Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics [1st ed.] 978-981-13-7367-1;978-981-13-7368-8

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-viii
The Modernization of Governance: The Implication for the Era and the Practical Experience in Zhejiang’s Political Development (Ning Fang, Jie Yun)....Pages 1-36
Constantly Pushing Forward Innovations to the System of the People’s Congress (Yanguo Shen, Jiang Wu, Shaoping Zou, Peng Fan)....Pages 37-72
The Practice and Innovations in Socialist Consultative Democracy (Liang Ye)....Pages 73-98
Practical Innovations and Institutional Improvements in Primary-Level Democracy (Yu Tang)....Pages 99-124
The Building of Zhejiang Under the Rule of Law: Continually Promoting the Rule of Law (Song Xiaohai)....Pages 125-147
Changing Government Functions and Innovating the Mode of Governmental Governance (Bin Ma)....Pages 149-177
Incessantly Innovating and Improving the System of Power Operation Restrictions and Supervision (Caihong Sun)....Pages 179-198
Constantly Consolidating and Developing the Broadest United Front (Jun Xu)....Pages 199-236
The Basic Experience and Useful Implications of Political Development in Zhejiang (Huaxing Chen)....Pages 237-270
Back Matter ....Pages 271-278

Citation preview

Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path

Ning Fang Huaxing Chen Jie Yun Editors

Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics

Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path Project Director Xie Shouguang, President, Social Sciences Academic Press Series Editors Li Yang, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China Li Peilin, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China Academic Advisors Cai Fang, Gao Peiyong, Li Lin, Li Qiang, Ma Huaide, Pan Jiahua, Pei Changhong, Qi Ye, Wang Lei, Wang Ming, Zhang Yuyan, Zheng Yongnian, Zhou Hong

Drawing on a large body of empirical studies done over the last two decades, this Series provides its readers with in-depth analyses of the past and present and forecasts for the future course of China’s development. It contains the latest research results made by members of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This series is an invaluable companion to every researcher who is trying to gain a deeper understanding of the development model, path and experience unique to China. Thanks to the adoption of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the implementation of comprehensive reform and opening-up, China has made tremendous achievements in areas such as political reform, economic development, and social construction, and is making great strides towards the realization of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. In addition to presenting a detailed account of many of these achievements, the authors also discuss what lessons other countries can learn from China’s experience.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13571

Ning Fang Huaxing Chen Jie Yun •

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Editors

Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics

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Editors Ning Fang Institute of Political Science Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Beijing, China

Huaxing Chen Institute of Political Science Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Jie Yun Institute of Political Science Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Beijing, China

Published with support of Zhejiang People’s Publishing House ISSN 2363-6866 ISSN 2363-6874 (electronic) Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path ISBN 978-981-13-7367-1 ISBN 978-981-13-7368-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8 Jointly published with Social Sciences Academic Press, Beijing, China The print edition is not for sale in China Mainland. Customers from China Mainland please order the print book from: Social Sciences Academic Press. Library of Congress Control Number: 2019935835 © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publishers, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publishers, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Series Preface

Since China’s reform and opening began in 1978, the country has come a long way on the path of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Over thirty years of reform, efforts and sustained spectacular economic growth have turned China into the world’s second-largest economy and wrought many profound changes in the Chinese society. These historically significant developments have been garnering increasing attention from scholars, governments, and the general public alike around the world since the 1990s, when the newest wave of China studies began to gather steam. Some of the hottest topics have included the so-called China miracle, Chinese phenomenon, Chinese experience, Chinese path, and the Chinese model. Homegrown researchers have soon followed suit. Already hugely productive, this vibrant field is putting out a large number of books each year, with Social Sciences Academic Press alone having published hundreds of titles on a wide range of subjects. Because most of these books have been written and published in Chinese; however, readership has been limited outside China—even among many who study China—for whom English is still the lingua franca. This language barrier has been an impediment to efforts by academia, business communities, and policy-makers in other countries to form a thorough understanding of contemporary China, of what is distinct about China’s past and present may mean not only for her future but also for the future of the world. The need to remove such an impediment is both real and urgent, and the Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path is my answer to the call. This series features some of the most notable achievements from the last 20 years by scholars in China in a variety of research topics related to reform and opening. They include both theoretical explorations and empirical studies and cover

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economy, society, politics, law, culture, and ecology; the six areas in which reform and opening policies have had the deepest impact and farthest-reaching consequences for the country. Authors for the series have also tried to articulate their visions of the “Chinese Dream” and how the country can realize it in these fields and beyond. All of the editors and authors for the Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path are both longtime students of reform and opening and recognized authorities in their respective academic fields. Their credentials and expertise lend credibility to these books, each of which has been subjected to a rigorous peer review process for inclusion in the series. As part of the Reform and Development Program under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television of the People’s Republic of China, the series is published by Springer, a Germany-based academic publisher of international repute, and distributed overseas. I am confident that it will help fill a lacuna in studies of China in the era of reform and opening. Xie Shouguang

Contents

1 The Modernization of Governance: The Implication for the Era and the Practical Experience in Zhejiang’s Political Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ning Fang and Jie Yun

1

2 Constantly Pushing Forward Innovations to the System of the People’s Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yanguo Shen, Jiang Wu, Shaoping Zou and Peng Fan

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3 The Practice and Innovations in Socialist Consultative Democracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Liang Ye

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4 Practical Innovations and Institutional Improvements in Primary-Level Democracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yu Tang

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5 The Building of Zhejiang Under the Rule of Law: Continually Promoting the Rule of Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Song Xiaohai 6 Changing Government Functions and Innovating the Mode of Governmental Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Bin Ma 7 Incessantly Innovating and Improving the System of Power Operation Restrictions and Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Caihong Sun 8 Constantly Consolidating and Developing the Broadest United Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Jun Xu

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9 The Basic Experience and Useful Implications of Political Development in Zhejiang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Huaxing Chen Postscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Chapter 1

The Modernization of Governance: The Implication for the Era and the Practical Experience in Zhejiang’s Political Development Ning Fang and Jie Yun

Promoting the modernization of national governance is a realistic requirement and the theme of the times for China’s political development in the new period. The 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out, “The overall goal of comprehensively intensifying the reform is to improve and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, and to promote the modernization of the system of and the capacity for national governance”; this profoundly reflected the general trend and new task in China’s reform and development at present, and identified the direction for comprehensively intensifying the reform and promoting the transformation and upgrading of the national governance paradigm at the new historical starting point, which has a profound implication for the era and is of important realistic significance. Zhejiang has always been at the forefront of China’s reform and opening-up, it has stayed ahead nationwide in various fields of economic and social development and it has explored and accumulated a great deal of successful experience in political development. The basic experience from Zhejiang’s political development and reform lies in proceeding from the reality, blazing new trails, taking bold practical actions, always stressing the organic unity of upholding the Party’s leadership, the people being the masters of the country, and governing the country under the rule of law, giving scope to the role of the market and arousing social vitality, combining strategy guidance with primary-level innovation, actively optimizing the local system of governance and enhancing the self-governance capacity, taking increasing governance effectiveness as the core of and impetus for political development, comprehensively promoting the rule of law, orderly democracy and effective management to take a political development path suited to Zhejiang’s reality, providing

N. Fang (B) · J. Yun The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 N. Fang et al. (eds.), Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics, Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8_1

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extensive and valuable experience and inspirations for strengthening our confidence in the socialist road, theory and system with Chinese characteristics, exploring and promoting the modernization of the national system of and capacity for governance in the new period.

1.1 The Modernization of National Governance: Zhejiang’s Starting Point for the Chinese Dream Pushing forward the modernization of national governance is an important strategic guide and institutional support for realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward and profoundly expounded the connotation and significance of realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation, and has stressed that the realization of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation was aimed at building a stronger and more prosperous country, achieving national rejuvenation and the happiness of the people. The Chinese dream vividly and accurately expresses the common ideal pursuit by the entire Chinese population; it presents a bright prospect for bringing about a stronger and more prosperous country, national rejuvenation and the happiness of the people; it injects a new connotation and demonstrates the spirit of the new era for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. The Chinese dream has become a strong intellectual impetus for gathering China’s strength, carrying forward the Chinese spirit, inspiring the Chinese people to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Since the reform and openingup, especially during the 21st century, historic progress has been made in Zhejiang’s economic and social development, the system of and capacity for governance have gradually improved; the eastern coastal province at the forefront of reform has stood at a new historical starting point of realizing the Chinese dream with a brand-new outlook.

1.1.1 Zhejiang at the Forefront Has Gathered the Strength for Pursuing the Chinese Dream The Chinese dream is the dream of the nation, the country and every Chinese person. The Chinese dream is also Zhejiang’s dream, the dream and hope of every person from Zhejiang. To realize the Chinese dream, it is necessary to pool the Chinese strength including that of the people of Zhejiang, while the foundation for pooling the Chinese strength is economic power, the core is cultural power, and the key lies in an institutional guarantee.

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Zhejiang, an eastern developed coastal area, has stayed ahead nationwide in development during the reform and opening-up, and has created a great deal of successful experience capable of leading national reform and development. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Party committees and governments at various levels in Zhejiang have continued to make bold experiments and practical efforts, blazed new trails, and carried through one blueprint; the successive Party committees and governments in Zhejiang have unceasingly promoted all-round, coordinated and sustainable economic and social development in Zhejiang, so that the province which is small in terms of area and resources has unleashed enormous productive forces, and has gradually become one of the provinces with the fastest economic growth, the greatest developmental vitality and the most prominent effects of reform in China. In the past ten years, from the “Eight-Eight Strategies” to the overall strategy of “making the people rich by starting businesses and of building a strong province through innovation”, from the building of a modern Zhejiang which is materially affluent and culturally advanced to “doing a better job towards the goals set for the future 1, 3 and 5 years”, “doubling the value in four respects”, Zhejiang has endeavored to build a beautiful Zhejiang and create a good life, and has written a vivid chapter of socialism with Chinese characteristics in Zhejiang and it has gathered a strong impetus and great strength for realizing the Chinese dream. In July, 2003, during the 4th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping, comprehensively and systematically summarized the basic experience from the implementation by the successive Party committees of Zhejiang Province of the developmental strategy for making the people rich and building a strong province, and he put forward the strategies for further leveraging Zhejiang’s “eight advantages” and pushing forward the “eight measures”, namely, the “EightEight Strategies”,1 initiating the new practice of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics in Zhejiang. In the past ten years, under the guidance of the “EightEight Strategies”, Zhejiang has made tremendous achievements in economic and social development, acquired a great deal of practical experience and delivered great developmental achievements in the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics. (1) A significant improvement has been made in Zhejiang’s overall strength and developmental quality. During the period 2003–2014, Zhejiang’s economic aggregate surged from 920 billion yuan to 4.02 trillion yuan, the per capita GDP increased from 19,730 to 72,967 yuan. The structure of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries was adjusted from 9.6:51.8:38.6 in 2001 to 4.8:49.1:46.1 in 2013. In 2012, according to the evaluation made by the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, Zhejiang ranked no. 2 among the provinces and autonomous regions across the country in the level of the transformation of the mode of economic development; according to the China’s Science Development Report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhejiang ranked no. 1 among the provinces and autonomous regions across the country in the overall level of scientific development for four consecutive years, and ranked 1 Xi

(2006).

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no. 1 among the provinces and autonomous regions across the country in the GDP quality index for two consecutive years. (2) The people’s living standard and the degree of social harmony have increased markedly. During the period 2003–2014, Zhejiang’s urban per capita disposable income and rural per capita net income increased from 13,180 yuan and 5,431 yuan to 40,393 yuan and 18,373 yuan, ranking Zhejiang no. 1 among the provinces and autonomous regions across the country for 13 and 29 consecutive years, the income gap between urban and rural residents narrowed to 2.35:1, and Zhejiang was one of the provinces with the smallest income gap between urban and rural residents. Both urban and rural areas were basically covered by basic medical services, public health services, public culture and the system of convenient services for the people, the level of social assistance increased steadily and the building of the housing security system was enhanced continuously. With efforts in intensifying the building of a safe Zhejiang and promoting the rule of law in Zhejiang, in 2012, 95.93% of the people were satisfied with the safety in Zhejiang, Zhejiang was regarded as one of the safest provinces nationwide. (3) There has been significant improvements in the capacity for sustainable development and the level of ecological development. In 2014, the province’s rate of urbanization reached 64.9%, up nearly 14% points compared with 2001, 10.3% points higher than the average national level. The development in the underdeveloped areas across the province was generally faster than the provincial average and the regional gap gradually narrowed. During the period 2008–2014, the GDP grew annually by an average of 11.1% in Quzhou, Lishui and Zhoushan, 1.7% points higher than the provincial level. Regarding the building of an ecological province, Zhejiang comprehensively arranged for and pushed forward ecological development. Zhejiang completed the “811” action for environmental pollution control and the “811” action for environmental protection, completely carried out “three renovations and one demolition”, the work of “cleaning, greening and beautifying the areas beside highways, railways, rivers and mountains” and the building of a beautiful countryside, and also built a beautiful Zhejiang by starting with governing the water.2 (4) The level of reform and opening-up has increased noticeably. Zhejiang has further carried out four major national strategic measures, the comprehensive coordinated reforms in urban and rural areas, the reforms involving the experimental area of rural reforms and the system of collective forest rights, and the reform involving market-oriented allocation of factors. Zhejiang has earnestly optimized the development for the private economy, stimulated the merchants in Zhejiang to return to Zhejiang for entrepreneurship and innovation. Zhejiang has reached a new level in foreign trade, enhanced the quality of the utilization of foreign capital, and moved faster to go global. Zhejiang has carried out the national development plan for the Yangtze River delta region, and intensified 2 The

Group of the Theoretical Study Center under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province (2014).

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regional cooperation. In reform and opening-up, Zhejiang has also built a contingent of the Party members and cadres with firm conviction, dedication in serving the people, diligence and pragmatism, a strong sense of responsibility, uprightness.3

1.1.2 The Course of the Political Development of the Pioneering and Characteristic Zhejiang in Nearly Ten Years Since the beginning of the 21st century, Zhejiang has encountered a variety of contrasts and problems amidst rapid economic and social development. Given the new requirements and new challenges for the modernization of the system of and capacity for governance, the Party and government departments at various levels in Zhejiang have responded to the times and the changing situation by placing more emphasis on leveraging the political advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and actively introducing new strategic measures in economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development and the building up of the Party, they have really carried them out to achieve scientific development, they have explored and pushed forward the transformation of the mode of governance and the path of upgrading more suited to the requirements of practical development. In July, 2003, the 4th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province put forward the “Eight-Eight Strategies” with great significance and made great decisions for further leveraging the “eight advantages” and pushing forward the “eight measures”. The “eight advantages” mean actions taken to leverage Zhejiang’s advantages in system and mechanism, location, massive industry, coordinated urban and rural development, ecology, mountain and sea resources, environment and humanities, and turn the potential advantages into realistic advantages. The “eight measures” mean measures adopted to explore and improve the corresponding mechanism of implementation, further leverage, foster and convert advantages and elevate Zhejiang’s development to a new level. The “Eight-Eight Strategies” have rich connotations and cover various fields of economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development, they reflect Zhejiang’s practice of the five-sphere integrated plan, laying a solid foundation for Zhejiang to fully achieve modernization under the new historical conditions. In May, 2004, the 6th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province deliberated and adopted the Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on Building a Safe Zhejiang and Promoting Social Harmony and Stability, making comprehensive arrangements for the building of a safe Zhejiang and calling for actively building a harmonious society with Chinese characteristics, the features of the times and Zhejiang’s characteristics according to the overall goal of ensuring that politics becomes more stable, the economy is further developed, 3 Hu

(2013).

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culture becomes more prosperous, the society becomes more harmonious and the people’s lives improve. The “safe” in the safe Zhejiang is not the “safe” in a narrow sense; instead, it is the “safe” in a broad sense, which is wide-ranging, extensive and multifaceted and covers the economic, political, cultural and social fields. In July, 2005, on the basis of further carrying out the Plan of Zhejiang Province for the Building of a Culturally Large Province (2001–2020), the 8th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province made the Decision on Accelerating the Building of a Culturally Large Province, calling for actively innovating the working carriers, vigorously carrying out the “eight projects”—including the project for the improvement of the quality of culture, the excellent cultural product project, the cultural research project, the cultural protection project, the project for the promotion of the cultural industry, the cultural front project, the cultural communication project, the cultural talent project—and more rapidly building a strong province in education, science and technology, health and sports, taking various measures to intensify the building of a culturally large province. In April, 2006, the 10th Plenary (Enlarged) Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province was convened in Hangzhou; it deliberated and adopted the Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province Concerning the Building of Zhejiang under the Rule of Law, specifying the overall requirement, basic principles and main tasks for building Zhejiang under the rule of law and calling for comprehensively promoting democracy and the rule of law in Zhejiang. The strategy for building Zhejiang under the rule of law focused on improving the style of leadership and the mode of governance of the Party, and giving scope to the roles of governance under the rule of law and government administration under the rule of law in promoting the modernization of the system of and capacity for governance; it is the major decision and arrangement for carrying out the socialist philosophy of the rule of law and promoting socialist democracy in Zhejiang; it is the early practical exploration, at the provincial level, of the building of China under the rule of law; it directly reflects the unity of Party leadership, the running of the country by the people, and governance under the rule of law. Building an ecological province and a green Zhejiang is a major decision and arrangement vigorously advocated and promoted by Zhejiang. As early as December, 2002, in the 2nd Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping, vowed to actively carry out the strategy for sustainable development, maintain the coordinated development of the population, resources, the environment, economy and society and make Zhejiang be the first to become an ecological province with a booming economy, beautiful mountains and rivers, a culturally advanced society, according to the goal of building a green Zhejiang and with the building of an ecological province as the main carrier. In August, 2003, on this basis, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province developed the Plan of Zhejiang for Building an Ecological Province, arranging for carrying out ten major projects and the “811” action for environmental improvement, specifying the goal of building “five major systems”. After 2005, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province further put forward the philosophy of development stating that clean, clear waters and

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lush mountains are the “gold and silver mountain”, so that Zhejiang has continuously stayed ahead among the provinces and autonomous regions across the province in the ecological and environmental quality while maintaining sustained rapid economic development. Since 2013, the new Party Committee of Zhejiang Province has focused on the new situation and tasks, planned and pushed forward the building of a beautiful province for a good life, deeply carried out “three renovations and one demolition”, the work of “cleaning, greening and beautifying the areas beside highways, railways, rivers and mountains” and the building of a beautiful countryside, and has built a beautiful Zhejiang by starting with governing the water. Regarding the building up of the Party, in October, 2004, the 7th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province was convened, carefully studying and carrying out the guiding principles adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and in light of Zhejiang’s reality, adopting the Opinions of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on Earnestly Implementing the Guiding Principles Adopted during the 4th Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Practically Strengthening the Building of the Party’s Capacity for Governance, identifying the main tasks and work arrangements for Zhejiang’s intensified building of the Party’s capacity for governance, specifying the requirements for “consolidating the foundation in eight respects and strengthening the capacity on eight fronts”, calling for enhancing the ability of the Party organizations, the Party members and leading cadres at various levels in self-purification, self-improvement, self-reform and self-enhancement. The subsequent successive Party committees of Zhejiang Province gave importance to strengthening the building up of the Party, and issued, in different periods, a slew of institutional documents for doing that. The major decisions and arrangements made by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province in nearly ten years—including carrying out in full the “Eight-Eight Strategies”, comprehensively building a safe Zhejiang, more rapidly building a culturally large province, building Zhejiang under the rule of law, as an ecological province and a green Zhejiang, enhancing the building of the Party’s capacity for governance—constitute the overall layout for Zhejiang’s coordinated development in the economic, political, cultural, social and ecological fields as well as building up the Party; these major decisions and arrangements reflect the strategic, holistic and systematic nature of scientific development, and plan “the new five-sphere pattern for Zhejiang’s integrated coordinated development” with a dialectical line of thought and in a global and coordinated way, thus creating good conditions for Zhejiang to promote the modernization of the system of and capacity for governance, and laying a solid foundation for the early realization of the Chinese dream in Zhejiang.

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1.2 The Modernization of the System of Governance: The Strategic Layout of Zhejiang’s Political Development In the tide of China’s reform and opening-up, Zhejiang has stood out, stayed ahead, made historic progress in economic and social development, created a legend in China’s development, and brought into being the remarkable Zhejiang experience. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Zhejiang has forged a link between the past and the future in political development, blazed new trails, proceeded from the market and Zhejiang’s reality of the developed private economy, leveraged its advantages regarding institutions and mechanisms, optimized the system of and capacity for governance, continuously promoted strategic planning and policy guidance, respected and encouraged innovations at the primary level and it has given full play to the vitality of the market and the society, so that the distinctive Zhejiang Model can be enriched, improved and developed continuously. In this historical process, the leading Party and government departments at various levels have played a key role, and have acquired valuable experience for building socialism with Chinese characteristics, especially building and steering a socialist market economy, achieving scientific development and pushing forward the transformation and upgrading of the model of governance.

1.2.1 The “Eight-Eight Strategies”: The Strategic Programme for Promoting the Modernization of the System of Governance Zhejiang’s experience in political development has distinctive features of the times. Zhejiang has the first-mover advantage in economic and social reform, Zhejiang has also shown the provincial characteristics in which experience leads the way, the issues are raised and scientific transformation is achieved. As Zhejiang has stayed ahead in economic and social development, its local path of governance and the issues before Zhejiang serve as the reference for current and future explorations of the modernization of national governance and are also important political practices for realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. The “Eight-Eight Strategies” directly embody a close combination between the socialist theory with Chinese characteristics and Zhejiang’s reality. Since the beginning of the 21st century, given the complicated problems and contrasts in economic and social development, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province profoundly realized that in order to make further progress, where pressure and difficulties would certainly be greater, it would be necessary to leverage traditional advantages and also make new breakthroughs in strategic layout and a philosophy of governance. The then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping, put forward the “Eight-Eight Strategies” for Zhejiang on the basis of in-depth surveys and research, in light of the opportunities

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and challenges in economic and social development and according to the goal of “building a moderately prosperous society in all respects in Zhejiang, making Zhejiang basically achieve modernization in advance”, thus vigorously promoting the optimization and transformation of the system and mode of governance, arousing an endless impetus for Zhejiang’s intensive development. In July, 2003, based on summarizing Zhejiang’s experience in economic development over the years, the 4th Plenary (Enlarged) Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province comprehensively and systematically summed up the eight advantages for Zhejiang’s development and put forward the eight measures for future development, namely, further leveraging the advantages in eight respects and pushing forward the measures on eight fronts, officially initiating the implementation of the “Eight-Eight Strategies” which are of great significance for Zhejiang’s reform and development. The “Eight-Eight Strategies” are as follows: (1) Further giving play to Zhejiang’s advantages regarding institutions and mechanisms, vigorously promoting the common development of the economy with different types of ownership while ensuring public ownership remains dominant and continuously improving the system of a socialist market economy; (2) further drawing on Zhejiang’s advantageous location, proactively keeping in line with Shanghai, actively engaging in cooperation and communication with the Yangtze River Delta and constantly increasing the level of opening-up internally and externally; (3) further leveraging the advantages of massive characteristic industries in Zhejiang, speeding up the building of advanced manufacturing bases, taking the path of new industrialization; (4) further giving play to Zhejiang’s advantages in coordinated urban and rural development, promoting coordinated urban and rural economic and social development and quickening urban and rural integration; (5) further utilizing Zhejiang’s ecological advantage, turning Zhejiang into an ecological province, building a green Zhejiang; (6) further exploiting the advantages of mountain and marine resources, energetically developing the marine economy, boosting leapfrog development of the underdeveloped areas, and turning the development of the marine economy and the underdeveloped areas into the new economic growth point of Zhejiang Province; (7) further utilizing Zhejiang’s environmental advantages, actively pushing forward the construction of infrastructures, practically strengthening legal construction, credit construction and improving the efficiency of organs; (8) further leveraging Zhejiang’s humanistic advantage, actively rejuvenating the province through science, technology and talents, stepping up efforts to turn Zhejiang into a culturally strong province. In summary, the first “eight” in the “Eight-Eight Strategies” means actions taken to leverage Zhejiang’s advantages in system and mechanism, location, massive industry, coordinated urban and rural development, ecology, mountain and sea resources, environment and humanities, and turn the potential advantages into realistic advantages. The second “eight” means measures adopted to explore and improve the corresponding mechanism of implementation, further leverage, foster and convert advantages, elevate Zhejiang’s development to a new level, and basically achieve modernization in advance on the basis of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. The then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping, pointed out that the “eight advantages” did not merely refer to the advantages

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which had been reflected, they represented the overall understanding gained according to the requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development and in light of the reality, they embodied the unity of inheritance and innovation and actions should be taken to further leverage the apparent advantages and turn the potential advantages into realistic advantages.4 The “Eight-Eight Strategies” are based on practice and Zhejiang’s advantages arising out of reform and development, and they focus on the innovations in governance structure and developmental philosophy. The effective implementation of the “Eight-Eight Strategies” has laid a solid foundation for Zhejiang to comprehensively achieve modernization under the new historical conditions.

1.2.2 Zhejiang Under the Rule of Law: The Zhejiang Experience in the Democratic and Political Development with Chinese Characteristics Since the reform and opening-up, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province has always given a great deal of importance to promoting socialist democracy and rule of law, and it has actively explored the political developmental path with Chinese characteristics suited to Zhejiang’s reality. In particular, since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Zhejiang has taken promoting the rule of law as an important part of efforts in carrying out the “Eight-Eight Strategies” and building a safe Zhejiang, put it in a prominent position, and speeded up the pact of promoting the rule of law in the whole society, laying a good foundation for building Zhejiang under the rule of law. In April, 2006, the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province adopted the Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province Concerning the Building of Zhejiang under the Rule of Law (“the Decision”), identifying the strategy for building Zhejiang under the rule of law. According to the Decision, building Zhejiang under the rule of law is a long-term task, a gradual process and a systematic project. The main task for building Zhejiang under the rule of law lies in upholding and improving the Party’s leadership, the system of the people’s congress, the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, strengthening the development of local regulations and the building of the government under the rule of law, the development of the judicial system and working mechanism, publicity and education of the rule of law, ensuring that the people’s political, economic and cultural rights and interests are duly respected and guaranteed, providing an important legal guarantee for comprehensively carrying out the major strategic arrangements for the “Eight-Eight Strategies” and the building of a safe Zhejiang and a culturally large province, smoothly implementing the plan for economic and social development, 4 Dong

(2006).

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more rapidly building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and basically achieving modernization in advance.5 Regarding the building up of the Party, the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law presents explicit requirements for carrying out the basic strategy of governance under the rule of law, improving the mode of the Party’s leadership, increasing the level of governmental administration under the rule of law and enhancing the capacity for governance. As stressed by the Decision, and under the principle of the Party exercising overall leadership and coordinating all efforts, it is necessary to regulate the relationship among the Party committee and the people’s congress, the government and the people’s political consultative conference and to support the people’s congress in performing the functions as the organ of state power, support the government in performing the statutory functions and carrying out administration under the rule of law, support the people’s political consultative conference in performing functions by focusing on two major themes—solidarity and democracy. It is essential to strengthen the Party’s leadership over legislative work, combine the major decisions made by the Party committee with local legislation so as to institutionally ensure the implementation of strategic arrangements including the “Eight-Eight Strategies” and the building of a safe Zhejiang and a culturally large province. It is necessary to urge and support the state organs in performing their functions under the rule of law and make sure that they do so, promote the work in various respects under the rule of law. It is necessary to support adjudication and procuratorial organs to independently and impartially exercise adjudication and procuratorial power under the rule of law, strengthen supervision over and guarantee for judicial activities; it is also necessary to enhance the ideological and political quality and professional capability of the Party members and cadres, strengthen the building of the leading groups and cadre force, turn the leading groups at various levels into a strong collective leadership, develop high-caliber cadres, solidly step up efforts to improve Party conduct and government integrity and fight corruption, seriously investigate and deal with dutyrelated crimes, strengthen the intra-party supervision, give full scope to the role of the commission for the inspection of discipline as the special organ for intra-party supervision as well as improve the Party’s leadership system and working mechanism, reform and improve the decision-making mechanism, increase the level of decision-making level, push forward the building up of the Party and institutionalize and regularize intra-party conduct. With respect to upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress, the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law presents clear requirements for supporting the people’s congress and its standing committee in performing their functions under the rule of law and ensuring that they do so, giving full play to the role of the deputies to the people’s congress, correctly performing the supervisory function of the people’s congress and improving the system of the standing committee of the people’s congress. As stressed by the Decision, the system of the people’s congress is China’s fundamental political system, it is the organizational form of political power 5 The

Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province Concerning the Building of Zhejiang under the Rule of Law (2006).

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through which the Party leads and supports the people in becoming the masters of the country and making sure that the people do become the masters of the country, the Party leads the state and social affairs. It is necessary to further strengthen and improve the Party’s leadership over the people’s congress; it also supports the provincial people’s congress and its standing committee, the people’s congresses of the cities and counties with local legislative power and their standing committees in exercising local legislative power and ensuring that they do so; moreover, it supports the people’s congresses at various levels and their standing committees in exercising the powers of supervision, deciding on major matters, election and appointment under the rule of law and ensuring that they do so, it is also necessary to improve the work on the election of the deputies to the people’s congresses and the system of public notification of deputy candidates, optimize the composition of deputies, enhance the comprehensive quality of deputies and their ability to perform duties. The people’s congresses at various levels and their standing committees should combine the performance of supervisory functions under the rule of law with the support for the work carried out by the government, courts and procuratorates under the rule of law. The standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels should further improve the organizational system and the operating mechanism by focusing on upholding the Party’s leadership, giving scope to the role of deputies and performing the functions given by the constitution and laws. Regarding upholding and improving the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law presents the explicit requirements for strengthening cooperation with democratic parties, improving political consultation with democratic parties, further improving the content, mode and procedure involving political consultation by the people’s political consultative conference, actively pushing forward democratic supervision by the people’s political consultative conference, further ensuring that the people’s political consultative conference participates in the administration and discussion of state affairs and strengthening the building of the people’s political consultative conference. As stressed by the Decision, the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China is a basic political system in China, it is necessary to uphold the principles of long-term coexistence, mutual oversight, sincerity, and sharing the rough times and the smooth, fully support democratic parties and the personages without party affiliation to play the roles of participating in the administration and discussion of state affairs and exercising democratic supervision and to consolidate and develop the broadest possible patriotic united front. With regard to strengthening the development of local laws and regulations, the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law presents the explicit requirements for improving laws and regulations, the legislative mechanism and the quality of legislation. According to the Decision, it is necessary to, based on the stipulations and authority concerning local legislation specified in the Constitution and the Legislative Law and Zhejiang’s reality, scientifically work out the legislation plan, rationally determine the annual legislation items and further improve the legal guarantee for carrying out the Scientific Outlook on Development and building a harmonious soci-

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ety by focusing on promoting coordinated economic and social development and sustainable development. It is necessary to improve the working system in which the leaders of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province lead local legislation, put forward legislative suggestions to the provincial people’s congress in due time and to uphold democratic and scientific legislation. It is necessary to, according to the requirements for the unity of the rule of law, further improve the reviewing mechanism for the conflict of laws, make legislation more targeted and operable and ensure that the laws and regulations are explicit, concrete, scientific, well-regulated and realistic. With respect to strengthening the building of the government under the rule of law, the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law presents the explicit requirements for intensifying the reform of the administrative system, comprehensively pushing forward government administration under the rule of law, developing civil servants who are politically qualified, know and observe laws and carry out government administration in strict compliance with laws. According to the Decision, it is necessary to energetically push forward the transformation of government functions, comprehensively perform the functions of economic regulation, market supervision, social management and public service according to the requirements of stipulating the functions and authority by laws, putting government administration under the rule of law, exercising effective supervision, ensuring high efficiency and convenience for the people. It is essential to intensify the reform of government agencies, rationally specify the functions and authority of the governments at various levels and government departments, regulate these functions and authority according to laws; it is also necessary to continue improving the efficiency of agencies, intensify the reform of the investment system, speed up the building of the public financial system, carefully carry out the Implementation Plan for Comprehensively Prompting Government Administration under the Rule of Law unveiled by the State Council, ensure that administrative powers are granted in a well-founded way, exercised according to regulations and are subject to effective supervision; moreover, it is necessary to earnestly carry out the Civil Servant Law, strengthen the education of civil servants with respect to the philosophy of the socialist rule of law, punish, in strict compliance with laws, the law enforcement personnel who bend laws for personal gains, pervert justice for a bribe and break laws in law enforcement, strengthen the building of the legal affairs bodies and forces at government departments at various levels and better serve the building of the government under the rule of law. With respect to strengthening the development of the judicial system and working mechanism, the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law presents the explicit requirements for earnestly carrying out the measures adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for promoting the reform of the judicial system, regulating judicial acts, reinforcing and regulating legal services. According to the Decision, it is necessary to follow the unified arrangements made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to steadily push forward court reform, intensify procuratorial reform, press ahead with the reform of prison work, further improve the judicial system with well-defined rights and responsibilities, coordination, mutual restriction and efficient operations and really safeguard judicial fairness;

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it is also necessary to place equal emphasis on substantive justice and procedural justice, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and other organizations, strengthen the building of the lawyer force, improve the mechanism of the supervision of lawyers, regulate notary management and notary services, commercial arbitration, urban and rural primary-level legal service, improve the judicial expertise management system and establish a system for unified judicial expertise for the society. With respect to making sure that the people’s economic, political and cultural rights and interests are really respected and safeguarded, the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law presents the explicit requirements for expanding primarylevel democracy, improving the system and mechanism for safeguarding citizens’ rights and interests, the right remedy and safeguarding mechanism, guaranteeing the safety of the people’s life and property. According to the Decision, it is necessary to conscientiously summarize and promote the experience and practices of Zhejiang’s local authorities in improving the primary-level self-governing organization and the system of democratic management, uphold and improve the system of handling affairs in an open manner, make sure that the people conduct democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision according to laws; it is also necessary to improve the villagers’ self-governance and urban residents’ self-governance, uphold and improve the system of the congress of workers and staff and other forms of democratic management systems for enterprises and public institutions, establish and improve a mechanism for the coordination of interests and a system for the guarantee of social fairness, uphold and improve the system of regional national autonomy, comprehensively carry out the Party’s policy for freedom of religious belief, strictly execute the administrative indemnity and compensation system, comprehensively carry out the systems involving the work on complaint-related letters and visits, strengthen the organization and institutional building for legal aid, reinforce lawyers’ legal aid obligation, strengthen and improve the work on safeguarding rights and fully carry out the arrangements for building a safe Zhejiang to safeguard social harmony and stability. Furthermore, the Decision also specified explicit requirements and overall arrangements for strengthening publicity and education relating to the rule of law, enhancing the legal quality of the whole people and strengthening the leadership over the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law. The Party Committee of Zhejiang Province put forward and pushed forward the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law, further improving “the overall layout for modernizing Zhejiang” according to the decisions and arrangements made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in different periods. The Party and government departments at various levels in Zhejiang carried through the blueprint for the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law, promoted development and sought to improve the people’s well-being and guarantee harmony through the rule of law. In eight years, Zhejiang acted in response to the new positioning for development, new requirements and new opportunities, the connotation of building Zhejiang under the rule of law was also enriched and improved continuously, a local system of the rule of law with Zhejiang’s characteristics preliminarily took

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shape. First, strengthening legislation in key fields, promoting scientific and democratic legislation, improving the quality of legislation. In 2013, Zhejiang adopted the first local regulation for private financing in China—the Administrative Regulations of Wenzhou City for Private Financing. As of late September, 2014, there were 352 local regulations, autonomous regulations and specific regulations adopted and approved by Zhejiang, including more than 100 antecedent regulations, such as the Regulations of Zhejiang Province on Promoting the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, and the Regulations on the Management and Protection of Enterprise Trade Names. Second, strictly enforcing laws, earnestly carrying out the administrative law enforcement responsibility system, which makes sure that rights are commensurate with responsibilities, keeping authority and high efficiency, gradually achieving law enforcement in a strict, well-regulated, impartial and civilized way. Being the first to promote grid-based environmental monitoring and fine management, establishing the system of environmental law enforcement responsibility in which supervision, services and mutual communication are duly put in place, strengthening the connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, being the first to issue the criteria for building the government under the rule of law and relevant main indicators of evaluation. Third, making public the adjudication, procuratorial, police and prison affairs, setting the high line for intervening in judicial acts, strengthening the supervision over judicial organs and the personnel for case handling, the judicial guarantee for human rights, making sure that the people are treated in an impartial and just way in each case. Fourth, enhancing the awareness of observing laws among the entire population, taking key work—including “three renovations and one demolition” and governing “five waters” in tandem—as the large platform, experimental field, touchstone and live teaching material for building Zhejiang under the rule of law and fostering a social atmosphere of upholding, observing and safeguarding laws. In Zhejiang’s strategy for development, thoroughly carrying out the “Eight-Eight Strategies” is the overall means for implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development; comprehensively building a safe Zhejiang is the main carrier for building a harmonious society; accelerating the building of a culturally large province is the important measure for developing an advanced socialist culture; building Zhejiang under the rule of law is the effective way to develop a socialist democracy; strengthening the Party’s capacity for governance and its advanced nature accordingly provides the fundamental guarantee; building an ecological province and a green Zhejiang is essential for increasing the overall level of development and promoting scientific development. The overall layout in these respects is intrinsically unified, organically connected, complementary and indivisible. As the major measure in the overall strategic layout for Zhejiang’s modernization, the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law is crucial and has a vital bearing on the long-term development; it is the strategic measure for Zhejiang in carrying out the requirement of “doing concrete work to stay ahead”; it is the intrinsic requirement and institutional support for comprehensively carrying out the Scientific Outlook on Development, building a harmonious socialist society, promoting socialist political development and enhancing the Party’s capacity for governance; it is an important practice in promoting the modernization

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of the local system of governance and exploring the path towards socialist political development with Chinese characteristics.

1.3 The Modernization of the Capacity for Governance: Practical Innovation in Zhejiang’s Political Development Zhejiang’s experience in political development lies in exploring the concrete path for promoting the socialist democratic and political development with Chinese characteristics under the principle of upholding the unity of the Party’s leadership, the running of the country by the people, and governance under the rule of law. The “Eight-Eight Strategies” and the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law are the overall program for Zhejiang’s political development in nearly ten years and the beneficial practice in the transformation and upgrading of the system of governance. In nearly ten years, Zhejiang made a series of active and effective experiments in upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress, the socialist consultative democracy system and the primary-level democratic system, promoting governance of the province under the rule of law, intensifying the reform of the administrative system, improving the system of restriction and supervision of power operations, consolidating and developing the broadest possible united patriotic front, Zhejiang gathered rich experience in political development, and brought about certain innovative practices with typical characteristics and a significance as demonstration.

1.3.1 Upholding and Improving the System of the People’s Congress The strategy for building Zhejiang under the rule of law has played an important role in further upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress, and has greatly promoted practical innovations in the system of the people’s congress at various levels and in various aspects. 1. Speeding up the development of local regulations, improving the quality of legislation During the period 2006-July, 2014, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province made (amended) 92 local regulations, revised and abolished 70 local regulations, and approved 114 regulations submitted by Hangzhou City, Ningbo City and Jingning She Autonomous County, involving economic changes, the building of political power, cultural development and social management, so a well-functioning local regulation system which supports the national laws and regulations and is suited to Zhejiang’s economic and social development basically

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took shape. The People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province and its standing committee took promoting scientific and democratic legislation as the fundamental way to improve the quality of legislation, established such mechanisms as the “legislative item application and feasibility study” and the “item-by-item feasibility study before determination of the annual legislation plan” to standardize legislative procedures and items; it held feasibility study meetings to study the feasibility of legislative matters, ensure the selection of the right and good legislative items; it conducted fine management of the progress in legislative items, established the working mechanism for early intervention in regulation drafts and explored the system for conducting surveys ahead of deliberation by the members of the standing committee of the people’s congress. The legislative standard and procedure, the working mechanism and the content of management were improved to accelerate the development of laws and regulations and effectively enhance the quality of legislation. 2. Carrying out legislation in an open way, further making public legislation This is an important characteristic of Zhejiang’s development of the system of the people’s congress. The People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province solicited opinions from the society with respect to all laws and regulations through the Internet, newspapers and other media, received suggestions on legislative items from the society when developing the annual legislation plan, invited citizens to attend the meetings of the standing committee on a non-voting basis, deliberate laws and regulation drafts and it ensured the public’s right to know, participate in, express and supervise in legislative work. The channels for public participation in legislation were broadened, Zhejiang became the first nationwide to hold legislative hearings, issued the Rules of Zhejiang Province on Local Legislative Hearings, institutionalizing and normalizing legislative hearings, producing good legislative effects and exerting a great social impact. 3. Strengthening the system of contact between the standing committee and the deputies to the people’s congress, between the deputies to the people’s congress and the people In 2008, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province issued the Measures for Contact between the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province and the Deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, and the Measures for Contact between the Deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province and Their Constituencies and the People, effectively strengthening the system of contact between the standing committees of the people’s congresses in various parts of the province and the deputies as well as between the deputies and the people. In 2013, the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province built the Service Platform for the Performance of Duties by the Deputies to the People’s Congresses in Zhejiang, providing prompt and full services to more than 80,000 deputies to the people’s congresses at various levels across the province for performing their duties. According to statistics, the platform delivered 1.50 million messages concerning work, documents and materials to the deputies, the deputies posted messages relating to direct participation in exchange for more than 50,000

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person-times, the deputies actively registered more than 5,000 important information items concerning the performance of their duties, the deputies were involved for more than 25,000 person-times, effectively enhancing the convenience and timeliness for interaction between the standing committees of the people’s congresses and the deputies. Local authorities across the province proceeded from local conditions to actively bring about innovations to the system of contact for the deputies to the people’s congresses, to build a platform for a network of information, promote regular contact between the standing committees of the people’s congresses and the deputies; and they also provided the conditions to build the deputies liaison stations to push forward front contact between the deputies and the people. The deputies liaison stations were built in more than 95% of the towns and sub-districts across the province; in late 2014, full coverage was basically achieved. 4. Innovations to the people’s hearing system and the mechanism of the supervision of the people’s congress in Yueqing The people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang strengthened supervision according to laws, the fields under supervision were increased, the manner of supervision was improved continuously, the supervisory mechanism was innovated incessantly, and the effects of supervision were improved constantly. The system of the people’s hearing in Yueqing is an important practice in strengthening the supervision over the government, courts and procuratorates by the people’s congress. The people’s hearing originated in 2007, it is a supervisory mechanism for public participation introduced by the People’s Congress of Yueqing City in performing the supervisory function. From May, 2007 to March, 2011, the people’s hearing was held 14 times, involving 49 special work items of the government, the court and the procuratorate in education, environmental protection, urban construction, transportation, town division adjustment and public security. Compared with the ordinary meetings of the standing committee of the people’s congress, the people’s hearing gives prominence to the supervision by the people’s congress over major matters and special matters, and the platforms for expression of public opinion were built so that the people can, in an orderly fashion, participate in discussing and making decisions about major matters. The main advantage of the system of the people’s hearing lies in openness, transparency, democratic participation and rigid supervision; this system has effectively enhanced the position and supervisory role of the primary-level people’s congress in the local political structure, it has regularized, institutionalized and materialized the supervision by the people’s congress over the government and policies and it is the beneficial experiment in leveraging the superiority of the system of the primary-level people’s congress.

