China's top legislature beams vigor

BEIJING - Veteran lawmaker Mao Fengmei considers himself well prepared for the upcoming annual session of China's top legislature. This year, the 66-year-old's main concern is raising subsistence allowances for needy rural residents.

Mao has been a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) since 1993. Over the past 21 years, he has submitted some 200 suggestions on over 60 issues of public concerns in rural areas.

"I am a farmer, so I know about the countryside," said Mao, who is also the deputy secretary of the village committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Dalishu Village in Liaoning province in Northeast China.

Since 2012, Mao has been a staunch advocate of raising pensions for old-age rural residents.

Urban residents in China have long enjoyed better basic pension benefits compared to those in the countryside under the separate pension systems.

For Mao, the current old-age pension for rural residents is simply too low, while bridging such an urban-rural income gap would stimulate the rural economy by boosting consumption in the countryside.

"The elders in my village live a rather good life thanks to our village's collectively-owned enterprises, but this is not the case in many other villages I have visited," Mao said.

His suggestion drew prompt feedback from the authorities. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has invited lawmakers to conduct joint research on the issue, while the State Council also published its decisions on the development of China's old-age care industry.

Mao said he had noticed the changes, and was pleased with the news. All of his suggestions during the past two decades have concerned agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

The farmer-turned legislator was also among the first lawmakers to suggest that the agricultural tax be exempted when serving as a deputy to the 9th NPC. That suggestion came into reality in 2006.

"At that time, a lot of my fellow lawmakers could not believe that anyone would make such a suggestion," he said. "So you could imagine how thrilled I was when that suggestion eventually came true."

Mao, who was elected as an NPC deputy in 2013 for the fifth time in a row, said, "I feel the great responsibilities on my shoulders as an NPC deputy."

Some 3,000 NPC deputies like Mao were elected for a five-year term last year. In China, deputies to county- and township-level people's congresses are directly elected by voters, while deputies to people's congresses above county level are elected by deputies at the next lower level.

Unlike western lawmakers, most Chinese legislators hold another full-time job, working across the country in different sectors.

Such a level of diversity offers lawmakers considerable insight into China's national conditions and public opinions.