IN 2017, Jilie Ziri, the first college student from the mountainous Abuluoha Village in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, decided to give up his job and return to his hometown.

Serving as secretary of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC’s) village branch, Jilie Ziri has led local residents in combatting poverty and pursuing a prosperous life. After years of efforts by Jilie Ziri and his fellow villagers, the once isolated town has been linked to the outside world with a paved road, and the people’s living standard has been greatly improved.

Now, the young man, born in 1995 and from the Yi ethnic group, is in Beijing attending the ongoing annual session the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, where he and other deputies will discuss and decide how to bring a better life to the Chinese people.

As global observers are closely watching the annual sessions of the NPC and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), known as the “two sessions,” Jilie Ziri’s experience provides a personal perspective for them to better understand China’s whole-process people’s democracy.

“I followed the ‘two sessions’ last year. There was a driver who was one of the deputies appointed to sit in that body. There were delivery riders, farmers, teachers, cooks, doctors, and journalists, who ordinarily will not make it to an institution where laws are made,” said Eric Biegon, a journalist at Kenya Broadcasting Corp. He was deeply impressed by the wide representation of the deputies.

“What captures my attention when it comes to China and [its] politics is that [the Chinese] have chosen a path that tends to bring people to the center of decision-making,” he said.

When talking about China’s “two sessions,” many overseas observers spontaneously mention broad representation, which features prominently in China’s whole-process people’s democracy. In their eyes, broad representation is a necessary requirement for ensuring that the people are the masters of the country.

The 2,977 deputies to the 14th NPC make up a broad cross-section of people, with every region, ethnic group and sector of society having an appropriate number of representatives.

In the new lineup, 497 deputies are workers and farmers, and 634 are technical personnel, accounting for 16.69% and 21.3%, respectively.

The 2,172 members of the 14th CPPCC National Committee are from all of China’s 56 ethnic groups, and 60.8% of them are not CPC members.

Zia Banday, a senior research fellow at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, said deputies and members of the “two sessions” in China represent the interests of the people.

They prepare for a long time each year, put forward opinions and suggestions, conduct deliberations and discussions, and provide ideas for people’s livelihood. This unique model ensures that the “two sessions” can fully reflect the voice of the Chinese people, he said.  (Continued on P4)

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The decision-making in the “two sessions” is open to all Chinese and friends who are interested in the overall development of the country, said Ronnie Lins, director of the China-Brazil Center for Research and Business and a senior expert on China’s decision-making mechanism.

Every year, topics discussed at China’s “two sessions” are always the focus of international attention.

Development and people’s livelihood have always been important issues in China’s “two sessions,” fully reflecting the importance of “the people” in China’s socialist democracy, Patricio Giusto, director of the Sino-Argentine Observatory, told Xinhua.

Sommad Pholsena, vice president of the Lao National Assembly, pointed out that Chinese leaders not only communicate with the NPC deputies and CPPCC members during the “two sessions,” but also often conduct research at the grassroots level, which reflects that the thoughts and concerns of the Chinese people are at the heart of the CPC at all times.

Jean Christophe Iseux von Pfetten, president of the Institute for East-West Strategic Studies in Britain, was invited by the then mayor of Chang-chun, capital of Jilin Province in Northeast China, to be a specially invited member of the local committee of the CPPCC.

As a long-time observer of China, Pfetten told Xinhua that through his personal experience, he found that China’s democratic practice is devoted to solving practical problems, as he witnessed how the local two sessions focused on addressing issues related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers. The China hand also participated in the discussion with his experience of working for the WTO.

Pointing out that there are various types of democratic system models, Pfetten emphasized that the Chinese socialist consultative democracy provides an elegant way of solving the antithesis between equality and liberty.

The British scholar is writing a book on Chinese democracy, elaborating on the achievements of the Chinese democracy to readers based on his individual experience in China. (Xinhua)