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1.3.2 The Practice and Innovations in Socialist Consultative Democracy The consultative democracy is a unique form in China’s democratic and political development. The Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have always proceeded from the reality to creatively carry out the guiding principles adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, actively explore the practice of consultative democracy with Chinese characteristics, and give shape to the universal and distinctive Zhejiang experience. The development of Zhejiang’s consultative democracy reveals the progress in consultative democracy, provides important inspiration and serves as reference for the practice of consultative democracy in various parts of the country. 1. Giving full scope to the important role of the people’s political consultative conference as the channel for consultative democracy In ten years, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province held three provincial working conferences on the people’s political consultative conference (PPCC), stressing the advantages and roles of the PPCC’s consultative democracy. According to the arrangements made by the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China for improving the socialist system of consultative democracy, Zhejiang made bold experiments, actively blazed new trails, brought about innovations and improved multiple carriers for the performance of duties, gave prominence to the distinctive features of consultation among parties and the function of channels for expressing public opinion from different sectors, gave play to the professional characteristics of special committees, expanded the scope within which the people from various sectors participate in the PPCC’s consultative activities, expanded special consultation, enriched the active paired consultation, energetically explored sectoral consultation, continuously improved the consultation on the handling of proposals, promoted the development of the system of consultative democracy, and gave full scope to the important role of the PPCC as the channel for consultative democracy. 2. Making the consultation between the governing party and democratic parties institutionalized, normalized and procedure-based Inter-party consultation is a democratic form for guaranteeing equal consultation among the democratic parties and the governing party on major national and local policies and major matters, in which the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China is taken as the carrier, the system of democratic centralism is regarded as the basic operational principle and the constitution serves as the fundamental guarantee. Since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the inter-party consultation in Zhejiang has been gradually institutionalized, normalized and procedure-based, Zhejiang has regularly convened the meetings with the public figures outside the party, democratic consultation meetings and briefings, focusing on conducting discussions, exchanges, communication and consultation concerning the central task of

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the Party committee and the government, important meeting documents, important personnel arrangements and major economic and social issues regarding development. The members of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province have built one-to-one connections with the provincial-level democratic parties and the federation of industrial commerce, and they conduct one heart-to-heart talk activity at least once a year. Based on surveys, the provincial committees of democratic parties can put forward consultational suggestions directly in the form of survey reports. Led by the department of the united provincial front, democratic parties are regularly organized to conduct joint surveys and hold special consultative meetings, thus building platforms for face-to-face consultations. 3. Actively promoting the primary-level democratic consultation to effectively resolve social contrasts The local authorities in Zhejiang have energetically pushed forward discussion and consultation within the primary-level democratic self-governance, actively explored social consultations with Zhejiang’s characteristics and local features, established a number of distinctive consultative decision-making modes, including discussion and consultative meetings, democratic earnest talk meetings, non-governmental think tanks, hearings, and People’s Conditions Weather Stations; they have zealously encouraged and guided social intermediary organizations, industrial associations, social groups and organizations as well as specialized bodies to extensively participate in consultations; they have taken the BBS, online communities, online social groups and online blogs as carriers to promote the online expansion of consultative democracy, gradually carried out the effective mechanism with joint consultations and governance by diverse main players.

1.3.3 Promoting Practical Innovations in the Primary-Level Democratic Development As the primary-level mass self-governance form and its operational mode, primarylevel democracy is an important form through which the people exercise their democratic rights and participate in managing state and social affairs; it is an integral part of the system of socialist democracy. In nearly ten years, Zhejiang has steadily pushed forward the development of primary-level democracy, the mechanism for urban and rural community governance was improved continuously, Zhejiang saw the gradual formation of a good pattern in which democratic election was conducted orderly, democratic decision-making was increasingly strengthened, democratic management was increasingly well-regulated, democratic supervision was reinforced according to laws and the democratic consultation mechanisms emerged. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Zhejiang has actively promoted practical innovations to the development of primary-level democracy, Zhejiang has brought about a lot of typical experiences and practices in the self-governance of rural villagers, urban community governance and the primary-level democracy of enterprises, which has presented a

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number of bright spots and distinctive characteristics, and has greatly enriched the practice in the development of primary-level democracy. 1. Pioneering “self-recommendation and mass elections”, exploring the ways to bring about innovations to the mode of villagers’ elections The election of the village committee is an important part of the villagers’ selfgovernance. Four years ago, Zhejiang smoothly completed the election of the 9th village committee and democratic elections have been increasingly institutionalized and normalized. In the meantime, the primary-level democratic innovations also emerged; the mode of “self-recommendation and mass elections” is a typical example. In March, 2005, the villagers at Tangjiadai Village in Yuhang District, Hangzhou City elected the members of the new village committee under the mode of “selfrecommendation and mass elections” without candidates, which occurred for the first time in primary-level democratic elections across the country. The mode of direct elections without candidates was adopted in Tangjiadai Village, three and two people who recommended themselves ran for the director and deputy director of village committee, respectively. Two rounds of elections were conducted, resulting in the first director of the village committee elected through “self-recommendation and mass elections” in China. Compared with other election modes, “self-recommendation and mass elections” enjoys apparent comprehensive advantages, including a high degree of democratization and low election costs. As the mode of “self-recommendation and mass elections” was widely recognized, all of the 122 villages which had not yet undergone large-scale adjustments in Yuhang District adopted that mode to elect their village committees, 730 people recommended themselves to run for the posts on the village committee, with an average of 197 self-recommended people for each post and 160,179 voters; the voter turnout reached 99.1%, an all-time high in the elections of a village committee in Yuhang District. In the election of the 9th village committee in Zhejiang, 88.4% of the village committees adopted that kind of election mode, up 37.45% points compared with the previous village committees. At present, “self-recommendation and mass elections” has become the most important mode in the elections of village committees in Zhejiang. 2. Adopting the five-step working method to push forward rural democratic decision-making and democratic supervision Since 2005, Tiantai County in Taizhou City has carried out the five-step working method for village-level democratic decision-making on major affairs, a method in which supervision is led by the village party organization, the main contents and basic procedures are democratic submission of proposals, democratic discussion of proposals, democratic voting, open making of commitments, and supervision over the implementation. The five-step working method has effectively addressed the weaknesses in democratic decision-making and democratic supervision in the development of rural primary-level democracy; it has reflected and guaranteed the right of villagers to become the masters in submitting and discussing proposals, making decisions, implementation and supervision; it has also effectively given scope to the role of the Party branch. The supervisory mechanism—village affairs supervisory

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committee—has been established, a special procedure has been developed so that villagers make commitments, and the implementation of democratic decision-making and the matters of democratic supervision are guaranteed. Such an institutional design is easy to operate, simple and practicable, and is also convenient to supervise, and it has also preliminarily rationalized the relationship between two committees at the village level, shored up the weaknesses in “four democracies”, and fully guaranteed the right of villagers to become the masters, it has the typical characteristics of primary-level democratic innovation. 3. Hangzhou’s working mechanism in which the people’s well-being is promoted through democracy This kind of working mechanism can be summarized as follows: Understanding the people’s conditions to put in place the right to know; identifying the people’s needs to put in place the right to make choices; collecting ideas from the people to put in place the right to participation; making it possible for the people to carry out the evaluation so as to put in place the right to supervise, so that public policies are guaranteed by a democratic mechanism and the procedure from policy-making to execution, evaluation and supervision, and the issues concerning the people’s well-being are effectively addressed in line with the public opinion, and democracy plays an important role in practically addressing the issues concerning the people’s well-being, providing an effective institutional guarantee for harmonious urban development. In Hangzhou’s mechanism in which the people’s well-being is promoted through democracy, the participation of citizens (groups) mainly takes the following forms: direct participation in evaluating major projects; participation in mass-decentralization with stakeholders as the main participants; open decision-making; democratic discussion and appraisal. Hangzhou’s primary-level practice in which the people’s well-being is promoted through democracy has played an important role in promoting the citizens’ orderly participation, collecting appeals from the people and enhancing policy cognition and the effectiveness of the government.

1.3.4 Pushing Forward Governance of the Province Under the Rule of Law, Promoting the Rule of Law Zhejiang has always attached importance to the rule of law, and has laid a good foundation for promoting it. In early 2000, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province made the Decision on Further Promoting the Rule of Law in Zhejiang Province; the Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province Concerning the Building of Zhejiang under the Rule of Law, officially issued in April, 2006, marked a new stage of promoting the rule of law in Zhejiang. After the strategy for building Zhejiang under the rule of law, Zhejiang has witnessed significant improvements in the rule of law, and has produced active effects and made noticeable progress in governing the province and building the government under the rule of law.

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1. Comprehensively building the government under the rule of law, staying ahead in promoting government administration under the rule of law In January, 2005, based on sufficient surveys and solicitation of opinions, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Opinions on Carrying Out the Implementation Plan for Comprehensively Promoting Government Administration under the Rule of Law, making overall arrangements for Zhejiang to comprehensively promote government administration under the rule of law, calling for addressing the issues concerning government administration under the rule of law in the following five aspects: dealing with the government’s decision-making procedure, intensifying the reform of the investment system, building the public financial system and improving the social security system, “overcoming the contradictions among the people, preventing and defusing social disputes”, addressing the rural primary-level work. In June, 2006, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province further issued the Opinions on Promoting the Building of the Government under the Rule of Law, fully putting in place various tasks for the doing that and speeding up the process of doing it. In 2009, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province developed the Opinions on Strengthening the Administration by the Municipal and County Governments under the Rule of Law, further reinforcing the primary-level government administration under the rule of law. In October, 2013, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Implementation Standard of Zhejiang Province for the Building of the Government under the Rule of Law and its appendix the System of Zhejiang Province for the Evaluation of the Building of the Government under the Rule of Law (Trial), specifying the goals, tasks and requirements for the building of the government under the rule of law; it is the first provincial systematic implementation standard for the building of the government under the rule of law in China, and has played an important driving role in comprehensively expanding Zhejiang’s building of the government under the rule of law. 2. Seriously investigating and handling duty-related crimes, pressing ahead with improving Party conduct, upholding integrity and fighting corruption During the period 2003–2007, procuratorates in Zhejiang registered and investigated 7,730 people suspected of committing bribery and corruption, dereliction of duty and tort, among those, 6,849 people committing bribery and corruption, and 881 people committing dereliction of duty and tort. There were 3,490 major cases among the bribery and corruption cases, 283 major cases among the cases involving misuse of authority and other crimes of dereliction of duty, 592 state functionaries above the county division level were involved, including 33 above the level of provincial department. A total of 1,107 bribery suspects who roped in and eroded cadres and caused severe harm were investigated and handled. Investigation and handling of cases recovered 1.08 billion yuan in direct economic loss for the state. Great actions were taken to investigate and handle 1,406 cases involving the people’s immediate interests in urban construction, land requisition and demolition, medical services and education, electric power, environmental protection, major liability accidents relating to safety at work. In the meantime, procuratorial organs across the province

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strengthened preventive work in coordination with case handling and according to the requirement, raised by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, of placing equal emphasis on punishment and prevention, thus stressing prevention. 3. Taking measures according to local conditions to continuously improve the legal quality of civil servants Zhejiang has given prominence to the education regarding the law among the leading cadres and civil servants at various levels, and have made sure that the leading cadres and civil servants play an exemplary role in learning and applying laws in the whole society. During the 4th five-year plan for the popularization of the law, Zhejiang issued the Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening the Work on Making the Leading Cadres Learn Laws, institutionalizing and normalizing the work on forcing the leading cadres to learn and apply the laws in Zhejiang. Nearly 90% of the cities, counties (county-level cities, districts) in Zhejiang have established normative systems including legal knowledge examination and evaluation before appointment of the leading cadres, and regular lectures on the legal system among the leading cadres. During the 5th five-year plan for the popularization of the law, local authorities in Zhejiang held 962 lectures on the legal system among the leading cadres at the levels of city, county (county-level city, district), with the participation of the leading cadres for more than 80,000 person-times; the leading cadres above the county level received training on the legal system for more than 26,000 persontimes, accounting for 98% of the total leading cadres, 97% of the leading cadres above the county level attended the examination on legal knowledge. The Party and government organs above the county level generally established the system of seeking legal consulting and legal adviser services before making decisions on major matters.6 In 2008, Zhejiang became the first nationwide to carry out the closedbook legal examination among the cadres directly under the management of the provincial departments; 1,149 leading cadres directly under the management of the provincial departments from 161 units directly under the provincial departments and 11 cities attended the closed-book examination, 137 closed-book legal examinations were conducted among the leading cadres at the provincial, municipal and county levels, 42,681 leading cadres at various levels attended that examination, significantly enhancing the legal awareness of civil servants.

1.3.5 Intensifying the Reform of the Administrative System The transformation of government functions is the core of the reform of the administrative system, the key lies in properly dealing with the relationship between the government and the market and between the government and the society, so that the market plays the decisive role in allocating resources, and better play is given to the government’s role. In recent years, Zhejiang has intensified the reform of the admin6 Chen

and Ma (2010).

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istrative system in various respects and fields, it has promoted the transformation of government functions and innovation in the management mode, giving rise to a number of typical practical innovations. 1. Actively pushing forward the reform involving the expansion of the powers of strong counties In the process of marketization, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have actively delegated administrative powers to the lower levels, continuously optimized power allocation among the governments at various levels, experimented in extending the provincial administration of counties from the financial field to the administrative field, effectively arousing the enthusiasm of the primary-level governments. Since the 1990s, Zhejiang has issued policies four times to expand the authority of some economically developed counties (cities) regarding economic management. In 2002, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province took a new round of policies involving the expansion of the powers of strong counties by delegating the authority over economic management, involving 313 items under 12 categories, originally granted to the prefecture-level cities, to 17 counties (county-level cities) and Xiaoshan District, Yuhang District and Yinzhou District. In November, 2006, Zhejiang issued the Several Opinions on Carrying Out Pilot Reform Involving the Expansion of the Yiwu City’s Authority over Economic and Social Management, identifying Yiwu City as the pilot area for carrying out the reform involving the further expansion of the county governments’ authority over economic and social management. In December, 2008, based on summing up Yiwu City’s experience in pilot reform involving the expansion of powers, Zhejiang issued the Circular Concerning the Expansion of Certain Amount of the Authority of Counties (County-level Cities) over Economic and Social Management, calling for expanding the powers of strong counties in an all-round way across the province. The reform involving the expansion of the powers of strong counties has further increased the autonomy of the primary-level governments, enhanced the administrative efficiency and promoted the development and prosperity of the economy of the county. 2. Intenisfying the reform of the system of administrative examination and approval, introducing the “four lists and one network” Zhejiang has introduced the “four lists and one network”—the list of the powers of government departments, the negative list of enterprise investments, the managerial list of special fiscal funds and the list of government responsibilities—and has lost no time in building one network of government services for interaction among the provincial, municipal and county levels. Since Zhejiang officially initiated a new round of reform of the system of administrative examination and approval in 2013, in Zhejiang, the number of the items subject to provincial administrative licensing decreased from 706 to 424, the number of the items not subject to provincial administrative licensing decreased from 560 to 96, and so the number of the items subject to provincial examination and approval declined by 59%. The time for completing

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administrative procedures in terms of government-invested projects and enterpriseinvested projects was shortened from 360 days and 300 days to 60 days and 55 days, respectively; the time for establishing trading entities was shortened from 30 days to 10 days.7 The “four lists and one network” have intensified the reform of the administrative examination and approval system in Zhejiang and represent a power revolution focusing on clearing up, ascertaining and checking powers; they can serve as an important reference nationwide. 3. Zhoushan City’s system of larger government departments that integrate the functions smaller ones had performed In March, 2013, Zhoushan City fully initiated the innovations to the administrative system by focusing on enhancing the capability of the coordinated development of new areas and the development, protection and comprehensive management of the sea and sea islands, and by strengthening the coordinating function of the new areas, the transformation of government functions, the building of economic function zones, and by optimizing the setting up of departments and agencies, the administrative division of towns (sub-districts), the primary-level social management and public services, and by building a structurally rational and efficient administrative system with streamlined government organs and integrated functions. To further optimize the setting up of departments and agencies, Zhoushan established the offices of the Party working committees and management committees of new areas, and merged them with the offices of the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhoushan City while keeping their separate identities; Zhoushan has also steadily carried out the reform involving the system of larger government departments responsible for the market and for agricultural, cultural and health affairs. It established the administration of market regulations, and has fully integrated the functions and forces involving industry, commerce, quality supervision and food and drug control at the municipal, county (district) and town (sub-district) levels; it has become the first nationwide to explore and build the system of overland comprehensive law enforcement and the system of joint marine law enforcement. After agency integration, the number of working departments under the municipal Party committee and the municipal government decreased from 11 and 34 to 8 and 25, respectively; the working departments under the Party committees and governments of four counties (districts) of Zhoushan City were downsized by 24–40%. The number of positions at the county division level in 29 municipal units decreased by 46, the number of positions at the section level declined by 79, a decrease of 27.9 and 16.8%.

7 Wen

et al. (2014).

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1.3.6 Improving the System of Restrictions on and Supervision of Power Operations Improving the system of restrictions on and supervision of power operations is an important part of China’s socialist democratic and political development and the objective requirement for promoting modernization of the national system of and capacity for governance. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Zhejiang has continuously improved the system of restrictions on and supervision of power operations, brought about innovations to the supervisory modes and ways, it has expanded the channels of supervision, institutionalized power operations, normalized them and made them public and it has built a punishment and prevention system with Zhejiang’s characteristics, continuously experimenting with and strengthening innovative practice in the mechanism of power supervision. 1. Strengthening the supervisory mechanism for the open operation of powers Strengthening supervision over power operations is the focus of Zhejiang’s work on combating corruption and upholding integrity. With the goal of building a clean government, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province carried out the Sunshine Project to promote supervision over power operations, they established and improved the effective mechanism for open and transparent operation of powers. In 2012, Zhejiang issued the Opinions on Thoroughly Carrying Out the Sunshine Project, giving transparency to power operations and achieving the work goal of covering all departments, making all matters public, regularizing the whole process, making the results transparent and exercising all-round supervision. Since 2013, Zhejiang has further worked on the Sunshine Project, and has gradually extended the pilot work from the original 21 power matters in 14 departments across the province to cover the provincial, municipal, county, town and village levels—Zhejiang has made public 2,645 administrative power issues at 47 provincial departments and 68 major matters, required by the people to be made public, concerning the people’s well-being.8 Based on pushing forward the Sunshine Project, Zhejiang has fully introduced the system of power lists, ensuring that the functions and powers are defined by laws, that responsibilities come with powers, that the exercise of powers is subject to supervision and that the law breakers are punished and infringers make compensation. The core of the system of power lists consists in clearing up, reducing and checking powers, making public the power operation procedure and the result of the exercise of powers, and effectively strengthening the mechanism of supervising power operations. 2. Strengthening the supervision over and management of the leading cadres In June, 2004, Zhejiang developed and carried out the Opinions on the Evaluation of the Life Circle and the Social Circle of the Leading Cadres, calling for fully evaluating the life circle and the social circle of the cadres below the level of county division in the municipal and county Party and government organs. In order to strengthen 8 Fang

(2014).

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focused management of the cadres at the key posts, in 2006, Zhejiang issued the Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving the Routine Management of the Leading Cadres Directly Managed by the Department of Provincial Organization, specifying the measures for intellectual and political improvement and routine management of the cadres directly managed by the department of provincial organization. In 2009, Zhejiang conducted an annual centralized evaluation of 1,518 leading cadres directly managed by the department of provincial organization for the first time, and issued the Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening the Development of the Secretaries of the County Party Committees, intensifying efforts in selection and appointment, education and training, classified evaluation, supervision and management of the secretaries of the county Party committees. During the period 2004–2009, Zhejiang carried out an audit of economic responsibility of the persons chiefly in charge of 103 units directly under the provincial government, 5 mayors and 56 heads of counties (county-level cities, districts). Since 2009, Zhejiang has fully conducted an audit of the economic responsibility of the secretaries of county (county-level city, district) Party committees and the heads of counties (county-level cities, districts) at the same time.9 3. Democratic appraisal and supervision of judges and procurators in Wenling City Since 2008, according to the institutionally preset conditions, each year the People’s Congress of Wenling City has adopted the mode of computer-based random selection to identify some judges or procurators from courts or procuratorates as the objects of evaluation, made the evaluation list public on an online basis so that the people can participate in the whole process of supervision; they specially established a group for the evaluation of performances under the standing committee of the municipal people’s congress, which is responsible for evaluating the degree of satisfaction with the performance of the people being evaluated. In 2013 alone, the People’s Congress of Wenling City chose six people for evaluation from the presiding judges and deputy presiding judges at courts through a random computer-based selection; they organized all of the more than 180 policemen from courts to conduct a democratic evaluation, they visited 13 units including politics and law committees and 4 law firms, they sought information from the communities where the people being evaluated lived with respect to their family and neighborhood relationships and their behavior outside working hours; they also observed court trials 16 times, conducted random inspection on 123 cases, sent 476 opinion solicitation letters to the people involved in the cases under the charge of those being evaluated, took three months to thoroughly survey their judicial performance, their handling of cases, the legal effects and the social response. With the evaluation of the performance of judges and procurators, Wenling City has extended supervision over judges and procurators from supervision within a small scope into open supervision by the people’s congress and the society, and has effectively strengthened the supervision by the people’s congress over the appointed and removed judicial personnel, producing good supervisory effects. 9 Zhang

(2010).

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1.3.7 Consolidating and Developing the Broadest Possible United Patriotic Front In recent years, the Party organizations and the departments of the unified front at various levels and the members of the unified front in Zhejiang have deepened their understanding of the work of the unified front, carried out concrete work to stay ahead, and actively carried out the policies for various fields of the unified front, making new progress in the work on Zhejiang’s unified front. 1. Energetically guiding social classes to develop non-Party representatives and strengthen their development Since the reform and opening-up, profound changes have taken place in social structure, and new social classes have gradually emerged. Zhejiang’s new social classes mainly consist of the personnel from non-public sectors of the economy and the intellectuals engaged in freelance work; they constitute an emerging force for pushing forward economic and social development and the socialist market economy; the emerging force has grown rapidly in recent years. Therefore, the important task of Zhejiang’s unified front during the new stage in the new century lies in extensively uniting the personnel from the new social classes, to the greatest extent making them rally around the Party, giving full scope to their roles, thus actively guiding the development of the new social classes. In the meantime, regarding the development of the non-Party representatives, the departments for the work on the unified front in Zhejiang have improved the working mechanism mainly through discovery, reserving, education, cultivation, selection and appointment and intensified management; they have broadened the channels for identifying and selecting the non-Party personages, established and improved the mechanism for recommending the nonParty personages, strengthened the building of the reserve force of the non-Party representatives and they have strictly executed the regulations, made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, concerning the proportion and number of the non-Party representatives in the people’s congresses and in the PPCCs at various levels; moreover, they have improved the working mechanism for selection and appointment, intensified the work on competitive selection and appointment, built the mechanism beneficial for the outstanding non-Party talents to stand out and established and improved the system for the management of supervision, built and improved the database of the non-Party representatives at the provincial, municipal and county levels and also strengthened dynamic and scientific management. 2. Incessantly pushing forward the work of the united front in Hang Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas The departments for the work of the unified front in Zhejiang have given importance to carrying out work through family affection, native place affection, friendship and business relationships, unceasingly broadened the fields of the work of the united front in Hang Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas to expand the exchanges. With respect to the work of the united front in Hong Kong and Macao, Zhejiang has

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enhanced its connections with social groups and representative personages in Hong Kong and Macao in various ways; it has supported the building of associations of natives, endeavored to develop and augment the forces loving the country, Hong Kong and Macao; it has conducted such activities as the Hong Kong · Zhejiang Week and the Macao · Zhejiang Week to promote economic and trade exchanges and cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao. Regarding the work of the united front in Taiwan, Zhejiang has carried out a number of cross-straits exchange activities, including the Taiwan University Student Zhejiang Summer Camp, the Hometown Tour in Golden Autumn, and the Economic and Trade Delegation of Young Entrepreneurs, to enhance personnel exchanges, economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation across the Taiwan Straits. With regard to the work of the united front overseas, Zhejiang has given full scope to the functions of overseas friendship associations as the important carriers, platforms and windows for the work on Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan compatriots overseas, with a view to further expanding the coverage of the work of the overseas united front and making new progress in the work of the united front. 3. Promoting the well-regulated management of the venues for folk faith activities Given the chaotic phenomena and problems in the venues for folk faith activities for a long time, Taizhou City has actively brought about innovations to the management mode, and strengthened well-regulated management. The centers of financial agencies dealing with the venues of religious activities have been built in the towns (subdistricts) in Luqiao District and Huangyan District, exercising financial supervision over and the management of venues for religious activities, and adopting a unified system, billing and accounting in order to strengthen the well-regulated financial management of those venues. At present, 90% of the venues for religious activities in Taizhou City have adopted that system. Luqiao District in Taizhou City has also actively investigated the building of an evaluation system for well-regulated management of venues for religious activities and the management of the files regarding the venues for folk faith activities. Huangyan District has established groups of financial supervision to promote well-regulated management. In recent years, Taizhou City has carried out the management of files for the venues of folk faith activities, and has established regulations for the filing conditions and procedure for the venues of folk faith activities, classified filing, dynamic and democratic management of venues, and large activities. The innovations to the working mechanism in these fields have better overcome the long-standing difficulties in the management of venues for folk faith activities.

1.4 Increasing the Effectiveness of Governance: The Characteristics of Zhejiang’s Experience in Political Development The basic experience from Zhejiang’s political development and reform lies in proceeding from the real situation, blazing new trails, taking bold practical actions,

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always stressing the organic unity of upholding the Party’s leadership, the people being the masters of the country, and governing the country under the rule of law as well as giving scope to the role of the market and arousing social vitality, combining strategy guidance with primary-level innovation, actively optimizing the system of local governance and enhancing the capacity for self-governance, taking increasing the effectiveness of governance as the core of and impetus for political development, giving full scope to the role of the rule of law, orderly democracy and an effective government in promoting the modernization of governance, taking a political developmental path suited to Zhejiang’s reality. Overall, the characteristics of Zhejiang’s experience in political development are mainly embodied in the following aspects.

1.4.1 Increasing the Effectiveness of Governance is the Core Factor in Zhejiang’s Experience in Political Development The outstanding feature of Zhejiang’s political development and practical innovations in a decade lies in focusing on enhancing the effectiveness of governance to explore the concrete path for modernizing the local system of and capacity for governance. The strategic line of thought of building Zhejiang under the rule of law and its implementation are the beneficial practice and explorations of the socialist political developmental path with Chinese characteristics with the goal of achieving effective governance. As shown by Zhejiang’s practice of political development with the enhancement of governance effectiveness as the core driving force in a decade, Zhejiang has paid more attention to improving the way in which the Party leads and governs, to perfecting the democratic system and enriching democratic forms, expanding the citizens’ orderly political participation at various levels and in various fields, making socialist democracy institutionalized, standardized and procedurebased; Zhejiang has also paid attention to giving play to the roles of the governance of the country under the rule of law and to the exercising of state power under the rule of law in political development, improving the rule of law in governance, and to optimizing the system of governance and reinforcing the capacity for governance, changing and upgrading the mode of local governance, and applying this developmental line of thought in upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress, the socialist system of consultative democracy and the primary-level democratic system, in governing the province under the rule of law, intensifying the reform of the administrative system, improving the system of restrictions on and supervision over the power operations, consolidating and developing the broadest possible patriotic united front, and introducing a philosophy of effective governance to guide and promote Zhejiang’s political development and practical innovations. Practice proves that continuously enhancing the effectiveness of governance has become the core factor and important feature in Zhejiang’s political development.

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1.4.2 Placing Equal Emphasis on Strengthening the Guidance of Strategy and Encouraging Primary-Level Innovations is the Basic Path for Zhejiang’s Political Development The basic path for Zhejiang’s political development lies in leveraging the advantages of its systems and institutions, valuing strategic planning and macro guidance, respecting and encouraging primary-level innovations, arousing the market and nongovernmental vitality, giving full scope to the initiative and creativity of the primarylevel governments, taking the enhancement of the effectiveness of governance as the basic focus, enabling engagement at the upper and lower levels and effective interaction to jointly promote the cause of reform and opening-up in various fields in Zhejiang. As indicated by the course of Zhejiang’s reform and development in a decade, the “Eight-Eight Strategies” have played a crucial leading role. As a major decision, the “Eight-Eight Strategies” are aimed at addressing the key issues concerning coordinated economic, political, cultural, social and ecological development in Zhejiang and the overarching issues involving Zhejiang’s efforts at building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and basically achieving modernization in advance. With the “Eight-Eight Strategies” as the program, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province has made a series of major decisions, including the building of a safe Zhejiang and a Zhejiang under the rule of law. Practice proves that these major decisions fully conform to the objective reality, their perspective and the leading role are very conspicuous, they have played an irreplaceable role in Zhejiang’s efforts to turn challenges into opportunities and elevate economic and social development to a higher level and a new stage within the complex and changing domestic and international environment. In the meantime, continuous primary-level innovations have also played a very important role in putting into practice the “Eight-Eight Strategies”. Zhejiang, a province situated in coastal economically-developed areas, and the people of Zhejiang who are at the forefront of reform and development have always ridden the crest of the waves in reform and development, and have created a lot of fresh experience through primary-level practice. A prominent feature in Zhejiang’s political development is that primary-level innovations are very active. Zhejiang has given importance to strategic planning and macro guidance, respected and encouraged primary-level innovations, so that Zhejiang’s policies for reform and opening-up can really proceed from the province’s reality and local conditions, are forward-looking and systematic, they can arouse non-governmental vitality, primary-level enthusiasm and creativity, the implementation of strategic planning and policies can comply with the will and aspirations of the people, and so that it is consistent with objective law and well-targeted, thus promoting rapid and sound economic and social development in Zhejiang. Zhejiang’s practice regarding political development has vividly reflected the dialectical unity of top-down and down-top

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efforts, greatly enhanced the effectiveness of governance, providing great impetus for the practice of democratic and political development with Zhejiang’s characteristics.

1.4.3 The Rule of Law, Orderly Democracy and an Effective Government are the Important Means for Promoting the Modernization of Governance The important means adopted by Zhejiang to modernize the system of and capacity for governance consist in fully strengthening the rule of law, boosting orderly democracy and building an effective government. Strengthening the rule of law can make the socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics institutionalized, standardized and procedure-based; democratic systems are improved and democratic forms are enriched to actively promote orderly democracy and broaden the political paths for the orderly participation of citizens; the efforts to build an effective government are conducive to making decisions in a scientific way and building an efficient, clean and responsible government, thus providing practical carriers and administrative support for fully enhancing the effectiveness of governance. The rule of law is the basic way to govern the country and handle state affairs; it directly embodies the modernization of the national governance capacity; it is an important part of the development of the socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics in which the Party’s leadership is upheld, the people become the masters of the country and the country is governed under the rule of law. In the process of reform and opening-up, Zhejiang has always given importance to strengthening the rule of law by taking the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law as the guiding principle to continuously improve the exercise of state power under the rule of law, more rapidly make local regulations, improve the legislative mechanism and the quality of legislation, by comprehensively pushing forward government administration under the rule of law, promoting the rule of law in the government to gradually regularize administrative law enforcement, by constantly intensifying judicial reform to make sure that judicial justice is strengthened continuously, by extensively carrying out legal publicity and education to ensure that the system of legal services gradually becomes full-fledged and the legal awareness of the entire population, especially the leading cadres, is enhanced constantly. In a decade, with the goal of strengthening the effectiveness of governance, Zhejiang has kept on enriching the connotation of the times regarding the rule of law and making it more targeted in practice; Zhejiang has made continuous improvements to the legal system and has given greater importance to improving law enforcement and increasing its effectiveness, endeavoring to modernize the local system of and capacity for governance through governance under the rule of law which meets the needs of practice and of the development of the era.

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Democracy is essential for socialism. Handling affairs according to laws and acting in compliance with regulations and order is the inherent requirement for democratic development and is an important sign of effective state governance. The socialist democratic development with Chinese characteristics is always under the principle of developing orderly democracy; multiple democratic forms, including electoral democracy and consultative democracy, are integrated and develop together; Zhejiang has always valued the unity of the objective of democracy and means, and has paid attention to making sure that the effect of democracy is consistent with the goals of economic and social development. Such an institutional characteristic is fundamentally different from Western democratic philosophy and practice focusing on competitive elections. Since reform and opening-up, with rapid economic and social development, democratic practice has been unprecedentedly active and citizens’ awareness about democratic rights has been increasingly enhanced in Zhejiang. In an effort to promote democracy, Zhejiang has actively explored the concrete path for realizing orderly democracy; Zhejiang has fully aroused and safeguarded the enthusiasm of the people as the masters of the country, and gradually enriched the connotations and forms of democratic practice according to laws and regulations; Zhejiang has also constantly improved the democratic system and enriched the democratic forms, expanded the political paths for the orderly participation of its citizens; and Zhejiang has always made sure that democratic development is orderly and political development is stable, and has successfully achieved economic prosperity and development, social harmony and stability while fully safeguarding the democratic rights of its citizens. An effective government is an important guarantee for all-round, coordinated and sustainable economic and social development. Building an effective government and pushing forward scientific decision-making and management is the inevitable choice for modernizing the system of and capacity for governance. An effective government is not an omnipotent government; instead, it is an efficient, clean and responsible government under the rule of law; it is a government which has benign interaction with the society and the market through many democratic channels. Since the reform and opening-up, the government’s roles and functions in Zhejiang have generally changed from the mode of governing by noninterference to the mode of scientific improvement. In political development, the Party and government organs at various levels have correctly handled the relationship between the government and the market and between the government and the society, and they have fully respected the inherent law of a market economy, fully unleashed the non-governmental vitality and creativity, they have done something in some areas but refrained from acting in other areas, and they have taken actions in a scientific and proper way, so that Zhejiang can, based on inconspicuous economic and natural resource endowments, achieve brilliant developmental achievements and advance the cause of reform and opening-up to a new developmental stage. Overall, the basic experience acquired from Zhejiang’s political development and reform consists in proceeding from reality, upholding the Party’s leadership, making sure that the people become the masters of the country and that the country is governed under the rule of law, valuing strategic planning and macro guidance,

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respecting and encouraging primary-level innovations, taking the improvement of the effectiveness of governance as the core and driving force for political development, actively optimizing the local system of governance and enhancing the capacity for governance; other aspects of the experience include taking promoting the rule of law and orderly democracy and building an effective government as some important means to modernize the local system of and capacity for governance, actively exploring the concrete path for realizing the socialist political development with Chinese characteristics, and testing the effectiveness of governance by promoting economic and social development. Zhejiang’s developmental achievements and practical innovations are great; Zhejiang’s experience and inspirations are rich and profound. The Party committees and governments at various levels in Zhejiang have blazed new trails, taken bold practical actions to constantly create new miracles in economic and social development. The people of Zhejiang have worked hard to create a rich and happy life, while the Party and the government have received trust and support from the people. The decade following the emergence of the “Eight-Eight Strategies” has been a decade of economic rise, political development, cultural prosperity, social progress and ecological improvements in Zhejiang; it has been the decade during which Zhejiang has continued to carry out solid work to stay ahead and stand out. Zhejiang’s development heralds China’s bright future. Zhejiang’s experience belongs to not only Zhejiang but also to China. Zhejiang’s cause of reform and opening-up and its achievements in political development have profound implications for the era and important realistic significance; they provide the beneficial inspirations for modernizing the national system of and capacity for governance; they embody the important political practice for gathering Chinese strength, carrying forward the Chinese spirit and realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.

References Chen Dongsheng, Ma Yuejun, The Leading Cadres Led the Way to Produce a Demonstration Effect – Zhejiang Province Concretely Stimulated Leading Cadres to Learn and Apply Laws, Legal Daily, July 10, 2010, Page 4. Dong Shaopeng, Leapfrog Development through the “Eight-Eight Strategies” – Exclusive Interview with the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Xi Jinping, International Finance News, February 9, 2006, Page 1. Fang Li, Putting Powers into the Institutional Cage, Zhejiang Daily, January 6, 2014, Page 1. Hu Jian, Zhejiang’s Practice of the Chinese Dream, Zhejiang Daily, December 20, 2013, Page 14. The Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province Concerning the Building of Zhejiang under the Rule of Law, Zhejiang Daily, May 8, 2006, Page 1. The Group of the Theoretical Study Center under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province: The Major Theoretical Achievements in the Practice of the Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in Zhejiang, Zhejiang Daily, April 4, 2014, Page 1. Wen Hongyan et al., With Four Lists and One Network, the Government Becomes Slim and Healthier, People’s Daily, May 12, 2014, Page 1.

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Xi Jinping, Carrying out Concrete Work to Stay Ahead – Line of Thought and Practice in Promoting New Development in Zhejiang, The Party School of the CPC Central Committee Press, 2006, p. 71. Zhang Jun, Enhancing the Credibility of Cadre Selection and Appointment – A Review of Deepening Reform of the Cadre and Personnel System in Zhejiang, Zhejiang Today, 2010(12).

Chapter 2

Constantly Pushing Forward Innovations to the System of the People’s Congress Yanguo Shen, Jiang Wu, Shaoping Zou and Peng Fan

As the fundamental political system in China, the system of the people’s congress is the most distinctive feature of the socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics; it is an important institutional support for promoting the modernization of the national system of and capacity for governance; it is also an important institutional guarantee for comprehensively pushing forward the governance of the country under the rule of law and promoting the rule of law in China. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the 3rd and 4th Plenary Sessions of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a number of major decisions and arrangements for upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress, making it advance with the times. General Secretary Xi Jinping made a series of important addresses about the system of the people’s congress and the work of the people’s congress, put forward many new thoughts, new views and new requirements and vividly presented to us the new goals, new vision and new blueprint for innovative development of the system of the people’s congress; he provided the direction, basic principles and the realistic path for us to make the system of the people’s congress This chapter was completed by the special research group organized by the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province. The research coordinators are Wang Qiang, the Deputy Secretary General of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, the Director of the Research Office; Zhang Guoqiang, the Deputy Director of the Research Office under the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province. The research contact persons are Hong Kaikai from the Research Office under the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province and Zou Shaoping from the Survey Division. The members of the Research Group are Shen Yanguo from the General Office of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, Wu Jiang from the Legislative Affairs Committee under the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, Zou Shaoping from the Survey Division of the Research Office under the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, and Fan Peng from the Personnel and Deputies Liaison Working Committee under the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province. Y. Shen (B) · J. Wu · S. Zou · P. Fan The People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 N. Fang et al. (eds.), Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics, Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8_2

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keep pace with the times under the new historical conditions, and effectively built the political developmental path for the Chinese dream.

2.1 Solidly Pushing Forward the Vivid Practice of the System of the People’s Congress in Zhejiang The vitality of the system of the people’s congress lies in practice. With a review of the extraordinary times at the beginning of the 21st century, we can find that the line of thought and practice, developed and promoted by comrade Xi Jinping when working in Zhejiang, involving major issues that include democratic politics, the rule of law, the system of the people’s congress and the work of the people’s congress, and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s major policy addresses since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China constitute a closely connected and integrated whole. When working in Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping strengthened the leadership of the Party’s Committee of Zhejiang Province over the work of the people’s congress in his capacity as the main leader of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province; he also took charge of the work of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province in his capacity as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province. Under his leadership and in his charge, significant improvements and great progress were made in the work of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang broke new ground and made great achievements, gaining valuable experience and providing a historical reference for us to promote theoretical and practical innovations to the system of the people’s congress under the new situation.

2.1.1 Fully Understanding the Important Significance of Upholding and Improving the System of the People’s Congress The level of understanding determines the breadth and depth of practice. When taking charge of Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping gave a great deal of importance to the concrete practice of the system of the people’s congress and to the improvement in the work of the people’s congress. On many important occasions, he repeatedly stressed that it was necessary to deepen the understanding about the importance of the system of the people’s congress and the work of the people’s congress. In December, 2002, shortly after comrade Xi Jinping started to work in Zhejiang, he stressed, during the meeting of Zhejiang province on commemorating the 20th anniversary of the promulgation of the constitution in 1982, “In order to comprehensively carry out the constitution, it is essential to uphold and improve the system of the people’s congress

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and give full scope to the functions and roles of state organs at various levels; the most important effort in building a socialist democracy consists in upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress.”1 In January, 2003, during the first session of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province after he served as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, he specially emphasized that the Standing Committee of the new People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province should deeply study and carry out the guiding principles adopted at the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and really improve the understanding about the importance of the work of the people’s congress. In May, 2004, during the provincial working conference on the people’s congress, he once again stressed that it was necessary to take the strategic perspective to fully understand the important significance of upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress, further deepen the understanding about the essential characteristics, important position and roles of the system of the people’s congress, continuously enhance the consciousness about upholding and improving that system, showing care for and support of the work of the people’s congress. In the important addresses and major decisions on the work of the people’s congress, he proceeded from multiple levels and dimensions to systematically and profoundly expound the great realistic significance of upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress. 1. Upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress is the fundamental way to develop socialist democracy and promote socialist political development The system of the people’s congress is the fundamental system embodying the essence of China’s socialist democracy in which all power belongs to the people; it is the effective form of organization through which the people become the masters of the country; it is also a reliable guarantee for safeguarding the fundamental interests of all the people; the system of the people’s congress, as the form of organization, turns the Party’s positions into the will of the state; it fundamentally makes sure that the people master and exercise their democratic rights, and centralizes the common interests of different classes among the people; it reflects and coordinates the special interests in various aspects, and better safeguards the fundamental interests of the people, thus gathering and mobilizing the strength of the people across the country, giving full scope to the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the people in running the country. 2. Upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress is an urgent need for deeply carrying out the basic strategy of governing the country under the rule of law and solidly pushing forward the governance of the province under the rule of law Comrade Xi Jinping gave great importance to the rule of law and valued the important role of the system of the people’s congress and the work of the people’s congress in 1 The

Speech Delivered by Comrade Xi Jinping in the Meeting of Zhejiang Province on Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Promulgation of the Constitution in 1982, Zhejiang Daily, December 4, 2002, Page 1.

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promoting the rule of law. In his charge, in April, 2006, the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province made the decision about the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law, the third part of which specially stressed that it was necessary to uphold and improve the system of the people’s congress; the decision specified the requirements for supporting and guaranteeing the performance of functions by the people’s congress, giving scope to the role of the deputies to the people’s congress, making sure that the people’s congress performs the supervisory function and improves the system of the people’s congress. According to the principles adopted in the decision made by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, in May, 2006, the 25th Session of the Standing Committee of the 10th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province made, according to laws, the decision on building Zhejiang under the rule of law; at the end of the session, comrade Xi Jinping delivered an important speech in which he fully affirmed the decision and said that he believed that it was a very important document for promoting the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law; he stressed that the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law was an arduous and complicated systematic project, the people’s congresses at various levels across the province had a heavy responsibility for building Zhejiang under the rule of law and they must play their due role and make due contributions. 3. Upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress is the intrinsic requirement for Zhejiang in more rapidly building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and basically achieving modernization in advance The Party Committee of Zhejiang Province has always believed that in order to better push forward and realize the four-sphere integrated plan, it is essential to give play better to the protective function of the system of the people’s congress as the fundamental political system and the role of the work of the people’s congress in leading and promoting the four-sphere integrated plan. Thanks to the understanding of the importance of the system of the people’s congress and the work of the people’s congress, in May, 2004, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province convened the provincial working conference on the people’s congress, and issued the Opinions on Further Strengthening the Work of the People’s Congress, specifying the overall line of thought and basic requirements for the province-wide work on the people’s congress during the new stage. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “The people’s congresses at various levels and their standing committees across the province should take this opportunity to further enhance the sense of mission and responsibility, fully play their due roles in Zhejiang’s material, political and cultural development and the building of a harmonious society, make new contributions to helping Zhejiang more rapidly build a moderately prosperous society in all respects and basically achieve modernization in advance.”2 From the remarks and judgments made by comrade Xi Jinping about the importance of the system of the people’s congress and the work of the people’s congress 2 The

Compilation Committee for the Chronicles of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, The Chronicles of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, Zhonghua Book Company, 2005. Preface One.

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when he worked in Zhejiang, we can understand that he always understood the system of the people’s congress and the work of the people’s congress from the overarching perspective of the Party, the country’s cause and the people’s interests, the strategic perspective of promoting coordinated development in the economic, political, cultural, social and ecological fields, the political perspective of reforming and improving the Party’s style of leadership and the mode of governance, enhancing the Party’s capacity for governance and consolidating the Party’s governing position, the historical perspective of more rapidly building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and basically achieving modernization in advance in Zhejiang. Thanks to such a deep understanding, and the guidance of comrade Xi Jinping, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang’s practice of the system of the people’s congress and the work of the people’s congress in Zhejiang have made great strides forward and have yielded fruitful results on the original basis.

