According to Zhou Zhanshun, director of the State Letters and Complaints Bureau, among all cases of people's complaints and suggestions, above 80 per cent could be solved at the grassroots level.

Therefore, it could easily be concluded that people bothered to write letters to Zhou's bureau either because their problems could not be resolved by local governments or because local governments failed to give timely answers to these problems.

More and more people have been raising issues of concern with local bureaux in recent years.

But some local governments have failed to address these letters and complaints properly or timely. As a result, people have to ask for help from higher levels.

Theoretically, the country's current political and legal mechanisms could deal with most kinds of people's problems at grassroots level. Different levels of governments, people's congress, political consultative conference, courts and institutions settling labour disputes are quite able to help people deal with their problems. But some of them do not work effectively.

China's political and legal construction should begin at the grassroots.

Whether or not cases of people's letters and visits could be reduced voluntarily is also a test for China's political and legal constructions.

Although using letters and visits to raise issues is not to be encouraged, governments at all levels should pay attention to ordinary people's difficulties.

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