Public pin great hopes on upcoming NPC, CPPCC sessions
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-02-24 17:41

Proposals to add protecting property and human rights to the Chinese Constitution and other issues affecting ordinary people have drawn great attention from the Chinese public as two of the nation's top legislature and advisory body prepare to meet.

"If such an idea as the protection of lawful private property had been written into China's Constitution, some local governments and real estate developers would feel less confident about recklessly leveling private residences," a Shanghai-based real estate lawyer Liu Weiping, specializing in the illegal demolition of residential houses by local governments and real estate developers, told Xinhua Tuesday.

Liu made the remarks before annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which are scheduled to open in early March.

The deliberation of the draft amendment to Constitution, which draws great attention from all circles, will be placed high on the agenda in the NPC session.

This will be the Constitution's fourth amendment, involving 14 revisions and covering a wide range of issues of public concern that were not tackled before.

The protection of citizens' lawful private property and the respect for and protection of human rights will be written into the Constitution. Some revisions will also be made in improving the land requisition system and social welfare and insurance system.

The current Constitution, which contains 138 articles in four chapters, was formulated in 1982, and was later amended three times, with two revisions in 1998, nine in 1993, and six in 1999.

"Adding 'respect for and protection of human rights' to the Constitution shows that securing citizens' rights will be promoted to national will and a top concern of the Constitution," said Dr. Liu Jitong from the Sociology Department of Beijing University.

Wang Yufeng, a 25-year-old white-collar worker in a private company, said that although he has a handsome salary now, he and his colleagues still worry about whether their future pensions and medical care could be ensured. Many people like Wang even choose to emigrate to other countries.

"We hope the country's social welfare and insurance system will not only care for the disadvantaged group, but also pay attention to white collar workers," said Wang.

Professor Wang Lei from the Law School of Beijing University said that improving the social insurance system will be included into the Constitution this time, because China's existing market economy calls for a matching system of social welfare and insurance to meet public's increasing demands on social insurance.

Amending the Constitution is not the sole hot issue drawing the attention of the general public.

A survey launched by China's largest news website, www. xinhuanet.com, operated by Xinhua News Agency, on "what issues in the upcoming NPC and CPPCC sessions attract you most" revealed a long list, including anti-corruption, regional unbalanced economy, income gap, increasing farmers' income, educational charges, legal rights of migrant farmer workers, emergency response system for public health, and the so-called March 20 Taiwan referendum.

Anti-corruption is the top concern for some 83 percent of netizens who took part in the survey. Netizens say that the central government's determination to fight against corruption can be seen in punishing at least 13 ministerial-level officials for corruption, including former vice-governor of Anhui Province Wang Huaizhong and former Minister of Land and Resources Tian Fengshan, in the past year.

"We still need a lot of improvements in the emergency response system for public health, though we have such a system after the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003," said Zhang Baolan, director of the Medical Department of the Central Hospital under the Headquarters of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

During the annual sessions, NPC deputies and CPPCC members are expected to hear the government work report, a report on the plans for economic and social development and budget report, work reports of the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

These reports will review the past year's work of the central government and also will deploy the work for the new year, which will cover hot issues concerning the public's interests.

Professor Wu Jiang from the National School of Administration said that the central authorities have done "efficient and effective" work in the past year, like fighting against SARS, making efforts to curb unemployment, increasing farmers' income, and realizing an annual economic growth rate of 9.1 percent.

"More importantly, the new central government has adopted a down-to-earth attitude and formed a workstyle of seeking truth in their leadership," said Wu. "All this may let the public believe that the reports made by the government are not only a summary of the past year's work, but also will exert far-reaching influence on the future life of the Chinese public."

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