2.1.2 Solidly Expanding the Practice of the System of the People’s Congress in Zhejiang When comrade Xi Jinping worked in Zhejiang, the practice of the system of the people’s congress in Zhejiang and the overall practice of the system of the people’s congress constituted the relationship between the “flow” and the “source”. First, from the spatial perspective, the practice of the system of the people’s congress in a province is part of its overall practice across the country. Second, from the temporal perspective, the practice of the system of the people’s congress in a period is a stage of development compared with its practice during the period of 60 years. With a strategic line of thought, an overarching vision and from the perspective of development, comrade Xi Jinping objectively and profoundly understood the regional and staged characteristics of the practice of the system of the people’s congress in Zhejiang; he deeply understood and carried out the decisions and requirements from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, he also closely proceeded from Zhejiang’s reality to study the new situation and new issues, responded to the trends to historically and creatively push forward the practice of the system of the people’s congress in Zhejiang, the work of the people’s congress in Zhejiang and provided local and historical experience for better upholding, improving and developing the system of the people’s congress. 1. Making an in-depth study and carrying out the guiding principles adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, firmly grasping the correct political direction for the work of the people’s congress Comrade Xi Jinping stressed, “The work of the people’s congress is highly political and highly law- and procedure-based work, under no circumstance can deviation from the correct political direction be allowed; in order to better carry out the work of

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the people’s congress, it is essential to always uphold the correct political direction, consciously keep aligned with the requirements of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the arrangements made by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. In this regard, he required the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province to always take studying, understanding and carrying out the guiding principles adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China as the important prerequisite for promoting practice and carrying out work, and he also put forward explicit requirements for “carrying out the guiding principles adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China” on some important occasions many times. 2. Upholding and strengthening the Party’s leadership, supporting the people’s congress and its standing committee to perform functions according to laws and make sure that they do so Comrade Xi Jinping stressed, “In order to better carry out the work of the people’s congress, it is essential to uphold and strengthen the Party’s leadership, this is the basic prerequisite and fundamental guarantee for the people’s congress to perform functions and carry out work; under no circumstance can this principle be shaken.” When serving as the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, he always took “supporting the people’s congress and its standing committee in performing functions according to laws and making sure that they do so” as the important and basic effort in building Zhejiang under the rule of law; he made coordinated plans and overall arrangements, chaired the provincial working conference on the people’s congress and delivered important speeches, and stated for the first time that each Party committee of Zhejiang Province should convene a working conference on the people’s congress; he also took charge of the work of the people’s congress, delivered speeches many times on some important occasions, identified the requirements for the duties of various parties and coordinated efforts to address major issues, thus vigorously pushing forward the work and development of the people’s congresses at various levels, strongly supporting and effectively guaranteeing the exercise of statutory functions and powers of the people’s congress. 3. Strengthening the development of the people’s congresses and their standing committees, providing an effective guarantee for giving full scope to the functions and roles of the people’s congresses and their standing committees Comrade Xi Jinping stressed many times, “In order to perform the functions specified by the constitution and laws better and better adapt to the requirements of the new situation and new tasks for the work of the people’s congress, it is essential to strengthen the development of the people’s congresses and their standing committees.” The organs at various levels and in various respects across the province carried out the principles from comrade Xi Jinping’s important addresses to the letter, improved the conduct of the people’s congresses and their standing committees, stressed the awareness, in the work of the people’s congress, about the Party, politics, the overall situation, the people and innovations, laid the intellectual foundation

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and provided a guarantee for good conduct for expanding the work of the people’s congress; they also intensified the organizational development of the people’s congresses at various levels and their standing committees, optimized the age, knowledge and professional structures of the members of the standing committees, especially actively promoting the development of full-time members of the standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels, gradually increasing the proportion of full-time members, energetically pressing ahead with the development of full-time chairmen of the standing committees of the people’s congresses at the county and town levels; moreover, they made sure that the deputies were extensive in number and also advanced, rationally arranged the proportion of the deputies, valued the political quality of the deputies and their ability to discus state affairs, they strengthened the services relating to the performance of duties and routine training, fully guaranteed the leading role of the deputies to the people’s congresses at various levels, valued the personnel, financial and material guarantee for building the organs of the people’s congresses at various levels, promoted the development of cadres within the organs of the people’s congresses, incorporated the cultivation and utilization of the cadres within the organs of the people’s congresses into the master plan for the development of cadres, they strengthened the guarantee of a routine fund and a special fund for legislative and supervisory work, important sessions and activities of the people’s congresses; and finally, they improved the working conditions within the organs of the people’s congresses and stepped up efforts to improve IT application within the organs of the people’s congresses, thus providing the necessary material guarantee for the work of the people’s congresses and their standing committees. 4. Paying attention to summarization, regularization and improvement, pushing forward the healthy and orderly development of the primary-level work of the people’s congress Comrade Xi Jinping gave great importance to the primary-level foundation, valued the primary-level practical experiments and experience in innovations, and paid attention to protecting and encouraging the primary-level enterprising spirit. As a developed coastal province, Zhejiang first and early on initiated the social market economy, it had more urgent needs for improving the system of the people’s congress and making progress in socialist democracy. In particular, with accelerated urbanization, towns were further merged, administrative divisions were expanded, the population increased, fiscal revenue surged, the tasks for promoting primary-level democracy were increasingly arduous, the work of the people’s congress in towns faced many new situations and new problems, many new beneficial experiments and attempts were also made in Zhejiang. In many areas, counties were removed to build districts during urbanization; many towns were turned into sub-districts, so the issues on how to position the working committees of the people’s congresses within the sub-districts and how the people’s congresses in sub-districts should carry out their work popped up. In response to these issues, the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the Standing Committee of the 10th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province did not rush to deny them, they made a prompt summary, regularization and improvements, they vowed to, under the rule of law and subject to

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procedures and the leadership of local Party committees, actively address the new situations and new tasks in economic and social development, emancipate the mind, seek truth from facts and advance with the times, made progress amidst experiments and fostered development through innovations, broke new ground in the work of the primary-level people’s congress and in promoting democracy and the rule of law. In such an atmosphere, in recent years, many innovative moves in the work of the primary-level people’s congress in Zhejiang have gradually drawn wide attention from various sectors, and have become the vivid samples of the practice in primarylevel democracy and in the work of the primary-level people’s congress; they serve as important references for us to promote theoretical and practical innovations to the system of the people’s congress in response to the times.

2.1.3 Making the Work of the People’s Congress in Zhejiang Advance with the Times and Keep Improving Zhejiang’s modernization should include the modernization of the system of provincial governance and the capacity for governance, the practice of the system of the people’s congress in sync with the times and the improvement of the system of the people’s congress. This requires us to carefully study, thoroughly understand in depth and carry out the principles expounded by General Secretary Xi Jinping in his major addresses, systematically summarize, treasure and vigorously carry forward the valuable experience in improving the work of the people’s congress accumulated while comrade Xi Jinping was working in Zhejiang, carry through one blueprint through successive Party committees and governments, and write a new chapter of glory in the work of the people’s congress on the existing basis. First, thinking about worst-case scenarios and the frontline state. Comrade Xi Jinping stressed on many occasions that we should be aware of the worst-case situation, not dodge contrasts and conceal problems, be prepared for the worst and seek the best outcome, make full preparations, keep calm in case of emergencies and firmly keep the initiative. He also stressed that it was necessary to maintain the spirit of advancing with the times and keep moving, take bold actions and have a strong sense of responsibility, securely take over the historical relay baton, assume the due responsibility and endeavor to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. These important remarks and major instructions require us to, in the work of the people’s congress, always uphold the unity of considering the worst-case scenarios and keeping a frontline state, “stand firm” and “act energetically”, start from the baselines and march towards the crest line. “Stand firm” means that it is necessary to always firmly maintain a political stand, enhance our focus within the political field, resolutely defend the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and the system of the people’s congress as the baselines, make integrated advances in the Party’s leadership, the running of the country by the people, and governance under the rule of law, keep to the rules of the Party and laws and be people-oriented. “Act ener-

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getically” means that it is necessary to, subject to holding the baselines, advance towards the crest line in response to the times and carry out experiments and bring about innovations, continuously improve the ways and modes of the work of the people’s congress, arouse the inherent potential in the work of the people’s congress and reach a new developmental realm in the work of the people’s congress. Second, upholding the dialectical unity of the whole and its parts. Comrade Xi Jinping often stressed that the major principles prevailed over the minor principles, the parts were subject to the whole; nationally, Zhejiang was a part, Zhejiang must be subject to the country as a whole, enhance the awareness of the whole situation, and proceed from the whole situation to develop Zhejiang, go out of Zhejiang to develop Zhejiang.3 To promote and develop the work of the people’s congress in Zhejiang, it is more necessary to correctly deal with the relationship between the whole and the parts from the horizontal and vertical perspectives; vertically, the five-level work of the people’s congress constitutes an organic whole, the local work of the people’s congress should be aligned with the national work of the people’s congress, the local work of the people’s congress should be improved through active experiments and practice and provide local practice and local experience for the national work of the people’s congress. Horizontally, the leading groups of the people’s congress, the government and the PPCC work together under the leadership of the Party’s committees at the same levels, the people’s congresses at various levels must proceed from the whole situation to develop, go out of the people’s congresses to develop, to this end, and so it is necessary to always consider, serve, promote and guarantee the whole situation. Third, placing equal emphasis on vitality and orderliness. When working in Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that in a harmonious state, the factors within nature, among the people, between the people and the society, between the people and nature and within the society were in a balanced, stable, orderly, interdependent state, they coexisted and developed together, and this was balance in dynamism, coordination in development, moderation in aggressiveness, uniformity in diversity and orderliness in chaos.4 After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, he once again stressed that it was necessary to properly deal with the relationship between vitality and orderliness, social development called for great vitality, but such vitality must be an orderly vitality. These important remarks have become important principles and scientific guides for Zhejiang to scientifically handle the relationship between democratic development and the promotion of the rule of law in recent years. Fourth, being people-oriented and upholding the line of the masses. Being affectionate to and loving the people is always the unchanged tenet adopted by comrade 3 Relevant remarks are mainly based on two monographs written by comrade Xi Jinping when work-

ing in Zhejiang—Carrying Out Concrete Work to Stay Aheadand Zhiejiang Xinyu, see the Group of the Theoretical Study Center under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province: The Major Theoretical Achievements in the Practice of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in Zhejiang—the Understanding and Experience after Studying Two Monographs Including Carrying Out Concrete Work to Stay Ahead and Zhijiang Xinyu, the Zhejiang Daily, April 4, 2014, Page 1. 4 Xi (2014), p. 2.

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Xi Jinping. He stressed on many occasions that we should learn from, solidly work for the people and solve problems together with the people.5 Regarding the work of the people’s congress, he pointed out that it was necessary to put into practice, in various respects of the work of the people’s congress, the essential requirements of “adhering to the Party’s commitment to serving the public good and exercising power in the interests of the people”, exercise powers for the people, keep close ties with the people and act in the interest of the people. In recent years, especially since the campaign on education in the Party’s line of the masses was launched, according to these requirements, the people’s congresses at various levels have put the people first, and have always taken “addressing the issues concerning the people’s wellbeing” as the starting point and ultimate goal for performing functions, they have strengthened their implementation to improve the people’s well-being, producing active effects. The Standing Committee of the 12th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province deliberated and adopted a number of important local regulations on safeguarding and improving the people’s well-being, conducted special supervision over and law enforcement examinations of major issues relating to the people’s wellbeing, including flood control and drainage of the waterlogged areas, food safety, protection of the sources of drinking water and services for the elderly; moreover, they made decisions on the issues which concern the people, such as prevention and control of livestock and poultry pollution. Fifth, making arrangements through 10% efforts, carrying out work through 90% efforts.6 This is an important requirement raised by comrade Xi Jinping for implementing the guiding principles adopted during the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China; this reflected his style of governance and his art of leadership of stressing implementation. In fact, this is also the distinctive feature and prominent sign of his governance. When working in Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping stressed the issue of implementation on many occasions; in particular, during the closing ceremony of the 2nd Session of the 10th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province in February, 2004, he specially delivered an important speech entitled “Extensively Carrying Forward the Style of Being Realistic and Pragmatic, Vigorously Carrying Out Work”, giving a systematic explanation and putting forward overall requirements for intensified implementation. Intensified implementation became an important principle and tenet always upheld by the 10th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province and its Standing Committee; the 10th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province consecutively exercised work supervision and legal supervision over ecological development and environmental protection and solidly and effectively promoted the building of an ecological Zhejiang, producing 5 Relevant remarks are mainly based on two monographs written by comrade Xi Jinping when work-

ing in Zhejiang—Carrying Out Concrete Work to Stay Aheadand Zhiejiang Xinyu, see the Group of the Theoretical Study Center under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province: The Major Theoretical Achievements in the Practice of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in Zhejiang—the Understanding and Experience after Studying Two Monographs Including Carrying Out Concrete Work to Stay Ahead and Zhijiang Xinyu, the Zhejiang Daily, April 4, 2014, Page 1. 6 Put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping when making an inspection tour in Shandong on November 28, 2013, see the People’s Daily, November 29, 2013, Page 1.

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marked effects. So far, this work is still highly commended by the people from various sectors. This fully shows that as long as there is perseverance in and deep-going solid work on the goals in the work of the people’s congress, the outcomes will certainly make the Party and the people satisfied.

2.2 Constantly Improving the Local System of Legal Guarantee Local legislation is an important part of the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics; it plays multiple roles, including ensuring that the constitution, national laws and regulations are effectively carried out in the local administrative division, promoting local economic and social development; it is also an important aspect in pushing forward the governance of the country under the rule of law, achieving two centenary goals and realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. When working in Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping placed great importance on Zhejiang’s local legislation. He once attended and delivered an important speech during the provincial working conference on legislation in August, 2003; he made special remarks and raised explicit requirements for local legislation on many important sessions and occasions, including the meeting of democratic life held by the leading Party group under the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province in February, 2004 and the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province in April, 2006. These speeches and remarks were of great significance of thought and guidance and were forward-looking, they exhibited the features of the times, were well-targeted and operable, and they presented the direction for the development of local legislation. Zhejiang carefully carried them out, proceeded with active experiments and practice, changed the philosophy of legislation, improved the working mechanism, pushed forward scientific and democratic legislation, enhanced the quality of legislation, and improved the local system of a legal guarantee, making active contributions to the establishment and improvement of the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, Zhejiang’s reform and opening-up and social and economic development.

2.2.1 Speeding up Legislation, Giving Scope to the Fundamental Role of Legislation in Building a Society Under the Rule of Law In 2006, the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province was convened, in which comrade Xi Jinping made special remarks on promoting the rule of law. With a focus on promoting socialist political development, further improving economic, political, cultural and social development, the plenary session

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made the decision and arrangement for building Zhejiang under the rule of law, and vowed to incessantly promote the rule of law in the economic, political, cultural and social fields in the process of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and pushing forward socialist modernization in Zhejiang, so that Zhejiang could stay ahead nationwide in the overall work on promoting the rule of law. “Zhejiang under the rule of law” presented the blueprint for promoting the rule of law in Zhejiang, stressed the important position of local legislation in promoting the rule of law at the local level, and showed the task, goal and work requirement for local legislation; it is an important program for guiding Zhejiang’s efforts in promoting the rule of law and local legislation. Zhejiang carefully carried out the decision and arrangement for building Zhejiang under the rule of law, fully realized the importance of promoting the rule of law and strengthening local legislation in the new period, enhanced the sense of urgency and responsibility, and speeded up local legislation. During the period 2006July, 2014, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province made (amended) 92 local regulations, revised and abolished 70 local regulations, approved 114 regulations submitted by Hangzhou City, Ningbo City and Jingning She Autonomous County, involving economic change, the building up of political power, cultural development and social management, so a well-functioning local regulation system which supports the national laws and regulations and is suited to Zhejiang’s economic and social development basically took shape. These regulations conform to Zhejiang’s reality, cater to the needs of the times, are consistent with fairness and justice, better give scope to the role of local legislation in leading and promoting Zhejiang’s scientific development, and provide a strong legal guarantee for Zhejiang’s economic and social development.

2.2.2 Identifying the Guiding Thought, Constantly Improving the Quality of Local Legislation Quality is the lifeline of local legislation. To enhance the quality of local legislation, it is necessary to first foster the correct guiding thought. In this regard, during the provincial working conference on legislation in August, 2003, comrade Xi Jinping gave a penetrating explanation about the guiding thought for local legislation, which became the philosophy of guidance and a guide for actions for the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province to better carry out local legislation and improve the quality of that legislation.7 First, serving development. Local legislation focuses on creating a legal environment necessary for development. Second, reflecting local characteristics. Local characteristics are the vitality of local legislation. Local legislation should proceed from the reality of the local economic and social development to fully play the roles of supplementation, guidance 7 Xi

(2006), pp. 363–365.

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and creation, and give expression to local characteristics; local legislation should be more targeted and operable. Third, highlighting the philosophy that legislation is for the people. The fundamental interests of all the people are the starting point and ultimate goal of local legislation. It is necessary to follow the principle that “obligations are commensurate with rights, and responsibilities are commensurate with powers” to resolutely abandon the mindset that legislation is aimed at managing the people, to uncompromisingly overcome and prevent the tendency of incorporating departmental interests into legislation and to firmly foster the philosophy that legislation is used for the people, is aimed at safeguarding the people’s fundamental interests, and embodies the common will of the people. Fourth, adapting to the development of the times. The socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics is dynamic, open and in constant development; it is not static, closed and unchanged. Legislation should embody the spirit of advancing with the times, and properly address the relationship between stability and variability, between a forward-looking nature and a staged nature. It is necessary to make legislation more predictive. Each item that is regulated, each decision made and each system created through legislation should be beneficial for the general situation of reform, development and stability, and should result from overall considerations and repeated weighing; the achievements of reform should be affirmed and consolidated through legislation, but legislation should also leave the necessary spaces for new practice and new experiments and play the role of guidance. It is necessary to integrate legislation, amendment and abolishment to the extent that the local regulations not suited to reform, opening-up and modernization should be promptly amended, abolished, reenacted or dealt with by legislative interpretation according to legal procedures while issuing new regulations, so that local legislation can keep pace with the times, reflect the requirements of the times and not lag behind the practice of reform and development. In local legislation, Zhejiang has firmly grasped the above guiding thought, transformed mindsets, clarified the train of thought, identified the accurate points of action, promoted the legislative work by focusing on the central task and serving the overall situation, it has blazed new trails, advanced with the times, gave prominence to local characteristics, conducted legislation for the people and enhanced the quality of legislation.

2.2.3 Improving the Working Mechanism, Promoting Scientific and Democratic Legislation Scientific and democratic legislation has become the most basic and central requirement for legislative work. When working in Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping stressed on many occasions that it was necessary to further improve the legislative mechanism, make legislation more democratic and scientific, uphold the line of the masses,

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fully carry forward democracy, further make legislation public, broaden the channels for keeping close connections between legislation and the people, strengthen the feasibility study of regulations, their drafting, survey and deliberation, reinforce the research on theories of legislation, the building of a legislative force, legislative publicity, and raise specific requirements for improving the legislative working mechanism and promoting scientific and democratic legislation.8 The People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province and its Standing Committee gave great importance to the building of the legislative working mechanism, took “promoting scientific and democratic legislation” as the fundamental way to push forward the development of legislative work, continued experiments and practice, blazed new trails, preliminarily formed a system of a legislative working mechanism for scientific and democratic legislation which covers the whole process of legislative work, caters to the needs of the development of Zhejiang’s local legislation, reflects the principle of fairness, justice and openness, and produces good practical effects. First, improving the working procedures at various stages of legislation. Actions have been taken to better control the quality of legislative items, establish such mechanisms as a “legislative item application and feasibility study” and an “item-by-item feasibility study before determination of an annual legislation plan”. The applicants were required to submit a written report on the feasibility study of legislative items in addition to a draft of regulations when filing applications relating to items of legislative proposals; this written report should cover the necessity for and feasibility of legislation, the basis and the guiding thought for legislation as well as the important issues which need to be regulated and addressed; the Legislative Affairs Committee under the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, in conjunction with the people making legislative proposals, special committees of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, the Legislative Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and relevant experts, convened meetings for the study of feasibility to study the feasibility of the legislative items and ensure an accurate selection of the right legislative items. Zhejiang carried out fine management of legislative items, identified the regulations concerning items under Category One included in the annual plan of legislation and determined the drafting units, the submitting units and the deliberating units, completion time and responsible personnel to ensure an orderly and smooth implementation of the legislation plan. The working mechanism for early intervention in regulation drafting was established; under such a mechanism, the special committees of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province got involved in surveys and feasibility study early during the stage of drafting to promptly learn about and jointly address the major issues and key systems involved in regulations. The modes of legislative surveys were enriched, and multiple means, including symposium, special discussions and questionnaire surveys, were adopted to improve the systems for feasibility study and absorption of opinions from various parties, thus continually improving the effectiveness of surveys. Zhejiang explored the system for conducting surveys ahead of regulation deliberation by the members of the standing committee, and specially developed the Measures for the Participa8 Xi

(2006), p. 366.

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tion of the Members of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province and the Deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province in Legislative Surveys, with a view to improving the quality of deliberation. The technical specification for legislation was strengthened; the Technical Specification of Zhejiang Province for Local Legislation was comprehensively revised in 2012, and the Working Guidelines for the Drafting of Local Regulations was issued in 2013, thus resulting in relatively complete technical specification requirements for local legislation, making sure that the style and structure of regulations, the expression of the articles and the use of language and words were regularized and became scientific, and making local legislation issue-oriented, giving prominence to local characteristics, avoiding the “large and all-inclusive” and “small and all-inclusive” regulations, promoting the development of change to local legislation. Second, expanding the openness of legislation. Zhejiang promoted legislation in an open manner and solicited opinions from the society with respect to all of the regulations by means of the Internet and newspapers, and developed an annual legislation plan to collect items of legislative proposals from the society, invited citizens to attend the meetings of the standing committee of the people’s congress to deliberate draft regulations, ensured the public’s rights to know, participate in, express views on and supervise legislative work. Zhejiang broadened the channels for public participation in legislation; after the Legislation Law was promulgated, Zhejiang became the first nationwide to hold a legislative hearing, it issued the Rules of Zhejiang Province for Local Legislative Hearings, making the legislative hearing institutionalized. The hearing held by Zhejiang Province strictly complied with scientific law and the rigorous normative procedures, producing very good social and legislative effects. When the administrative regulations for the appearance and environmental hygiene of cities and the fire protection regulations were made in 2008 and 2010 respectively, websites such as Zhejiang Online were utilized to conduct online exchanges with netizens, the new mechanism for interaction between the legislative body and the public, was experimented with. When the measures for the implementation of the food safety law were made in 2011, a legislative hearing was held for the first time, the topics of that hearing were made public, the procedures were normative and the procedures for a symposium were simple and convenient, thus more effectively collecting public opinion and pooling the wisdom of the people regarding legislation. In 2014, Zhejiang issued the Working System for the Primary-level Contact Points for Legislation was issued, calling for, in light of regional representativeness and the requirement of highlighting the primary-level nature, choosing a number of the primary-level contact points for legislation from the state organs below the county level, the primary-level self-governing organizations and other eligible social bodies, and relying on these contact points to conduct legislative surveys and collect opinions from the people, expand the orderly participation of the people in legislative activities. Third, increasing the effectiveness of the deputies’ participation in legislation. According to the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, it is necessary to strengthen the contact between the standing committee of the people’s congress and the deputies to the people’s congress, give full scope to the roles of the deputies. With a careful summarization of experience,

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an in-depth survey and feasibility study, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province became the first nationwide to issue the Several Regulations on Focused Participation of the Deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province in Legislative Work according to the Specialized Field in 2014, calling for establishing the working mechanism for focused participation of the deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province in legislative work according to the specialized field, and requiring the deputies to choose the legislative items which they hoped to and would be able to participate in according to the focus of their attention to the society and professional expertise as well as the needs of legislative work, and whole-heartedly participate in the legislative activities involving the legislative items chosen by them at various stages. The Legislative Affairs Committee under the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province and relevant special committees of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province designate special contact personnel for each deputy with focused participation, and these people are responsible for providing all-round personalized services covering delivery of materials and information, the answering of questions and the provision of technical assistance. This mechanism is conducive to further arousing the initiative and enthusiasm of the deputies regarding participation in legislation, better giving scope to the characteristics, advantages and roles of the deputies, so that the deputies can more deeply, comprehensively and effectively participate in legislative work, and this is also an important way to enhance the effectiveness of the deputies’ participation in legislation and strengthen legislative democracy. Fourth, giving play to the roles of experts. Zhejiang has continuously investigated and brought innovations to the mechanism for experts’ participation in legislative work and have given scope to the roles of experts. In 2005, Zhejiang became the first nationwide to build a local pool of legislative experts consisting of experts in legal science, and in economic, political, social and cultural affairs; afterwards, Zhejiang issued the Several Regulations on Experts’ Participation in Legislative Work, the Working Rules on the Local Pool of Legislative Experts, and the Several Implementation Opinions on Giving Scope to the Roles of Social Bodies in the Legislative Work of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, calling for involving social bodies more in the selection of legislative items, the drafting of regulations, surveys and feasibility studies, giving scope to the think tank role of experts and scholars, routinizing, institutionalizing and normalizing experts’ participation in local legislation, providing reliable intellectual support and a professional guarantee for scientific decision-making. Fifth, strengthening organization and coordination in legislative work. Zhejiang improved organization and coordination in legislative work, and issued the Several Opinions on Further Strengthening Legislative Communication and Coordination, Improving Legislative Work, and the Several Opinions on Further Strengthening Legislative Communication and Coordination with the Special Committees and Working Committees of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, specifying stipulations for communication and coordination between the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, and within the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province,

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and establishing such working systems as the system of joint meetings on legislative work, the system of consultation on revision concerning important issues in regulations, and the communication and consultation mechanism for work arrangements for the implementation of the legislative plan. In the meantime, with respect to the regulations on which there are important different opinions, the parties involved were good at and bold in addressing focal points of contrasts, promptly coordinated various interest relations on the basis of fully soliciting opinions from various sources and conducting feasibility studies before making decisions. These organization and coordination mechanisms changed the previous “relay type” of working mode under which the drafting units, the legislative affairs office of the government, special committees of the people’s congress and the legislative affairs committee of the people’s congress were responsible for the work in separate sections; under these mechanisms, there is a “long-distance running team” consisting of the above departments, which is conducive to giving full scope to the leading role of the people’s congress, arousing the enthusiasm of various parties, and forming an overall synergy in legislative work. Sixth, intensifying legislative publicity. Zhejiang issued the Working Procedure for the Promulgation of Provincial Local Regulations, the Several Opinions on Improving Regulation Publicity, and the Working Rules of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province for Press Conferences on Local Legislation (Trial), improving the procedure for promulgating local regulations, calling for holding press conferences on legislation ahead of each meeting of the standing committee, and promptly holding a press conference on major legislative matters, thus fostering a good social atmosphere for carrying out regulations. In order to enhance the effectiveness of the publicity, the Legislative Affairs Committee under the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province established a long-term working mechanism with the urban printed media which had the greatest circulation and were the most influential in the province—the Qianjiang Evening News and Dushi Kuaibao—in 2013, thus building a multi-channel and multi-level publicity platform. Zhejiang maintained the Local Legislation Online (www.locallaw.gov.cn), the first website specially designed for local legislation in China in a better manner; Zhejiang improved the website functions of information communication and feedback, and gave scope to the active roles of the Local Legislation Online in publicizing legislative work, making local legislation public and rendering the channels for citizens’ orderly participation in local legislative work smooth and problem-free. Seventh, improving the mechanism which integrates legislation, amendments, abolishment and interpretation. Zhejiang adopted multiple means, including making, amending, abolishing, to ensure multi-way connection and coordination, promptly made the regulations suited to the new period, promptly amended and abolished the regulations not suited to economic and social development, especially some early regulations obviously unsuitable to comprehensively intensify the reform, so as to guarantee a scientific and harmonious legal system. To make sure that the law regarding administrative permission and compulsory administrative laws were enforced correctly and effectively and the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics took shape on schedule, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province organized efforts to comprehensively and specially clear up

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the existing local regulations of Zhejiang Province, amended and abolished 84 local regulations in 2003, 2009 and 2011, and issued the Several Regulations of Zhejiang Province for Clearing Up Local Regulations in 2012, institutionalizing and normalizing the work on clearing up regulations. In 2014, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province further arranged the work on clarifying the legislative issues involved in comprehensively intensifying the reform, organized and mobilized more than 80,000 deputies to the people’s congresses at various levels across the province to conduct the themed activity of “identifying the legal and regulatory provisions unfit for comprehensively intensifying the reform”, promoting the legislation, amendment and abolishment of relevant laws and regulations, and ensuring a legal basis for major reforms.

2.2.4 Incessantly Strengthening the Party’s Leadership over Local Legislation The Party’s leadership is the political principle for legislative work and also the fundamental guarantee for improving that work. During the provincial working conference on legislation in 2003, comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “Legislation is an overarching task; with extensive governance of the country under the rule of law, the Party’s style of leadership and manner of governance are being improved, the Party’s positions have increasingly needed to be turned into the will of the state through the organ of state power—the people’s congress—according to legal procedures, and become the code of conduct for the whole society and the entire population. The Party committee should give great importance to promoting the rule of law, it should put forward legislative suggestions in due time, promptly study the major issues in legislation, give play to the core leading role of the Party committee in grasping the overall situation and coordinating various parties and ensure the political direction for legislative work.” Zhejiang earnestly carried out the requirements of comrade Xi Jinping, firmly held the philosophy that the Party plays the core role in local legislation, put the unity of upholding the Party’s leadership and governing the country under the rule of law in legislative practice, continuously improved and reinforced the Party’s leadership over legislative work, and brought into being some feasible systems and practices to vigorously ensure the correct political direction for legislative work. First, strengthening the overall arrangements and guidance for legislative work. After the provincial working conference on legislation was held in 2003, when the term of each Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province began in 2008 and 2013, the provincial working conference on legislation was convened, and the main leaders of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province delivered speeches or gave instructions, making the overall arrangements for legislative work of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province. The Party Committee of Zhejiang Province also transmitted the opinions of the group of

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the leading Party of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province on legislative work, and put forward the goals, tasks and requirements for local legislative work. Second, establishing the system of asking for instructions concerning major legislative matters and reporting them. When developing the five-year pool of legislative survey items and the annual legislation plan and carrying out major legislative activities, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province promptly submitted them to the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and consciously accepted the leadership of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province over legislative work, put into practice, according to laws, the decisions made and instructions given by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, promptly initiated the legislative procedure for the legislative suggestions put forward by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, and turned the Party’s positions into the common will of the people across the province through legal procedures. Third, establishing the system of reporting the major legislative items to the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province for study. After the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province developed the annual legislative plan, that plan was submitted to the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province for choosing and determining a number of major legislative items. Before the corresponding legislative items were reported to the Standing Committee for deliberation and adoption, the leading Party group of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province submitted the draft regulation to the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province for specially studying the legislative feasibility of the regulation, the main institutional design and the main issues proposed to be addressed, and then expressing their opinions.

2.3 Strengthening Supervision over and Restrictions on the Government, the Court and the Procuratorate Supervisory power is an important power granted to the people’s congress and its standing committee by the constitution and laws. When working in Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping gave great importance to the supervisory work of the people’s congress and put forward many important thoughts, views and requirements which have very rich connotations and the characteristics of theory, thought and practice. They suggest that the theoretical innovations and practical experiments made at the provincial level by comrade Xi Jinping in promoting democracy and the rule of law since the beginning of the 21st century are consistent with the decisions and arrangements, made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, concerning strengthening the supervision of the people’s congress; they are closely related to the important remarks on promoting democracy and the rule of law made by General Secretary Xi Jinping since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China; they

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provide the basic principles and guide ot actions for the people’s congresses at various levels across the province and their standing committees to effectively perform their supervisory function. In more than ten years, Zhejiang consistently carried out comrade Xi Jinping’s important thoughts, views and requirements regarding the supervision of the people’s congress, strengthened the supervisory work according to laws, enhanced the awareness of supervision, broadened the fields of supervision, improved the modes, mechanisms and effectiveness of supervision, and provided an important legal guarantee for thoroughly implementing the “Eight-Eight Strategies” and the overall strategy of “making the people rich by starting businesses and of building a strong province through innovation” and building a modern socialist Zhejiang which is materially affluent and culturally advanced.

2.3.1 Deepening Understanding of the Supervisory Work of the People’s Congress, Normalizing and Institutionalizing It Strengthening the supervisory work of the people’s congress is of great significance for ensuring effective implementation of the constitution and laws, urging the government, court and procuratorate to perform administration under the rule of law and guarantee judicial justice, and promoting the rule of law in economic and social life. According to comrade Xi Jinping, the basic requirements for improving the supervisory work of the people’s congress cover the following four aspects: first, upholding the socialist concept of the rule of law; second, taking the political developmental path with Chinese characteristics; third, achieving an organic unity of upholding the Party’s leadership, the people being the masters of the country, and governing the country under the rule of law; fourth, realizing the goal of safeguarding the fundamental interests of the all the people. These requirements present the direction for the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province to carry out the supervisory work. Local authorities took the deepening of understanding as the important precondition for carrying out the Supervision Law and performing the supervisory function according to laws, and took the perspective of developing a socialist democracy and governing the country under the rule of law as a way to profoundly understand the important position of the supervisory work and accurately grasp the basic requirements for that work, they acted in a well-regulated and orderly way, and made the supervisory work more normalized, institutionalized and procedure-based. First, strengthening learning and publicity. The people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang made an in-depth study of the instructions and requirements from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province for the supervisory work of the people’s congress, earnestly studied the institutional theory and practice involving the people’s congress, and comprehensively studied the laws and regulations relating to the supervisory work of the people’s congress. In March, 2003, shortly after the Standing Committee of

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the 10th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province was established, Zhejiang held a training class to study the rule of law; comrade Xi Jinping was present at the class and delivered a speech. In about 2006 when the Supervision Law was promulgated, local authorities earnestly studied and understood the principles from the instructions given by the leaders of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China concerning supervisory work through the reading party of the central group, the provincial meeting on the sharing of experiences during the work of the people’s congress, meetings with the chairmen of the standing committees of the municipal and county people’s congresses, special lecturers and special training, and local authorities also intensified publicity via the media, unified the ideological understanding and correctly understood the basic principles and main contents of the Supervision Law; moreover, they enhanced the consciousness of the people’s congress, the government, the courts and the procuratorates regarding the implementation of the Supervision Law, providing a guarantee with a line of thought for comprehensively carrying out the Supervision Law. In August, 2008, the Standing Committee of the 11th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province held a special meeting on studying the Supervision Law, reviewed and summarized the experiments and practice involving the supervisory work of the local people’s congresses in Zhejiang, and planned the train of thought for the supervisory work of the people’s congress. In April, 2013, the Standing Committee of the 12th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province held the centralized study meeting and special lecture on the Supervision Law, and engaged in exchanges and discussions about the supervisory work of the people’s congress. With various ways of study and publicity, local authorities deepened their understanding, clarified the train of thought, identified the direction, better carried out the guiding principles adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, legal provisions and relevant requirements in the whole process and various respects of the supervisory work of people’s congress, and deepened the supervisory work of the people’s congress across the province. Second, regularizing the form of the supervisory work of the people’s congress according to laws. Before the implementation of the Supervision Law, the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang actively performed the supervisory function, listened to and deliberated the work reports of the government, the courts and the procuratorates, examined the execution of laws and regulations, and carried out the appraisal and deliberation of the work reports of the appointed cadres, the appraisal and deliberation of the deputies and continuously investigated the effective forms of supervisory work to improve the effectiveness of the supervisory work. The Supervision Law regularizes the form of the supervision by the standing committee of the people’s congress, and specifies seven forms of supervision, including listening to and deliberating special work reports, supervising plans and budgets, examining the execution of laws and regulations as well as filing and reviewing normative documents. Local authorities across the province resolutely carried out the principles from the instructions given by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, handled the affairs in strict compliance with the Supervision Law, regularized the forms of supervision according to the laws, achieved a sound transition of the supervisory work, continued experiments

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and practice and constantly made them better and well-regulated under the condition of safeguarding the unity of the national legal system, thus breaking new ground and making new progress in the supervisory work of the people’s congress. Third, further institutionalizing the supervisory work. The people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang took strengthening the institutionalization of supervisory work as a basic task, focused on summarization, regularization and improvement and guaranteed orderly supervisory work of the people’s congress. Since the implementation of the Supervision Law, local authorities have proceeded from reality to promptly make the opinions on implementing the Supervision Law, identified the division of work and the specific requirements and refined the working procedures to make them more targeted and operable. In the meantime, based on the Supervision Law, local authorities fully cleared up relevant local regulations, working systems and the rules of procedure, amended the regulations that were inconsistent with the Supervision Law, further improved relevant systems. In light of reality, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province made the Regulations for Supervision of Zhejiang Province in November, 2008, specifying the requirements for the formulation of the plan for supervision as well as the organization and implementation of the supervisory work, the handling of the deliberation opinions, open supervision and legal liability, thus further facilitating the implementation of the supervision law. In November, 2009, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province also developed the procedures for supervisory work to make it more operable.

2.3.2 Focusing on the Central Task, Promoting the Implementation of Major Decisions and Arrangements Made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province Concentrating on the central task and serving the overall situation is essential for improving the supervisory work of the people’s congress. As stressed by comrade Xi Jinping, supervisory work serves the overall situation of the Party and the country’s work, and in the final analysis, it is aimed at creating a good legal environment for the overall situation and providing an effective legal guarantee for the overall situation. In this regard, great efforts need to be made, but the key lies in choosing the right items. Once the right items are chosen, we can grasp the key points in supervisory work and lay a good foundation for making that work serve the overall situation. According to the requirements of focusing on the central task, giving prominence to key points and stressing substantial results, the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang chose the items, carriers and means by considering the major issues in reform, development and stability, the hot spots and difficulties relating to the people’s immediate interests, and carefully organized their efforts to carry out them,

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exercised supervision according to the laws, expanded the work on the central tasks of the Party committee and gave play to the supervisory role of the people’s congress in focusing on the central task and serving development. First, enhancing supervision over the major issues in the economic field. With a focus on carrying out the macro control policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the “Eight-Eight Strategies”, promoting economic change and upgrading, improving the people’s well-being, comprehensively intensifying the reform, carrying out the “three renovations and one demolition” and governing the “five waters” in tandem, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province carefully analyzed the macroeconomic trends, and closely followed the implementation of the 10th, 11th and 12th five-year plans, the annual targets and tasks. As from 2003, in the middle of each year, the Standing Committee listened to and deliberated the report on the province’s economic and social development in the first half of the year, urged and supported the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province to stabilize the growth, adjust the structure and promote sustained and healthy economic development. In the meantime, the Standing Committee also listened to and deliberated the reports on carrying out five major 10-billion-yuan projects, promoting coordinated urban and rural development, developing the service industry, intensifying the reform of the administrative examination and approval system, controlling the flooding and draining of the waterlogged areas and conducting pilot reform across the province, and it carried out special examinations of the execution of the safety laws and regulations regarding work, the Agriculture Law and relevant laws and regulations, and the regulations on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Second, strengthening supervision over the major issues in the cultural field. The Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province listened to and deliberated the reports on the building of a culturally large province, rural public cultural services and extensive Fitness-for-All programs, it conducted law enforcement examinations and surveys involving the protection of the cultural heritage, of famous historical and cultural cities and cultural relics, the Patent Law, the Copyright Law, and the management of the venues for folk faith activities, it promoted the implementation of major decisions and arrangements for building a culturally large province, and pushed forward vigorous cultural development and great cultural prosperity in Zhejiang. Third, enhancing the supervision over the hot spots and difficulties in guaranteeing and improving the people’s well-being. The Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province has always focused supervision on guaranteeing and improving the people’s well-being, appraised and deliberated the work reports of the directors of the provincial departments of health and civil affairs, organized the deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province to appraise and deliberate the enforcement of the food and drug laws; it conducted province-wide special work deliberations involving education and the management of endowment insurance funds; it deliberated the reports on food safety, price control and supervision, the execution of government-subsidized housing projects, the reform of the medical and health system, the development of the system of old-age care services, it exam-

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ined the enforcement of the Labor Law, the Food Safety Law, and the Road Traffic Safety Law, conducted law enforcement surveys on labor contracts, the safeguarding of women’s rights and interests, religious affairs, and it addressed some hot spots and difficulties which were the concerns of the people, thus further promoting social development. Fourth, strengthening supervision over environmental protection and the utilization of resources. For the building of an ecological Zhejiang, as early as 2003, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province made the relevant decision to carry out a law enforcement examination involving ecological development and environmental protection across the province in 2004; afterwards, the Standing Committee conducted tracking and supervisory work for three consecutive years, thus earnestly promoting the building of an ecological province. In 2010 and 2013, unified arrangements and coordination between the upper and lower levels were made across the province to conduct law enforcement examinations involving the prevention and control of water pollution and the protection of the sources of drinking water, producing good effects. The Standing Committee also listened to and deliberated the reports on energy conservation and emission reduction, the protection of the marine environment, the construction of ecological public-welfare forests, and “three renovations and one demolition”, pushed forward ecological development, and made contributions to building a beautiful Zhejiang for a good life and a beautiful China. Fifth, strengthening supervision over the difficulties in safeguarding fairness and justice. The Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province adopted multiple forms of supervision to strengthen supervision over the work of judicial organs and relevant departments, promote judicial fairness and government administration under the rule of law, and safeguard social fairness and justice. In 2010, based on listening to and deliberating relevant special reports, the Standing Committees made the Decision on Strengthening the Legal Supervisory Work of Procuratorates; in 2011, the Standing Committee listened to and deliberated the reports on the execution of the Decision by the People’s Procuratorate of Zhejiang, the High People’s Court of Zhejiang, the Department of Public Security of Zhejiang Province, and the Department of Justice of Zhejiang Province and separately put forward deliberation opinions. In 2012, the Standing Committee listened to and deliberated the reports of the Committee of Internal and Judicial Affairs, the public security organ, the courts, procuratorates and the department of justice and evaluated the degree of satisfaction concerning the implementation of deliberation opinions, thus promoting the implementation of the Decision.

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2.3.3 Improving the Forms, Adopting Multiple Means of Supervision Thoroughly carrying out the Supervision Law, fully adopting a number of means of supervision, upholding the unity of supervision and support, and combining brave supervision with skillful supervision are realistically necessary for pushing forward the supervisory work of the people’s congress. According to comrade Xi Jinping, supervision is aimed at supporting and promoting work, while support is based on supervision as a form and a means. The people’s congress must exercise supervision to the extent permitted by the constitution and laws, uphold the statutory provisions and oppose randomness, and should be brave in and adept at supervision. As stressed by comrade Xi Jinping, as governance of the country under the rule of law is upheld in the supervisory work of the people’s congress, it is aimed at safeguarding the authority of laws, ensuring that there are laws to abide by, that the laws are strictly observed, that law enforcement must be strict and law breakers must be dealt with, that the people exercise their rights and fulfill their obligations according to laws and that the work in various respects in the country must be carried out according to laws. The people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang have always, under the leadership of the Party committees at the same levels, correctly handled the relationship between supervision and support, have given prominence to the key points of supervision, fully adopted multiple forms of supervision, and strengthened supervisory work according to laws, ensuring that supervision laws and regulations are fully enforced in Zhejiang. First, taking listening to and deliberating special work reports as the most basic form of supervision by the people’s congress. Since 2003, the people’s congresses in Zhejiang have listened to and deliberated nearly 10,000 special work reports of the government, the courts and the procuratorates. Since the implementation of the Supervision Law, the frequency of listening to and deliberating special work reports in various parts of Zhejiang has increased, and supervision has been further intensified. For instance, in 2013, the Standing Committee of the 12th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province listened to and deliberated 28 special reports. Second, taking the plan and the budget as the points of action for the supervision by the people’s congress. Since 2004, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province has, with departmental budget as a means, further expanded budget review and supervision. Based on pushing forward departmental budgets, the Standing Committee has supervised government debt, the utilization of the special fund for science and technology and the special fund for water conservation. Such cities as Jiaxing and Haining have established a system of online fiscal supervision by the people’s congress, which has been connected with the municipal bureau of finance for real-time supervision over budget implementation in various municipal departments. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, local authorities in Zhejiang have strengthened their review and supervision of the government’s total budget and final account, regularized procedures, refined

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budgeting, improved the form of review, and changed the review and supervision of the budget and final account from procedural supervision to substantive supervision. Third, taking law enforcement examination as the main form of the supervision by the people’s congress. With active experiments and practice, local authorities further strengthened and improved law enforcement examinations, guaranteed the effective enforcement of the constitution and laws, and safeguarded the authority of the constitution and laws. For instance, during the period 2003–2013, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province conducted law enforcement examinations and surveys involving 59 laws and regulations—during the period 2004–2013, the Standing Committee held 10 province-wide law enforcement examinations. Fourth, taking the filing and review of normative documents as an important aspect of the supervision by the people’s congress. Local authorities gave great importance to filing and review, carried out practical experiment, sought regularization amid experimentations, made improvements in regularization, and further institutionalized and regularized filing and review. The Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province promptly made relevant regulations, providing an operable legal basis for filing and review across the province.

2.3.4 Placing Emphasis on Innovation, Continuously Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Supervisory Work With a focus on enhancing the effectiveness of supervision, the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang paid attention to innovating the organizational forms and modes of supervision to make the supervisory work more targeted and effective and actively stimulate the supervisory work of the people’s congress to advance with the times. First, enabling coordination at the upper and lower levels to jointly carry out deliberation on special work. Based on the practices of law enforcement examinations, in 2008, 2011 and 2014, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province made unified arrangements across the province and promoted coordination at the upper and lower levels to conduct special deliberations involving education, the management of the endowment insurance fund, the implementation of the strategy for governing “five waters” in tandem, and the work on controlling floods and draining the waterlogged areas. Based on special surveys, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province listened to and deliberated the special work report of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, put forward specific rectification requirements, and conducted subsequent tracking and supervision. According to survey questionnaires, 81.1% of the people believed that coordination at the upper and lower levels produced very good effects and it was fully recognized in various areas. Second, earnestly organizing and conducting special inquiries. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province carried

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out special inquiries when deliberating the reports on the final accounts and audit work, carrying out food safety law enforcement examinations, and deliberating on the report of special work on the building of the system of old-age care services. With special inquiries, the Standing Committee had enabled the combination of survey and deliberation, between deliberation and inquiry, and between inquiry and rectification, it further expanded the deliberation of special reports and law enforcement examinations, intensified supervision, and stimulated the government, courts and procuratorates to improve their style of work and their conduct of work. Third, improving the quality of handling deliberation opinions by evaluating the degree of satisfaction and other means. As of late 2012, 74.3% of the people’s congresses at the levels of city, county (county-level city, district) across the province evaluated the degree of satisfaction, and 76.4% believed that the effect was very good. Fourth, adopting multiple means to strengthen and improve judicial supervision. In 2013, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province established the measures for supervising the work of judicial organs and for institutionalizing and regularizing judicial supervision. Some local authorities explored and conducted appraisal and deliberation of the work of judicial organs; for instance, the standing committees of the people’s congresses in such counties and districts as Jiaojiang in Taizhou explored and conducted the appraisal and deliberation of the performance of duties by judges and procurators from courts and procuratorates, producing good effects. Fifth, strengthening tracking and supervision. Actions were taken to carry forward the spirit of carrying out concrete work, and continuously and thoroughly conduct tracking and supervision involving key matters for supervision. With progressive and intensive work for several consecutive years, relevant hot spots and difficulties were addressed.

