signify basic gist of consultative democracy in China. He said that the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) is “a great contribution to political civilisation of humanity.”
His speech tells the world that the Chinese President has no ambiguity over the dynamics of consultative and socialist democracy. In his another address at the opening session of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last year, he shared his thoughts that “China’s socialist democracy is the broadest, most genuine and most effective democracy to safeguard the fundamental interests of the people. “The essence and core of socialist democracy is that people are the masters of themselves. This is actually what the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC) is all about. It is of the people, from the people and for the people,” he went on saying.
The worth of the consultative democracy is weighed up in a way it is practised practically during NPC and CPPCC meetings every year. In 2017, during an11-day annual session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body welcomed its more than 2,000 members to put on the table their expert opinions and experiences on the issues of the public.
Last year, of the more than 4,100 proposals were embraced, 34.7 percent were pertaining to economic issues, 35.5 percent to social issues, and the rest talked about political, cultural and ecological issues. These suggestions are never binned, rather are made part of pragmatic deliberations and later materialised accordingly. For instance, The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, launched in 2013 to test the working feasibility of a number of the country’s economic reforms, was built on a proposal of Shanghai political advisers. To fathom the essence of consultative democracy, one has to look into the emphasis expressed by Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference during Plenary Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
The worth of the consultative democracy is weighed up in a way that is practiced practically during NPC and CPPCC meetings every year
He urged upon the CPPCC National Committee to practice consultative democracy throughout the procedure and processes of political consultation, exercise democratic oversight, and participate in the deliberation of state affairs.
Over the past five years, the CPPCC received 29,378 proposals, and 23,975 of them were accepted and filed, said Wan Gang, vice-chairman of the 12th CPPCC National Committee. As of February 20, 99 percent of the filed proposals had been acted upon.
Consultative democracy is a viable political system taking its root in China’s own culture and tradition. With this political methodology in place, China is reaping whopping benefits. During five years, as system functions smoothly, China’ s gross domestic product (GDP) soared from 54 trillion to 82.7 trillion yuan, putting up the average annual growth of 7.1 percent. More than 68 million people have been raised from poverty.
Personal income has risen by an annual average of 7.4 percent, creating the world’ s largest middle-income group. With the addition of more than 66 million new urban jobs,China, with its population of over 1.3 billion, has gained relatively full employment. Both energy and water consumption per unit of GDP have dropped more than 20 percent, the discharge of major pollutants has been consistently on the decline, and the number of days of heavy air pollution in key cities has gone down 50 percent.
Chinese-styled deliberative democracy earned fame on international spectrum. It has been eulogised in an international paper “The Deliberative Turn in Chinese Political Development” authored by Professor Baogang in International Studies Deakin University Melbourne, Australia and Professor Mark Warren, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia, Canada.
According to writer Baogang He, Ethan J. who authored the book “The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China”, People’s Republic of China has found its political niche in a consultative democracy to grow tremendously.“In recent years, consultative and deliberative institutions have been developing in China, and an increasing number of public hearings have provided people with opportunities to express their opinions on a wide range of issues pertaining to the price of water and electricity, park entry fees, the relocation of farmers, the conservation of historical landmarks, and even the famous Beijing zoo, to name a few,” he says. Despite some odds, it produces results as communicative arguments and reasons, among other things, are employed to solve collective problems; participants and local leaders exchange their opinions, make counter-arguments, and change their preferences through public deliberation; and importantly, public views on certain issues and/or policies are formed through deliberative process.
Undoubtedly, emerging consultative democracy is creating social harmony. With consultation on grass root level, leadership comes close to the common man, and social conflicts are reduced. With public participation in decision-making process, polarisation winds down. All these factors influence the Chinese governance-driven local democratisation programme.
The rise of consultative democracy goes on as Chinese national leaders promote village elections and local elections in cities. Villagers cast their vote during a village committee election in Gengdian village, Chipping county of Shandong Province in Shanxi province in January 2018. The rules and regulations of village elections in China are governed by the Organic Law of Village Committees, which was implemented on a trial basis in 1987 and was fully adopted in 1998 by the National People’s Congress of China.
Meanwhile, local urban communities have also established numerous participatory and deliberative institutions. The Chinese consultative meeting or public hearing is designed to win people’s support for local projects and to be a forum for people’s opinions. In the Shangcheng district of Hangzhou, a consensus conference or consultation meeting is held once a month. Citizen evaluation, first introduced in Shangdong and Shengyang, and then in Shanghai and Hangzhou, is designed to give the ordinary people an opportunity to rate and evaluate the performance of local cadres. The rating seriously affects the political career or the level of the performance bonus of local cadres.
It is true that state cannot outperform and handle all things efficiently, and it needs to generate public participation. Deliberation provides a sort of legitimacy for government and its policies and helps to achieve better governance. This is how consultative democracy with Chinese characteristic is changing the fate of China and people.
The writer is a senior journalist who writes about the economy, international relation and human rights. He is a fellow of ICFJ and is a recipient of China-friendly Netizen 2017 award. E-mail: [email protected]. He tweets @yasirkhann
Published in Daily Times, March 20th 2018.