People-oriented service for grassroots impact

A few days ago, I received a WeChat message from an old classmate I hadn't seen in years. Now working for the municipal government, he had sat in on a group discussion at the local session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference that my father attended.

"Your dad gave a really good speech, it was thoughtful and substantial, and I listened carefully," he said.

Frankly speaking, until then, I had never taken a close look at my father's years of service as a grassroots political adviser. I knew he attended this year's local session of the CPPCC, but in my mind, it was just a routine meeting, nothing important.

My reporting had been focusing on diplomacy, international hot spot issues and big national events. The day-to-day issues of a small county often felt distant and irrelevant to me.

As I was preparing to cover this year's two sessions, his message sparked my curiosity: What exactly had my father said at the discussion? What does a grassroots political adviser actually focus on?

I decided to call him to ask more about it. My father is a lawyer and has served for 10 years as a political adviser in Macheng, a county-level city in Hubei province.

Over the phone, his voice was calm and methodical, as always. "Lawyers are on the front line of legal practice," he said. "We deal with real cases every day, so we can see clearly where laws work well and where they fall short."

Over the years, the proposals he has submitted come from his observations in judicial practice and his experiences visiting grassroots communities. Topics include electric vehicle management, development of the stone industry, protection of the rights of the children and the elderly, and promotion of the city's chrysanthemum tea.

When I asked how he viewed the relationship between being a lawyer and a political adviser, he told me that the dual role is like a bridge, with one end connecting individual cases and people's livelihoods and the other leading to broader policies and the rule of law.

Back home, many tangible improvements in daily life can be traced to proposals promoted through the local two sessions, he said, citing examples such as renovated streets, upgraded rural roads, improved village toilets.

I realized that these are not just grand narratives; they could really improve people's daily lives.

The local two sessions have concluded, and my father has returned to his daily work. But the national two sessions have just begun, with national lawmakers and political advisers from across the country gathered in Beijing.

I found myself wondering how many of them, like my father, have spent months or even years walking through neighborhoods, listening to the voices of the people and refining their proposals?

In a recent interview, CPPCC National Committee member Chen Zhonghong told me that after years of service and follow-up on proposals, she noticed that the smaller and more specific the proposal, and the more closely linked it is to people's livelihoods, the faster it tended to be addressed. "Submitting an empty proposal is not fulfilling one's duty," she said. "Turning people's urgent concerns into real solutions, that is our responsibility."

Chen has been focusing on the rights protection of vulnerable groups, the elderly, children and rural women.

She also described her role as a bridge, bringing policies to the grassroots, and the voices from the grassroots back to the decision-making table.

Democracy is never an abstract concept. It is a process of gathering public opinion from the bottom up. While politics is not that distant, it is a governance practice built step by step, and at all levels.

National priorities grow out of the daily lives of ordinary people. Top-level design originates at the grassroots. This is the essence of real and effective whole-process people's democracy.