2.3.5 Consolidating the Foundation, Broadening the Channels for Public Participation in the Supervisory Work of the People’s Congress Making the supervisory work open and democratic, smoothing out the channels for citizens’ orderly participation and fully embodying the interest appeal of the people are important guarantees for improving the supervisory work of the people’s congress. According to comrade Xi Jinping, the people’s participation in the supervisory work is beneficial for the people to express their willingness and achieve orderly political participation, and it is conducive to bringing about closer ties between the Party and the people, better governing for the people. Local authorities across the province upheld the feasible methods and systems, leveraged the advantage of contacts between the deputies and the people to broaden the channels for the people’s orderly participation. Regarding the supervision over the selection of topics, some

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local authorities solicited opinions from the deputies, and collected topics from the deputies and the people through news media and the service platform for the performance of duties by the deputies to the people’s congresses.

2.4 Giving Full Scope to the Principal Role of the Deputies to the People’s Congress The report delivered during the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China called for supporting the people in exercising state power through the people’s congress and ensuring that the people do so. The deputies to the people’s congress come from the people and are rooted among the people; giving full scope to the principal role of the deputies is the basic requirement for ensuring that the people become the masters of the country, upholding and improving the system of the people’s congress. Since the beginning of the new century, the standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang have focused on giving full play to the principal role of the deputies, keeping close ties between the deputies and the people, they have upheld the line of the masses, firmly kept the work orientation of centering on the deputies, considered the overall work situation to organize the deputies to conduct the activities between sessions and served and guaranteed the performance of duties by the deputies, thus continuously improving the quality of the deputies, enriching the content of the deputies’ duties, making the deputies’ activities produce effects, giving full scope to the important role of the people’s congress in serving economic and social development and promoting democracy and the rule of law, and in this way, making important contributions to thoroughly carrying out the “Eight-Eight Strategies” and the overall strategy of “making the people rich by starting businesses and of building a strong province through innovation” and building a modern socialist Zhejiang which is materially affluent and culturally advanced.

2.4.1 Making the “Dual Contact” Closer, Smoothing Out the Channels for Expressing the People’s Will and Appeals The greatest advantage of the people’s congress lies in keeping close ties with the people. According to comrade Xi Jinping, maintaining close ties with the deputies and the people and accepting the supervision from the deputies and the people constitute fundamental guarantees for the work of the standing committee of the people’s congress. In 2003, comrade Xi Jinping, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, attended the activity of the first day of the chairman’s reception of the deputies conducted by the Standing Committee of the 10th People’s

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Congress of Zhejiang Province in Chun’an; he led the leaders of relevant provincial departments in a discussion with the primary-level deputies with respect to the major programs for economic and social development, extensively solicited opinions and suggestions from the deputies and made efforts to address their opinions and suggestions and fully affirmed the practice adopted by the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province to regularly conduct the activity involving the day of reception of the deputies, thus setting an example for thoroughly carrying out the system of keeping contact between the people’s congress and the deputies. For many years, the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang took “strengthening contact between the standing committee and the deputies, between the deputies and the people” as the basic project for the work of the deputies, expanded the deputies’ participation in the meetings of the standing committee, legislation and supervision, conducted a variety of activities for keeping contact between the deputies and the people such as “the deputies enter communities” and “the day of the deputies’ reception”, and gathered experience that was beneficial in facilitating the expression of the people’s will and promoting the citizens’ orderly participation in political affairs. First, promoting regular contact between the standing committee of the people’s congress and the deputies. To address the need for keeping contact between the people’s congress and the deputies in the information age, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province built the Service Platform for the Performance of Duties by the Deputies to the People’s Congresses in Zhejiang in 2013, providing prompt and full services for more than 80,000 deputies to the people’s congresses at the national, provincial, municipal, county and town levels in Zhejiang to perform their duties. At present, the platform for the performance of duties has been visited for more than 7.50 million person-times, with 600,000 person-times each month on average. The deputies can promptly obtain important information on political affairs, submit proposals and suggestions, provide the information on social conditions and public opinion, engage in exchanges and interaction with the people’s congress, the government, the courts, and the procuratorates via seven columns on the platform, including “Work Information”, “Proposals and Suggestions” and “Online Exchanges”; the opinions and suggestions put forward by the deputies through the platform have been promptly put into practice. According to statistics, the platform has delivered more than 1.50 million pieces of work information, documents and materials to the deputies; the deputies have initiated special discussions on the platform more than 1,200 times and they have posted messages concerning direct exchanges for more than 50,000 person-times; the deputies have taken the initiative to register more than 5,000 pieces of important information on the performance of duties, involving the deputies for more than 25,000 person-times; the deputies have uploaded more than 500 cases of individual performance of duties. Second, promoting front contact between the deputies and the people. Zhejiang has made all-out efforts to strengthen the building of the deputies’ contact station fronts, and provided fixed venues at which the deputies can contact the people. The contact stations in various parts of Zhejiang have been built by proceeding from the local reality, observing certain construction standards, adopting the unified station name, officially hanging out shingles, using fixed venues and putting up systems on

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walls. At present, 2,479 deputies’ contact stations have been built in1,324 towns and sub-districts in Zhejiang, the network system for contact between the deputies to the people’s congresses and the people covering the whole province has taken shape. Based on building the deputies’ contact stations, the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang have strengthened cooperation, and gradually built online contact stations for the deputies on the service platform for the performance of duties by the deputies to the people’s congresses, achieving all-weather contact between the people and the deputies. Third, pushing forward regularized contact between the standing committee of the people’s congress and the deputies and between the deputies and the people. For many years, local authorities in Zhejiang developed a number of institutions in light of the reality of “dual contact”. With increasing practice, local authorities have further established and improved a system for contact between the members of the standing committee of the people’s congress and the deputies. Currently, there are 51 deputies directly contacted by the members of the chairmen’s meeting of the standing committee and 261 deputies contacted by the members of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province. The members of the standing committee of the people’s congress have, by means of visits, talks or telephone calls, solicited opinions and suggestions involving various aspects from the deputies, learned about economic and social development, the implementation of laws and regulations, they have publicized the Party and the country’s policies to the deputies, helped the deputies summarize their good practices and experience in the performance of duties under the rule of law, and promptly delivered the deputies’ opinions and suggestions to relevant departments of the people’s congresses, making contact regularized and effective.

2.4.2 Enriching the Deputies’ Activities Between Sessions, Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Deputies’ Performance of Duties The deputies to the people’s congress are the source of strength, wisdom and vitality for the work of the people’s congress. Zhejiang has more than 80,000 deputies to the people’s congresses at various levels; they are the very important forces for organizing, in a planned manner, the deputies to make inspection tours and conduct special surveys, enriching the deputies’ activities between sessions, improving the effectiveness of activities, all of which are crucial for giving scope to the role of the deputies. The standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang have properly handled the organic unity of the deputies’ activities between sessions and the deputies’ performance of duties during each session, and have taken “guaranteeing the deputies’ performance of duties between sessions and giving full scope to the deputies’ roles between sessions” as the important part of experiments and practice in the deputies’ work, they have constantly strengthened and improved

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the organization and implementation of the deputies’ activities between sessions and they have endeavored to activate and improve the deputies’ performance of duties by the deputies between sessions. First, carrying out the themed activities of the deputies, stimulating the deputies to perform their duties in an accurate and effective way. For many years, with a focus on Zhejiang’s central tasks, the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang organized the deputies in a planned way to make special inspection tours and conduct survey activities with respect to the building of a safe Zhejiang, a culturally large province, a Zhejiang under the rule of law and a green Zhejiang, and put forward a number of high-quality opinions and suggestions, thus vigorously pushing forward the work on Zhejiang’s central tasks. Building an ecological province and a green Zhejiang is the major decision and arrangement energetically advocated and energetically promoted by comrade Xi Jinping when working in Zhejiang. In 2013, given the latest arrangements made by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province for extending the building of an ecological province, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province actively served the major decision for governing waters to force change and upgrading, it organized and mobilized more than 80,000 deputies to the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang to carry out the themed activity of showing care for the mother rivers and streams, finding the sources of water pollution and duly performing their duties as deputies; the deputies to the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang responded actively, participated in supervising water governance at any place at any time, they exposed problems and put forward suggestions through the platform for the deputies’ performance of duties. The deputies at various levels in Zhejiang identified more than 31,000 pollution sources and offered more than 29,000 suggestions about pollution control; the activity produced significant effects and vigorously promoted pollution control in Zhejiang. Second, bringing about innovations to the modes of the deputies’ activities, enriching the ways that the deputies perform their duties, expanding the space for the performance of duties. As shown by historical and practical experience, only when persistent innovations are made can the people’s congresses handle affairs better according to laws and safeguard the fundamental interests of the people better, and can the socialist political development be promoted better. For many years, the work of the deputies in Zhejiang was carried out by making bold innovations and blazing new trails, thus creating a number of well-proven practices and much typical experience. For instance, Hangzhou conducted the activity of the deputies’ directed observations to vigorously urge the work of particular government departments. In Huzhou City, the activity of two-way meetings between the deputies to the people’s congresses and the personnel in charge of the government, the courts and the procuratorates strengthened daily supervision over the work of those bodies. In Ninghai City, the system of the deputies’ voting involving the projects involving the practical work of town governments was carried out to ensure that the government’s projects relating to the people’s well-being tally with the people’s will. In Wenling City, the deputies were organized to attend the democratic earnest talks about budgets, making the allocation of public financial funds more balanced and rational. In Yueqing City,

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the people’s hearing system was built to ensure that the opinions are solicited from the deputies and the people before the government makes major decisions, having consolidated the public opinion foundation for government administration under the rule of law. This work on the part of the deputies has provided new platforms and space for the deputies to better play their supervisory role and it has increased the level and effectiveness of government governance. Third, establishing a mechanism of incentives and constraints for the deputies’ performance of duties to ensure that the deputies actively perform their duties and accept supervision. With a focus on the contact among the deputies and the constituencies, voters and the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang continued carrying out experiments and practice in strengthening the people’s supervision over the deputies and enhancing the deputies’ awareness about serving the people. According to statistics, the standing committees of 48.9% of the people’s congresses in counties (county-level cities, districts) once received the written or oral work reports from the deputies to the people’s congresses at the higher levels who were elected through elections, the standing committees of 73.5% of the people’s congresses at the county level organized the deputies to report their work to voters, thus effectively enhancing the deputies’ sense of responsibility for performing duties according to laws. At present, based on the deputies’ contact stations in various parts of Zhejiang, local authorities have actively organized the deputies to meet with the people and report the performance of their duties to the people. Since 2008, local authorities have also actively introduced the system of registering the deputies’ performance of duties, built the procedures and mechanisms for routine registration of the deputies, collective review of the deputies’ groups and signed confirmation by the leaders of the deputies’ groups. According to statistics in 2009, all of the deputies to the provincial people’s congress and 89.8% of the deputies to the people’s congresses at the municipal and county levels registered the performance of their duties. Local authorities also intensified publicity involving typical cases of the deputies’ performance of duties. Since 2013, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province has organized the deputies in sharing their experiences in the performance of their duties during the preparatory meeting of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, further arousing the deputies’ enthusiasm about the performance of duties.

2.4.3 Optimizing the Work on Handling the Deputies’ Proposals and Suggestions, Improving the Quality of Deliberation and Handling Putting forward proposals and suggestions is an important function and power of the deputies and also an important means and way for the deputies to speak for the people, serve development and play their due roles. For many years, the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang made great efforts, took elaborate measures to optimize the work of deliberation and handling, better carry out their work in various

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important aspects of deliberation and handling, improve the work on handling the key suggestions and supervising the handling of key matters, explored and created the five-step method and the ten-step approach for handling suggestions, the system of panel discussion of handling results, performance evaluation, handling appraisal and evaluation, cross-year tracking and performance review, and gathered other mature experience, making sure that the deputies’ opinions and suggestions could be put into practice. In recent years, the suggestions from the deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province for which problems have been solved, and have basically been solved, have accounted for about 40%, while those for which problems have been partially solved or included in the plan for seeking solution have accounted for about 52%. First, making efforts to improve the quality of the proposals and suggestions from the deputies. Improving the quality of the proposals and suggestions from the deputies is the prerequisite for better carrying out the work on deliberating and handling proposals and suggestions. In various parts of Zhejiang, before the convening of the people’s congress, the important information and materials concerning political affairs are provided to the deputies, the model proposals and suggestions are delivered to the deputies, the deputies are organized to conduct observational and survey activities, making preparations for developing proposals and suggestions in a well-targeted way. With discussions by the deputies’ groups, the proposals and suggestions to be submitted are improved through collective exchanges, thus ensuring the quality of the proposals and suggestions from the deputies. In 2012, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province pioneered the system of pre-submission of the proposals and suggestions from the deputies, coordinated the deputies working bodies of the standing committees of the municipal people’s congresses to intervene and review early on, and assisted the deputies in revising and improving the proposals and suggestions, making the proposals and suggestions from the deputies more regularized and targeted. Since 2003, the proposals and suggestions submitted by the deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province in the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province have shown continuous quantitative and qualitative improvement. In the 2nd Session of the 12th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province in 2014, the deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province submitted 1,069 proposals and suggestions, showing an all-time high in number as well as an improvement in quality. Second, working on addressing important issues. In 2004, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province became the first nationwide to introduce the system under which the provincial governor leads the handling of key suggestions from the deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province; the governments at various levels in Zhejiang established the system under which government leaders lead the handling of key suggestions, and gradually introduced the system under which the personnel in charge of the undertaking units lead the handling of key suggestions. In recent years, an average of 5% of the suggestions from the deputies to the people’s congresses at the levels of county (county-level city, district) in Zhejiang have been identified as key suggestions. In the meantime, the standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang have gradually established and improved the

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system under which the standing committees supervise the handling of suggestions on a focused basis; the members of the chairmen’s meeting lead relevant special committees to choose a certain number of suggestions for tracking and examining the handling. The systems of focused handling and focused supervision of handling have effectively increased the degree of attention to the handling of suggestions in various parts of the province. Many local authorities have established a mechanism under which the working meetings of the government or departments discuss and decide on the handling of suggestions. For many years, with the implementation of the above systems, a number of key suggestions from the deputies having a vital bearing on Zhejiang’s reform, development and stability and the immediate interests of the people were carried out and fully recognized by the deputies and the people. Third, stepping up efforts to make handling open. Local authorities generally adopted the means of information that would ensure that handling proceeds in an open way. The Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province made, on a real-time basis through the service platform for the performance of duties by the deputies to the people’s congresses, the deputies were informed of the 11 steps for handling suggestions, and put the whole process of handling under the supervision of the deputies. With a focus on the first step—separate handling of suggestions, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Wenzhou City made separate handling of suggestions open to the deputies and solicited opinions from the deputies, and made, according to the deputies’ feedback, necessary adjustments of the units responsible for undertaking suggestions. In the meantime, local authorities in Zhejiang actively pushed forward the deputies’ participation in handling and organized the deputies to inspect and survey the handling of particular suggestions or the handling by the undertaking units, organized the deputies’ groups to hold collective discussions about the results of suggestion handling and to exercise effective supervision over the handling. Fourth, intensifying efforts in improving the mechanism of evaluating the handling. The Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province actively conducted classified evaluation of the deputies’ suggestions, and established the working mechanism linked to the quality of suggestions. Actions were taken to improve the mechanism of the deputies’ participation in evaluation of suggestion handling; after the undertaking units solicited opinions from the deputies, the standing committees of the people’s congresses solicited opinions on the evaluation to ensure that the evaluation of the handling was objective. At present, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province is conducting special research on the indicators for the evaluation of the results of the handling, thus establishing a system of indicators for the evaluation of the handling as well as the score range, thus introducing the system of evaluation and scoring of the results of the handling, and optimizing the supervision and evaluation of the results of the handling.

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2.4.4 Intensifying Service Guarantees, Creating Conditions for the Deputies to Play the Principal Role The working bodies of the standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels are the collective advisers and assistants for the deputies to the people’s congresses in performing their duties according to laws. The comprehensive enhancement of this function is attributable to the building of the working bodies for the deputies to the people’s congresses. Based on strengthening the building of their bodies, the standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang firmly fostered the working awareness about serving and relying on the deputies, took effective measures to intensify service guarantees, and actively created good conditions for the deputies to play the principal role. First, reinforcing training on the deputies’ performance of duties. The high quality of the deputies is the basic precondition for the deputies to better play the principal role. For many years, the standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang continuously strengthened the training of the deputies, established the mechanism of systematic training of the deputies, made sure that the deputies promptly acquired new knowledge and a new line of thought, got familiar with new laws, regulations and policies, and enhanced the deputies’ ability to perform duties. In nearly ten years, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province held large-scale deputies training classes in each term on average, covering all of the deputies to the provincial people’s congress. The standing committees of the people’s congresses at the levels of county (county-level city, district) in Zhejiang organized the training of the deputies for an average of five times in each term, covering more than 90% of the deputies. With extensive and systematic training, the deputies have effectively improved in the quality of and ability in the performance of their duties. Second, making the deputies knowledgeable about the situation and political affairs. Fully knowing the situation and political affairs is essential for the deputies to better play the principal role. The deputies working bodies of the standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang actively ensured that the deputies knew the situation and political affairs, increased the number of the deputies invited to attend the sessions of the people’s congresses and their standing committees or special committees, and organized the deputies to attend the semi-annual briefings on economic and social development and special briefings on political affairs, effectively making the deputies know the work in its various aspects. In the meantime, the standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang raised new requirements for the deputies’ performance of duties in response to the information age, and built information platforms to provide the deputies with prompt and convenient access to the information on the situation and political affairs, producing good effects. Third, guaranteeing the legitimate rights and interests of the deputies. A wellfunctioning mechanism for the guarantee of rights and interests is an important support for the deputies in playing the principal role. For many years, the peo-

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ple’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang exercised, according to laws, the right to permit the application for restricting the deputies’ personal freedom, seriously investigated, handled, did not tolerate the acts of violating the legitimate rights and interests of the deputies and obstructing the deputies from performing duties so as to really safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the deputies. The standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang also kept pace with economic and social development, and persistently increased the funds for the annual activities of the deputies. The funds for the activities of the deputies to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province were gradually increased from 1,500 yuan in 2003 to 4,200 yuan at present. Regarding the use of the funds for the activities of the deputies, the standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang focused the funds on the primary-level deputies, and actively coordinated efforts to raise the allowance standard for the performance of duties by the deputies without a fixed income. In the meantime, the deputies working departments of the standing committees of the people’s congresses at various levels also focused contact service on the primary-level deputies, sincerely showed care for and helping the primary-level deputies in production and life, promptly visited and expressed sincere solicitude to the deputies with difficulties in life, and provided vigorous assistance to solve relevant problems, really turning the deputies working departments into the “homes of deputies”.

References Xi Jinping, Carrying out Concrete Work to Stay Ahead—Line of Thought and Practice in Promoting New Development in Zhejiang, The Party School of the CPC Central Committee Press, 2006. Xi Jinping, Really Focusing a Line of Thought on the Guiding Principles Adopted during the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, People’s Daily, January 1, 2014.

Chapter 3

The Practice and Innovations in Socialist Consultative Democracy Liang Ye

Consultative democracy is the unique democratic form in China’s socialist democratic politics. The Party Committee of Zhejiang Province has always proceeded from the reality to creatively carry out the guiding principles adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, it has actively explored the practice in consultative democracy, and has made universal and distinctive practical, institutional and theoretical achievements.

3.1 Putting Consultative Democracy Under the Rule of Law “Democracy must be put under the rule of law; democracy without the rule of law 1 is anarchic democracy.” When comrade Xi Jinping served as the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province always focused on the organic unity of upholding the Party’s leadership, the people being the masters of the country, and governing the country under the rule of law, it studied and arranged for the development of consultative democracy by taking that development as an important task for building Zhejiang under the rule of law.

1 Xi

(2006), p. 301.

L. Ye (B) The Research Office of the PPCC of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 N. Fang et al. (eds.), Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics, Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8_3

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3.1.1 Planning the Development of Consultative Democracy in a Coordinated Way The rule of law provides an institutional source for developing socialist democracy. In April, 2006, comrade Xi Jining pointed out, “It is necessary to, under the condition of upholding the direction of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics, make the people’s democracy in Zhejiang institutionalized, regularized and procedure-based, and fully put the people’s democratic requirements—including the people’s rights, interests, safety, freedom, equality and development—under the rule of law, so that political participation of citizens can be guaranteed institutionally and expanded in an orderly fashion, and a lively and vivid, stable and harmonious political situation with democracy and solidarity can be further consolidated and developed”.2 Afterwards, the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province made the decision to build Zhejiang under the rule of law, presenting a concrete roadmap for developing socialist democracy. That strategic arrangement presented eight tasks for building Zhejiang under the rule of law and called for upholding and improving the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Afterwards, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province established the leading group for building Zhejiang under the rule of law, strengthened the leadership over building Zhejiang under the rule of law, regularly studied and solved the major and prominent problems in promoting the rule of law. It has an office for guiding and coordinating the work in building Zhejiang under the rule of law, strengthening the supervision and examination of local authorities and various departments in promoting the rule of law. With a focus on the decision and arrangement made by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province for building Zhejiang under the rule of law, local authorities and various departments gave priority to promoting the rule of law, and developed some concrete implementation opinions and supporting documents. This created the favorable conditions for promoting the development of consultative democracy with the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law as the carrier. Since the 12th Party Congress of Zhejiang Province in 2007, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province incorporated the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law into its overall strategy of “making the people rich by starting businesses and of building a strong province through innovation”. In 2012, the 13th Party Congress of Zhejiang Province identified the historical mission of building a modern Zhejiang which is materially affluent and culturally advanced, and put forward the developmental task for “three strong provinces and three Zhejiangs”; the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law became an important part of the overall layout of building a modern Zhejiang. The Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on Earnestly Studying and Implementing the Guiding Principles Adopted during the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Comprehensively Intensifying the Reform to Foster New Advantages in Systems 2 Xi

(2006), p. 297.

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and Mechanisms, made by the 4th Plenary Session of the 13th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province in 2013, made arrangements for consultative democracy by giving priority to it, and called for further improving the system of socialist consultative democracy and promoting extensive, multi-level and institutionalized development of consultative democracy. In December, 2014, the 6th Plenary Session of the 13th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province deliberated and adopted the Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on Comprehensively Expanding the Building of Zhejiang under the Rule of Law, specifying the overall goal of “continuing to stay ahead in the process of building a socialist country under the rule of law” and the specific requirements for “staying ahead in six respects” in regard to the overall goal—the first one lies in “staying ahead in building a socialist democracy based on government administration under the rule of law”—and making arrangements for further supporting and promoting the extensive, multi-level and institutionalized development of consultative democracy. In more than 10 years, the Party committees and governments at various levels in Zhejiang always promoted consultative democracy by putting it under the rule of law, planned consultative democracy in the overarching work, gave great importance to consultative democracy at the level of line of thought, placed it in an important position in work and put it on the agenda of important aspects in arrangement and developed a high sense of responsibility for it.

3.1.2 Establishing and Improving the Consultative Democracy System Institutional development is fundamental, overarching, stable and long-term; it is an important guarantee for promoting consultative democracy. From January, 2003 to April, 2007, with the arrangement made by comrade Xi Jinping, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province developed a number of important documents for strengthening the work on consultative democracy. The People’s Government of Zhejiang Province established some regulations for improving the system of scientific and democratic decision-making, and put forward three innovative systems, including democratic discussion and consultation, collective financial audit supervision, and democratic consultation on the work on village cadres. Local authorities introduced the systems of democratic earnest talk, democratic hearings, democratic appraisal and deliberation, and improved these systems and put them into practice, thus providing strong guidance for promoting consultative democracy in a regularized, orderly and fruitful way. In recent years, according to the requirements of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the 3rd and 4th Plenary Sessions of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Parry Committee of Zhejiang Province has further established and improved a well-functioning, complete, scientific and useful consultation system which conforms to the reality.

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In the meantime, according to the arrangements and requirements of the Parry Committee of Zhejiang Province, the Party committees, the people’s congresses, governments and the PPCCs (People’s Political Consultative Conferences) at various levels have carefully studied and developed a number of concrete implementation opinions and internal systems to ensure full understanding, an institutional guarantee and work implementation for promoting consultative democracy, providing an important basis and strong support for promoting regularized, orderly and healthy development of consultative democracy.

3.1.3 Improving the Working Mechanism for Consultative Democracy In more than 10 years, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province constantly improved the working mechanism for consultative democracy, and endeavored to better embody and guarantee the interests and aspirations in various respects and at various classes in decision-making and execution. First, improving the organization and the mechanism of leadership for consultative democracy. The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the fundamental guarantee for developing socialist democracy and is the paramount political prerequisite for identifying the right direction for promoting it. In December, 2003, during the 5th Plenary (Enlarged) Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping called for actively exploring and improving the system of leadership of “exercising overall leadership and coordinating all efforts”, and building a system of leadership which features “one Party committee”, “three leading Party groups” and “several openings”. Specifically, with “three groups of leading Parties”, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province exercises leadership over the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and the People’s Political Consultative Conference of Zhejiang Province; with “several openings”, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province exercises leadership over various fields of work. In September, 2005, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province developed the Several Opinions on Further Giving Scope to the Role of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province as the Leadership Core in Exercising Overall Leadership and Coordinating All Efforts, calling for strengthening the role of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province as the leadership core in various types of organizations at the same level; reinforcing, at the political and organizational levels and also regarding the line of thought, the leadership over the people’s congress, the government, the PPCC, the courts, procuratorates, trade unions, the Communist Youth League, the Women’s Federation and other people’s organizations; improving the effective mechanism for studying and coordinating the relevant work of organizations, promptly solving major problems in their work in a coordinated way, holding at least one working conference on the people’s congress, the PPCC, trade unions, the Communist Youth League, and

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the Women’s Federation in each term; supporting various types of organizations in independently, responsibly and consistently carrying out their work according to the laws and articles of association. In January, 2007, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province stressed that it was necessary to put the tasks of the PPCC on the agenda of important issues, the main leaders of the Party committees should take charge of the work on the PPCC, the Party committees should hold at least one working conference on the PPCC in each term, and the standing committees of the Party committees should arrange more than one special meeting each year; it was necessary to further determine the principal status of the Party committee and the government in political consultations, further improve the existing decision-making and discussion mechanisms of the Party committee and the government and really incorporate the PPCC’s political consultation into the necessary procedures of the Party committee and the government for scientific and democratic decision-making. According to the requirements of maintaining the work in the right direction, planning the overall situation, putting forward strategies and fostering the environment, with the role of exercising overall leadership and coordinating all efforts, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province further strengthened the organizational leadership over consultative democracy, gradually identified the basic line of thought and work priorities for promoting consultative democracy, and ensured the correct political direction for promoting consultative democracy. Second, improving the mechanism for participation in consultative democracy. Consultative democracy is a process of participation by multiple players, while the direct participation of the Party and the government’s leaders in consultation often has a bearing on the effectiveness of the consultation. The Party Committee of Zhejiang Province carefully carried out the arrangements and requirements from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and took actions to ensure that the leaders of the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province were arranged in a unified way to attend the plenary sessions of the people’s congress and the PPCC, group discussions, and special consultation activities, consultations were held before the Party congress of Zhejiang Province and the plenary sessions of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province made great decisions, and such leaders as the Secretary of the Party Committee and the Governor of Zhejiang Province attended the sessions of the PPCC’s standing committee and special consultation meetings. For instance, during the period 2003–2006, comrade Xi Jinping attended the session of the PPCC’s standing committee at the end of each year for four consecutive years. The mechanism under which the provincial leaders led the handling of proposals was improved. In 2009, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Zhao Hongzhu, became the first nationwide to adopt the practice by which the main leaders of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province led the handling of key proposals. In 2013, the leaders of the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province led the handling of 15 key PPCC proposals in 12 respects, each key proposal was dealt with by consultation before, during and after its handling. For instance, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province established and improved the system under which the leading cadres visit and receive the people; each year, the leading cadres regularly visited and received the people, promptly assigned the

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matters reported by the people to relevant departments for handling or promptly handled them themselves. The systems of online interview and democratic talk with the leading cadres were established and improved. The leading cadres of the provincial organs were regularly organized to engage in online exchanges with netizens through the news website platform, Zhejiang Online, to fully solicit opinions and suggestions. Moreover, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province established the system under which the Party and government leaders coordinate the handling of the matters involving the complaint-related letters and visits and the system under which the leaders take charge of and participate in handling matters; the main leaders of the Party and the government should regularly study and arrange the work on the complaint-related letters and visits, and handle major matters involved in the complaint-related letters and visits. As from 2014, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province signed, on a face-to-face basis, the annual responsibility statement for the work on the complaint-related letters and visits with the secretaries of the Party committees and mayors of 11 cities, specifying targets and putting in place responsibility. Full scope was given to the exemplary role of the leading cadres at various levels and the extensive visiting activity of “entering villages and enterprises” was carried out across the province; Zhejiang actively promoted the system of handling based on meeting consultations and letter consultations among provincial departments (bureaus) and cities (counties); under the system, the issues which prompt a strong reaction from the primary-level people and need to be addressed through assistance and consultation should be addressed through joint consultation by promptly notifying local authorities or organizations through letters to hold coordinating meetings; the issues which cannot be addressed by departments and at the local level should be addressed by promptly notifying the Party committee and the government at the higher level in the place where services are provided. Moreover, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province actively supported the People’s Congress, the People’s Government and the PPCC of Zhejiang Province in improving the working mechanisms for public participation in legislation, administration and PPCC consultations, stimulated local Party committees and governments to improve the working mechanism for the orderly political participation of the citizens, continuously improved the mechanism of democratic participation under which issues are addressed through consultation and the issues concerning many people should be addressed by these people through consultation. For instance, during the period 2003–2007, the PPCC of Zhejiang Province improved the working mechanism for hearings, explored and established the system under which the people’s representatives attend the meetings of the PPCC standing committee on a non-voting basis, and launched the People Hotline for special handling of the opinions, suggestions, letters and visits from the PPCC members at various levels, the members of democratic parties and other social groups, explored the Online Live Broadcasting of Proposal Handling so that the people can communicate and interact with the proposers and the personnel in charge of the proposal undertaking units by posting messages and following posts online, opened their doors to solicit opinions and ideas from the people, and effectively explored the effective mechanism for participation in PPCC consultative democracy by the citiznes.

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Third, improving the mechanism of communication and coordination for consultative democracy. Zhejiang established and improved the system of the secretarygeneral joint meeting covering the Party Committee, the People’s Congress, the People’s Government and the PPCC of Zhejiang Province, strengthened the consultation on and coordination of the work. For instance, in January, 2007, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province issued the Implementation Opinions on Carrying Out the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening the Work of the People’s Political Consultative Conference, stating that at the beginning of each year, the Party committee should determine the topics for consultation according to the annual work priorities or the suggestions put forward by the PPCC leading Party group; the PPCC leading Party group should put forward concrete consultative proposals and arrange consultative activities according to the unified arrangements made by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province. In July, 2009, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province issued the Opinions on Strengthening and Improving the Political Consultation of the People’s Political Consultative Conference and Promoting Scientific and Democratic Decision-making, thus regularizing the main procedures for the political consultation of the People’s Political Consultative Conference, including putting forward and determining consultative topics, making preparations for consultative activities, organizing consultative activities, delivering consultative opinions, and handling consultative opinions. Zhejiang established and improved the system of contact among the leaders of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the provincial committees of democratic parties and the Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce, under which each member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province contacts one democratic party. Zhejiang established and improved the mechanism of contact among the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, the functional departments of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and democratic parties and special committees of the PPCC of Zhejiang Province. In August, 2014, the General Office of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the General Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Work on Contact among the Party and Government Departments at the Provincial Level and the Special Committees and Sectors of the People’s Political Consultative Conference of Zhejiang Province, calling for keeping close communication and contact, and routinizing consultative democracy by various means, including regular visits and talks, joint surveys and meetings regarding the situation and political affairs. Fourth, improving the mechanism of supervision and examination for consultative democracy. The Party Committee of Zhejiang Province established the working mechanism for regular supervision. For instance, in January, 2007, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province issued the Implementation Opinions on Carrying Out the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening the Work of the People’s Political Consultative Conference, stressing that the Party committees at various levels should take “giving importance to the work of the People’s Political Consultative Conference and better giving scope to the role of the People’s Political Consultative Conference” as an important yardstick for measuring the level of leadership and the capacity for governance. The Party Committee of

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Zhejiang Province conducted, on many occasions, special supervision, examination and surveys involving the implementation of the system of consultative democracy; the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province carried out supervision and examination five times in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2013; for instance, in August, 2013, three provincial leaders, including the Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Wang Huizhong, led groups to visit relevant cities, counties and departments in order to carry out supervision and examination involving the implementation of the documents concerning the PPCC and the united front issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, including the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Consolidating and Expanding the United Front during the New Stage in the New Century, the Implementation Opinions of the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province on Strengthening and Improving the Work on the Federation of Industry and Commerce under the New Situation, and the Several Opinions of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on Strengthening Cooperation between the Party and the Non-Party Personages (Trial), thus vigorously promoting the institutionalized, regularized and procedure-based development of consultative democracy.

3.1.4 Actively Promoting the Practice of Consultative Democracy Consultative democracy requires not only well-functioning institutional procedures but also the practice of complete participation. The successive Secretaries of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province energetically pushed forward the development of consultative democracy; in particular, when comrade Xi Jinping worked in Zhejiang, he took part in concrete work and set an example for us. On October 28, 2002, the 15th day after comrade Xi Jinping started working in Zhejiang, he met with the personnel in charge of the provincial democratic parties and federations of industry and commerce in Zhejiang, and stated that the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province would solicit opinions from democratic parties and federations of industry and commerce before making great decisions; it was also possible for democratic parties to conduct surveys and carry out inspections on some special issues, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province specially received opinions and provided feedback; the members of parties could also offer suggestions by means of telephone calls and letters. This was well received among the non-Party personages and played an active role in promoting multiparty cooperation and political consultation in Zhejiang. In the year after comrade Xi Jinping was transferred to Zhejiang, from October, 2002 to October, 2003, Zhejiang held reporting and consultative meetings 19 times to report the guiding principles adopted during the sessions held by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and to solicit opinions on personnel arrangement,

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the work of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the work relating to Zhejiang’s economic and social development. In 2003, comrade Xi Jinping led some provincial leaders and the personnel in charge of 15 provincial departments to visit Pujiang County, pioneering the visit to the areas at the lower levels by provincial leading cadres in China. The successive Party committees of Zhejiang Province always respected the enterprising spirit of the people and focused on fostering a loose developmental environment, provided reliable political guarantees for local innovative practice. Consultative democracy quickly developed in Zhejiang because the leaders of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province played an exemplary role, the Party committees and governments at various levels in Zhejiang were inclusive and open-minded about the practice and experiments of primary-level democracy.

3.2 Giving Full Scope to the Important Role of the People’s Political Consultative Conference as the Channel for Consultative Democracy The People’s Political Consultative Conference (PPCC) is the concentrated reflection of consultative democracy and the arrangement of the national political system. The People’s Political Consultative Conference is based on the constitution, the charter of the People’s Political Consultative Conference and relevant policies and is guaranteed by the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China; it integrates consultations, supervision, participation and cooperation; it serves as an important channel for socialist consultative democracy. At present, the number of PPCC organizations in Zhejiang has increased from 46 during the early stages of reform and opening-up to 101, and there are more than 20,000 PPCC members at various levels, which provide an important channel and a guarantee for different parties, classes, sectors, the people’s organizations to fully express their appeals regarding interests, and they produce demonstration and driving effects on socialist consultative democracy across the province.

3.2.1 The Status and Role of the People’s Political Consultative Conference Have Become Increasingly Prominent In 2003, comrade Xi Jinping stressed that the People’s Political Consultative Conference complemented and supplemented the people’s congress and the government, and played an irreplaceable role in China’s political life. Afterwards, he required the Party committees at various levels to hold at least one working conference on the Peo-

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ple’s Political Consultative Conference in each term to study the new situation and address new issues; the Party committees regularly reported to the People’s Political Consultative Conference, guided and supported the People’s Political Consultative Conference to perform functions, carry out activities according to the central tasks of the Party and the government; the standing committees of the Party committees specially listened to at least one work report from the People’s Political Consultative Conference each year in order to study the important issues, put forward tasks and requirements and help solve practical problems; one member of the leading groups of the Party committee and the government was assigned to serve as the contact person for PPCC work; the main leaders of the Party committees showed care for and paid attention to the PPCC work and earnestly received the opinions and suggestions from the People’s Political Consultative Conference. In ten years, each year, the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province delivered a speech and raised requirements at the closing ceremony of the provincial PPCC session, and reported the work of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and guided the PPCC work, solicited opinions and suggestions in the meeting of the provincial PPCC’s standing committee and special consultative meetings; each year, the provincial governor reported the situation of economic and social development during the provincial PPCC chairman reading party; the leaders of the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province attended the plenary sessions of the provincial PPCC, the meetings of the provincial PPCC’s standing committee and special consultative meetings for soliciting consultative opinions; each year, the provincial PPCC’s standing committee listened to the PPCC work report, studied and made decisions by means of consultation with respect to the performance of the important PPCC duties, including special political consultations, special collective democratic supervision, key survey issues and key inspections; each year, the leaders of the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province led the handling of key proposals. In ten years, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province held three provincial working conferences on the PPCC, stressing the PPCC’s advantages and roles in consultative democracy. In 2004, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Xi Jinping, vowed to take the overarching perspective in order to fully understand the important significance of the work of the PPCC, focus on the institutionalized, regularized and procedure-based development to support and ensure the PPCC’s performance of functions, fully leverage the PPCC’s advantages in talent, consultative supervision, extensive connection and relationship coordination and serve the implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development and the “Eight-Eight Strategies”. He required the Party committees at various levels to strengthen and improve their leadership over the work of the PPCC, create conditions for the PPCC’s performance of functions and foster a frank, harmonious, lively and vivid atmosphere for political consultation, so that the opinions and suggestions, regarding the people’s fundamental interests, from various aspects could be fully expressed in the PPCC, and the Party and the government could solicit the real opinions from democratic parties, public figures without party affiliation, the people’s organizations and the personages from various sectors. In 2009, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Zhao Hongzhu, pointed out that it was

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necessary to proceed from the strategic perspective of building the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics to understand the great significance of strengthening the work of the PPCC; he also pointed out that it was necessary to fully leverage the PPCC’s organizational advantage in uniting, intellectual advantage in pooling talents and sectoral advantage in coordinating relationships, as well as gather wisdom and strength for entrepreneurship and innovation and transformation and upgrading. He stressed that it was essential to actively support the PPCC’s performance of functions, incorporate political consultation into the decision-making procedure, and really make decisions on major issues after consultation. In 2013, the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Xia Baolong, pointed out that in order to better carry out the work of the PPCC, the first priority should be given to stressing politics, and that it was necessary to keep very much in alignment with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with comrade Xi Jinping as the General Secretary, enhance the confidence in the path, theory and system with Chinese characteristics, and further act in a people-oriented way, take the firm stand towards the people, keep closer ties with the people;, moreover, it was necessary to foster an awareness of the frontline, keep the frontline state and pursue improvement at the frontline, have a high sense of responsibility, carry out concrete work and deliver substantial outcomes, give full scope to the functions of the PPCC as the consultative, supervisory, political consulting, public opinion, united front and mass working body, closely unite the parties, groups and personages of various nationalities and from various sectors participating in the PPCC to offer suggestions and ideas and gather strong positive energy for Zhejiang’s economic and social development.

3.2.2 The Philosophy and Line of Thought of the PPCC’s Consultative Democracy Have Been Increasingly Clear The philosophy determines direction. The working philosophy and orientation for consultative democracy directly determine the developmental trend of consultative democracy. In September, 2004, comrade Xi Jinping fully affirmed the correct positioning of the provincial PPCC in which the PPCC offers suggestions but does not make decisions, expresses views but does not make laws, discusses political affairs but does not participate in government administration, becomes loose but does not relax.3 In this period, the key to the suggestions from the provincial PPCC consisted in the quality rather than the number. It was necessary to make efforts in making suggestions specialized, accurate, novel and excellent, combine large subjects with small subjects, offer suggestions in advance and provide synchronous services, carry out research on both comprehensive major issues and special general issues, and carry out surveys involving hot issues and less popular issues. The provincial PPCC also put forward the working requirements of “serving the overall situation at a higher level, offering in-depth suggestions, intensifying democratic supervision, ensuring 3 Xi

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wide solidarity and achieving vigorous self-building”. This presented the positioning and requirements for promoting PPCC consultative democracy in Zhejiang. Afterwards, the provincial PPCC raised the working requirements of “focusing on the central task, serving the overall situation, placing emphasis on the people’s well-being, affectionately performing duties”, and identified the working line of thought of “optimizing the environment for the PPCC’s performance of functions, strengthening the organizational function of the PPCC and giving play to the principal role of PPCC members”. The provincial PPCC required the personnel engaged in the work of the PPCC to develop the ability and habit to hold consultations, uphold equal consultation, democratic consultation, and extensive consultation, discuss and handle affairs through consultation, do things and properly deal with affairs through consultation.

3.2.3 The Platforms and Carriers for the PPCC’s Consultative Democracy Have Become Increasingly Diverse In 2003, comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “It is necessary to make sure that the opinions and suggestions on various respects and beneficial to safeguarding the fundamental interests of the people can be expressed fully and freely in the PPCC as a big family, and that socialist democracy can be vigorously carried forward”.4 In this regard, the provincial PPCC made careful arrangements, meticulously organized efforts, earnestly utilized the regular session of the PPCC, the most important platform and carrier for performing functions. From January, 2003 to January, 2008, the provincial PPCC convened 5 plenary sessions, 26 standing committee meetings, 42 chairman meetings, and carefully organized the speeches at the meetings as well as member discussions and special symposiums so that the members of the PPCC can fully express their opinions and the effects of consultative democracy can be enhanced. Based on sufficient utilization of the good practices and excellent carriers created by the successive PPCCs, according to the new arrangements made by the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China with respect to the improvement of the socialist system of consultative democracy, the 11th People’s Political Consultative Conference of Zhejiang Province made bold experiments, actively blazed new trails, and brought about innovations to and improved multiple carriers for the performance of functions, thus obtaining new achievements. First, expanding special consultations. Special consultations were organized before the making of major decisions. According to the unified arrangements made by the Party committee, before the Party congress, the plenary session of the Party committee made major decisions, and the government developed the plans for economic and social development and made other major decisions, and special consultations, including the plenary sessions of the PPCC, the standing committee sessions and 4 Xi

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special PPCC consultative meetings, were held, in which the main leaders of the Party and the government directly solicited consultative opinions from various parties, groups, sectors and PPCC members, after which the results of the consultation were delivered to the Party committee and the government by means of the minutes of those consultations, as well as proposals or written materials containing suggestions. For instance, the meetings of the standing committees or special political consultative conferences were held before the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Plenary Sessions of the 13th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province made the major decisions of comprehensively carrying out the strategy for innovation-driven development, comprehensively intensifying the reform, building a beautiful Zhejiang, creating a good life and comprehensively deepening the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law. After these sessions, the minutes and written materials with suggestions from the consultations were promptly delivered to the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province. The Party Committee of Zhejiang Province separately adopted 27, 16, 46 and 26 opinions and suggestions, and specially provided written feedback. Special consultations were held on the basis of surveys on key issues and special democratic supervisions; each year, according to the requirements of the Party committee, the PPCCs at the various levels organized the participating units and the PPCC members to conduct in-depth surveys and research, inspections and supervisions, convened standing committee meetings or special consultative conferences to carry out special consultative discussions about the issues under survey and the matters under supervision, in which the leaders of the Party and the government and the personnel in charge of relevant departments solicited opinions, engaged in consultations and exchanges and responded to opinions and suggestions. For instance, the year 2014 was the first year for carrying out the Opinions of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on Strengthening the Democratic Supervision of the People’s Political Consultative Conference; the provincial PPCC put together the forces of the PPCC at the provincial, municipal and county levels, and integrated consultations, supervision, inspections, surveys and proposals, and carried out the special democratic supervision of “governing ‘five waters’ in tandem by means of coordination among the PPCCs at three levels and an inspection tour of 10,000 PPCC members”; the 9th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province held consultations and discussions, vigorously promoting the central work of the Party committee and the government. Regular special consultations were explored. For instance, the provincial PPCC launched the Zhejiang PPCC People Forum; in 2014, the forum focused on controlling haze, optimizing the balanced allocation of compulsory educational resources, allocating excellent medical resources to the lower levels, improving the mechanism for medical assistance relating to major and serious diseases for the people with difficulties; the personnel in charge of the competent provincial departments were invited to make introductions, solicit opinions, communicate and discuss with the members of the PPCC, thus promoting scientific making and smooth implementation of decisions relating to the people’s well-being. For instance, the PPCC of Hangzhou City established monthly consultative meetings; the PPCC of Ningbo City created bimonthly earnest talk with the members of the PPCC; the PPCC of Wenzhou City and the Wenzhou Radio & TV Media Group jointly launched the weekly

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TV column Political Situation & Public Opinion Station; the PPCC of Huzhou City explored and carried out inter-provincial consultations and discussions of political affairs. Second, enriching active paired consultation. Regular paired consultation: the High People’s Court of Zhejiang and the People’s Procuratorate of Zhejiang took the initiative to engage in work-related communication with, report work to and solicit opinions and suggestions from the leaders of the provincial PPCC and the Social and Legal Affairs Committee of the provincial PPCC at least once a year; the Economic Affairs Committee of the provincial PPCC communicated with, conveyed information to and exchanged views with relevant provincial departments with respect to the quarterly analysis of the economic situation. Paired consultation aimed at soliciting opinions: Each year, the Legal Affairs Committee of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province held legislative consultations with the Social and Legal Affairs Committee of the provincial PPCC to solicit opinions from the PPCC with regard to the making and revision of local administrative regulations. Other relevant provincial departments and bureaus took the initiative to communicate and consult with the corresponding special committees of the PPCC before making important decisions and developing important policies. Paired consultation aimed at learning about the political situation: In the process of organizing special surveys, the special committees of the provincial PPCC invited the corresponding departments of the Party and the government to report on the relevant situation, exchange views and hold paired consultations. Paired consultation focusing on communication and coordination: Before the term of office was changed in 2013, the Members of the Working Committee of the provincial PPCC reported the performance of the duties by the members of the previous PPCC to the Department of Organization, and the Department of the United Front Work under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, and put forward the suggestions concerning the candidates among the members of the PPCC who retained their posts; in the meantime, during the process of studying and developing the systems and regulations on strengthening the management of the members of the PPCC, it took the initiative to solicit opinions from the Department of Organization and the Department of the United Front Work under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, and consult and communicate with them. Paired consultation focusing on offering suggestions and advice: In 2013, relevant special committees of the provincial PPCC organized the members of the PPCC to hold paired consultations with relevant departments 8 times with respect to the expansion of effective private investments and rural credit cooperatives serving agriculture, rural areas and farmers; in 2014, the provincial PPCC arranged 11 subjects for paired consultations, covering the management of the cultural market, reform and the development of private education, the protection and utilization of water resources and the environment in canals. Local PPCCs across the province actively experimented with the ways to carry out paired consultations; for instance, the Office of the Party Committee of Yuyao City, the Office of the People’s Government of Yuyao City and the Office of the PPCC of Yuyao City jointly issued the Circular on Further Strengthening the Work on Paired Contact between Relevant Municipal Departments and Special Committees of the Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference, specifying the system of

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paired contact and consultation between 4 special committees and 89 Party and government departments, united under vertical management, the explicit and regularized working procedure for paired consultation, and the roadmap for paired consultation so as to guarantee systems and regulations for paired consultation. Third, actively exploring consultations among sectors. Since 2013, according to the guiding principles adopted at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the 3rd and 4th Plenary Sessions of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the provincial PPCC earnestly carried out the requirements, put forward by Yu Zhengsheng, Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, of establishing a manner of consultation under which sectors are the foundation, special subjects are the contents, pairing serves as the bond and the symposium is the main approach, and arranged and explored sectoral consultations. Relevant sectors, in conjunction with special committees, held sectoral consultations with relevant Party and government departments with regard to accelerating the cultivation of local finances, encouraging and guiding social capital to run medical institutions and to express the opinions and suggestions from various sectors. In 2014, 32 sectors of the provincial PPCC separately arranged or worked with special committees and other sectors to arrange 21 subjects for sectoral consultations, further enhancing consultation and exchanges and building more consensuses. For instance, sectoral consultation was held with respect to the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Heatstroke Prevention, relevant provincial departments and bureaus fully solicited and adopted the suggestions from the trade union circles by raising high temperature subsidies by more than 10%. Fourth, continuously improving the consultation relating to the handling of proposals. Emphasis was placed on handling key proposals; each year, about 10 key proposals were chosen, they were handled under the leadership of the leaders of the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and under the supervision of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the provincial PPCC. Consultation was held before, during and after each key proposal was handled. For instance, in 2013, the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee of the provincial PPCC held consultations regarding the handling of proposals with the Department of Finance and the Department of Forestry of Zhejiang Province and other departments with respect to the Suggestions on Raising the Standard Compensation for the Key Public Welfare Forests in the Underdeveloped Areas, raising the minimum standard of compensation from provincial finances for the public welfare forests above the provincial level in 2013 from 21 yuan per mu to 25 yuan per mu—an increase of 4 yuan per mu, all of which was used in compensation expenditure for forestry and agriculture—and gradually raising the standard of compensation for the public welfare forests above the provincial level after 2014 so that the agriculture and forestry across the province generally benefited from this policy. Take another example, in 2014, a consultation was held regarding the handling of proposals with respect to expanding the scope of the diseases covered by medical assistance for the people with difficulties and drug catalogue providing an important reference for the province’s issuance of the Social Assistance Regulations. In 2013, the provincial PPCC explored the establishment of the mechanism for choosing key proposals through public recommendation and con-

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sultation, under which the democratic parties participating in the provincial PPCC, the federations of industry and commerce, the people’s organizations and the units for the undertaking of proposals and special committees first recommend key subjects of proposals, the opinions on those subjects are solicited from all the members of the provincial PPCC for the first time, and then communication and consultations are held with the General Office of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the General Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, and finally the chairman’s meeting is held to study and decide on implementation. With a focus on consultation concerning the supervised handling of key proposals, each year, the Proposal Committee of the provincial PPCC chooses several important proposals, after the chairman’s meeting has conducted their study and made a decision, the Vice Chairman of the provincial PPCC and the corresponding special committees supervise their handling, the consultation regarding the handling of the proposal is combined with the paired consultation among special committees and the Party and government departments, thus improving the quality of the handling of proposals. Special proposals are handled through centralized consultation; in 2013, the provincial PPCC attempted to choose 19 proposals relating to two special issues which drew a great deal of attention, including the prevention and control of air pollution, policy support for ethnic towns, and to classify them, hold centralized consultations for supervising their handling, convene the meeting on centralized consultation concerning the handling of the proposals under the same category, thus increasing the rate of participation of the members of the PPCC in face-to-face consultation and improving the efficiency of the handling of proposals. The PPCC circles in Shaoxing City built an interconnected operating mechanism, and piloted the five-step method for the collection of proposals, namely, extensively collecting subjects, integrating subjects, holding paired consultations, discussing subjects by sector and submitting subjects in a centralized way, thus ensuring the handling of proposals through overarching positioning, whole-process consultations and all-round coordination, and better putting forward, initiating, handling and utilizing proposals, making consultations on the handling of proposals more scientific.

3.2.4 The Characteristics and Advantages of the PPCC’s Consultative Democracy Have Been Increasingly Prominent During the 5th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 9th PPCC of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping stressed that it was necessary to further leverage the PPCC’s advantages in party democracy, sectoral democracy and consultative democracy and actively push forward the democratic development with Chinese characteristics; moreover, it was necessary to safeguard the democratic rights of democratic parties, the federations of industry and commerce, the people’s organizations and the patriotic personages in the PPCC, energetically create conditions and build platforms

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for them to participate in and discuss political affairs. With regard to this, the provincial PPCC fully aroused the enthusiasm of parties, groups, sectors, PPCC members and special committees about the performance of duties, offered suggestions through proposals, speeches at the meetings, surveys, inspections, information and forums, making sure that the Party and the government make decisions in a scientific and democratic way. First, giving prominence to the distinctive features of party consultation. According to statistics, from January, 2008 to January, 2013, the speeches and proposals at meetings and the information on the social situation and public opinions from democratic parties, the federations of industry and commerce and the non-party personages accounted for 76.1, 55.8 and 58.6%, playing the leading role in the PPCC’s consultative democracy.5 Second, highlighting the function of the channel for collecting the public opinion from sectors. This function was highlighted by strengthening the leadership over the work on sectors, establishing and improving the organizational form, activity mode and working mechanism for performance of duties by sectors, turning sectors from “virtual ones” into “real ones”, transforming the temporary discussion organizations during the plenary session into the leading organizations performing duties in the whole process throughout the year, integrating individual PPCC members into a cooperative team for performing duties and by providing a reliable guarantee for expressing the collective opinions from sectors and reflecting the appeals and aspirations of the people from various sectors. Third, it was also highlighted by giving scope to the professional expertise of the special committees. This was done by reinforcing the forces of the PPCC’s special committees in performing their duties, appointing the highly capable personnel to serve as the chairmen of special committees, full-time and part-time vice chairmen of special committees and by choosing the members of special committees according to the strong points, advantages and personal willingness of the members of the PPCC. The fourth way of highlighting it was by expanding the orderly participation of the people from various sectors in the PPCC’s consultative activities by means of exploring the building of such platforms and carriers as the office for contacts regarding the work of the primary-level PPCC, the office for contacts from the members of the primary-level PPCC, launching people hotlines, setting up PPCC mailboxes and sector contact stations, thus broadening the channels for contacting the people as well as by improving the system of inviting the people’s representatives to attend the plenary session of the PPCC, the meeting of the standing committee of the PPCC, special consultative meetings, people forums and hearings, so that the people enter the PPCC and have the opportunity to express their appeals and opinions at the PPCC’s hall; each May, organizing the activity of making it possible for the members of the provincial PPCC to visit the primary-level units and the people with a focus on delivering services relating to culture, health, science and technology, education, laws and sports, so that the people delved deeply into the work and served the people, learnt about the people’s situation and their desires, exploring and establishing the 5 Qiao

(2013).

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mechanism of communication and contact with new economic organizations and new social organizations, thus promoting the PPCC’s consultative democracy with the new social classes and various types of social organizations. Fifth, it was also highlighted by expanding the social influence of the PPCC’s consultative democracy. Attaching importance to publicizing the PPCC’s consultative democracy, building a great pattern of multimedia news publicity of the PPCC through newspapers, periodicals, radio, television and the Internet, by earnestly reporting the PPCC’s special consultations, paired consultations, sectoral consultations, consultations regarding the handling of proposals and by energetically publicizing the new line of thought and new viewpoints put forward by the PPCC members in holding consultations and discussing political affairs. The PPCC’s news publicity became increasingly active, the activities concerning the PPCC’s performance of duties in offering suggestions and serving the overall situation were opportunely disseminated, and the good performance of the members of the PPCC in holding consultations and discussing political affairs was vividly presented.

3.3 Constantly Enriching the Ways to Achieve Consultative Democracy In more than ten years, Zhejiang extensively adopted various means, including proposals, meetings, symposiums, feasibility studies, hearings, public notifications, evaluations, consulting and the Internet, to actively broaden the channels of consultation, including state organs, parties and groups, social organizations, enterprises, public institutions, towns and communities, widely conduct legislative consultation, administrative consultation, inter-party consultation and primary-level consultation, and to further foster a good atmosphere of holding frequent consultations in encountering and doing things.

3.3.1 Expanding the Participation in Legislative Consultation Legislative consultation is the activity in which feasibility studies and consultations are conducted, and in which opinions and suggestions are expressed with respect to relevant draft laws and regulations before they are preliminarily reviewed by the legislative body. Legislative work involves relations in various aspects. Different stakeholders often have different views on some issues, while legislative consultation is an important way to achieve the expression of one’s interests, political participation and policy-making consulting. In more than 10 years, the people’s congresses at various levels across the province carefully carried out the requirements of democratic legislation, explored and established a mechanism of legislative consultation, expanded the legislative participation

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of various players in the society, continuously improved the legislative credibility and the quality of legislation. First, broadening the channels for public orderly participation in legislative consultation. Further efforts were made to make legislation open. The items for legislative suggestions, the opinions and suggestions about draft laws and regulations were solicited from the society by various means including written letters, announcements on the media and questionnaire surveys. Legislative hearings were also held; Zhejiang became the first nationwide to make and issue the Rules of Zhejiang Province for Local Legislative Hearings. Second, establishing and improving the mechanism of feasibility study and consultation by local legislative experts. Third, strengthening horizontal organization and coordination of legislative work. Fourth, exploring and conducting pre-legislation evaluation and consultation. Fifth, giving scope to the important role of the PPCC organizations in legislative consultation. The people’s congresses at various levels fully utilized the PPCC organization as an important channel within the national institutional arrangement to strengthen consultation with the PPCCs at the same levels with respect to the legislative plan, major draft laws and regulations. The legislative affairs offices of the governments at various levels generally established the mechanism of paired contact and consultation with the special committees and sectors of the PPCCs at the same levels.

3.3.2 Intensifying Administrative Consultations The administrative consultation is an important part of efforts at building a government under the rule of law; it is an important way to make administrative decisionmaking more scientific and democratic. Since 2006, the governments at various levels across the province have earnestly carried out the Decision on Building Zhejiang under the Rule of Law, giving top priority to administrative consultation in building the government under the rule of law, giving full scope to the important role of administrative consultation in major decision-making, actively making administrative consultation institutionalized, regularized and procedure-based, and producing marked effects. First, regularizing the behaviors of administrative consultations. Incorporating administrative consultation into the working rules of the government. Establishing and improving the mechanism of the supervision over administrative consultation, consciously accepting supervision over administrative consultations, earnestly receiving the opinions and suggestions from the provincial PPCC’s meeting for consultative supervision, special collective supervision, the supervision of democratic supervisors, democratic supervision of appraisal and evaluation, inspection and supervision of the members of the PPCC and joint coordinated supervision. Second, increasing the frequency of administrative consultation. The consultation in government’s major decisions was intensified; the leaders of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and the personnel in charge of relevant provincial departments actively participated in various types of special consultation, sectoral

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consultation, special committee consultation and paired consultation, directly communicated with the PPCC members, solicited opinions and suggestions from the PPCC members, turning putting forward suggestions and ideas into the concrete means and measures for promoting governmental work. Third, enriching the forms of administrative consultation. Giving importance to the building of consultative platforms, extensively adopting such systems as social public notifications, hearings, expert consulting and full consultation with various sectors of the society before the making of great decisions as well as issuing opinions on improving the system of expert consulting involving great decisions, strengthening the importance of the role of experts and their knowledge in scientific and democratic decision-making and actively applying modern information technology, such as the Internet, short messages and microblogs, to improve and broaden the channels for contact with the PPCC members, thus providing more convenient and efficient carriers to the members of the PPCC for performing their duties, expressing their opinions and making suggestions, offering information regarding the social situation and public opinion.

3.3.3 Increasing the Frequency of Inter-party Consultations Since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Zhejiang’s interparty consultations have been gradually institutionalized, regularized and procedurebased, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province has incorporated inter-party consultations into the decision-making procedure, and has held consultations and engaged in communication with democratic parties and the non-party personages to solicit opinions and suggestions and build consensus before the making of decisions on major issues or after major political events. First, organizing symposiums for consultation. There has been regular convening of symposiums with the personages outside the Party, democratic consultative meetings and briefings to engage in communication and hold consultation with respect to the central tasks of the Party committee and the government, important meeting documents, important personnel arrangements, major matters concerning economic and social development. Second, having heart-to-heart talks. The members of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province built a one-to-one connection with the provincial democratic parties and federations of industry and commerce, and conducted at least one heart-to-heart talk activity each year; the main leaders of the Party committees at various levels and the personnel in charge of the departments for united front work regularly invited the personnel in charge of democratic parties and the non-party personages to hold individual or collective heart-to-heart talks to learn about relevant situations and solicit opinions. The governments at various levels built the system of paired connection with democratic parties and federations of industry and commerce.

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Third, directly putting forward suggestions for consultation. The provincial committees of democratic parties proceeded from respective characteristics and advantages to determine the key subjects of surveys each year, chairmen led groups to conduct in-depth surveys, and survey reports were prepared on this basis and directly delivered to the Party Committee and to the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province. Each year, the non-party personages also carried out surveys on key subjects and reported to the Party Committee and to the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province. These opinions and suggestions drew a great deal of attention from the leaders of the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, and the main leaders or the leaders in charge often gave important instructions based on them. Fourth, organizing special consultations of the Party and the government. Each year, a key subject was determined; the Department of the United Front Work under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province led efforts to organize democratic parties to conduct joint surveys and hold special consultations and to build the platforms for face-to-face consultation and discussion of political affairs. Since 2011, the Department of the United Front Work under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province has led efforts to organize and convene three special consultation meetings with the participation of political parties with a focus on the subjects “social management innovation”, “cultural development” and “intensifying the reform of the scientific and technological system “ for three consecutive years.

3.3.4 Improving the Vitality of the Primary-Level Consultations Primary-level consultative democracy was promoted with the village, the community and the enterprise as units and covered primary-level elections, decision-making, management and supervision. In more than ten years, local authorities in Zhejiang pushed forward discussion and consultation, which was part of the primary-level democratic self-governance, and actively explored the social consultation with Zhejiang’s characteristics and local characteristics, making great progress. First, giving prominence to public affairs which constituted a focal point. With an increasing awareness about self-governance and participation among residents, the primary-level public affairs decision-making and management became the basic part of the primary-level democratic consultations. Zhejiang comprehensively adopted the “five-discussion and two-disclosure” working method mainly covering “suggestions from the Party members and the people, proposals from village Party organizations, joint meeting consultations of village affairs, deliberation in Party member meetings, resolutions in meetings of the villagers (representatives), disclosure of voting results, disclosure of implementation”, and explored multiple distinctive consultation and decision-making modes, including meetings for discussion and consultation, consultative democratic meetings, private think tanks, hearings, and Weather

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Stations to Discover the Conditions of the People; Zhejiang generally established a board of governors for co-building consisting of community units, community representatives from various sectors, especially the representatives of new residents and migrant people, it explored a number of consultative democracy modes for primarylevel community governance, including collegiate benches for the conditions of the people, peacemakers, mediation groups, round-table meetings on removal and relocation and new resident get-togethers; moreover, Zhejiang introduced, across the province, the successful practice of a committee for the supervision of village affairs in Houchen Village in Wuyi County, strengthened the consultations and supervision involving the execution of the financial system by the committee of the village branch of the Party and the village committee. Second, placing emphasis on the channel—social organization. Zhejiang’s consultative democracy was gradually promoted among the new social classes and new social organizations; social intermediary bodies, industrial associations, social groups and professional bodies were actively encouraged and guided to extensively participate in consultation; for instance, in Zhejiang, there were nearly 80,000 registered community-level social organizations; Hangzhou City comprehensively established the Community Peacemaker Association consisting of a representative of community residents, psychological counselors, the people of noble character and high prestige, the cadres from politics and law circles; Ningbo City generally built integration-focused organizations, such as the society for the promotion of harmony, in the urban communities inhabited by an external population, consisting of community workers, outstanding rural migrant workers, community public security personnel, representatives of villagers (residents), the owners of rental housing and private entrepreneurs. These social organizations are designed for public welfare and mutual benefit, and are close to the primary level and they understand public opinion, so they can leverage unique advantages in promoting community governance. Third, giving scope to the role of the Internet as the platform for discussing political affairs. As the Internet is open, interactive, diversified and goes beyond time and space, it can provide a convenient platform and channel for primary-level consultative democracy; for instance, Dejia Community in Wenxin Sub-district, Xihu District, Hangzhou launched a community website in April, 2002, leveraging the Internet’s advantages to actively promote online democratic consultations, facilitating the discussion of community-level public affairs involving resident interests in a community forum. Moreover, the netizens across the province extended consultative democracy to the Internet through BBS, an online community, online groups and blogs, thus promoting consultation in dealing with matters and consultation in virtual space.

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3.4 Promoting Extensive Multi-level and Institutionalized Development of Consultative Democracy Zhejiang is the pathfinder in developing the market economy and the private economy, and it is the forerunner in practicing consultative democracy. In more than ten years, Zhejiang created the models of consultative democracy with fresh experience. In 2004, Houchen Village in Wuyi County established the first village-level democratic supervisory organization in China; Ru’ao Town in Xinchang County became the first nationwide to make village-level regulations. The People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province became the first to hold a legislative hearing after the promulgation of the Legislation Law of the People’s Republic of China, and to make the local rules for legislative hearings, and it was the first to build local pool of legislative experts and it made the Working Regulations for Villagers’ Representative Meetings, the first provincial one in China. The PPCC of Zhejiang Province became the first to conduct special research on PPCC culture in 2008, and was ahead of the rest of the country in issuing a special document on political consultation and one on democratic supervision in 2009 and 2013. Wenling City, Zhejiang was granted the China Local Government Innovation Award and the Winning Prize for institutional innovation in democratic earnest talk in 2004; moreover, it was shortlisted for the fifth China Local Government Innovation Award for innovation in the participatory public budget in 2009; it has become the model of China’s primary-level consultative democracy and has been regarded by domestic and foreign scholars as a new dawn for China’s rural democratic development in the 21st century; it has attracted many foreign diplomats to carry out field visits; its villagers have been considered the villagers with the strongest say; its democracy has been hailed as the “democracy born of soil”. Promoting the people’s democracy through consultative democracy is an outstanding feature and the basic experience of Zhejiang’s democratic development.

3.4.1 Regarding Horizontal Coverage, Presenting a Trend of Extensive Consultation Relying on More Carriers, Involving More Fields on a Wider Scope In more than 10 years, Zhejiang’s consultative democracy features the developmental trend from the consultation led by the Party and the government to social participation, from elite consultation to popular consultation, from the consultation in the political field to the consultation in the economic and social fields. In the political field, besides the PPCCs at various levels as important channels for consultative democracy, the symposium system, the hearing system and intra-party democratic consultations in the work of the people’s congress, democratic consultations in the government’s decision-making process are forms of consultative democracy. In the social field, in Zhejiang, there were nearly 80,000 registered community-level social organizations, local authorities gave full scope to the unique characteristics—pri-

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vate, self-governing, voluntary and non-profit –of the social organizations in public services and social governance to promote innovation to the social governance, it gradually conducted joint consultative governance on the part of multiple players; in the economic field, take the collective consultation on wages as an example, since that mode was first piloted in the woollen sweater industry in Xinhe Town in Wenling City in 2003, with promotion and improvement over a period of many years, there had been a mode of consultation with industrial consultation, regional consultation and enterprise consultation focusing on the standard, the bottom line and the extent of increase, respectively; new mechanisms of consultation regarding wages, including real-time micro consultation on wages, three-level collective consultations on wages were explored and carried out. In a year after the adoption of that mechanism, the visits to higher authorities for expressing complaints due to labor disputes decreased by 70% in the woollen sweater industry at Xinhe Town and as from 2006, no visits to higher authorities occurred, which thus had effectively improved labor relations and safeguarded the rights and interests of employees and business owners.

3.4.2 Regarding the Vertical Layout, Bringing into Being a Multi-level Consultation Pattern with Interaction Between the Upper and Lower Levels, Mutual Promotion of Urban and Rural Areas and Integration Inside and Outside the System Consultative democracy was promoted in an orderly fashion from the inside of the Party to the outside of the Party, from the provincial level to the primary level, from urban areas to rural areas. Consultative democracy developed continuously at the levels of the province, city, county (county-level city, district), community and countryside. First, consultative democracy was promoted in a down-top manner, it was piloted in towns and villages and then was extended to the provincial and municipal levels; for instance, the participatory budget shortlisted for the China Local Government Innovation Award—a practice which permitted the people to participate in establishing the government’s budget—was started at the town level and then elevated to the municipal level, and currently it has been promoted to the provincial level and affirmed by the National People’s Congress. Second, consultative democracy was promoted in a top-down manner and extended to the primary level, and the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province developed the united front to promote primary-level consultative democracy; the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province established a point system for primary-level contacts regarding legislation, and explored new channels for the primary-level people to participate in legislation; each May, the provincial PPCC conducted the activity of visiting the primary level and the people, specially held a meeting on extending the work of the PPCC to the primary level, actively pushed forward orderly connections between the PPCC’s consultative democracy and primary-level democracy. Third, the multi-level consul-

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tation with interaction between the upper and lower levels was promoted. In 2012, the extensive activity of entering villages and enterprises was carried out at the provincial, municipal, county and town levels, with visits, surveys and consultations in nearly 30,000 administrative villages and 10,000 enterprises across the province. In 2014, the PPCCs at the provincial, municipal and county levels acted interactively, and 10,000 PPCC members jointly conducted consultative and supervisory activities, boosting Zhejiang’s key work in governing “five waters” in tandem.

3.4.3 At the Deep Level, Showing a Good Momentum with Theoretical Improvement, Institutional Regularization and Cultural Edification Practical innovation, theoretical innovation, institutional innovation and cultural innovation were interrelated among each other and promoted each other. In more than ten years, the practical innovation in Zhejiang’s PPCC consultations pushed forward the theoretical and institutional innovations in consultative democracy and also changed the people’s concept of consultative democracy at the cultural level. Take the PPCC’s consultative democracy as an example; first, giving importance to theoretical improvement. The provincial PPCC held the PPCC theory seminar for five consecutive years; in 2009, the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Zhejiang Institute of Administration and the Research Office of the PPCC of Zhejiang Province jointly held the International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development and Democratic Development, with a focus on promoting consultative democracy in theory and practice. Second, valuing institutional regularization. For instance, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province became the first nationwide to issue a special document for making the PPCC institutionalized, regularized and procedure-based in 2004, a special document on political consultation in 2009 and a special document on the PPCC’s democratic supervision in 2013; the requirements of political consultation were incorporated into the rules of procedure of the Party committee and the working rules of the government; in early 2014, the annual plan for consultations was developed and issued in the name of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province. Third, giving importance to cultural edification. The provincial PPCC became the first nationwide to conduct special research on the PPCC’s culture. In November, 2009, the provincial PPCC, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province co-sponsored and the CPPCC Press, the CPPCC Fortnightly, Zhejiang University, the Zhejiang Party School of C.P.C, the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, and the Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences Circles coorganized the China (Zhejiang) PPCC Culture Forum; the People’s Publishing House published the academic monograph On PPCC Culture, stimulating PPCC workers to internalize the value idea, the thinking mode and a working method of consultative democracy into their mind and put them into practice.

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Zhejiang’s practice and innovations in consultative democracy in more than 10 years contain the in-depth line of thought of comrade Xi Jinping about the development of consultative democracy and witness the great creativity of the province’s primary-level people and the developmental trend of socialist consultative democracy; they have exerted a sustained and far-reaching impact on China’s current and future development of consultative democracy. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has made a great judgment: it is necessary to fully understand that socialist consultative democracy is the unique form of China’s socialist democracy and has unique advantages; the Central Committee has drawn the following basic conclusion: It is necessary to profoundly understand that socialist consultative democracy is an important embodiment of the line of the masses of the Communist Party of China in the political field; the Central Committee has put forward the strategic task of promoting the extensive, multi-level and institutionalized development of consultative democracy. These important thoughts and major arrangements are based on China’s profound cultural, theoretical, practical and institutional foundation, and also inherit and develop the theoretical line of thought developed and the practical experiments made by comrade Xi Jinping when he was working in Zhejiang.

References Xi Jinping, Carrying out Concrete Work to Stay Ahead—Line of Thought and Practice in Promoting New Development in Zhejiang, The Party School of the CPC Central Committee Press, 2006. Qiao Chuanxiu, The Work Report of the Standing Committee of the 10th Zhejiang Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Zhejiang Daily, January 31, 2013, Page 3.

Chapter 4

Practical Innovations and Institutional Improvements in Primary-Level Democracy Yu Tang

In recent years, Zhejiang has steadily pushed forward the primary-level democratic practice, and various bright spots have emerged in institutional development, gradually leading to the optimal outcomes in which democratic elections have been conducted in an orderly fashion, democratic decision-making has become more scientific, democratic management has been increasingly regularized, democratic supervision has been strengthened according to laws, various democratic consultation modes and mechanisms have come into being, the urban and rural community governance mechanisms have basically taken shape and social organizations and the people have actively participated in this process in an orderly manner.

4.1 Villagers’ Self-governance: Coordinated Development of the “Four Democracies” Villagers’ self-governance is a basic system of primary-level democracy; it is a system of self-governance by the primary-level people under which rural residents independently manage village affairs according to laws; it is also an effective mode of rural primary-level governance under the new situation. In 2003, in an exclusive interview with journalists, comrade Xi Jinping, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Chairman of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, pointed out, “Expanding primary-level democracy is aimed at ensuring that primary-level democratic development really becomes an important carrier for the people to directly exercise their democratic rights and manage primary-level

Y. Tang (B) The Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, Hangzhou, China © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 N. Fang et al. (eds.), Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics, Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8_4

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public affairs and the public welfare cause, and that the people’s affairs are handled by the people.”1 In a speech delivered in October, 2006, he also pointed out, “The primary level is the ‘source’ of social contrasts and it is also the ‘opening’ for channeling those contrasts; promoting primary-level democratic development is an important guarantee for achieving social stability and social harmony; as primarylevel democracy becomes more developed, the society becomes more harmonious.”2 These important remarks are, in connotation and logic, fully consistent with the strategic arrangements made by the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China for the major task of improving the primary-level democratic system. On June 17, 2005, when conducting a survey in Jinhua City, comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “The direction for village-level democratic development to follow is very clear: actively promoting the ‘four democracies’, namely, democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision; these four aspects should be fully understood; democratic elections is a core part of primary-level democratic development and is the prerequisite and foundation for achieving villagers’ self-governance. However, democratic elections are just the first step in democratic development. I once stressed on many occasions that democratic elections were not the entire aspect of democratic development, if only democratic elections were emphasized, chaos would certainly occur; democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision should be improved in a coordinated way, and the primary-level Party organizations should also play the role of core leadership and a stronghold; in this regard, local authorities in Zhejiang have made active experiments, they have brought about innovations to and improved the ways of developing and practicing primary-level democracy, producing many effects; for instance, with ‘mass recommendation and direct elections’ and with a representative voting system as the main forms, village officials have been elected by villagers, new breakthroughs have been made in villagelevel democratic elections; with democratic earnest talk proceeding swiftly and the referendum system for major village affairs as the main routes, village policies are determined by villagers and new progress has been made in village-level democratic decision-making; with the disclosure of village affairs and villagers’ self-governance as the main carriers, village affairs are dealt with by villagers and village-level democratic management has reached a new level; with the establishment and improvement of the village affairs supervisory committee as the main breakthrough, village matters are managed by villagers, and village-level democratic supervision has improved.”3 The democratic election is a focal point in primary-level democratic development; it is the prerequisite and foundation for achieving villagers’ self-governance. However, democratic elections are just the first step in democratic development, but not the whole process of democratic development. “Four democracies” should be improved in a coordinated way. As Zhejiang is the forerunner in the market economy, reform and opening-up, Zhejiang has an innate locational advantage and 1 Xi

(2006a). (2007). 3 Xi (2006b). 2 Xi

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rich soil for primary-level democratic development. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Zhejiang has continuously explored the new ways, new channels and new methods for villagers’ self-governance, and has brought into being such advanced practices and experience as “self-recommendation and mass elections”, “democratic earnest talk”, “five-step working method”, “village affairs supervisory committee” and “Bazheng Regulations”; thus, Zhejiang has stayed ahead nationwide in primarylevel democratic development.

4.1.1 Becoming the First Nationwide to Introduce “Self-recommendation and Mass Elections”, Exploring Innovations in the Mode of Election by Villagers In March, 2005, the villagers in Tangjiadai Village in Yuhang District, Hangzhou elected the members of their village committee through “self-recommendation and mass elections”; it was the first of China’s primary-level democratic elections. The direct election mode without candidates was adopted; three self-recommended people ran for the director of the village committee, and two self-recommended people ran for the deputy director of that committee. Two rounds of elections resulted in the first director of the village committee being elected through “self-recommendation and mass elections” in China. The mode of “self-recommendation and mass elections” for the committee of Tangjiadai Village at Tangqi Town was widely recognized. Afterwards, all of the 122 villages which had not yet undergone large-scale adjustment in Yuhang District adopted that mode to elect their village committees, 730 people recommended themselves to run for the posts on the village committee, with an average of 197 self-recommended people running for each post and 160,179 voters; the voter turnout reached 99.1%, an all-time high in the election of village committees in Yuhang District. In the election of the 9th village committee in Zhejiang, 88.4% of the villages adopted such an election mode, up 37.45% points compared with the previous village committee. “Self-recommendation and mass elections” has become the most important mode in the election of village committees in Zhejiang.

4.1.2 Establishing the “Five-Step Working Method” to Promote Villagers’ Democratic Management and Democratic Decision-Making Since 2005, Tiantai County in Taizhou City has carried out the five-step working method for village-level democratic decision-making on major affairs, a method consisting of a democratic submission of proposals, a democratic discussion of those proposals, democratic voting, an open, transparent making of commitments, and supervision over implementation (“the five-step method”).

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Since the implementation of the five-step method, it has been recognized and supported by the primary-level cadres and people and has produced good effects. First, bringing into being a relatively rational working structure of villagers’ selfgovernance under the leadership of the Party. Second, safeguarding the right of villagers to become the masters. Third, promoting coordinated economic and social development in rural areas. The five-step method has aroused the civic and collective awareness of villagers and has achieved the goal of uniting and organizing the people, so that village affairs have been handled jointly by the cadres and the people, while in the past, they were handled by the cadres without the participation of the people.

4.1.3 Establishing the Village Affairs Supervisory Committee to Put in Place Democratic Supervision of the Villagers In June, 2004, Wuyi County in Jinhua City became the first to pilot the establishment of the village affairs supervisory committee, and Houchen Village in the county established the first village affairs supervisory committee in China. The members of the village affairs supervisory committee are elected by the villagers. Under the leadership of the village Party branch, the village affairs supervisory committee supervises village affairs, especially village-level financial affairs, throughout the process, so that there is a mechanism for internally overcoming various problems and contrasts. In October, 2005, Wuyi’s village affairs supervisory committee, originated in Houchen Village, was shortlisted for the China Local Government Innovation Award. As of late 2009, 30,032 administrative villages in Zhejiang had established village affairs supervisory committees, realizing full coverage by village-level supervisory organizations. In 2010, “villages shall establish their village affairs supervisory committees or other forms of village affairs supervisory bodies” was written into the revised Organic Law of the Villagers Committees. At present, Zhejiang has basically established the system of the organization of villagers’ self-governance in which the village Party organization is the core leadership, villagers meetings and villager representatives meetings are the decision-making bodies, the village committee is the executive body and the village affairs supervisory committee is the supervisory body.

4.2 Community Self-governance: Modern Transformation of Urban and Rural Governance With accelerated urbanization, as the community is one of the basic units in China’s primary-level governance, community governance with self-governance as the basic form will certainly play an increasingly important role in the system of national governance. Promoting communities’ democratic development, developing primary-level

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democratic consultations, improving the means of the mechanism for the supervision of the affairs of neighborhood committees (village) and strengthening the institutional guarantee for primary-level democracy has important realistic significance and provides a basic guarantee for arousing primary-level vitality, enhancing cohesion among the people, gathering wisdom from the people and increasing the level of primary-level democratic development.

4.2.1 The Process and Development of Community Governance in Zhejiang Province Since the reform and opening-up, Zhejiang has always stayed ahead nationwide in community governance and has become the first to make innovations and breakthroughs in the system management mode of community governance, thus gradually changing from the original community management mode to the existing community governance philosophy and mode. In 2008, the neighborhood committee in the Shangyangshijie Community in Hangzhou City was identified by the Ministry of Civil Affairs as the first neighborhood committee in new China. The China Community Development Demonstration Center, the first special venue for showcasing the initiation and course of community development in China, was completed and open in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou. In recent years, marked progress has been made in community governance, the work on the election of the neighborhood committees in urban communities has been promoted steadily, the system of community organization has been further improved, and the practice of community democracy has been expanded in Zhejiang. In 2013, the Department of Civil Affairs of Zhejiang Province developed and issued the Regulations of Zhejiang Province for the Election of the Neighborhood Committees in Urban Communities (Trial); this is the first provincial normative document for guiding the election of the neighborhood committees in urban communities in China. At present, the neighborhood committees in more than half of the 3,138 communities in Zhejiang have been directly elected; Hangzhou has become the first to explore and carry out the election mode based on electronic voting. During the establishment and improvement of the community self-governance system, besides comprehensively expanding the development of urban communities, Zhejiang has always upheld the principle of coordinated development and classified promotion to more rapidly push forward the development of rural communities, and in particular, Zhejiang has developed a number of innovative practices and acquired a great deal of successful experience in promoting the integration of the external population and accelerating the primary-level governance in urbanization. (1) Actively pressing ahead with the reform of the system of the urban community. (2) Constantly establishing and improving the mechanism for rural community governance.

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(3) Energetically promoting the integration of the external population into urban communities. (4) Properly dealing with the primary-level governance of the areas inhabited by farmers.

4.2.2 Promoting Primary-Level Democracy Through Community Development—Hangzhou City’s Practice and Experience In recent years, Hangzhou has vigorously carried out experiments and practice in promoting primary-level democracy through community development, and has gained a certain amount of results and experience in democratic elections, democratic consultations, democratic management and democratic supervision in communities, and democracy institutionalization and regularization. (1) Bringing about innovations to the organizational mode, consolidating the organizational foundation for democratic self-governance. (2) Expanding the work on elections upon the expiration of terms of office, reforming the system of primary-level democratic elections. (3) Improving the mechanism of discussion and consultation, building the training ground for primary-level democratic decision-making. (4) Exploring the norms for community self-governance, creating new modes of primary-level democratic management. (5) Promoting the Xiacheng Model, strengthening the power guarantee for primarylevel democratic supervision. In 2007, Xinhuafang Community in Changqing Subdistrict, Xiacheng District, Hangzhou established the first neighborhood affairs supervisory committee in China—responsible for supervising the disclosure and execution of neighborhood affairs and financial affairs in communities—and designed a series of systems, procedures and paths for the supervision of neighborhood affairs. In late 2012, Hangzhou issued the Implementation Opinions on Strengthening the Development of the Neighborhood Affairs Supervisory Committee in Urban Communities; the Xiacheng Model was promoted across the city.

4.2.3 Building a Diversified Pattern of Joint Governance in Primary-Level Democracy—Ningbo City’s Experiments and Innovations In recent years, Ningbo City has upheld and given scope to the principal role of the primary-level people in the management of community affairs, and has

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actively experimented with ways to realizing primary-level democratic development, strengthened the development of the primary-level people’s self-governance organizations under the leadership of the primary-level Party organization. Broadening the channels for democratic participation and building a diversified pattern of joint governance in primary-level democracy has become a bright spot in the city’s efforts to promote primary-level democracy. (1) Vigorously nurturing and developing primary-level social organizations, increasing the degree of organization of primary-level democratic participation. The city built such integration-focused organizations as the Harmony Promotion Organization in the communities or villages where more than 100 rural migrant workers lived; this practice was given the 1st China Social Innovation Award and the 6th China Local Government Innovation Award. (2) Bringing about innovations to the primary-level governance modes with diversified participation, increasing the level of primary-level services. The system under which full-time community workers are responsible for contacting households in the designated areas was carried out in an all-round way—each community worker contacted about 250 households in the designated areas; the city unified the standing account for contacting households in the designated areas, the system of visiting the people and the evaluation system to make fulltime community workers keep close ties with residents, it mobilized the Party (League) members, cadres and staff, volunteers and local units to build various types of service teams, providing residents with diverse and individual groupbased services, and it appointed personnel for each building to assist community workers in dealing with the promotion of harmony in order to conduct community governance. (3) Establishing the system under which residents evaluate the performance of communities and communities evaluate the performance of departments. In 2008, the city became the first nationwide to establish the evaluation system for identifying the people’s satisfaction as the main standard for measuring community work. In 2012, the city established a mechanism for the dynamic management of harmonious communities, under which community work is evaluated by residents, thus institutionally ensuring the principal status of the people in community development and greatly arousing the community residents’ consciousness of the subject and enthusiasm for participation. In the existing four evaluations of the people’s satisfaction regarding the development of the community, 40,000 households were surveyed to collect more than 2,000 opinions and suggestions from residents, prompting a change from emphasis on administrative affairs to emphasis on services in community work. In 2013, the city established a working system under which communities evaluate the performance of departments, and organized all of more than 500 communities across the city to evaluate the performance of the Party and government departments in ten respects, including the arrangement of tasks for communities, developmental appraisal, the allocation of funds based on work, and the style of service work, while the results of the evaluation were incorporated into the supervision over the conduct of

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various departments and the evaluation of the management of annual targets by the commission for the inspection of municipal discipline and the office for the evaluation of the management of municipal targets, respectively.

4.3 Enterprise Democracy: The Co-building of Harmonious Labor Relations Zhejiang is a province where the market economy has developed rapidly and nonpublic enterprises, including individual businesses, are relatively concentrated, so Zhejiang started democratic development in enterprises and the building of harmonious labor relations early on, and has carried out experiments and achieved bright spots in these respects, having effectively safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of employees and promoted the harmony and stability of labor relations, enterprises and the society. With a socialized safeguarding of rights in Yiwu, collective consultation on wages in Wenling, and socialized mediation of labor disputes in Beilun District, Ningbo City, there have been some effective practices and some successful experience in carrying out labor laws and regulations, optimizing the allocation of human resources, strengthening and putting in place the social responsibility of enterprises, building the platforms for the socialized safeguarding of rights, and giving full scope to the roles of trade unions in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of employees. For instance, Transfar Group vigorously strengthened its primary-level democratic development, and brought about exploratory innovative practice in building harmonious labor relations; it received important instructions from comrade Xi Jinping in August, 2010.

4.3.1 The Basic Status Quo and Main Contents of the Primary-Level Democratic Development at Enterprises in Zhejiang Province Extensively promoting various types of primary-level democratic development and coordinating labor relations is an important means for enterprise trade unions and enterprise employees to directly participate in enterprise governance. At present, the primary-level democratic development at enterprises in Zhejiang mainly takes the following forms: a system of the direct election of the chairman of the trade union, a system of a congress of workers and staff, a system of making factory affairs public, and the collective contract system (collective consultation on wages). About 40% of the 110,000 non-public enterprises where a trade union has been established across the province have adopted the system of the direct election of the chairman of the trade union. For instance, in Wenzhou City, 5,800 non-public enterprises have carried out the system of the direct election of the chairman of the

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trade union, 2/3 of the chairmen of the trade unions are rural migrant workers. The federations of trade unions in 625 towns (sub-districts) have adopted a permanent system for congress representatives and proposals, which have been comprehensively carried out in Yuhang District in Hangzhou City, Nanhu District in Jiaxing City and Shaoxing County in Shaoxing City. As of September 30, 2012, in Zhejiang, 8,297 publicly-owned enterprises had adopted the system of a congress of workers and staff, accounting for 98.9%, 8,301 had adopted the system of making factory affairs public, accounting for 98.9%, ranking Zhejiang no. 5 and no. 2 nationwide, respectively; in Zhejiang, 461,890 non-public enterprises had adopted the system of congress of workers and staff, accounting for 95.4%, 448,324 had adopted the system of making factory affairs public, accounting for 92.6%, thus ranking Zhejiang no. 5 and no. 9 nationwide, respectively. The primary-level democratic development within enterprises in Zhejiang in recent years mainly covers the following five aspects: First, determining the fiveyear work goals for the proportions of the non-public enterprises adopting the system of making factory affairs public and the system of a congress of workers and staff, and incorporating them into the province’s campaign to establish trade unions and include rural migrant workers in the trade unions. In late 2012, the non-public enterprises adopting the system of a congress of workers and staff and the system of making factory affairs public accounted for 93.2 and 87.6%. Second, upholding the basic form, bringing about innovations to the carriers of work. Taking “strengthening the development of the congress of workers and staff and the member representative congress” as the key means for promoting democratic management of enterprises, carrying out improvement in quality and coverage in the congress of workers and staff and the member representative congress, and giving full scope to the core role of the congress of workers and staff and the member representative congress in democratic management. Third, constantly enriching the content and forms of the congress of workers and staff, extending it from emphasis on the immediate interests of workers and staff to enterprise operation decision-making, from deliberation of general welfare benefits to participation in the professional management of enterprises, from the original single public column to the current democratic earnest talk, the meeting for discussion by workers and staff, briefing on the situation of the factory and the enterprise’s local area network, microblog and WeChat communication platforms. Fourth, gradually regularizing the operation of the congress of workers and staff, guiding enterprises to make detailed rules for their congresses of workers and staff, and work out the rules for the democratic procedure, the contents of deliberation, the implementation of proposals, and the form of voting involving the congress of workers and staff. Some non-public enterprises had also established a system for the evaluation of quality for the congress of workers and staff and the member representative congress, calling for soliciting opinions from the representatives of the workers and staff after the congress of workers and staff, thus continuously improving the system of the congress of workers and staff. Fifth, gradually establishing the system of collective consultation on wages, making sure that the representatives of the workers and staff and the representative of the enterprise can hold consultations on an equal footing with respect to the system of wage distribution within the enter-

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prise, the form of wage distribution, the level of wage income, and can sign the wage agreement through consultation. The effective collective consultation on wages can comprehensively reflect the condition of enterprise operations, the situation of supply and demand on the labor market and the level of technical sophistication and proficiency in professional operations; it can make both sides of the labor relations further recognize the level of wages; it is an effective means for guaranteeing a rational standard of wages for workers and staff; it is an important means for market-oriented allocation of labor resources. As of late 2013, more than 90% of the enterprises with trade unions across the province had signed wage agreements whose number was 139,600 and which covered 313,000 enterprises and 13.64 million workers. They included 6,966 regional wage agreements, covering 202,800 enterprises and 1.05 million workers. There was a preliminary formation of the consultation mode with industrial consultation, regional consultation and enterprise consultation focusing on the standard, the bottom line and the extent of increase, respectively, and the pattern of consultation with enterprise consultations, industrial consultations and regional consultations focusing on points, lines and planes, respectively.

4.3.2 Zhejiang’s Practice in Promoting Harmonious Labor Relations Through Primary-Level Democratic Development Zhejiang is the province where the market-oriented reform was initiated early on; the non-public economy has developed rapidly in Zhejiang and has made an increasing number of contributions to the province’s economy. According to the statistics from the Zhejiang Federation of Trade Unions in 2011, the private economy in Zhejiang created 70% of the GDP, 60% of the taxes and 76% of the exports, and provided 90% of the new jobs. Among the 460,000 enterprise legal persons across the province, there were 364,000 private enterprises, accounting for 80% of all enterprise legal persons. In the meantime, the labor relations in non-public enterprises presented very conspicuous characteristics: diversified, complicated and unbalanced. In recent years, according to the fundamental requirement of venturing down the socialist developmental path with Chinese characteristics, in light of economic and social development and the development of and changes in workers and staff in Zhejiang, Zhejiang has given prominence to the main line of work—building harmonious labor relations, and has fully leveraged its political and organizational advantages of its trade union organizations to promote harmony and stability of labor relations. This work has drawn a great deal of attention from the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province. With advocating the philosophy of harmony, fostering the culture of harmony and building an institutional environment as its basic tasks, based on autonomous coordination by both sides of the labor relations, under the principle of moderately intervening in the operations of labor relations,

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Zhejiang has actively guided the development of harmonious labor relations and has made active experiments and obtained good results in the following aspects. (1) Actively advocating the basic philosophy of achieving mutual benefits and a win-win outcome for both sides of the labor relations, fostering a social and political atmosphere of building harmonious labor relations. Given that Zhejiang is a large province of a non-public economy and has a high degree of marketization and a strong business culture, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have fully advocated the basic philosophy of building harmonious labor relations and engaging in mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation in those relations. In the “Eight-Eight Strategies” and the overall strategy of entrepreneurship and innovation, the successive Party committees of Zhejiang Province have given great importance to coordinating the relationship between development and harmony. In 2008, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province made the Decision on Comprehensively Improving the People’s Well-being and Promoting Social Harmony, calling for consolidating harmony through development, promoting harmony by democracy, fostering harmony through culture, seeking harmony by justice, pursuing harmony via management, maintaining harmony amidst stability, vigorously advocating the outstanding cultural achievements characterized by the upholding of harmony by the Chinese nation, deeply tapping the local cultural tradition in which Zhejiang stresses harmony, constantly enriching the philosophy of harmony, cultivating the spirit of harmony, providing the intellectual and cultural support for promoting harmony between the people and nature, the people and the society, among the people, among the others and one’s own self, and strengthening the cultural and moral forces for building a harmonious socialist society. (2) Establishing and improving the system of laws, regulations and policies for developing harmonious labor relations. In recent years, in order to provide an institutional guarantee for harmonious labor relations, Zhejiang has issued the Collective Labor Regulations of Zhejiang Province, the Measures for the Implementation of Labor Law, the Regulations of Zhejiang Province for the Democratic Management of Enterprises and other local regulations involving labor relations, thus establishing a legal framework for the orderly operations of labor relations. The People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and relevant departments made a number of policy-oriented regulations, including the Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting Consultation on the Wages of Workers, and the Several Opinions on Conscientiously Safeguarding the Legitimate Rights and Interests of Workers and Further Developing Harmonious Labor Relations, vigorously stimulating the governments at various levels and enterprises to build harmonious labor relations. (3) Establishing and improving the mechanism for multi-party coordination in developing harmonious labor relations. In 2001, Zhejiang established the system of tripartite coordinating meetings for labor relations. The People’s Government of Zhejiang Province identified the basic functions of that system as follows: providing consultations and suggestions for making policy documents involv-

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ing labor relations, coordinating efforts to deal with province-wide major issues concerning labor relations and guiding the local authorities across the province with respect to the coordination of labor relations. The cities, counties (countylevel cities, districts) established the mechanism for tripartite coordination in labor relations accordingly, and a system for the coordination of labor relations suited to the requirements of a socialist market economy took shape across the province. As from 2004, Zhejiang further improved the system of joint meetings between trade unions and the government. At present, that system has been established in all of the counties and has been extended to towns and some industries. (4) Establishing and improving the system of employment services and that of reemployment assistance catering to the needs of the market and covering urban and rural services. All of the cities and counties in Zhejiang have established a labor market and a talent market of a certain scale, among which 25 cities and counties have established a well-functioning integrated labor market and talent market with regularized procedures and under efficient operations. The market mechanism has played a basic role in the allocation of human resources in Zhejiang; the status of enterprises and workers as the main players in demand and supply on the labor market has been basically established; the market mechanism in which workers independently choose jobs, the market regulates employment and the government promotes employment has basically taken shape. The government’s framework of policies for actively promoting employment has basically formed. Zhejiang has energetically pushed forward the pilot work on coordinated employment in urban and rural areas, and has removed the institutional barriers to the employment of farmers in urban areas, fully incorporated rural migrant workers into the scope of public employment services and improved the environment for the employment of rural migrant workers in urban areas. (5) Further improving the system of urban social insurance, more rapidly establishing a new system of social assistance covering urban and rural areas. Zhejiang has become the first nationwide to introduce a social security system covering urban and rural areas. Zhejiang has rapidly promoted improvement in institutions and coverage in five social insurances. Regarding endowment insurance, Zhejiang has stressed “both ends” and pushed forward the “middle”, adopted the endowment insurance measure of “low-threshold access and low-standard enjoyment” for non-public enterprises and compressively carried out the authorized collection of local taxes, thus increasing the coverage of endowment insurance in an all-round way. With respect to medical insurance, after many years of efforts, Zhejiang has established a well-functioning basic medical insurance policy, and has basically addressed the issue of medical security for retired workers and staff in enterprises in difficulty. (6) Strengthening regulation, guaranteeing payment, improving institutions and mechanisms to rationalize relations of the distribution of wages in enterprises. In recent years, in order to properly handle the relationship between efficiency and equity, Zhejiang has established a mechanism for the normal adjustment and growth of the wages of enterprise workers and staff, and has actively explored

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and adopted such systems as “security deposit for wages, an emergency revolving fund for wage arrears and an attendance record card for rural migrant workers”, and it has taken such measures as raising the standard minimum wage, and pushed forward the reform of the distribution of income; Zhejiang has basically established the enterprise wage regulation system dominated by the minimum wage, the wage guideline, the guiding wage level on the labor market and the system of labor cost estimation. Zhejiang has carefully carried out the Administrative Regulations of Zhejiang Province for the Payment of Wages, and established the wage arrears whistle-blowing system, the wage arrears reporting system, the early-warning system for the payment of wages, and the system of a security deposit for wages and emergency revolving fund for wage arrears. Zhejiang has become the first nationwide to introduce the system of a “security deposit for wages, an emergency revolving fund for wage arrears and an attendance record card for rural migrant workers” to ensure that workers’ wages are paid in full on schedule.

4.3.3 The Practice and Experience of the Transfer Group in Enterprise Democracy and the Building of Harmonious Labor Relations In Zhejiang, the private economy is well developed, there are a large number of enterprises, and Zhejiang has stayed ahead nationwide regarding the level of the democratic development of its enterprises. In recent years, local authorities in Zhejiang have extensively and thoroughly carried out the activity of building the enterprises and parks with harmonious labor relations; the activity has been increasingly enriched in contents, innovations have been brought about in form and improved in level; moreover, it has played an active role in promoting enterprise development, safeguarding the rights and interests of workers and staff, developing harmonious labor relations, and pushing forward the building of a safe Zhejiang and a harmonious society; a large number of advanced models have emerged. In 2013, the leading provincial group for the activity of building the enterprises with harmonious labor relations released a list of the advanced enterprises, industrial parks and advanced workers for establishing harmonious labor relations, and granted the honorary title of “Zhejiang Advanced Enterprises for Establishing Harmonious Labor Relations” to 183 enterprises in Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Jiaxing and Quzhou. Due to a limitation of space, the author has chosen the Zhejiang Transfer Group as a case for introducing its innovative practice and successful experience in promoting primarylevel democracy and building harmonious labor relations. 1. The Transfer Group’s practice in enterprise democracy In recent years, with the fundamental philosophy of making workers work more decently and live a life with more dignity and of ensuring the healthy development

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of enterprises, the Transfer Group has vigorously strengthened primary-level democratic development, including democratic participation, democratic management, democratic appraisal, and democratic hearings, to greatly push forward the work on labor contracts, employment and wages, social security, and labor protection, and has taken primary-level democratic development as an important means for building the enterprises with harmonious labor relations. These innovative experiments and practice have not only produced marked effects in work but they have also been affirmed by the leaders at higher levels many times and are greatly supported by enterprise workers and staff; they have become the typical representative of Zhejiang’s enterprises in democratic development and the establishment of harmonious labor relations. First, improving the congress of workers and staff. The Transfer Group established the system of a congress of workers and staff in 1995. The Transfer Group has always upheld the practice of merging the congress of workers and staff and the congress of member representatives into one congress. Initially, the main functions of the congress of workers and staff consisted of making it possible for workers and staff to learn about the annual work of the enterprise and the work plan and goals for the following year, fully respecting and reflecting the right of workers and staff to know, and stimulating workers and staff to work towards goals. Afterwards, the Transfer Group gradually drew upon the practice adopted by state-owned enterprises of expanding the functions of the congress of workers and staff, letting workers and staff discuss major matters concerning the enterprise at that congress. At present, all matters involving the immediate interests of workers and staff in the Transfer Group can be discussed and deliberated at the congress of workers and staff. As the working body for the congress of workers and staff, the trade union carefully organizes the congress, submits proposals and carries out the resolutions adopted by the congress. In its routine work, it timely deals with the suggestions and opinions from the representatives of workers and staff and the members of the trade union, so that the opinions and suggestions from workers and staff can be put into practice. For instance, in 2000, according to the resolution adopted by the congress of workers and staff, it addressed the issue of connecting the accumulated endowment insurance for workers and staff to the social endowment insurance. Since 2002, according to the suggestions from the congress of workers and staff, the enterprise has provided medical insurance and work-related injury insurance for all workers and staff. Second, conducting democratic hearings. Since 2004, in order to fully ensure the rights of workers and staff to be knowledgeable about, participate in, hold consultations concerning, and supervise major matters of the enterprise and the interests of the workers and staff, respect the principal status of workers and staff, and make enterprise decision-making scientific, institutionalized and democratic, the Transfer Group has conducted democratic hearings with the participation of the Party members in a planned way. In 2006, the participants in the hearings were extended to general workers and staff. Thanks to democratic hearings, workers and staff can directly participate in the Group’s major projects and plan formulation and directly express their opinions and ideas before the operational decision-makers. With participation before events, joint efforts during events and the sharing of success after events, workers

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and staff can fully enjoy the status of matters. The hearing features a double-layer framework. The democratic hearing of workers and staff consists of a hearing at the group level and one at the enterprise level. The work on the hearing at the group level is organized by the Group’s trade union, the congress of workers and staff is held to conduct a secondary hearing with respect to the hearing contents concerning the Group as a whole. The work of the hearing at the enterprise level is organized by the enterprise trade union and the congress of workers and staff (representatives) is held to conduct a primary hearing with respect to the hearing contents concerning the enterprise. All hearing matters involving subsidiaries are implemented jointly by the enterprise trade union and operating organizations, while such implementation is subject to approval of the Group’s trade union. After the hearing, its results should be promptly filed with the Group’s trade union. The hearing matters involving the whole Group are implemented by the Group’s trade union and the management committee, with all the members of the trade union and the leaders of relevant operating organizations participating in the hearing. The hearing procedure mainly covers the determination of topics—the collection of opinions—the formulation of hearing opinions at the symposium of workers and staff—the convening of the hearing—feedback on the results and implementation. The hearing mainly covers the major decisions concerning enterprise development, such as the strategic development plan, the annual work plan, major investment projects and technical renovation projects, the development of the enterprise culture, the making of important enterprise regulations and systems, major matters involving the immediate interests of workers and staff, the difficulties in enterprise development and hotspots which concern workers and staff. Since 2006, the Group has held multiple hearings of workers and staff under four themes, including bus arrangements, traffic allowance, the 12th Five-Year Plan, logistical support, and the annual work plan. Workers and staff put forward more than 180 suggestions at the hearings, and 100% of them were put into practice. In 2010 alone, 8 democratic hearings were held with respect to the 12th Five-Year Plan, and some good opinions and suggestions were adopted by the company. Third, evaluating cadres in a democratic way. Since 1998, in order to guarantee the workers’ and staff’s right to supervise, and to improve the capability for democratic supervision and the level of the workers and staff, with professional support from the human resources department, the trade union of the Transfer Group has established a system of the democratic evaluation of cadres. For this work, a leading group for the democratic evaluation of cadres consists of the Party committee (branch), the trade union (company trade union), the Youth League committee (Youth League general branch), the audit department (legal affairs department), and the human resources department (subsidiary office); the leading group is responsible for organizing the workers and staff to conduct a democratic evaluation of cadres once a year. The cadres under evaluation have gradually extended from the middle management of the Group and the enterprise to senior management; at present, democratic evaluation has covered almost all of the managerial cadres. Evaluation covers two levels: the cadres from the functional departments of the Group’s headquarters are evaluated by the Group’s congress of workers and staff; the cadres from subsidiaries are eval-

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uated by the congresses of workers and staff at the subsidiaries; where the number of workers and staff at the subsidiaries is small, additional representatives should be designated for evaluation, the representatives participating in evaluation should not be fewer than the total number of workers and staff. Evaluation is conducted in strict compliance with the principle that whosoever knows those under evaluation should carry out the evaluation, and the “back-to-back” principle and the principle that multiple evaluators evaluate one person; cadres are subject to comprehensive evaluation covering 16 items through 5 aspects, including integrity, ability, diligence, performance and honesty; evaluation takes the form of routine democratic supervision and year-end democratic evaluation. The evaluation results are fed back, by the operating organizations, to the cadres under evaluation and serve as an important basis for the evaluation of cadres’ performance and promotion. In recent years, according to the opinions from workers and staff through democratic evaluation, the Group has imposed administrative and economic punishments on the unqualified cadres, such as termination of the labor contract, removal from office, demotion and reduction of bonus. Fourth, offering rational suggestions. In order to further strengthen and put into practice the sense of responsibility of workers and staff, enliven the working atmosphere, fully arouse the enthusiasm and creativity of the workers and staff, and continuously improve the effects of enterprise management and the innovation capability of the enterprise, the Group’s trade union carried out the activity of soliciting rational suggestions from workers and staff in 1997. Suggestions could cover corporate strategy and development, company organization and management, logistical support, company brand communication and enterprise culture, as well as other aspects beneficial to the company’s future development. Suggestions generally focused on three aspects. First, the status quo and problems—introducing the current state of the issues involved in suggestions and the defects in this state. Second, ideas and suggestions—putting forward reform measures for defects, including the general plan for carrying out suggestions and estimating relevant costs. Third, analysis of the expected effects—explaining the effects obtained after implementation of the suggestions, including improving the efficiency, simplifying procedures, increasing benefits or saving expenditures. Suggestions can be mainly divided into proposal-type suggestions, online suggestions, written suggestions or oral suggestions. “Proposaltype suggestions” means that the representatives of the workers and staff extensively collect opinions and suggestions from workers and staff and submit the Proposal Form for the Congress of Workers and Staff at the congress of workers and staff with respect to the Group’s development and the issues of common concern to workers and staff. “Online suggestions” means that the ordinary workers and staff upload forms from the internal information network at any place and any time to put forward relevant suggestions and opinions. “Written suggestions” means that suggestions are offered in writing and submitted by means of the permanent suggestion box of the trade union. “Oral suggestions” is a more casual mode than the above modes and is mostly embodied in the daily dialogue among workers, staff and leaders; this mode is more natural, light and is more apt to reveal the real line of thought. Some oral suggestions can also be accompanied by written and official submissions. After

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submission, relevant personnel classify and reorganize the suggestions, and invite relevant professionals and experts to evaluate them. For the suggestions, the Group also developed relevant incentive measures. In 2010, based on the effects of rational suggestions, the Group further carried out the activity of appraising and choosing the Annual Top Ten Rational Suggestions. 2. The Transfer Group’s experience in establishing harmonious labor relations First, democratic development combines efforts in satisfying the material needs of the workers with those in meeting their cultural needs, and fully promotes the personal development of the workers. The status of workers and staff as the masters is always respected and emphasized. Various democratic forms have been adopted to really guarantee the workers’ rights in employment, entrepreneurship, social insurance, social welfare, living conditions, children’s education and cultural entertainment. Besides the material benefits, which match the labor value for making sure that workers live a worry-free life, attention is also paid to satisfying the cultural pursuit and willingness of workers and staff to democratically participate, and to arousing the wisdom and strength of the workers to make them and the enterprise develop together. Second, democratic development combines the realization of workers’ interests with the improvement of enterprise performance, and really safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of the workers. Workers and the enterprise constitute the relationship between individuals and the collective, and that between the part and the whole. With primary-level democratic development, the Transfer Group has given prominence to the philosophy of survival and development by which workers and the enterprise first constitute a community of shared interests, a community of cause and finally a community with a common destiny, thus building new-type labor relations in the enterprise and achieving four changes: a change in the relationship between workers and the enterprise from the traditional relationship between an employer and his/her employees to a community of shared interests, a community of cause and a community with a common destiny; the change from labor relations connected by interests to one that is connected by affection; the change from labor relations sustained by management constraint to one that is sustained by enterprise vision; and the change from the satisfaction of workers’ basic needs to one that satisfies their developmental needs. Third, democratic development combines the administrative leadership of the enterprise with democratic participation of its workers, and highlights the principal status of the workers. The administrative leadership is exercised to coordinate labor relations, while that administrative leadership mainly means the tripartite mechanism in which under the leadership of the Party committee, the government, relevant departments, trade union organizations and the enterprise representative coordinate labor relations in an organized way according to laws. The down-top type of democratic participation means that democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision are conducted by workers according to laws so as to more rapidly ensure institutionalized, regularized and long-term coordination of labor relations. As workers have the right to democratic participation in the enter-

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prise’s work plan, development, major matters, major decisions, cadre performance and conduct, production management and technical renovation, workers can further enhance their personal ability and enthusiasm, and gradually internalize democratic participation into a personal habit, and deal with the enterprise and work as masters at any time. Therefore, regarding the coordination of labor relations, extensive and effective democratic participation can actively supplement and effectively interact with administrative leadership, and it guarantees the overall direction for the coordination of labor relations, a unified and efficient type of coordination, and it also highlights the principal status of workers, so that workers and operators can better communicate and interact with each other, and the long-term mechanism for coordinating labor relations is further built up.

4.4 Social Organizations and Citizens (Groups): Collaborative Joint Governance of the Primary-Level Society Zhejiang’s practice in recent years proves that social organizations have played an active role in protecting the people’s interests, expressing the appeals of the primarylevel people, managing primary-level affairs and organizing the people to participate in politics. Social organizations have gradually become the representatives of different stakeholders and the channels for expressing the interests of various social classes and have the unique advantages and roles which cannot be replaced by the government and the market; they can promptly deliver the people’s requirements and aspirations for the government to the government and convey the purpose of governmental policy to the people, they serve as the bridge and bond between the government and the people, and they can also enhance communication, coordination and integration among different groups, resolve social contrasts, and maintain social harmony and stability.

4.4.1 Building up a System of the Development of a Social Organization with Zhejiang’s Characteristics In recent years, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have identified the building of a system of the development of a social organization with benign competition and gradient promotion as one of the work priorities, and they have made many attempts at and innovations to optimizing the developmental environment for social organizations, increasing support for social organizations, improving the service management of social organizations, giving scope to the active role of social organizations in social governance, and planning

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and exploring a social organization system, the establishment of that system and large-scale development. (1) Separating government functions from social organizations early on, fully leveraging the market function of industrial associations. (2) Establishing non-local chambers of commerce, enhancing regional economic cooperation and exchanges. (3) Cultivating the public welfare-type of social organizations, giving full scope to the social performance of private capital. (4) Developing the community-level social organizations, improving the level of and capability for primary-level governance. (5) Building service platforms to enhance the quality of governmental services for social organizations. (6) Conducting grade evaluation to build excellent social organizations.

4.4.2 The Practice and Innovations in Kaiyihui in Jianggan District, Hangzhou City In order to further strengthen social development, value the development and management of social organizations, give play to the active roles of social organizations in expanding public participation and expressing the people’s appeals and enhance the self-governance function of the society, in 2011, Kaixuan Sub-district, Jianggan District, Hangzhou brought about innovations to the philosophy of social management, and built Kaiyihui, an incubator, server and booster of social organizations. As the home of social organizations, Kaiyihui is the first social organization service center in Hangzhou and a new measure taken by the sub-district for supporting the development of the public welfare social organizations and establishing a new-type cooperative relationship between the government and social organizations. Since its establishment, Kaiyihui has always performed the function of cultivating, developing and supporting the public welfare social organizations, building the public service platform for interaction among the government, the market and the society, and it has, in light of the people’s needs, integrated resources, blazed new trails, actively cultivated the public welfare social organizations to cover the shortage of the government’s public services, meet the diverse needs of the residents, and build a new pattern of cooperative joint governance in which the government plays the driving role, and there are private operations, citizens’ participation and benefits for the people. At present, Kaiyihui has been home to 12 professional service bodies including the Civil & Commercial Legal Mediation Service Center, the He Jun Psychological Counseling Studio, the “4:30 Classroom” Children’s Education Studio, the Sunset Glow Kaixuan Workstation, and the “Voice of Chinese” Service Station. There have been 229 registered community-level social organizations, with more than 10 social organizations in each community, mainly covering community services,

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culture and sports, social affairs, charitable assistance, persuasion and safeguarding of rights, and citizens’ education. 1. Work content of Kaiyihui First, Kaiyihui has two service platforms. (1) Building public service platforms to realize management services, incubation and cultivation and resource sharing; based on public service platforms, the platform provides local social organizations with one-stop convenient services including filing and registration, capacity building and the exchanging of learning experiences; for instance, building specialized social organizations and volunteer resource pools to search for, organize and collect the information on service objects and the provision and demand of social resources, to serve as the bridge for social organizations and to offer free or low-charge services to local residents, enterprises and public institutions. (2) Building the platforms for the management of information regarding social organizations to improve the service capacity and service quality of social organizations. There are mainly four segments: dynamic information disclosure, policy navigation, interaction and communication and credit evaluation. Second, cultivating, developing and supporting social organizations through IT applications in a scientific and regularized way. (1) Relying on four segments of the platform for the management of information regarding social organizations in order to achieve information sharing and information-based supervision. (2) Exercising regularized supervision, including exploring and making “1 + 5” supporting documents, issuing the Implementation Opinions on Strengthening the Cultivation, Development and Regularized Management of Social Organizations and its five supporting documents, exploring and carrying out the dual-track system of registration and filing for social organizations, the system of cooperative supervision by service guiding units and institutionalizing and regularizing the operational mode of social organizations. (3) Conducting scientific supervision. Establishing the mechanism of classified development, batch-based management and gradient promotion, adopting the “three-batch” approach to effectively push forward scientific supervision, namely, introducing a batch of highly specialized social organizations with great social influence which are highly recognized by the people, giving scope to their demonstration and leading roles, thus stimulating the development of local social organizations as well as regularizing a batch of social organizations with a good momentum of development which cater to the residents’ daily needs and have reached a certain market scale, turning them into the self-owned brands of communities and cultivating a batch of social organizations with developmental potential, thus increasing support to make them grow and develop rapidly. Third, taking five working measures. (1) Enhancing the quality of the services in response to needs. Carrying out the activity of surveying the needs of social organizations, learning about the needs of communities and the people for the public services provided by social organizations through questionnaires, visits and interviews, gradually developing the philosophy that we do what the people want. (2) Placing equal emphasis on cultivation and supervision, promoting healthy development. Further regularizing and guiding social organizations; besides support and cultivation,

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sub-district offices also step up efforts to track, analyze and evaluate local bodies and the government-entrusted service projects, relying on the credit rating platform called Jianggan Social Organization Online to conduct the evaluation of the management and the supervision of the integrity of social organizations, and promote the innovation to evaluation carriers. (3) Strengthening cooperation and exchange, improving service functions; enhancing the building of the capacity of the central operation teams, engaging in in-depth cooperation with relevant non-local organizations, obtaining professional support through regular expert supervision, on-the-job training, industrial exchanges and learning activities; enhancing the capacity building of local bodies, improving the service capability of social organizations by inviting experts to give lessons, holding project seminars and case analysis meetings. (4) Integrating community resources, placing emphasis on classified guidance; giving full scope to the role of Kaiyihui as the bridge and bond, helping specialized bodies and local social organizations break regional boundaries and actively seek integration into communities, getting close to the people, and expanding public participation; expanding the development of grassroots organizations, classified cultivation and guidance. (5) Introducing specialized bodies to provide the public welfare services. Each year, sub-district offices allocate special funds and follow the service procedure of “government’s assumption, directed entrustment, contract management and evaluation-based acceptance” to transfer some social management and public service items to the public welfare and service-oriented social organizations which play apparent roles and are popular among the people. Gradually establishing the operating mechanism with government-led efforts and social participation under market operations, thus progressively turning social development into a new pattern of small government and large society. 2. The performance of Kaiyihui As an incubator of social organizations, Kaiyihui has fully performed the basic functions of cultivation, management, service and promotion; it is the public service platform with interaction among the government, the market and the society, and also the platform for practicing the self-services for community residents; marked effects have been produced in social governance and primary-level democracy. These are: (1) Effectively resolving social contrasts, promoting primary-level harmony and stability. In the process of social governance, the primary level is the “source” of social contrasts and also the “opening” for channeling contrasts. Kaiyihui’s practice shows that as social organizations actively participate in community management—such as providing psychological health popularization, screening and consulting services to conduct civil and commercial mediation, social organizations can play an important role in regulating the disputes among the people, overcoming various problems and contrasts, and in safeguarding social harmony and stability. (2) Effectively participating in social governance and primary-level democracy to promote government transformation. On the one hand, with full scope given to the active role of social organizations in expanding the people’s participation and expressing the people’s appeals, the self-governance function of the society is enhanced, primarylevel democracy becomes more sufficient in content and more diverse in form. Social

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organizations can also effectively improve residents’ enthusiasm about participation in community affairs and arouse the vitality of the communities. On the other hand, with bidding and project entrustment, social organizations leverage their professional advantages to gradually undertake the work of government departments in charity and public welfare including combating poverty and supporting the elderly and the young, so that the shortage of government services in relevant fields is effectively covered and the government is extricated form that burden and concentrates on making and improving policies, it changes from having the role of athlete to the role of referee and from being an omnipotent government to being a limited government. (3) Enhancing the cooperation and trust among the people, social organizations and the government, building a primary-level governance mode with diversified cooperation. As the bridge and bond between the government and the people, social organizations can promptly convey the interest appeals, aspirations, criticism and suggestions from the people to the government, and deliver the handling opinions of the government to the members, supervise government behaviors and encourage the people’s political participation, thus enhancing the cooperation and trust between the government and the people, promoting primary-level harmony and enabling benign interaction between government management and primary-level self-governance.

4.4.3 The Participation of Citizens (Groups) in the Working Mechanism of Hangzhou City for “Promoting the People’s Well-Being Through Democracy” In recent years, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Hangzhou City have given importance to expert consulting, public display of schemes, absorption of citizens to attend meetings, guidance through media discussion, the role of communities, improvement of the decision-making mechanism and innovation to the participation platform, as well as the evaluation of satisfaction, and they have established a mechanism for democratic participation to tailor government work to public opinion and to the people’s needs. The practice of “promoting the people’s well-being through democracy” has played an important role in increasing the orderly participation of citizens (groups), collecting the people’s appeals, and enhancing policy recognition and government effectiveness. The working mechanism of “promoting the people’s well-being through democracy” can be summarized as follows: understanding the people’s conditions to put in place the right to know; identifying the people’s needs to put in place the right to make choices; collecting ideas from the people to put in place the right to participation; making it possible for performance to be evaluated by the people in order to put in place the right to supervise, so that public policies are guaranteed by a democratic mechanism and procedure from policy-making to its execution, evaluation and supervision, and the issues concerning the people’s well-being are effectively addressed in line with the public opinion, and democratic development is promoted through

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extensive and active participation of citizens in the practice of addressing the issues concerning the people’s well-being, providing a political guarantee for harmonious urban development. The modes of citizens’ (groups’) democratic participation in the mechanism of “promoting the people’s well-being through democracy” are generally divided into five categories: (1) Direct participation in evaluating major projects. In carrying out some major projects, due to diverse resident interests and value preference, it is hard to develop public policies recognized by most people, and due to differences in the people’s willingness to participate and their ability to express appeals, there are different degrees of participation in determining the initiation of projects, improving their design and construction, resolving disputes and evaluating completion. In the westward development of the West Lake and renovation of back streets, alleys, courtyards in Hangzhou, under the working mechanism of “promoting the people’s well-being through democracy”, citizens (groups) participate in evaluating major projects and the government pushes forward projects according to the people’s needs, while in the past, the government led efforts, without the people’s participation, to evaluate major projects. For instance, in the courtyard renovation projects, with a focus on one goal (improving the people’s well-being), one main line (carrying forward democracy) and one standard (the people’s satisfaction), Hangzhou has further brought about innovations to the working method, relied on the people’s strength and wisdom, and established a democratic working mechanism of “understanding the people’s conditions to put in place the right to know, identifying the people’s needs to put in place the right to make choices, collecting ideas from the people to put in place the right to participation, making it possible for performance to be evaluated by the people to put in place the right to supervise” before, during and after the execution of the project; Hangzhou has preliminarily developed a set of effective methods for overcoming difficulties in the people’s well-being and handling substantive affairs for the people: understanding the people’s conditions to put in place the right to know, making project initiation determined by a democratic mechanism; identifying the people’s needs to put in place the right to make choices, making the content of renovation determined by a democratic mechanism; collecting ideas from the people to put in place the right to participation, making the way of renovating determined by a democratic mechanism; making it possible for performance to be evaluated by the people to put in place the right to supervise, thus making it possible for the results to be evaluated by a democratic mechanism.4 (2) A mass-decentralization type of participation with stakeholders as the main participants. In the mechanism of “promoting the people’s well-being through democracy”, Hangzhou has gradually established a mechanism of cultivation and operation of social composite subjects, so as to bring about highly interactive social subjects and an operational mechanism among groups and levels, to arouse the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the people from various 4 The

Report of the Decision-making Advisory Committee 18.

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sectors of the society, and to foster a good pattern of co-building and sharing. These social composite subjects are aimed at promoting the development of social programs, knowledge entrepreneurship and cause development, combine social benefits with operations and have the participation of the personnel with different identities including those from the Party and government circles, the knowledge circles, the industrial circles and the media circles; these social composite subjects feature a multi-tier architecture, network connection, functional integration and advantage complementation with active interconnection of the players; they play an important role in pushing forward major social projects, developing the cultural cause, improving characteristic industries and building a city brand; they are the important players in the City of Life Quality which result from co-building and sharing and can be comparable to world-famous cities; the Hangzhou Model for the principal building of a harmonious society has come into being. These social composite subjects with interaction among the Party and government circles, the knowledge circles, the industrial circles and the media circles turn the external constraints on different groups in the society into intrinsic connections, they transform the passiveness in different respects of the society into conscious interaction, push forward democratic consultations, and promote the people’s well-being and entrepreneurship through democracy, thus really making sure that development is for and relies on the people and that the achievements of development are shared by the people and the effectiveness of development is tested by the people, achieving a unity of the authenticity of democratic content and the diversity of forms, the unity of the people’s wellbeing and efficiency and the unity of the people’s well-being and development. Therefore, such a mechanism is a major innovation to social operations and to the structure of social organizations; it is also a major innovation to the mode of economic operations and the mechanism of social entrepreneurship, a major innovation to the transformation of government functions and social governance, and a major innovation to co-building, sharing and democratic participation. (3) Open decision-making. In order to further push forward the working mechanism of “promoting the people’s well-being through democracy”, Hangzhou has brought about further innovations to democratic decision-making by various means, including expert consulting, disclosure of major schemes, collection of suggestions from citizens, appraisal of satisfaction, and interaction among media, citizens, and the Party and government organs. Open decision-making is a mode of decision-making through the executive meetings of the municipal government, under which public opinions are fully collected before the executive meeting of the government and then the matters involved in government decision-making are delivered to the executive meeting of the municipal government; during the meeting, the deputies to the people’s congress, the PPCC members and the representatives of the citizens express their opinions, and citizens can also post messages online or rely on online live video to participate in decision-making discussions; after the meeting, relevant municipal governments make prompt responses to netizens within 24 h. The collection of suggestions from the people is also an important part of open decision-making. Since the col-

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umn Offering Suggestions was launched on the official website of the People’s Government of Hangzhou City to receive the people’s opinions and suggestions on the government report in June, 2000, the major municipal work and activities have been carried out by fully collecting the opinions and suggestions from the society through the news media. Since 2002, the “12345” mayor’s hotline has been extended to the mayor’s mailbox on the portal website of the government and the “12345” short message platform, making responses to and handling the emails involving help, complaints, consulting and suggestions from the people. Regarding the innovative practice of open decision-making, the process of opening is transparent, developmental fields are extensive, and the topics for open decision-making focus on the core—the people’s well-being, thus the participation of citizens (groups) is more authentic and extensive, and the communication and interaction between citizens (groups) and the government is more straightforward, thus more able to mitigate the distortion in information transfer. In the meantime, such a mode also provides an institutional guarantee for the Government of Hangzhou to seek information from multiple sources, arouse democratic enthusiasm and enhance policy recognition. (4) Democratic appraisal. In 2000, Hangzhou established a mechanism in which government work is evaluated by citizens with respect to satisfaction; each year, units and individuals at various social levels were organized to vote, and the results of the evaluation were released in the order of scores based on the evaluation of the annual target responsibility system for departments as well as the indicator system including “96666” established to receive complaints about the attitude and performance of the services of the Party and government organs and the “12345” mayor’s hotline launched to handle complaints. The departments whose score in citizens’ evaluation was lower than the standard were dealt with by open warning, while the department whose score was the lowest was considered as an unsatisfactory department, and would be dealt with sternly by the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Hangzhou City through various means, including criticism and education, warning or admonition, removal from post or dismissal, and reporting and exposing; where a department was rated as an unsatisfactory department for three consecutive years, the Party Committee of Hangzhou City would adjust its leading body. In recent years, with the practice of the mechanism of the people’s evaluation, the number of citizens participating in evaluation has increased year by year, the departments under evaluation have been on the rise year by year, the evaluation indicators have been continuously refined, and the grade of evaluation has been improved constantly; with the practice of evaluation, citizens have enhanced their sense of becoming the masters, and the degree of trusting and recognizing the government has increased. Overall, regarding the improvement of the primary-level democratic system, it is necessary to give scope to the role of primary-level organizations in coordination and also fully expand orderly political participation of citizens (groups) and combine government management with primary-level democracy. Practice proves that the participation of social organizations which have developed in an

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increasingly healthy and orderly way and the expanding citizens (groups) can provide diverse players for cooperative joint governance in China’s primarylevel democratic development and social development, and can also offer the strongest impetus for China’s political civilization and social harmony, as well as the widest degree of social support. According to the report delivered at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in an effort to improve the primary-level democratic system, it is necessary to guide the healthy and orderly development of social organizations, give play to the coordinating role of various organizations, and combine government management with primary-level democracy. Therefore, the healthy and orderly development of social organizations is of great significance for developing China’s primary-level democracy and building a diversified joint governance mode with extensive participation of the people and social organizations; it is an important foundation, carrier and force for China’s primary-level democracy and social governance.

References Xi Jinping, the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province: As Primary-level Democracy Becomes More Developed, the Society Becomes More Harmonious, People’s Daily, September 25, 2006a, Page 10. Xi Jinping, Carrying out Concrete Work to Stay Ahead – Line of Thought and Practice in Promoting New Development in Zhejiang, The Party School of the CPC Central Committee Press, 2006b, pp. 282–283. Xi Jinping, Zhijiang Xinyu, Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 2007, p. 226.

Chapter 5

The Building of Zhejiang Under the Rule of Law: Continually Promoting the Rule of Law Song Xiaohai

On April 26, 2006, the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province adopted the Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province Concerning the Building of Zhejiang under the Rule of Law, specifying the strategy of building Zhejiang under the rule of law and taking it as the overall carrier for comprehensively carrying out the basic strategy of governing the country under the rule 1 of law and building a socialist country under the rule of law. This is also the major strategic arrangement made when comrade Xi Jinping worked in Zhejiang, and suggests that Zhejiang stays ahead in carrying out the strategy of governing the country under the rule of law and fully reflects comrade Xi Jinping’s governance strategy of sizing up the situation, looking far ahead and aiming high, grasping the overall situation and taking the long-term perspective. The implementation of the strategy of building Zhejiang under the rule of law shows that Zhejiang has entered a new historical stage of building a province under the rule of law and has comprehensively promoted the rule of law.

1 On May 25, 2006, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province made the Resolution on Building Zhejiang under the Rule of Law; on June 9, 2006, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Opinions on Promoting the Building of the Government under the Rule of Law; in the meantime, the PPCC of Zhejiang Province also strengthened its survey and study and actively offered suggestions and ideas for building Zhejiang under the rule of law. See Chen Liuyu, Annual Report on Zhejiang’s Development 2007 (The Rule of Law Volume), Hangzhou Publishing House, 2007, pp. 1–5.

S. Xiaohai (B) The Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, Hangzhou, China © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 N. Fang et al. (eds.), Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics, Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8_5

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5.1 The Basic Line of Thought Regarding the Building of Zhejiang Under the Rule of Law 5.1.1 The Strategic Starting Point for Building Zhejiang Under the Rule of Law: Improving the Overall Layout of the Modernization of Zhejiang Zhejiang has always given importance to the rule of law. Zhejiang has a good foundation for promoting the rule of law. The Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province Concerning the Building of Zhejiang under the Rule of Law, made on April 26, 2006, suggested that Zhejiang had entered a new stage of comprehensively building Zhejiang under the rule of law, and promoting the rule of law had been elevated to an unprecedentedly high level. Why did the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province under the leadership of comrade Xi Jinping put forward and push forward the strategy of building Zhejiang under rule of law at that time? What is the fundamental purpose of the strategy? With a careful study of the documents of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and comrade Xi Jinping’s line of thought at that time, we can find that the fundamental purpose of building Zhejiang under the rule of law is based on the macro strategy of further improving the overall layout of the modernization of Zhejiang. When delivering his report during the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on April 25, 2006, comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province puts forward and pushes forward the strategy of building Zhejiang under the rule of law in response to the decision and arrangement made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, with a view to further improving the overall layout of the modernization of Zhejiang. The building of Zhejiang under the rule of law constitutes the overall layout of Zhejiang’s economic, political, cultural and social development, together with the major decisions and arrangements made by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, including thoroughly carrying out the ‘Eight-Eight Strategies’, comprehensively building a safe Zhejiang, more rapidly building a culturally large province, strengthening the building of the Party’s capacity for governing and making the Party more advanced. In the overall layout, thoroughly carrying out the ‘Eight-Eight Strategies’ is the general means for putting into practice the Scientific Outlook on Development; comprehensively building a safe Zhejiang is the main carrier for building a harmonious society; accelerating the building of a culturally large province is the important measure for developing an advanced socialist culture; building Zhejiang under the rule of law is the effective way to develop a socialist democracy; strengthening the building of the Party’s capacity for governing and making the Party more advanced provides the fundamental guarantee in this regard. The overall layout of Zhejiang’s economic, political, cultural and

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social development features intrinsic unity, organic connection, complementation and is inseparable.”2

5.1.2 The Method of Thought in the Strategic Vision of Building Zhejiang Under the Rule of Law: Materialistic Dialectics General Secretary Xi Jinping is adept at applying the worldview and methodology of dialectical materialism and historical materialism. When putting forward the strategy of building Zhejiang under the rule of law in Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping fully adopted the method of thought of materialistic dialectics. Specifically: (1) Applying the method of analysis by contradiction to analyze the urgency of building Zhejiang under the rule of law. (2) Applying the dialectics of a universal relation to analyze the overall role of the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law in carrying out the major decisions and arrangements made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. (3) Applying the law of the unity of opposites to analyze the status of the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law in the overall layout of the modernization of Zhejiang and their interrelation.

5.2 Constantly Making Legislation More Scientific Since 2003, under the guidance of comrade Xi Jinping’s legislative philosophy of advancing with the times, Zhejiang’s legislative branch has incessantly improved the legislative system, extensively promoted scientific and democratic legislation, and more rapidly made well-functioning local regulations. Zhejiang has made marked achievements in local legislative work and has basically met the needs of Zhejiang’s economic and social development.

5.2.1 Innovating the Legislative Philosophy in Response to the Times The benignly interactive development of Zhejiang’s local legislation practice and reform comes from the legislative philosophy of advancing with the times. When working in Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping always gave importance to the orientation 2 Xi

(2006), p. 353.

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of the guiding thought for local legislation. He put forward four requirements: First, legislation must serve development; second, legislation must have local characteristics; third, legislation must safeguard the fundamental interests of the people; fourth, legislation must embody the characteristics of the times.3 These legislative philosophies are scientific and rational and contain the characteristics of the humanities and of the times; they fully reflect the fundamental characteristics of respecting the objective law of legislation, putting the people first and serving the development of the times; they are the vivid embodiment of the Scientific Outlook on Development in the field of local legislation. These legislative philosophies stressed by comrade Xi Jinping have directly and profoundly influenced Zhejiang’s local legislative work and promoted Zhejiang’s legislative work to a new level.

5.2.2 Making Well-Functioning Local Regulations During the period 2003–2007, Zhejiang made (amended and revised) 134 local regulations and 1 legislative interpretation of regulations,4 repealed 12 local regulations—the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province made 61 local regulations, Hangzhou City, Ningbo City and Jingning She Autonomous County made (subject to approval of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province) 73 local regulations. The People’s Government of Zhejiang Province made (amended and revised) 68 regulations and repealed 16 regulations. Moreover, according to the requirements for implementing the Administrative Permission Law, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province cleared up 28 local provincial regulations and Hangzhou City and Ningbo City cleared up 33 local regulations. Zhejiang successfully accomplished the goals and tasks in legislative work. Overall, Zhejiang’s legislative work during this period covered various aspects of Zhejiang’s economic and social life, including the economy, politics, culture, education, science and technology, health, urban and rural development and social governance, and the well-functioning local regulations which supplement national laws and regulations preliminarily took shape, providing strong legal support for Zhejiang’s economic, political, cultural and ecological development, social harmony, the people’s happiness and laying a solid legal foundation for Zhejiang to build a harmonious socialist society, which benefits the people across the province, in all respects, and to become the first to basically achieve socialist modernization. During the period 2008–2013, according to the overall arrangement of building Zhejiang under the rule of law, Zhejiang continued to advance local legislation, 3 Xi

(2006), pp. 363–365.

4 The Interpretation Made by the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province

in Respect of the 1st Paragraph of the 49th Article of the Regulations of Zhejiang Province on Population and Family Planning, promulgated in February, 2004.

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improved local regulations, and more rapidly made the well-functioning local regulations with Zhejiang’s characteristics which supplement national laws and regulations. In six years, Zhejiang made (amended and revised) 142 local regulations and repealed 7 local regulations—the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province made 66 local regulations, Hangzhou City, Ningbo City and the Jingning She Autonomous County made (subject to approval of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province) 76 local regulations. The People’s Government of Zhejiang Province made (amended and revised) 88 regulations and repealed 11 regulations. Moreover, in order to carry out the requirement of forming a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics by 2010, in 2009, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province organized efforts to fully clear up 155 local regulations currently in force which were made during the period 1979–2007; in order to ensure the implementation of the Administrative Coercion Law in Zhejiang, in 2011, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province organized efforts to clear up, through administrative coercion, 172 local regulations currently in force. The 66 local regulations made by the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province included 37 local regulations involving economic affairs (accounting for 56%), 13 concerning social management, 6 relating to education, science, culture and health and 10 involving democracy and politics, showing continued implementation of comrade Xi Jinping’s legislative philosophy of focusing on economic legislation with considerations given to other aspects. Overall, the legislation covered various aspects of Zhejiang’s economic and social life, including the economy, politics, culture, education, science and technology, health, urban and rural development and social governance and so the well-functioning local regulations which supplement national laws and regulations preliminarily took shape.

5.3 Accelerating the Building of a Government Under the Rule of Law When putting forward the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law, comrade Xi Jinping profoundly realized the special importance of building the government under the rule of law. He pointed out, “The people governing the country must first be subject to laws; regularizing the administrative powers according to laws and comprehensively building the government under the rule of law is the key to building Zhejiang under the rule of law.”5 In the whole period during which comrade Xi Jinping worked in Zhejiang, he gave importance to performing government administration under the rule of law and building the government under the rule of law. As shown by practice, during the period 2003–2007, the governments at various levels in Zhejiang took multiple measures and carried out concrete work according to the work priority of building the government under the rule of law whose functions and powers are spec5 Xi

(2006), p. 366.

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ified by laws and which carries out administration under the rule of law, exercises effective supervision and is under efficient operations, thus significant progress was made in performing government administration under the rule of law.

5.3.1 Zhejiang Has Stayed Ahead in Building a Government Under the Rule of Law After the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the State Council issued the Implementation Plan for Comprehensively Promoting Government Administration under the Rule of Law in March, 2004. Based on sufficient surveys and solicitation of opinions, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Opinions on Carrying Out the Plan of Implementation for Comprehensively Promoting Government Administration under the Rule of Law in January, 2005, making the overall arrangement for Zhejiang to comprehensively promote government administration under the rule of law, and pressing for implementation through annual work tasks and a scheme for the division of responsibilities. This marked the all-round initiation of Zhejiang’s efforts at building the government under the rule of law. The Opinions called for addressing the issues concerning government administration under the rule of law in five aspects, including dealing with the government’s decision-making procedure, intensifying the reform of the system of investment, “building the public financial system and improving the social security system”, “overcoming the contrasts among the people, preventing and defusing social disputes”, and addressing the rural primary-level work. The Implementation Plan called for basically achieving the goal of building a government under the rule of law with about ten years of unremitting efforts. The Opinions called for effectively carrying out the basic principles and basic requirements specified in the Plan for Implementation in Zhejiang’s government work by 2008, namely, performing government administration in a lawful and rational way, adopting due procedures, ensuring a high degree of efficiency and convenience for the people, integrity and making rights commensurate with obligations. As indicated, Zhejiang stayed ahead nationwide in its determination and intensity in building the government under the rule of law. In particular, shortly after the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province issued the Decision Concerning the Building of Zhejiang under the Rule of Law, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Opinions on Promoting the Building of a Government under the Rule of Law on June 9, 2006, comprehensively arranging the tasks and work for building a government under the rule of law and further speeding it up.

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5.3.2 Government Functions Have Been Effectively Changed Reforming the system of administrative management and changing government functions is an important part of the efforts at comprehensively promoting government administration under the rule of law. Zhejiang worked on changing government functions according to the requirements, specified in the Plan of Implementation for Comprehensively Promoting Government Administration under the Rule of Law issued by the State Council, that unless otherwise specified by laws, all of the matters which can be independently handled by citizens, legal persons and other organizations, regulated by the market through the competition mechanism and handled by industrial organizations or intermediary bodies through self-discipline shall not be handled by administrative bodies through administrative management. First, regularizing and reducing the items subject to administrative permission, examination and approval. Zhejiang carefully carried out the Administrative Permission Law; in 2004, Zhejiang made clear-up efforts involving administrative permission items, basis, objects and charges. Zhejiang stopped 27 administrative permission items abolished by the state, and abolished 95 items subject to administrative permission, examination and approval set by the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province; 11 cities in Zhejiang abolished 558 items subject to administrative permission, examination and approval set by them; Zhejiang fully cleared up 167 government regulations currently in force, and repealed 7 of them and 309 documents issued by the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and the General Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province since 1979; it cleared up 92 provincial units and bodies with the function of administrative permission and finally confirmed that 67 of them had the statutory qualification of administrative permission; it abolished 75 provincial items of charging. On this basis, in the following two years, Zhejiang intensified the clear-up work relating to administrative permissions. In April, 2007, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province determined 1,595 administrative permission items across the province6 ; with clear-up efforts, Zhejiang greatly reduced the items subject to administrative permission, examination and approval and preliminarily rationalized the relationship between the government and the market and between the government and the society. Second, regularizing the system of approval and filing for enterprise investments in addition to regularizing and reducing the items subject to administrative permission, examination and approval. In 2005, the General Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province transmitted the Interim Measures of Zhejiang Province for the Administration of Enterprise Investment Projects issued by the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission, stating that all of the enterprise investment projects not funded by the government are no longer subject to the examination and approval system, the approval system and the filing system are carried out in light of different circumstances, thus increasing the 6 Including

700 provincial administrative permission items, 427 administrative permission items at the level of the city divided into districts, 370 administrative permission items at the county level, 38 administrative permission items carried out in some areas, and 60 administrative permission items specified in the local regulations of Hangzhou City and Ningbo City.

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enterprises’ autonomous right in investing. Third, promoting and guaranteeing the reform and development of industrial organizations. In order to put into practice the requirement of separating government functions from enterprises, in 2006, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province made the Several Opinions on Promoting the Reform and Development of Industrial Associations, further guiding, regularizing and guaranteeing the building and development of industrial associations, stimulating the cultivation and development of the market’s self-discipline mechanism and promoting the building of a service-oriented government. In 2007, such departments as the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the Implementation Opinions on Separating the Industrial Associations from Administrative Organs in Zhejiang Province, promoting separation between industrial associations and administrative organs, actively turning industrial associations into social groups which are run, managed and developed by themselves, and giving full scope to their roles in coordinating the interests of market players, regularizing the order of the market economy and boosting the transformation of government functions. At present, Zhejiang has basically finished separating industrial associations from administrative organs in personnel, financial resources and materials.

5.3.3 Administrative Law Enforcement Has Improved Significantly With efforts at promoting the building of a government under the rule of law, Zhejiang has made significant improvements in administrative law enforcement, which is mainly reflected in the following four respects: First, steadily pushing forward the work on the relatively centralized administrative penalty power for urban management. Such power means that according to the administrative penalty law and relevant regulations of the State Council, the administrative law enforcement agencies for urban management in cities, counties (county-level cities, districts) exercise, in a centralized way according to laws, all or some of the administrative penalty powers of relevant administrative departments in the field of urban management. As from 2001, Hangzhou City, Ningbo City and Wenzhou City first piloted the relatively centralized penalty power in the field of urban management according to national arrangements. After the Decision of the State Council on Comprehensively Promoting the Relatively Centralized Penalty Power was issued in 2003, Zhejiang gradually pushed forward the work on the relatively centralized penalty power. As of 2007, 10 cities divided into districts and 17 counties (county-level cities) in Zhejiang piloted the relatively centralized administrative penalty power and comprehensive law enforcement, acquiring valuable experience in solving prominent problems, including unclear responsibilities, duplicate law enforcement, haggling and shifting of responsibility, disturbance for residents in law enforcement, overstaffing in administrative law enforcement agencies and a mix of law enforcement personnel with different identities, and this work produced preliminary effects. In September, 2008, the Standing Committee

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of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province adopted the Regulations of Zhejiang Province on the Relatively Centralized Administrative Penalty Power for Urban Management, taking the form of local regulation to consolidate and regularize the working system of Zhejiang for the relatively centralized administrative penalty power for urban management. Second, actively carrying out comprehensive reform in towns and shifting administrative law enforcement towards the lower levels. As from the second half of 2005, Zhejiang piloted town reform in such areas as Ningbo, Shaoxing and Jiaxing; in 2006, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province summarized the experience from pilot work, rationally defined the functions of town governments, preliminarily rationalized the relationship between town governments and government departments at higher levels, moderately shifted law enforcement towards the lower levels, and solved the problems which included the fact that the visible affairs were not administered, the affairs administered were invisible, and responsibilities were not commensurate with powers. Third, comprehensively carrying out the system of responsibility for administrative law enforcement. As from the middle of the 1990s, Zhejiang introduced the system of responsibility for administrative law enforcement to solve the prominent problems for which the existing laws were not known, the laws that were known were not enforced and enforcement was not put in place. However, there were some limitations in the enforcement of the laws. In 2005, according to the requirements of the State Council, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Implementation Opinions on Further Deepening, Improving and Comprehensively Promoting the System of Responsibility for Administrative Law Enforcement, expanding the all-round implementation of the system. Afterwards, local authorities and departments in Zhejiang developed the plans for carrying out that system, and carried out experiments and made improvements in putting into practice the supporting institutions relating to the responsibility for law enforcement and strict actions aimed at holding people accountable. The system of responsibility for administrative law enforcement was comprehensively carried out to create important conditions for performing government administration under the rule of law across the province. Fourth, regularizing the exercise of the administrative discretionary power and preventing power abuse. As of late 2007, many administrative organs in Zhejiang established detailed rules for quantifying the amount of administrative penalty so as to provide the basis and support for imposing administrative penalties in a just, open and impartial way. The industrial and commercial circles in Zhejiang also created some reasoning instruments, imposing constraints on the exercise of the administrative discretionary power.

5.3.4 Administrative Supervision Has Been Strengthened Continually Besides significant improvement in administrative law enforcement, administrative supervision was enhanced constantly, boosting the regularization of administrative

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law enforcement. First, pressing ahead with administrative review. As from 2003, in Zhejiang, the number of cases of administrative review was on the rise and gradually they became complicated, a large number of cases were closely related to the people’s well-being, including land expropriation, housing demolition, public security, the safeguarding of workers’ rights and interests and environmental protection. Given the new situation, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province actively took measures to provide good channels for seeking administrative review, to improve the working mechanism, to strengthen and improve the work on administrative review, and to deepen benign interaction between administration and judicature. In this regard, in 2007, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province held the provincial working conference on the prevention and settlement of administrative disputes and administrative review, made and issued the Opinions on the Prevention and Settlement of Administrative Disputes and on the Improvement of the Mechanism for the Settlement of Administrative Disputes. With efforts from multiple parties, during the period 2003–2007, the organs at various levels in Zhejiang handled about 20,000 cases of administrative review, and settled more than 80% of the administrative disputes through administrative review in Zhejiang, playing an active role in correcting illegal administrative acts and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the people. Second, strengthening the supervision over administrative normative documents. Zhejiang gave great importance to the filing and review of administrative normative documents, and strictly carried out the requirement that all documents must be filed, all documents filed must be reviewed, a reply must be made after reviewing and all errors must be corrected, so as to prevent, at the source, illegal administrative acts. In the meantime, the Legislative Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province also handled the objections raised against administrative normative documents by citizens, legal persons and other organizations or the review suggestions offered by them with respect to administrative normative documents, and promptly made a review and gave a reply, thus to the greatest extent, avoiding the social contradictions and disputes caused by official documents. For instance, in 2005, the Legislative Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province handled 21 objections and suggestions, including 8 involving the issues of legality and rationality. Zhejiang’s work on the filing and review of administrative normative documents was widely recognized. In September, 2006, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council identified the Legislative Affairs Office of Wenzhou City, the Legislative Affairs Office of Deqing County as the national model units for the filing of normative documents. As from 2008, the building of a government under the rule of law was intensified continually in Zhejiang. After the State Council issued the Decision on Strengthening the Administration of the Governments of Cities and Counties under the Rule of Law in 2008, in 2009, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Administration of the Governments of Cities and Counties under the Rule of Law, further strengthening government administration under the rule of law at the primary level. In October, 2013, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Implementation Standard of Zhejiang Province for the Building of a Government under the Rule of Law and its appendix, the Evaluation System of

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Zhejiang Province for the Building of a Government under the Rule of Law (Trial), specifying the clear and complete work goals and requirements for the building of a government under the rule of law in Zhejiang, and providing the systematic and operable measurement standard and evaluation tool. It was the first standard for the building of a government under the rule of law in China; it tallies with the requirement of “establishing a scientific system of indicators and a standard of evaluation for promoting the rule of law” specified in the decision made by the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China; it is of very important and active significance for promoting the building of a government under the rule of law in Zhejiang. During the period 2008–2013, Zhejiang made great progress in building a government under the rule of law. First, further clearing up administrative permission, stepping up efforts to regularize and reduce the items subject to administrative permission, examination and approval. As of 2014, the number of items for administrative permission decreased to 998 in Zhejiang, including the duplicate items at the provincial, municipal and county levels. They included 424 provincial items for administrative permission, 274 items for administrative permission at the level of the city divided into districts, 244 items for administrative permission at the county level, 35 items for administrative permission were carried out in some areas, and 59 items for administrative permission were specified in the local regulations of Hangzhou City and Ningbo City. Second, further reforming and improving the system of administrative law enforcement. Efforts were made to actively carry out the reform involving the expansion of the powers of strong counties and shift administrative law enforcement towards the lower levels. Based on pilot work in Yiwu, in June, 2009, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Several Regulations of Zhejiang Province on Strengthening the Administrative Management Functions of the County-level People’s Governments, calling for strengthening the social management and public service functions of the county-level governments and comprehensively promoting the work on expanding the powers of strong counties across the province. This was the first time in China that a certain management authority of the governments at higher levels was delegated, in the form of local government regulations, to the county-level governments. In this expansion of the powers of strong counties, 443 items for examination and approval authorization were delegated at one time. In the meantime, with a focus on four major national strategic measures, the reform of the system of administrative management was accelerated.7 Actions were taken to further expand the work on the relatively centralized administrative penalty power and gradually expand the scope of that power. Zhejiang became the first nationwide to comprehensively regularize the discretionary power of administrative penalty; at present, 3,389 law enforcement agencies with administrative penalty functions at the provincial, municipal and county levels have fully finished the work on regulariz7 The Decision of the People’s Government

of Zhejiang Province on Delegating the Administrative Examination and Approval Items to the Lower Levels and Promoting the Development of the Zhoushan Islands New Area (Zhe Zheng Ling (2012) No. 301), issued in May, 2012, became effective on July 1, 2012. This has laid an important foundation for establishing and improving the system of administrative management in the Zhoushan Islands New Area.

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ing the discretionary power of administrative penalties, among which 1,967 agencies made the detailed and quantitative standard and 1,422 agencies have directly adopted the administrative penalty standard developed by the department at the higher level. The detailed and quantitative standards of all agencies for the discretionary power of administrative penalties were released to the society according to the requirements. Third, further strengthening administrative supervision. In July, 2010, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Administrative Measures of Zhejiang Province for Administrative Normative Documents; in 2012, it issued the Opinions of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province on the System of Unified Registration, Unified Numbering and Unified Release of Administrative Normative Documents, thus introducing the system of unified registration, unified numbering and unified release of administrative normative documents, further strengthening the management of administrative normative documents. Zhejiang set up a specialized agency for filing and reviewing administrative normative documents and improved the working procedure and mechanism for document filing and review, comprehensively strengthened the filing and legality review of administrative normative documents across the province. Zhejiang stepped up its efforts to clear up administrative normative documents, and comprehensively cleared up administrative normative documents on many occasions to safeguard the unity and seriousness of the administrative legal system. With the measures for improving the way of handling cases, reinforcing institutional development and enhancing the interaction with judicature and the agency for handling the complaint-related letters and visits, Zhejiang worked on strengthening the work on administrative review and administrative level supervision to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the people, social harmony and stability. Zhejiang established and improved the system of evaluation and review for the records of administrative penalties and administrative permission, greatly stimulating the administrative organs to improve their capability of self-correction. Fourth, launching the campaign to safeguard citizens’ rights and interests according to laws. On July 14, 2008, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province unveiled the Action Plan for Safeguarding Citizens’ Rights and Interests According to Laws, arranging the work on the law-based safeguarding of citizens’ personal and property rights and interests, social developmental rights and interests, the rights and interests in economic life, “the right to know, express, participate and supervise”, and the rights and interests for relief, thus effectively strengthening the administrative guarantee for citizens’ rights and interests across the province.

5.4 Unceasingly Promoting Judicial Justice When working in Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “Judicial work is the last defense line for safeguarding social fairness and justice, and a very important yardstick for the people to view our Party and our political power is that our courts and procuratorates are impartial and efficient in handling cases and that they do not pervert justice for a bribe. We do not overlook a small case, it is likely that a person

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gets involved in only one case and enters court at one time in his or her lifetime, but this may affect his or her understanding about the whole judicial organ and the image of the Party and the government”. Based on a clear understanding of the importance of judicial work, comrade Xi Jinping stressed that the courts at various levels across the province should uphold the guiding principle of keeping judicial justice and working for the people wholeheartedly, fully perform their function of adjudication, safeguard social order, citizens’ rights and interests, resolve contrasts and disputes, and should serve the overall situation of the Party and the country through impartial, efficient and civilized judicial work; with respect to procuratorial work, in an effort to crack down on criminal offences, and to investigate and handle duty-related crimes, it is necessary to work on protecting economic and social development, promoting harmony, seeking the best social and improvement effects, and uphold the Party’s leadership; the Party enhanced its governing capacity by supporting the procuratorial organ in handling cases independently according to laws, safeguarded its image, improved its prestige and maintained its advanced nature through procuratorial work.8 With a great deal of attention and support from comrade Xi Jinping, during the period 2003–2007, Zhejiang made great progress in judicial work.

5.4.1 Strengthening Legal Supervision, Promoting Scientific Development In five years, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ carried out the philosophy of strengthening legal supervision and safeguarding fairness and justice, actively performed procuratorial functions to promote Zhejiang’s harmonious economic and social development. (1) Sternly combating criminal offense according to laws, safeguarding social stability. Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ energetically overcame the contradiction in which cases were much more than police actions,9 it improved the mechanism, strengthened the measures, and cracked down on the crimes which severely harmed national political stability and public security, or severely disrupted the economic and social order. In five years, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ approved the arrest of 322,540 criminal suspects and instituted public prosecution against 384,626 people according to laws, up 50.1 and 50.2% compared with the previous five years—the procuratorial organ approved the arrest of 282 criminal suspects and prosecuted 281 for endangering national security and participating in evil organizations, including Falungong; it approved the arrest of 251,333 suspects and prosecuted 269,626 people for committing severe violent crimes, including explosions, murder and robbing, and property embezzling 8 Xi

(2006), pp. 367–369. to statistics, during the period 2003–2007, the per capita number of cases handled by the police from the arrest approval and prosecution departments across the province was 2.25 times the national per capita number, ranking Zhejiang no.1 nationwide.

9 According

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crimes including felonious larceny and looting, and drug crimes; it also approved the arrest of 6,205 suspects and prosecuted 12,072 people for illegally collecting funds, making and selling counterfeit goods, infringing upon intellectual property or disrupting environmental resources. Regarding work, Zhejiang earnestly carried out the criminal policy of combining punishment with leniency, it made differential treatment, properly imposed lenient or severe punishment according to laws, mitigated the opposites in the society, and to the greatest extent turned negative factors into positive factors. For instance, as from 2004, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ became the first nationwide to explore the adoption of the criminal reconciliation procedure for minor criminal cases, namely, not giving criminal sanctions to the criminal suspects in minor criminal cases who actively make compensation for the victims and gain the forgiveness of the victims. This resolved the contrasts between the two sides and also avoided possible cross infection from short-term penalties of depriving freedom and the adverse impact on the injurer’s life, work and family, having produced good legal and social effects. During the period 2004–2007, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ made the decision of relative non-prosecution against more than 500 suspects in slight injury cases on the basis of criminal reconciliation.10 (2) Sternly investigating and handling duty-related crimes to promote clean and honest administration. In five years, 7,730 suspects involved in bribery and corruption, misconduct and tort were investigated and handled, up 23% compared with the previous five years; they included 6,849 people involved in bribery and corruption and 881 people involved in misconduct and tort. Among the bribery and corruption cases, there were 3,490 major cases; among the cases involving the crime of dereliction of duty including misuse of authority and neglect of duty, there were 283 serious and extraordinarily serious cases; 592 state functionaries above the county level, including 33 above the level of provincial department, were involved. A total of 1,107 bribery suspects who won cadres over and corrupted them and caused severe harm were investigated and handled. With case handling, a direct economic loss of 1.08 billion yuan was recovered for the state. Strong actions were taken to investigate and handle 1,406 people in the cases involving the people’s immediate interests, including urban construction, land expropriation and demolition, medical services, education, electric power environmental protection and major work accidents. According to the unified arrangement made by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ carried out special work on combating commercial bribery, investigating and handling the crime of commercial bribery in the field of urban construction, the crime of dereliction of duty which disrupted the order of the socialist market economy, and the crime of state functionaries’ abuse of power to violate human rights, thus vigorously cracking down on corrupt criminals and containing the momentum of frequent corruption. In the meantime, according to 10 The data on criminal reconciliation come from Fan Yuehong, The Provincial Procuratorate Regularizes the Reconciliation of Minor Criminal Cases, http://www.zjjcy.gov.cn/jcdt/jccz/200804/ t20080430_10118.htm, 2014-09-10.

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the requirement, put forward by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, of stressing both punishment and prevention and placing emphasis on prevention, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ reinforced prevention in coordination with case handling and gave scope to the role of the procuratorial organ in carrying out special prevention in the overall pattern of the Party committee’s preventative work. For instance, building an information bank for the prevention of duty-related crimes, becoming the first nationwide to carry out the query of records involving the crime of offering bribes; actively cooperating with the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province to make the Regulations on the Prevention of Duty-related Crimes, thus promoting the rule of law in preventing duty-related crimes. (3) Comprehensively strengthening litigation supervision, guaranteeing unified and correct enforcement of laws. In five years, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ supervised the investigative organ in placing on file and investigating 3,778 cases which should have been but were not placed on file, supervised the withdrawal of 1,771 cases which should not have been but were placed on file, and the number of cases under supervision increased by 68.1%. For the people who should have been but were not arrested, and who should have been but were not prosecuted, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ additionally decided to arrest 2,183 people and prosecuted1, 827; for the people who were arrested and prosecuted where the arrest and prosecution conditions were not satisfied or arrest and prosecution was unnecessary, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ decided not to arrest 14,932 people and prosecute 3,992 people. Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ lodged protests against the truly incorrect criminal judgements in 572 cases, courts tried and settled 456 cases and amended judgments in 132 cases. For the cases involving violation of laws in investigation and adjudication and illegal commutation of sentences, paroles and medical paroles in the execution of punishment, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ put forward correction opinions in 2,273 cases (for 2,273 times). The civil administrative procuratorial work was strengthened, and Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ lodged civil administrative protests in 2,892 cases. In the meantime, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ sternly investigated and handled the judicial corruption cases due to the unfairness of law enforcement; 284 judicial officials were investigated due to being suspected of abusing their power, bending the law for personal gain or soliciting bribes. In five years, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ brought about innovations to work, improved the ability to handle cases and increased the effectiveness of case handling.

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5.4.2 Actively Performing the Adjudicatory Function to Ensure Fairness and Justice In five years, with the goal of guaranteeing scientific development and safeguarding harmony and stability, the organs in Zhejiang performed their adjudicatory function to fully maintain social fairness and justice, and promote sound and rapid economic and social development. In five years, the courts at various levels handled 2,457,155 cases, settled 2,452,361 cases, with the object of litigation amounting to 170,183 million yuan. Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ settled more than 490,000 cases a year on average, ranking Zhejiang no .4 nationwide; Zhejiang ranked no. 1 among the provinces and autonomous regions across the country in the per capita number of cases settled by judges.11 (1) Punishing crimes according to laws, safeguarding national security and social stability. In five years, the High People’s Court of Zhejiang tried and settled 4,718 major criminal cases involving endangering national security, intentional killing, robbing, corruption and bribe-taking, up 19.2% compared with the previous five years; the courts at various levels handled 252,882 cases of trial of first instance, tried and settled 252,843 cases, sentenced 364,190 criminals, up 32.9%, 32.57% and 49.55% respectively, compared with the previous five years. In response to the major reform by which the approval right in cases involving the death penalty was exercised by the Supreme People’s Court in a unified way, the third court for criminal justice was established, and there was close cooperation with public security, procuratorial and judicial administrative organs; as from June 1, 2006, Zhejiang became the first among the provinces and autonomous regions across the country to make all of the cases of second instance involving the death penalty subject to a court hearing; as from September 1, 2006, Zhejiang became the first among the provinces and autonomous regions across the country to make it possible to carry out execution by lethal injection in all death penalty cases. In the meantime, Zhejiang combined punishment with leniency—in the minor criminal cases caused by contrasts among the people, including neighborhood disputes, marriage and family, if the defendants can actively make compensation for the loss incurred to the victims and gain the forgiveness of the victims, a lesser criminal punishment is given, criminal punishment is mitigated or remitted, or a non-custodial penalty is applied. (2) Combining mediation with judgment to resolve contrasts and disputes, and safeguard social harmony. In five years, the courts across the province tried and settled 1,289,438 civil cases of first instance involving marriage, family, inheritance, damages, property ownership, labor disputes, transfer of state-owned land, presale of commodity houses, construction project contracts, transportation, guarantee, hire of work, rural contracting, enterprise restructuring, company litigation, borrowing, financial leasing, letters of credit, securities, intel11 The

data on adjudicatory work here and below mainly come from the work reports of the High People’s Court of Zhejiang during the period 2004–2014.

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lectual property, maritime affairs, maritime commerce, and foreign-related civil cases. In work, Zhejiang actively carried out the civil justice principle that mediation is conducted if feasible, judgment is entered if feasible and mediation is combined with judgment to settle cases; Zhejiang also energetically explored the working mechanism for mediation covering the whole process of litigation, it promoted connection and benign interaction among judicial mediation, people’s mediation and administrative mediation and strengthened judicial mediation to boost social harmony. According to statistics, 57.06% of the civil cases of first instance tried and settled were withdrawn through mediation in five years. (3) Resolving administrative disputes according to laws, stimulating administrative organs to perform administration under the rule of law. In five years, the courts across the province tried and settled 20,798 administrative litigation cases of first instance, up 32.72%—the cases which were withdrawn and in which administrative acts were changed or administrative acts were confirmed as illegal or invalid accounted for 12.39%; the cases withdrawn by the plaintiffs because courts intensified the coordination in administrative disputes or administrative organs changed their original administrative acts accounted for 33.61%. A total of 221 state compensation cases were tried and settled, and 83,294 administrative non-litigation execution application cases were reviewed. In five years, Zhejiang actively promoted the system of making the personnel in charge of administrative organs appear in court for responding to litigation, and the external environment for administrative adjudication was further optimized; the system of non-local jurisdiction over administrative cases was piloted to enhance the credibility of administrative adjudication, which was recognized and promoted by the Supreme People’s Court.

5.4.3 Promoting the Reform of and Innovation to the Judicial Working Mechanism In five years, Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ piloted the system of people’s supervisor12 in a widespread manner, strengthened external supervision over the work on investigating and handling duty-related crimes, explored the supervision by people’s supervisors over the act of improperly placing cases on file, detention beyond the legally prescribed time limits, illegal seizure and freezing of funds and materials, the act of not confirming or executing criminal compensation according to laws, and the violation of laws and regulations by procuratorial personnel. Zhejiang’s procuratorial organ appointed 1,729 people’s supervisors to supervise 756 cases involving duty12 With

the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, in August, 2003, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate decided to pilot the system of people’s supervisors. This is an important reform experiment carried out by the procuratorial organ to strengthen self-building and consciously accept social supervision. Zhejiang was included in the first batch of 10 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) for piloting the system of people’s supervisors.

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related crimes in which the criminal suspects refused to accept the decision to arrest and the procuratorial organ planned to make withdrawal and not prosecute. Intensified efforts were made to promote the working mechanism connecting administrative law enforcement with criminal justice; the People’s Procuratorate of Zhejiang and 14 provincial administrative law enforcement agencies jointly established working rules, and suggested that relevant departments should transfer 591 suspected criminal cases to the public security organ. In 2003, the People’s Procuratorate of Zhejiang became the first nationwide to comprehensively conduct the reform involving reasoning in written civil administrative protests, enhancing the reasoning in procuratorial instruments, significantly improving the quality of case handling, and this exerted an extensive impact within the judicial field and the jurisprudential circle across the country and was well received13 ; in 2006, Zhejiang also became the first nationwide to take the innovative move of practicing the online handling of civil administrative procuratorial cases across the country, which better overcame the backlog of cases and was recognized by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate; Zhejiang became the first nationwide to urge prosecution in the civil cases which severely damaged national interests, and urged the prosecution of 1,680 cases according to laws, preventing the loss of state assets worth more than 1 billion yuan. With respect to major cases involving complaint-related letters and visits, open hearings were conducted and appeals were stopped in an open, transparent way and innovations were made in the ways of solving the problems concerning complaint-related letters and visits, producing good effects. During the 4th Session of the 10th People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, the High People’s Court of Zhejiang made three commitments: ensuring that the people with the needs of appealing do not fail to institute legal proceedings due to financial difficulties, that the people with reason do not fail to win lawsuits due to weak personal social relationships, and that the legitimate rights and interests of the successful party do not fail to be protected due to poor and unfair execution. In this regard, the High People’s Court of Zhejiang brought about innovations to its mechanisms, pushed forward reform, introduced 53 concrete measures, made 37 normative documents, and led the courts at various levels across the provinces to jointly honor these three commitments, producing marked effects. Since 2008, Zhejiang has continued to carry out the instructions and requirements from comrade Xi Jinping to expand and innovate judicial work, ensuring sustained development in various respects. During the period 2008–2013, the courts across the province handled 5,201,300 cases and settled 5,148,000 cases. The per capita number of cases settled by the frontline judges reached 155, more than twice the national average; the courts in 13 The Chief Procurator of the People’s Procuratorate of Zhejiang Chen Yunlong, Deputy Chief Procurator Zhuang Jiannan and the Director of the Division of Civil Administrative Procuratorial Work Fu Guoyun led this reform involving reasoning in judicial instruments, which was later extended to the criminal procuratorial field. The jurisprudential circle regarded these pioneering procuratorial reform measures in China as the Zhejiang phenomenon of "making the rule of law lead the way". See Sun Xiaoxia, An Analysis of the Phenomenon of "Making the Rule of Law Lead the Way" in the Economically Developed Areas, Law Science, 2009(12).

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Zhejiang were at the forefront among the courts across the country in main indicators, including the quality, efficiency and effect of case handling over the years. In 2011, the Intellectual Property Adjudication Tribunal of the High People’s Court of Zhejiang was granted the first China Trademark Protection Gold Award by the World Intellectual Property Organization, making it the first award-winning unit in the national court circles.

5.5 Energetically Fostering the Citizens’ Concept of the Rule of Law In order to promote the rule of law, it is necessary not only to enhance and improve the work in legislation, law enforcement and judicature, but also to make citizens have the awareness of consciously observing laws and develop good legal quality, make sure that all citizens, including those in power, recognize the legal spirit and trust the rule of law, and to cultivate the citizens’ concept of the rule of law. This requires great efforts to promote education concerning law popularization.

5.5.1 The Basic Line of Thought of Education Concerning the Popularization of the Law When comrade Xi Jinping worked in Zhejiang, he profoundly understood the importance of legal publicity and education, and stressed it on multiple occasions. For instance, on December 4, 2003 the National Legal Publicity Day, comrade Xi Jinping specially wrote an article to expound the important significance of legal publicity and education and its work priorities. On February 8, 2006, when conducting the special survey on the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law in Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, comrade Xi Jinping specially stressed the work on the popularization of the law and the rural legal publicity and education. On April 25, 2006, when delivering a report during the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping once again stressed the necessity of popularizing legal education among citizens and developing the citizens’ spirit of the rule of law. Comrade Xi Jinping had clear, complete and profound thoughts about the education concerning the popularization of the law. These thoughts covered the importance and purpose of the education concerning the popularization of the law, as well as the key objects, difficulties and methods in that education. (1) The importance of the education concerning the popularization of the law. For the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law, the popularization of legal education among citizens is overarching, pioneering and fundamental.14 14 Xi

(2006), p. 386.

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(2) The purpose of the education concerning the popularization of the law. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “It is necessary to take enhancing the legal awareness of the whole society and the citizens’ legal quality as the basic purpose of the education concerning the popularization of the law”. As indicated, the basic purpose of the education concerning the popularization of the law lies in enhancing the legal awareness of the whole society and the citizens’ legal quality. Afterwards, comrade Xi Jinping summarized this basic purpose as “developing the citizens’ spirit of the rule of law”.15 What is the fundamental purpose of education concerning the popularization of the law? Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “Strengthening legal publicity and education and enhancing the citizens’ legal quality should be aimed at taking economic development as the central task, promoting economic development and raising the people’s living standard”; he further stressed, “In the process of strengthening legal publicity and education and enhancing the citizens’ legal quality, emphasis should be placed on the people’s interests and the highest standard consists in embodying and safeguarding those interests”. On this basis, we believe that in comrade Xi Jinping’s view, the fundamental or the supreme purpose of education concerning the popularization of the law lies in promoting economic development, raising the people’s living standard and safeguarding the people’s interests. (3) The key objects in education concerning the popularization of the law. In comrade Xi Jinping’s opinion, the leading cadres at various levels and civil servants are the key objects in the education concerning the popularization of the law. He pointed out, “In order to strengthen legal publicity and education and enhance the citizens’ legal quality, it is necessary to start with the leading cadres at various levels, and the Party members and cadres, especially the leading cadres at various levels, should set an example, lead the way in learning, understanding and applying the laws, and support and urge relevant departments to strictly and impartially enforce laws. The civil servants should earnestly learn the theory of socialist democracy and legal system, the theory of governing the country under the rule of law and legal knowledge, enhance the legal concept and the ability to handle affairs according to laws.” (4) The difficulties in education concerning the popularization of the law. In comrade Xi Jinping’s view, it is relatively easy to carry out education concerning the popularization of the law at state organs and in urban communities, but there are difficulties in doing so in rural areas. Thus, it is essential to focus the legal publicity and education on rural areas. (5) The methods in education concerning the popularization of the law. Comrade Xi Jinping gave great importance to making education concerning the popular15 When delivering a report during the 10th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping pointed out, “It is necessary to develop the citizens’ spirit of the rule of law, foster faith in the rule of law and nurture a healthy tendency in the rule of law in the whole society, making the spirit, awareness and concept of the rule of law rooted in the people’s mind and reflected in the people’s daily acts.” See Xi Jinping, Carrying out Concrete Work to Stay Ahead—Line of Thought and Practice in Promoting New Development in Zhejiang, The Party School of the CPC Central Committee Press, 2006, p. 386.

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ization of the law targeted and effective. For this purpose, it is essential to adopt proper methods in that education. In this regard, comrade Xi Jinping stressed that it was necessary to get close to the reality, life and the people, ensure the participation of the whole society and adopt the popular way to making education concerning the popularization of the law more targeted and effective; it was also necessary to pay attention to the hot spots and difficulties among the people, the people’s actual needs, proceed from facilitating the citizens’ learning of legal knowledge, enhancing the legal concept and improving the ability to safeguard rights according to laws in order to fully mobilize the people to learn about the laws and regulations; rural legal publicity and education should focus on cultivating the legal concept; for the ordinary people in rural areas, the popularization of legal knowledge was limited, and so the most important work consisted in making the people foster a legal concept.

5.5.2 Zhejiang’s Effective Practice in Education Concerning the Popularization of the Law The agencies for education concerning the popularization of the law at various levels in Zhejiang thoroughly carried out comrade Xi Jinping’s thoughts and instructions regarding that education, they improved the mechanisms, strengthened the measures, gave prominence to the key points, and pushed forward the work in an all-round way; Zhejiang made significant progress in education concerning the popularization of the law. (1) Giving prominence to stimulating the leading cadres and civil servants to learn the laws and apply them. It should be noted that in 2008, Zhejiang became the first nationwide to conduct closed-book legal examinations among the cadres directly under the Department of Organization of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, 1,149 leading cadres directly under the Department of Organization from 161 provincial units and 11 cities attended the examination, 100% of them passed the examination, and 97.8% of them obtained excellent results on the examination. (2) Establishing a long-term mechanism for the popularization of the law. Zhejiang gave importance to establishing a long-term working mechanism for the popularization of the law, with a view to guaranteeing a long-term and orderly popularization of laws. (3) Carrying out the activity of the popularization of the law in an all-round way. Zhejiang utilized traditional and new media, leveraged the comprehensive advantages of various modes and methods to conduct an all-round activity of the popularization of the law, producing marked effects. First, actively expanding the fronts for the popularization of the law. Zhejiang energetically utilized traditional and new media to build the universal fronts for the popularization of the law and to bring into being a three-dimensional pattern of publicity in which

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there are images on television, articles in newspapers, voices in radio stations and special columns on the Internet. As of late 2010, Zhejiang had 160 TV columns for the popularization of the law, 80 special columns for it on the radio and 120 special columns for it in newspapers; the agencies for education concerning the popularization of the law at various levels founded 87 newspapers for that purpose, and launched 110 websites for it; the Office for the Popularization of the Law of Zhejiang Province and the Zhejiang Daily Press Group jointly launched the Zhejiang Rule of Law Online, an integrated portal website for the rule of law; the agencies for education concerning the popularization of the law at various levels opened 102 official microblog accounts for the popularization of the law at sina.com.16 Furthermore, a large number of fronts for the popularization of the law with local characteristics were built, such as the Shen Jiaben Legal Education Base in Huzhou City and the Yang Naiwu Xiao Baicai Educational Base for the Popularization of the Law in Yuhang District, Hangzhou City. Second, extensively carrying out various types of activities for the popularization of the law. Zhejiang fully leveraged the legal publicity month, publicity week and publicity day, and the brand effect of the “December 4th” National Legal Publicity Day and the Zhejiang Legal Publicity Month, carried out legal publicity and the practice of activities in the square regarding legal services, special legal lectures among the cadres of provincial state organs, the legal knowledge contest among the cadres of the Party branch committee and village committee in rural areas and the non-local people who had started businesses at the local level; Zhejiang also gave prominence to the theme of the rule-of-law culture, conducted the collection, appraisal and selection of cartoons involving the rule of law, a photography contest for the popularization of the law, legal cultural and artistic performances, and the activity of introducing the rule-oflaw culture to campuses. Third, carrying out centralized publicity regarding the popularization of the law. Practice proves that with many years of efforts, Zhejiang managed to form an extensive pattern for the popularization of the law in which the Party committee exercises leadership, the people’s congress exercises supervision, the government carries out the relevant work, and the PPCC provides support, with cooperation of various departments and with the participation of the whole society. As of late 2010, 94% of the primary and middle schools across the province put in place a plan for legal education, teaching materials, class hours and teachers, various types of schools appointed more than 15,000 vice presidents and instructors for legal affairs; Zhejiang had about 1,300 integrated juvenile legal educational bases, including 18 provincial juvenile legal educational bases; it organized more than 70,000 enterprise operations managers to attend legal knowledge contests; Zhejiang had about 4,600 legal schools for enterprise workers and staff, 3,600 legal schools (night schools) for rural migrant workers, and 700 legal publicity and education bases; Zhejiang trained the cadres of the village-level Party branch committee and village committee for 627,700 person16 Zhao Guangjun, The Appeal of the Legal Publicity and Education Has Been Further Enhanced, http://www.zjrd.gov.cn/, http://www.zjrd.gov.cn/, 2014-09-12.

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times17 ; Zhejiang had 25,703 legal advisors at the village and community levels, with coverage reaching 74.3%.18 In Zhejiang, 89.02% of the people acquired basic legal knowledge to a great extent; 94.81% of the people believed that laws were the weapons for safeguarding the citizens’ legitimate rights and interests; 73.92% of the people were satisfied and basically satisfied with the performance of government organs in performing administration under the rule of law, and 70.09% of the people were satisfied with judicial fairness.19 These statistical data completely demonstrate Zhejiang’s great achievements in education concerning the popularization of the law.

Reference Xi Jinping, Carrying out Concrete Work to Stay Ahead—Line of Thought and Practice in Promoting New Development in Zhejiang, The Party School of the CPC Central Committee Press, 2006.

17 Data come from Zhao Guangjun, The Report on Zhejiang’s Work on Law Popularization during the 5th Five-Year Law Popularization Plan Period, Zhejiang People‘s Congress Magazine (Communique Edition), 2011(5). 18 The data on the legal advisors at the village and community levels across the province come from Zhao Guangjun, Judicial Administration: Further Fostering the Innovation Advantage in Strengthening and Innovating Social Management, in: Lin Lujian, Annual Report on Zhejiang’s Development 2012 (The Rule of Law Volume), Hangzhou Publishing House, 2012, p. 153. 19 The speech delivered by Deputy Director Lin Danjun in the press conference on summarization of Zhejiang’s work on law popularization during the 5th Five-Year Law Popularization Plan period and commendation& initiation of Zhejiang’s work on law popularization during the 6th Five-Year Law Popularization Plan period. See http://www.zjsft.gov.cn/art/2011/6/22/art_112_30247.html.

Chapter 6

Changing Government Functions and Innovating the Mode of Governmental Governance Bin Ma

Governmental governance is at the heart of national governance and is the most important subsystem in the whole national system of governance. The modernization of governmental governance is an important part of the whole process of modernization and it is also an important driving force in that modernization. Since the reform and opening-up, Zhejiang has proceeded from the reality to creatively adjust its role and functional orientation, continuously improve the system of basic public services which benefits the whole population, and innovate the mechanism of governmental management; governmental governance has generally experienced a change from “governance characterized by non-interference” to “active intervention” and then to a service-oriented government.

6.1 Building a Modern System of Governmental Functions for a Service-Oriented Government In the process of marketization, important progress has been made in the functional transformation of the governments at various levels. Since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, local authorities in Zhejiang have followed the Scientific Outlook on Development and the requirement of building a harmonious society to gradually change the functions of local governments from a previous emphasis on rapid economic growth to an emphasis on all-round, coordinated and sustainable economic and social development, and comprehensively strengthen economic regulations, market supervision, social management and public services. With a gradual transformation of governmental functions, the connotation of functional transformation has changed noticeably. Initially, the government only performed the function of economic management, while now the government performs B. Ma (B) The Research Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 N. Fang et al. (eds.), Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics, Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8_6

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four main functions: economic regulations, market supervision, social management and public services. With a focus on comprehensively performing the functions of economic regulations, market supervision, social management and public services and actively building a modern functional system, the governments at various levels in Zhejiang have more rapidly changed their functions in the following aspects: 1. Strengthening regional planning and the guidance of industrial policies to promote economic change and upgrading Since the reform and opening-up, like the rest of the country, Zhejiang has generally taken the path of extensive operations with high input, high consumption, high emission and low returns, but such an economic growth mode has become increasingly unsustainable, and so it is urgently necessary for local governments to play active guidance and supervisory roles. Zhejiang has played the guiding role of government planning and industrial policy in economic development. Since 2003, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province has broken the boundary of administrative divisions, made and implemented the plans for three main industrial belts including the industrial belt around the Hangzhou Bay, the Wenzhou-Taizhou coastal industrial belt and the Jinhua-Quzhou-Lishui industrial belt, and made them closely connected to urban master planning, a land use plan and a plan for an ecological function area, thus building a great platform for industrial agglomeration. With the integration of development zones, the number of development zones in Zhejiang decreased from the original 758 to 152 in late 2013, and the spatial structure of productive forces was optimized. At present, Zhejiang has 20 national-level economic and technological development zones and a number of outstanding provincial-level development zones, a number of bonded zones with special functions, special zones for the supervision of customs and the zone of economic and trade cooperation with Taiwan, and they serve as the main platforms for Zhejiang’s development, the forerunners in development, strong economic engines and regional growth poles. In 2013, the development zones in Zhejiang, with about 5% land, realized 57% of the province’s GDP, 47.3% of the province’s total imports and exports; their fixed asset investments accounted for 38.6% of those of the province; their input in the technical renovation of the enterprises accounted for 59.2% of the province’s input; their tax revenue accounted for 31.0% of the province’s tax revenue. As of late 2013, the development zones in Zhejiang actually utilized cumulative foreign investments worth USD 63.6 billion and had 10,000 foreign-funded enterprises; they were the areas with the highest intensity of capital introduction and at the highest level of capital introduction in Zhejiang. In the meantime, given that the province’s industrial competitive advantages were concentrated in the traditional industries and low-and-medium-grade products, Zhejiang actively promoted a new leap of the private economy and more quickly developed its advanced manufacturing industry and the modern service industry, energetically developed the marine economy such as port-based industries, and effectively further optimized and upgraded the province’s industrial structure. In 2004, Zhejiang issued the opinions on promoting a new leap of the private economy and made efforts

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to increase the scale, level and grade of private enterprises; in 2006, Document No. 1 of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province was issued, specifying 28 policies for speeding up the development of the private economy; 20 measures for making the people rich by starting businesses and building a strong province through innovation were made and implemented. In late 2011, Zhejiang introduced the “1 + 6” policy measures for supporting Zhejiang merchants in starting a business, bringing about innovations and pursuing development, thus fostering an atmosphere in which Zhejiang merchants within Zhejiang can keep a foothold in Zhejiang to develop Zhejiang and Zhejiang merchants outside Zhejiang can return to Zhejiang to help Zhejiang. Zhejiang leveraged the massive economic advantages of traditional industries and earnestly developed the strategic emerging industries, which became the strategic choice for Zhejiang’s economic change and upgrading at the crossroads. In 2010, Zhejiang lost no time in putting forward nine main strategic emerging industries—including biology, new energy, high-end equipment manufacturing, energy conservation and environmental protection, new energy automobiles, the Internet of Things, new materials, the emerging marine industry and the nuclear power-related industry—and vowed to provide key support for them. According to the plan developed by the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, by 2015, the added value from the strategic emerging industries in Zhejiang should reach about 500 billion yuan, accounting for about 12% of the GDP. In the meantime, Zhejiang made efforts to improve the support from the “soft factor”. In 2003, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province put forward the strategy of introducing large institutions and famous universities for the joint construction of carriers of innovations, with a view to encouraging local authorities to work with, mainly through enterprises, domestic and foreign large institutions and famous universities for jointly building carriers of innovations by focusing on introducing team-type talents and core technologies. As of 2012, there were 946 carriers of innovations jointly built through introduction, 416 more than in 2007, up 79%. According to the statistics on 843 carriers of innovations, the total investments reached 12.7 billion yuan and there were 29,000 innovative talents, including 7,003 people with a senior professional title (Ph.D.); 11,200 scientific and technological projects were carried out, 7,514 projects were completed, 8,990 patents were granted, including 2,040 patents for inventions, and 66.7 billion yuan in economic returns were generated. Based on this, under the principle of system integration and development sharing, with the board of governors, the joint-stock system and the membership system, actions were taken to more rapidly build the public platforms for scientific and technological infrastructures as well as industrial and regional platforms for innovations. Zhejiang actively promoted the building of the national pilot province for projects of technical innovation, and established 5 billion yuan in provincial-level special funds for building a strong province of science and technology, introduced incentive policies for building an innovative province and a strong province of science and technology, transforming scientific and technological achievements, and it moved faster to build public platforms for science and technology and carriers of innovations focusing on Qingshan Lake Sci-Tech City, Future Sci-Tech City, Jiaxing Science City and Ningbo New Materials Sci-Tech City,

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and carried out the measures for cultivating high-skilled talents and funding activities regarding technical innovations, and the province’s R&D expenditure accounted for 2.04% of its GDP. 2. Building a system of employment and social security to achieve full coverage and integration With continued efforts for many years, in the building of the employment and social security system, Zhejiang has changed from “single breakthrough” to “holistic promotion”, from “policy adjustment” to “law-based regularization”, from “urban security” to “coordinated urban and rural security”, and it has established a wellfunctioning and multi-level social security system covering urban and rural areas, and has basically built a three-in-one extensive social security system in which employment and reemployment, social insurance and social assistance connect and promote each other, and a great deal of the practice was pioneered nationwide. Specifically, as from 2004, Zhejiang actively carried out the developmental strategy of expanding employment, and comprehensively promoted coordinated employment in urban and rural areas, and thus kept the employment situation stable. Regarding urban households with zero employment, once a household with zero employment was discovered, its employment was addressed; intensified efforts were made to support the employment of the people in difficulty, including the rural households enjoying the minimum living guarantee; during the period 2004–2013, the total number of employed people increased by 7,167,800, the province’s registered urban unemployment rate decreased from 4.1% in late 2004 and 3.7% in late 2005 to 3.01% in late 2013, showing a continued decline. There had been full coverage by the social endowment insurance system for urban and rural residents and the basic medical security system. In Zhejiang, the number of the people covered by the basic endowment insurance for enterprise employees, basic medical insurance for urban workers, work-related injury insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance increased rapidly from 8.72 million, 6.32 million, 4.55 million, 4.40 million and 2.80 million in 2005 to 22,725,000, 17.91 million, 18,261,000, 11.44 million and 11,732,000 in 2013, respectively. It should be noted that substantive progress was made in the endowment insurance system for urban and rural residents. As from January, 2009, the eligible urban residents above the age of 60 received a basic pension fund not lower than 60 yuan/person/month, the goal of making sure that everyone enjoys old-age security was achieved. In 2013, it was increased to 100 yuan/person/month. In 2013, the coverage of the new rural cooperative medical system reached 97.7% across the province; the standard per capita funding and standard fiscal subsidy were 557 yuan and 393 yuan, up 12 times and 26 times compared with 2003. The rate of hospitalization expense settlement and reimbursement increased from 2.6% to 9.2%; the reimbursement ratio within the scope of the hospitalization policy reached 75%, cumulative 62 billion yuan reimbursement of medical expenses was made for 520 million people covered by insurance. In the meantime, Zhejiang energetically explored the integration of the new rural cooperative medical system and the basic medical insurance system for urban residents, achieving coordinated development in urban and rural areas. The new social assistance system was further

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improved, the system of subsistence allowances covered all possible groups in urban areas; support was provided to 95.5% of the rural people enjoying five guarantees (food, clothing, medical care, housing, and burial expenses) and 99.1% of the urban people without identification papers, a normal residence permit, and a source of income. 3. Strengthening ecological protection and environmental governance to undertake the path of green development A good ecological environment is the greatest advantage for Zhejiang’s sustainable development. One of the outstanding features of the change in Zhejiang’s philosophy of development lies in paying a great deal of attention to environmental protection and ecological development, placing emphasis on the present economic growth and long-term sustainable development, taking environmental protection and ecological development as important functions of the government in performing public services. After the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the 2nd Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province further identified the building of a green Zhejiang as the goal, took the building of an ecological province as an opportunity and a breakthrough and pursued a model of sustainable development featuring increased production, higher living standards, and healthy ecosystems. Given a large population, less land and a shortage of natural resources, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province fully leveraged the macro control mechanism, took energy conservation and emission reduction as an important means for transforming the economic developmental mode and promoting economic change and upgrading and comprehensively carried out the activity of saving energy, water, land and materials. In 2014, the comprehensive energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP in Zhejiang was 0.49 tce, down 0.32 tce compared with 2004; chemical oxygen demand and sulfur dioxide emissions greatly decreased compared with 2004. As an area where the market-oriented reform was initiated at the earliest and there is the highest degree of marketization, Zhejiang was the first province nationwide to introduce the system of ecological protection compensation. During the period 2007–2011, the cumulative ecological compensation fund based on transfer payment from provincial finances reached 5.1 billion yuan. With painstaking investigations and bold practice for many years, Zhejiang made significant achievements in ecological development. According to the Annual Report on China’s Provincial Eco-civilization Index (2011), Zhejiang ranked no.3 among the provinces in the ecocivilization index. 4. Accelerating coordinated urban and rural development to ensure equal access to public services The balanced urban and rural development is a noticeable feature of Zhejiang’s regional development. Although some “miracles” created through economic development in more than 30 years cannot be considered to make the people at the lowest level universally rich, we must admit that compared with the rest of the Chinese Mainland, Zhejiang has witnessed quite a bit of apparent universality of prosperity

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among the people at the lower levels, at least relative universality of shaking off poverty and becoming prosperous.1 The then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping, pointed out many times that urban and rural integration was the fundamental way to address the issues relating to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and that Zhejiang had the conditions for, necessity of and responsibility to promote coordinated urban and rural development, gradually break the dual urban and rural structure, more rapidly push forward urban and rural integration, become the first nationwide to venture down the path of stimulating rural development through urban areas, promoting agricultural development through industry and pursuing urban and rural integration. First, with respect to coordinated urban and rural development, actively exploring the new-type path towards urbanization, persevering in promoting agricultural development through industry, stimulating rural development through urban areas and pursuing urban and rural integration, thus more quickly extending urban infrastructures and public services to rural areas. The urban and rural development became more coordinated; in 2014, the province’s level of urbanization reached 64.9%, up 10% points compared with 2004, more than 10% points higher than the national average. In late 2013, Zhejiang completed the comprehensive environmental improvement of 26,000 villages, 89% of the villages were improved, 93% the the administrative villages witnessed centralized collection and disposal of domestic garbage, 62.5% of the administrative villages brought about treatment of domestic sewage, and full coverage of public service facilities was basically achieved. In late 2013, in Zhejiang, classified roads extended to 100% of the villages, and 99% of the roads to villages were paved. At present, every village in Zhejiang shows some kind of an urban environment. Second, with regard to coordinated regional development, focusing coordinated regional development on accelerating the development of the developed areas and leapfrog development of the underdeveloped areas. As from 2011, Zhejiang intensified special financial transfer payment to 12 counties (county-level cities, districts) which were the most underdeveloped from an economic perspective, were subject to the most arduous task for ecological protection and were the most remote across the province, these included Taishun, Wencheng, Kaihua, Songyang, Qingyuan, Jingning, Pan’an, Qujiang, Changshan, Longquan, Yunhe and Suichang, and Zhejiang provided three-year special support to more rapidly making the low-income rural households get rid of poverty and become better off. The per capita net income of the low-income rural households in 12 specially supported counties (county-level cities) grew by 67.4% in 2012 compared with 2009, an average annual increase of 18.7, 5.4% points higher than the average annual growth rate among rural residents across the province in the same period (13.3%). In 2013, Zhejiang launched a new round of projects aimed at the alleviation of rural poverty dominated by the Program for Doubling the Income of the Low-income Rural Households, with the poverty alleviation standard raised to the extent that the annual per capita income of households was not lower than 4,600 yuan. 1 Zhao

(2009).

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5. Speeding up the development of educational programs in urban and rural areas to ensure educational fairness and improvement of the quality of education In recent years, Zhejiang has given great importance to educational development, and in particular, Zhejiang has made heavy investments in promoting balanced educational development in urban and rural areas and ensuring equal access to education, producing significant effects, which was a great bright spot in the building of a service-oriented government. In nearly five years, Zhejiang’s total educational expenditure increased continuously from 29.1 billion yuan in 2009 to 144.9 billion yuan in 2013—fiscal expenditure on education increased from 59.5 billion yuan to 108.9 billion yuan, an average annual growth rate of 16.6%. The educational expenditure from public finances accounted for 21% of the fiscal expenditure; educational expenditure became the largest expenditure from Zhejiang’s public finances. First, promoting balanced development of compulsory education. Zhejiang improved the mechanism for guaranteeing compulsory educational expenditure and ascertained the responsibilities of the governments at various levels for developing the educational cause; Zhejiang gradually increased educational expenditure by a large margin. In Zhejiang, the standard of public expenditure per junior middle school student and primary school student increased from 460 yuan and 295 yuan in 2005 to 750 yuan and 550 yuan in 2013. In order to improve the conditions for rural compulsory education, Zhejiang comprehensively carried out the projects for extending financial aid to more poverty-stricken students, providing loving-care nutritional meals, renovating board and lodging, improving the quality of teachers and guaranteeing the safety of school houses. Zhejiang became the first nationwide to basically popularize a 15-year-long educational path from preschool education to high school and secondary vocational education and achieved free compulsory education in urban and rural areas. In 2013, 99.99%of the primary school-age children were enrolled, the annual consolidation rate of students at schools was 100%, and 100%of the primary school graduates entered junior middle schools. The junior middle school enrollment rate was 99.95%, the consolidation rate was 99.99%, the degree of popularization of nine-year compulsory education came out in front nationwide; in 2014, the rate of popularization of 15-year education reached 97.9%. Second, attaching great importance to the development of vocational education. Zhejiang vigorously developed the secondary vocational education, and shifted the focus of the development of Zhejiang’s vocational education to improving the quality of education and the capability for services; 630 million yuan in special funds from provincial finance and 2.37 billion yuan from local finances were allocated to carry out the six action plans for vocational education in three years from 2006. Third, achieving leapfrog development of higher education from elite education to mass education. The province’s gross enrollment rate in higher education increased from 34% in 2005 to 51.7% in 2013, 17.2% points higher than the national average, ranking Zhejiang no. 1 among the provinces and autonomous regions across the country. In Zhejiang, the number of full-time regular institutions of higher education increased from 68 in 2004 to 108 in 2014, there were 978,200 students at schools, including 10,038 doctoral candidates and 47,763 master’s degree candidates; a pat-

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tern of running the institutions of higher learning at various levels in various ways and through multiple channels gradually took shape. 6. Speeding up the development of medical and health programs to overcome the difficulties in seeking medical services and high medical costs for the people The governments at various levels in Zhejiang established and improved the basic medical and health system covering urban and rural residents so that the people could afford to seek medical services, get access to medical institutions, strengthen prevention to mitigate illness, and made significant progress in ensuring the basic medical and health services. During the period 2004–2014, the expenditure from the finances at various levels in Zhejiang on health programs grew annually by an average of more than 11%, the system of medical and health services was improved continuously. First, the public health resources grew rapidly. In 2014, Zhejiang had 30,360 health institutions, including 935 hospitals, 487 community service centers, 1,148 health centers, 8,257 outpatient departments, clinics and infirmaries; there were 100 disease control and prevention centers, 103 public health inspection offices, 42 onthe-job medical training bodies, 7 medical research institutions and 87 maternity and child care institutions. The number of doctors per 1,000 people increased from 1.8 in 2005 to 3 in 2014. Second, the system of medical and health services was increasingly improved. The capability for rural medical and health services improved significantly; Zhejiang preliminarily built a system of rural medical and health services led by county-level hospitals and based on township health centers (community health service centers) and village clinics (community health service stations); in particular, Zhejiang stayed ahead nationwide in urban and rural community health work. In Zhejiang, the number of urban and rural community health centers (stations) increased from 5,191 in 2008 to 6,166 in 2014, a 20 min medical service circle covering the whole province took shape. Third, the capacity for public hygiene and health security improved significantly. Progress was made in the prevention and control of serious diseases; various types of major public health emergencies were effectively coped with and handled. The health of rural residents was enhanced noticeably; farmers underwent physical examinations once every two years and received 12 rural public health services under three categories. In 2013, the province’s maternal mortality rate decreased to 6.2/100,000; the mortality of children below the age of 5 decreased to 4.48‰, the per capita life expectancy increased from 38 before the founding of new China to 77.8; Zhejiang stayed ahead nationwide in the main health indicators. Fourth, the reform of the medical and health system was actively promoted. Since 2009, according to the arrangements made by the State Council, Zhejiang has further intensified the reform of the medical and health system, upheld the public welfare nature of public health and medical services, and provided a basic medical and health system to the entire population by taking it as public goods, gradually ensuring that everyone enjoys the basic medical and health services.

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7. Accelerating the construction of infrastructures to increase the level of networking and systematization The then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Xi Jinping, pointed out, “The competition in regional economy is largely the competition in the developmental environment, the environment is competitiveness. The environment includes a soft environment and a hard environment, and the hard environment is the foundation and carrier.” Zhejiang focused on fostering a good environment for development, incessantly made infrastructures more networked and systematic, more rapidly pushed forward the action plans for major projects and the government-led major construction projects; Zhejiang successfully completed the five 10-billion projects, and smoothly pushed forward three 100-billion projects, completed and put into operation the Hangzhou Bay Sea-Crossing Bridge, the Zhoushan Sea-Crossing Bridge, the Dongtou Peninsula Project, the Ningbo-Taizhou-Wenzhou Railway, and the JiaxingShaoxing Channel, giving rise to an integrated transportation network which extends in all directions. During the period 2003–2013, the cumulative investments in infrastructures in Zhejiang were 2,986.2 billion yuan, the investments have grown annually by 13.2% since 2004. The water conservation environment, public facility management, the transportation and electric power industry were the priority areas of investments in the construction of infrastructures; during the period 2003–2013, the cumulative investments in these three industries were 997.7 billion yuan, 617.7 billion yuan and 951.4 billion yuan, respectively. The average annual growth rates since 2004 are 12.2%, 13.5% and 17.2%. With the completion and operation of major infrastructure projects, the “bottlenecks” restricting Zhejiang’s economic development were effectively overcome, the environment for investment and that for survival improved greatly, the quality of the people’s lives improved continuously, immensely promoting Zhejiang’s economic and social development. In Zhejiang, the mileage of highways increased from 1,866 km in 2005 to 3,787 km in 2013, the number of air routes for civil aviation increased from 203 in 2006 to 334 in 2013, and the cargo throughput in major coastal ports increased from 574.39 million tons in 2007 to 1,005.91 million tons in 2013; by late 2013, there were 2,031 km of railways in Zhejiang. The capacity for energy production improved significantly, Zhejiang entered a new stage of the modern electric power industry with a full-fledged network, a rational layout, flexible dispatching and a reliable power supply. In Zhejiang, the installed electricity capacity above 6,000 kw increased from 28.55 million kw in 2005 to 64.84 million kw in 2013. Zhejiang completed the technically advanced network of basic information communication with full services covering the whole province and extending to various parts of the world. In 2013, there were 70.72 million mobile phone subscribers and 59.98 million Internet subscribers in Zhejiang. 8. Actively innovating social governance to comprehensively build a safe Zhejiang In more than ten years, Zhejiang energetically brought about innovations to social governance for building a safe Zhejiang in all respects. With a focus on safeguarding

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the legitimate rights and interests of the people, local governments in Zhejiang carefully solved the problems concerning violations of rights and interests of urban and rural residents in land expropriation, house demolitions and enterprise restructuring. According to the sampling survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics, 96.8% of the people in Zhejiang were satisfied with security in 2012, ranking Zhejiang no. 1 nationwide for 8 consecutive years.

6.2 Building a Streamlined and Efficient System of Government Organization 6.2.1 Promoting the Reform of the Governmental Institution: Actively Exploring the Giant Department System One basic direction for Zhejiang’s reform of governmental institutions lies in exploring and carrying out the giant department system, integrating the bodies with cross functions and similar services in the existing departments and their functions, rationalizing and regularizing the division of duties among departments, pushing forward comprehensive management of government affairs, gradually moving towards the developmental direction of “extensive functions and few bodies”, ensuring regularized and efficient operations of the government, and reducing the operating costs of the government. Since the reform and opening-up, Zhejiang has carried out five large-scale reforms of governmental institutions, in 1983, 1994, 1999, 2003 and 2009, optimizing the setting of governmental institutions, the allocation of functions and working procedures; an administrative management system suited to the system of a socialist market economy has been preliminarily built. In the meantime, in recent years, according to the requirement of transforming government functions, local authorities in Zhejiang have energetically experimented with the mode of institutional reform, and have attempted the giant department system in some fields. Take Fuyang as an example; on April 28, 2007, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Fuyang City issued the Opinions on Establishing and Improving the Operating Mechanism for Promoting the Work of the Municipal Government, calling for, with the government staffing unchanged, combining the division of work among four leading bodies with cooperation, combining the philosophy of coordination and integration of the modern government with the traditional system of dividing the work among departments, establishing the “4 + 13” operating mechanism, and preliminarily building a pattern of work with a wide coverage in planning, finance, land, “agriculture, rural areas and farmers”, industry, commerce and trade, construction, transportation, environmental protection, social security and supervision.

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6.2.2 The Fiscal System with Counties Directly Administered by the Provincial Government and the Reform Involving the Expansion of the Powers of Strong Counties: Optimizing the Mechanism of Governance Among the Provincial, Municipal and County Governments The development of a county economy is governed by a special objective law; the limitations in its capacity for resource allocation and integration—such as the problems in finance, technology, talents, market and land—easily loom large under the structure of a pure county economy. Thus, it is particularly important to go beyond the scope of the county, coordinate and allocate market resources from a wider perspective and at a higher level and thus achieve the best combination of economic development and resource allocation. In response to the rapid development of the regional economy, especially the county economy, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province actively pressed ahead with delegating powers to the lower levels in the process of marketization, and they continuously optimized the distribution of power among the governments at various levels, and effectively aroused the enthusiasm of the primary-level government for development. The most crucial institutional innovation lies in carrying out the fiscal system with counties directly administered by the provincial government and continuously pushing forward the policy of expanding the powers of strong counties for a long time. 1. The increasingly improved fiscal system with counties directly administered by the provincial government One prominent feature of the fiscal system with counties directly administered by the provincial government is that the county-level finance and municipal finance are placed on an equal footing and treated by provincial finance under the same fiscal policy, the provincial government directly deals with the county (municipal) governments in financial settlements, allocation of special funds (including the funds allocated through documents issued together with departments) and fund dispatching, in particular, the funds allocated to the county-level finance through transfer payment are not checked by the department at the municipal level. Since 1953, except during part of the period of the Cultural Revolution, Zhejiang has always carried out the fiscal system with counties directly administered by the provincial government. Such a fiscal system was not created by Zhejiang, but Zhejiang is almost the only one which has carried out such a fiscal system since 1953 among the provinces and autonomous regions across the country.2 In this process, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have resisted the pressure from various aspects, and it has constantly adjusted and improved that fiscal system in light of the changes in economic and social development.

2 Wu

(2004).

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2. The expansion of the powers of strong counties and the rational allocation of management authority among the provincial, municipal and county governments Since the 1990s, Zhejiang has issued policies four times to expand the authority over economic management of some economically developed counties (county-level cities). In 1992, Zhejiang introduced the policy of expanding a certain amount of authority over economic management in 13 counties (county-level cities), including Xiaoshan, Yuhang, Yinxian and Cixi. In 1997, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province decided to permit Xiaoshan and Yuhang to enjoy a certain authority over economic management at the level of the prefecture-level city on a piloted basis. In the same year, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province granted Xiaoshan and Yuhang the authority over the management of exit examination and approval at the level of the prefecture-level city. In 2002, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province carried out a new round of policy for expanding the powers of strong counties, delegating 313 items of authority over economic management, under 12 categories, originally granted to the prefecture-level cities, to 17 counties (county-level cities) and three districts including Xiaoshan, Yuhang and Yinzhou. In 2006, in order to further address the inadaptation of the administrative management function and authority of the economically strong counties to the needs of economic and social development, to promote better and more rapid development of the county economy and to actively explore the beneficial experience in the reform of the county-level administrative management system, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Several Opinions on Carrying Out Pilot Reform Involving the Expansion of the Authority over Economic and Social Management of Yiwu City (Zhe Wei Ban (2006) No. 114) in November, identifying Yiwu City as the pilot area for carrying out the reform involving further expansion of the authority over economic and social management of county governments, which was gradually promoted. In late 2008, Zhejiang entered a new stage of the reform involving the expansion of powers and moved from expanding the powers of strong counties to making counties strong through expansion of powers, made the expansion of powers universal and regularized the contents involved in the expansion of powers; this marked a change in Zhejiang’s reform involving the system with counties directly administered by the provincial government from policy incentive to institutional innovation.3 The policy of expanding powers which focuses on delegating powers to the lower levels has effectively enhanced the autonomy of the primary-level governments, optimized the power allocation among the governments at the provincial, municipal and county levels, improved the administrative efficiency and the capability for comprehensively performing government functions, further ameliorated the institutional environment for development and promoted great economic and social prosperity in the counties.4 In 2007, 62.4% of the GDP, 54.3% of the fiscal revenue and 70.5% of the jobs in Zhejiang were created by counties; Zhejiang has ranked no. 1 nationwide in the number of counties among the top 100 counties for many consecutive years. 3 He 4 Ma

(2009). (2009).

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6.2.3 Promoting the Expansion of the Powers of Strong Towns and the Cultivation of Central Towns: Consolidating the Institutional Foundation for Primary-Level Governance One-third of Zhejiang’s economic aggregate is created by small towns; Zhejiang has ranked no. 1 nationwide in the number of towns among the top 1,000 towns for many consecutive years. In recent years, Zhejiang has vigorously carried out the project for the cultivation of central towns, and the agglomeration function of small towns has become further prominent. Zhejiang has 735 officially established towns; with respect to the first batch of 141 provincial central towns, as of late 2009, their total population, the population in built-up areas, the total income of the rural economy and the total fiscal revenue accounted for 35.2%, 47.4%, 39.0% and 39.6% respectively, of the aggregate in the officially established towns across the province. In Zhejiang, there were 51 central towns with a population of more than 50,000 and the total fiscal revenue was more than 500 million yuan. The population in the builtup areas of central towns was an average of 32,000, the average annual total income of the rural economy was 10.5 billion yuan, and the total fiscal revenue was 320 million yuan. Among these central towns, there were some particularly prominent strong towns; they preliminarily had the functions and scale of cities, and were highly capable of stimulating the development of the others; they were like small cities. As early as September, 2005, when local authorities across the country streamlined, downsized and merged town bodies, Shaoxing County, Zhejiang initiated the pilot work in which the county-level government entrusted the law enforcement power to towns, which drew wide attention nationwide and was regarded as the “experiment against the wind”. The pilot work in Shaoxing County mainly solved the problem by which the responsibilities were not commensurate with the powers; in the pilot work, the powers of inspection and supervision and some powers of examination, approval and punishment of law enforcement agencies for environmental protection, safety supervision, labor and social security and forestry were entrusted to the specially established town-level comprehensive law enforcement branches, while the power of affixing seals involving the items of examination, approval and punishment rested with the competent county-level functional departments. Shaoxing County became the first to experiment the practice of expanding the powers of strong towns, offering experience for expanding the powers of strong towns on a large scale in Zhejiang. In March, 2010, Wenzhou, famous for its private economy, boldly took an innovative measure. The Party Committee and the People’s Government of Wenzhou City vowed to take five strong towns in the city, including Liushi Town, as the pilot areas for a reform involving the expansion of power to solve the salient problem of heavy responsibility and fewer powers, and turn them into “town-level cities”. Unlike the traditional reform involving the expansion of power dominated by the delegation of powers to the lower levels, Wenzhou’s reform was aimed at making town governments undertake more functions of urban construction and management,

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and giving them the authority and capability of urban management, promoting the transformation of small towns into becoming small cities. In February, 2011, the General Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Circular Concerning Pilot Cultivation of Small Cities, choosing 27 pilot towns for cultivating small cities and giving them the authority over economic and social management, which was basically the same as that given to the county-level government. The goal was to make the total fiscal revenue of each town and the per capita net income of rural residents exceed 1 billion yuan and 20,000 yuan, respectively, by 2015, and turn them into economically prosperous, socially advanced and harmonious, ecologically developed, functionally complete small cities suitable for living and doing business in. In June, 2014, the General Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Guiding Opinions of Zhejiang Province on the Reform Involving the Expansion of the Powers of Strong Towns, focusing on enhancing developmental vitality, providing convenience for the people and promoting law enforcement and governance at the source to give strong towns the corresponding management authority over economic development, convenient services and comprehensive law enforcement, and enhance the ability of strong towns to boost economic and social development and extend the focus of management and services to the lower levels.

6.3 Persistently Intensifying the Reform of the System of Administrative Examination and Approval The system of administrative examination and approval is absolutely not synonymous with a planned economy. Any effective government has the necessary system of administrative examination and approval; it plays an irreplaceable role in the acts of government management; it is universally valued and adopted by various countries around the world. It is an important way for the government to regulate, manage and serve social public affairs; it is an effective means of power for the state to use to intervene in, regulate and manage social and economic affairs and to safeguard social security; it also reflects power allocation in the government. Therefore, it embodies three most important relationships in the system of governmental governance. First, the relationship between the government and the market. A good system of administrative examination and approval can effectively arouse the vitality of market players and let the market play the decisive role in resource allocation and it can help the government effectively curb the irrational behaviors of market players to remove the negative effects of the market economy to the greatest extent. Second, the relationship between the government and the society. A good system of administrative examination and approval can effectively safeguard the basic rights of citizens, and ensure that citizens, social groups and other organizations enjoy sufficient space for self-governance within the legal framework, and it can effectively arouse the vitality of the whole society. Third, the relationship between the central government and local governments and among the governments at various levels. A good system

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of administrative examination and approval can effectively arouse the enthusiasm of the central and local governments, bring into being an intergovernmental system of power allocation with the unity of powers, responsibilities and interests, and to the greatest extent stimulate the vitality and the capability for public service of the primary-level governments. In short, the system of administrative examination and approval is a basic institutional arrangement in the relationship between the government and the market, between the government and the society, between the central and local governments, and among the governments at various levels; it is an important institutional design through which the departments at the higher levels regulate those at the lower levels, the government intervenes in the market and the government manages the society; it plays the overarching role in China’s system of governmental governance.

6.3.1 The Basic Course of Zhejiang’s Reform of the System of Administrative Examination and Approval Zhejiang has always stayed ahead nationwide in the reform of the system of administrative examination and approval. The course of Zhejiang’s reform of the system of administrative examination and approval is mainly divided into four stages: (1) the stage of local pilot work. In June, 1999, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Circular Concerning the Pilot Work on the Reform of the System of Examination and Approval within the Provincial Governmental Departments, specifying the main content and basic requirements of reform, and identifying the Planned Economic Committee, the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Affairs, the Department of Personnel, the Department of Labor, the Department of Culture, the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, the Bureau of Land Management of Zhejiang Province and Ningbo City for the pilot work. Seven pilot departments of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province reduced the number of examination and approval items by 124 or 53%. (2) The stage of all-round promotion. In October, 1999, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province became the first nationwide to initiate the reform of the system of examination and approval in all of the functional departments5 ; in April, 2000, the reform was gradually carried out within the municipal and county governments. In October, 2001, Zhejiang became the first nationwide to make the regulations on administrative examination and approval—the Interim Regulations of Zhejiang Province on Administrative Examination and Approval. (3) The stage of the second round of reform. In March, 2002, according to the overall requirement of consolidation intensification and improvement, Zhejiang carried out the second round of the reform of the system of administrative examination and approval; subsequently, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the 5 Previously,

the People’s Government of Shenzhen Municipality comprehensively had carried out the reform of the system of administrative examination and approval. However, at the level of the provincial government, Zhejiang was the first to comprehensively arrange the reform.

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Interim Regulations of Zhejiang Province on the Administration of the System of Administrative Examination and Approval. As of late 2002, the provincial departments canceled, delegated and adjusted 2,120 items subject to administrative examination and approval, and reduced them by about 70%. (4) The stage of reform intensification. As from the implementation of the Administrative Permission Law in 2004, the reform was gradually put under the rule of law. In December, 2005, the General Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Circular Concerning Further Clearing Up and Regularizing the Items Subject to Administrative Examination and Approval. With the efforts at clear-up and regularization, 67 provincial units were identified as those with statutory qualification of administrative permission; 11 cities divided into districts in Zhejiang repealed 2,191 normative documents involving 2,562 items subject to administrative permission (examination and approval) and abolished 558 items subject to administrative permission (examination and approval) set by them.6

6.3.2 The New Round of Reform of the System of Administrative Examination and Approval Mainly Characterized by Streamlining Administration and Delegating Powers to the Lower Levels Since 2013, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province put forward the roadmap for Zhejiang to comprehensively intensify the reform. The roadmap is as follows: starting with the reform of the system of administrative examination and approval, vertically carrying out government reform, horizontally conducting reforms in various economic and social fields, turning Zhejiang into a province with the smallest number of examination and approval items, the quickest examination and approval, the fairest rules, the most transparent procedures, the most impartial handling of affairs and the clearest rule of law. The reform focuses on greatly reducing the direct allocation of resources by the government, substantially reducing the management of and intervention in micro affairs by the government and dramatically mitigating governmental intervention in the pricing of resources and factors. Since 2013, according to this roadmap, the reform of the system of administrative examination and approval has been promoted at the provincial, municipal and county levels in a coordinated way. In this round of reform, the number of the items subject to administrative permission at the provincial level decreased by 40% from 706 to 424; that of the items not subject to administrative permission decreased by 83% from 560 to 96; the number of agencies responsible for examination and approval not relating to administrative permission decreased by 47% from 57 to 30. Besides the institutional reform, Zhejiang also piloted efficient examination and approval of 6 Chen

(2007), pp. 31–32.

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enterprise investment projects in Keqiao, Shaoxing, delegating 13 provincial powers, producing marked effects. The examination and approval time was shortened from the original 345 days to less than 100 days. The People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province conducted surveys through questionnaires, symposiums and visits; the results of the survey showed that more than 80% of the enterprises and people believed that Zhejiang had made great progress in the reform of the system of administrative examination and approval and were satisfied with the reform. According to the third-party evaluation conducted by the School of Public Affairs of Zhejiang University, all respondents recognized and highly praised Zhejiang’s practice of vigorously promoting pilot innovations, including efficient examination and approval of enterprise investment projects. Zhejiang also actively pushed forward the reforms of relevant systems of examination and approval, such as energetically promoting the reform of the system of industrial and commercial registration, enabling facilitation in that system. The time required for industrial and commercial registration was shortened greatly, and even finished immediately in some cases. After the reform of the system of industrial and commercial registration was carried out in an all-round way on March 1, 2014, 24,000 enterprises were newly established in March, up 55.5% compared with the previous March and 183% compared with February. As of late May, 2014, there were 3.88 million market players in Zhejiang, up 9.5% compared with the same period of the previous year, including 1.14 million registered enterprises, up 17.8%.

6.3.3 The Intensification of the Reform of the System of Administrative Examination and Approval: “Four Lists and One Network” Based on intensifying the reform of the system of administrative examination and approval, Zhejiang carried out the reform mode of “four lists and one network”, including the list of the government powers, the negative list of enterprise investments, the management list of special fiscal funds, the list of government responsibilities and Zhejiang’s network of government services. It is a governmental reform and also a power revolution dominated by clearing up, ascertaining and checking powers; it is an in-depth mindset and institutional change and represents deep adjustment of the existing pattern of interests. 1. The list of the government powers: regulating the “visible” hand of the government The list of the government powers lies in surveying the administrative powers of the departments at various levels, analyzing the legality of, compliance with, rationality and necessity of these administrative powers, and optimizing the allocation of functions and powers, defining the boundary of functions and powers, making public the operation of functions and powers public and improving the supervision

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over functions and powers to develop the list of powers. According to the Provincial Governor, Li Qiang, it is necessary to reduce government powers to arouse the vitality of the market and non-governmental forces, vertically promote government reform and horizontally carry out the reforms in various economic and social fields. Since 2014, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province has made all-round clear-up efforts through “three reports and three examinations” according to the requirement of abolishing all of the powers not based on laws and regulations, delegating all of the powers which can be administered more conveniently and effectively by local authorities, strictly regulating all of the powers based on laws and regulations but that are inconsistent with the principles of comprehensively intensifying the reform. 2. The negative list of enterprise investments: arousing the “invisible” hand of the market The negative list of enterprise investments shows the concrete measures for ensuring that the enterprise investment projects outside the examination catalogue are no longer subject to examination and approval by the government. For any enterprise investment project outside the list, the governments at any level cannot mandatorily examine it under any pretext. In late 2013, Zhejiang initiated the work on developing the negative list of enterprise investments, with a view to managing the measures subject to examination and examination prohibition as required by the state by incorporating them into the list. In the meantime, according to the requirement of reducing all possible items and delegating all possible powers, the enterprise investment projects outside the list were no longer subject to examination, all of the matters subject to examination at the local level, except the projects across regions and river basins, were delegated to cities and counties for management. 3. The management list of special fiscal funds: scientifically and rationally allocating public resources With efforts to develop the management list of special fiscal funds in the provincial departments, Zhejiang intensified its efforts at clear-up and integration, resolutely reduced special surplus funds, strictly controlled new openings and expanded the reform involving the general transfer payment for special purposes. Once the preset goals are achieved or the term expires, the relevant existing special funds are cancelled; all of the special funds used in the same direction and designed to support the same targets are merged. In order to better reflect the public nature of fiscal expenditure, Zhejiang will gradually cancel the special funds in the competitive fields, and generally, the provincial departments will no longer directly allocate funds to enterprises. After actions were taken to reduce and control special funds while retaining and promoting certain special funds, the provincial government departments reduced the number of special funds by 181. The released management list contains 39 special department budget items and 40 special transfer payment items. With a focus on improving the performance of the utilization of capital, Zhejiang required that

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in principle, the provincial special funds were to be utilized through competitive allocation or the government’s purchase of services; the integrated municipal and county-level special subsidy funds were generally allocated by means of the factor method, thus ensuring fair and reasonable fund allocation. Generally, the provincial government departments no longer directly allocate funds to enterprises and no longer directly collect administrative fees from enterprises. As the government is freed from the trouble of fund allocation, this can reduce direct allocation of resources by the government and government intervention in micro affairs, and it can also stimulate the government to concentrate more efforts on developing and implementing its developmental strategy, plan, policy and standard. 4. The list of government responsibilities: building a system of department responsibility with well-defined powers and responsibilities After the list of the powers of the provincial departments was released, Zhejiang worked on developing the list of responsibilities as from August, 2014. On October 31, Zhejiang officially made public the list of responsibilities for the provincial departments. It is also the first list of responsibilities for the provincial departments in China. The list of responsibilities, posted on the Zhejiang government service network, contains 543 main functions of 43 departments, 3,941 matters of work, 165 matters involving the division of departmental boundaries, 165 cases, 555 improved operational and post-operational supervisory systems and 405 public service items. The list of responsibilities that was released mainly covers department responsibilities, department-related responsibility boundaries, operational and post-operational supervisory systems and public service items.7 5. “One network”: the Zhejiang government service network The building of e-government can enable the effective sharing of various resources of administrative organs within certain areas, including information, management system, management mode and management philosophy, and it can improve the efficiency of resource utilization and greatly reduce administrative costs. In order to solve the problems concerning separate performance of duties, incomplete functions and a low level of services in the previous building of e-government, Zhejiang utilized the Internet technology to more rapidly build a network of Zhejiang government services for conducting administrative examination and delivering convenient services at the provincial, municipal and county levels in a coordinated way; with the province-wide government service halls, affairs can be handled online on a one-stop basis and the supervision of performance covering the whole process can be exercised; it is a large platform which integrates administrative examination and approval, convenient services, disclosure of government affairs, performance supervision, and achieves coordination among the provincial, municipal and county levels and brings about online interaction among various parties. As mentioned by Deputy Secretary General of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province Chen 7 Wu

(2014).

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Guangsheng, the network of Zhejiang government services is a reform experiment in delivering online government services like supermarkets and serves as an integrated public platform for service providers and consumers which features zero-distance performance of services and one-stop handling of affairs. At present, the network of Zhejiang government services has been launched; Zhejiang has built the provincial cluster of unified Internet portals, the pool of administrative power matters and the provincial system of unified administrative examination and approval operations, and it has put into operations the public platform of government service cloud infrastructure. The province’s government service resources are fully aggregated according to two main lines—handling of affairs for individuals and that for legal persons; the main segments, including administrative examination and approval, convenient services and transparent government affairs have been launched; the online duty room with comprehensive functions, including intelligent questions and answers, manual questions and answers, consulting and complaints, has been built.

6.4 Actively Building a Scientific, Democratic and Open Decision-Making Mechanism In recent years, in the process of decision-making, the governments at various levels in Zhejiang have thoroughly carried out the Scientific Outlook on Development, grasped the key steps in the making of the government’s major decisions, and made positive achievements in making sure that decisions are made in a democratic and scientific way and under the rule of law.

6.4.1 Broadening the Channels for Citizens’ Participation so as to Improve the Public Opinion Foundation for Public Decision-Making The purpose of the government is to serve the people, so administrative decisionmaking should reflect the people’s will and aspirations. In recent years, with respect to the major issues in government administration, the significant matters involving the people’s immediate interests and social public interests, urban master plan, important government-invested social facilities and the benchmark price of urban housing demolition and relocation, the governments at various levels in Zhejiang have held talks with citizens, hearings, circulated questionnaires, conducted public opinion polls and solicited opinions online to extensively collect opinions and suggestions from democratic parties, the people’s organizations, the deputies to the people’s congresses and enterprises, thus greatly expanding the channels for public participation in government decision-making and enhancing citizens’ enthusiasm about participation in government decision-making.

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In June, 2003, the Rectification Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province held a hearing on the problems concerning arbitrary and unreasonable charges in the medical field which prompted a strong reaction from the people, with the participation of 100 invited citizens. After the hearing, the Department of Health of Zhejiang Province put forward five measures for strengthening the management of medical expenses.8 In the meantime, local authorities actively carried out experiments and brought about innovations to adopt the effective ways to ensuring citizens’ participation in public decision-making, such as the open decision-making in Hangzhou. As from 2007, according to the requirement of promoting the people’s well-being through democracy, the People’s Government of Hangzhou City carried out the open decision-making policy of letting public opinion lead the government, making sure that the whole process before, during and after decision-making is open. Making government affairs public is a guarantee to the citizens’ right to know and is the important embodiment of political transparency in government administration, while open decision-making brings about a shift from making government affairs public to achieving interactive participation, and ensures that more people participate in and discuss political affairs before and during events, thus the government makes a decision out in the open; this expands and improves the previous efforts in making government affairs public. As from 1999, Hangzhou continuously made democratic decision-making experiments in expanding the participation of the citizens. In recent years, under the guidance of the strategy developed by the Party Committee of Hangzhou City for promoting democracy and the people’s well-being, the government has increasingly explored and promoted open decision-making. On April 16, 2007, the People’s Government of Hangzhou City issued the Circular of the People’s Government of Hangzhou City on Further Improving the Rules and Procedures of Administrative Decision-making in Major Matters Concerning Economic and Social Development. During the period January 23–28, 2008, before the Two Sessions of Hangzhou City, the People’s Government of Hangzhou City posted a draft report on the government work online, soliciting 938 opinions, 68 of them were directly included in the report on government work. The open decision-making in the executive meeting of the People’s Government of Hangzhou City was a further example of the innovative practice of the People’s Government of Hangzhou City on the basis of the previous democratic decision-making. Before the Two Sessions, opinions were fully solicited from the people and then the matters regarding government decision-making were delivered to the Standing Committee of the People’s Government of Hangzhou City; during the Two Sessions, the deputies to the people’s congress, the PPCC members and citizens’ representatives and experts attended the Two Sessions to express their opinions, and citizens can also post messages online or participate in decision-making discussions through online live videos; after the Two Sessions, relevant government departments responded and gave feedback; this is the open decision-making mode adopted during the executive meeting of the People’s Government of Hangzhou City. According to relevant information, from November 14, 2007 to March 30, 2011, Hangzhou invited 328 deputies to the people’s congress, 8 Xia

et al. (2006).

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PPCC members, citizens and experts to attend the executive meeting of the People’s Government of Hangzhou City, 114 citizens exchanged views with the mayor online, with online participation of 411,500 people (person-times), citizens expressed 4,302 opinions and suggestions by posting messages or sending emails. They discussed 98 decision-making matters concerning the report on government work, the administrative measures for low-rent housing security, and the measures for carrying out the new rural cooperative medical system. As from 2009, the People’s Government of Hangzhou City and the governments of 13 districts, counties (county-level cities) in Hangzhou City carried out the open decision-making policy. Another typical example is the innovative participatory budget system in Wenling. The reform was included among the Top Ten Local Public Policy Decisionmaking Experiments with an overwhelming majority of votes; in January, 2010, it was given the nomination award of the 5th China Local Government Innovation Award. This means that citizens participate in discussing the annual budget program mainly through democratic earnest talk, and the deputies to the people’s congress deliberate the government’s fiscal budget and decide on budget amendments and adjustments to exercise substantive supervision. The participatory budget is a great innovation brought about by the primary-level cadres and people in Wenling as part of their democratic practice. As from 2005, the People’s Congress of Wenling City has combined democratic earnest talk—a non-institutional arrangement for the people’s expression of opinions and their participation in decision-making supervision– with the system of the people’s congress, gradually giving shape to the working mechanism in which citizens participate in discussing the formulation of the government’s annual budget program mainly through democratic earnest talk, the deputies to the people’s congress deliberate the government’s fiscal budget and decide on budget amendments and adjustments to substantively review and supervise the budget. At present, it has been fully carried out in 11 towns and 5 sub-districts across the city, and it has been extended to the municipal level. The practice and promotion of the participatory budget drew close attention from the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province. In June, 2010, Zhao Hongzhu, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the then Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, gave an important instruction to fully affirm this practice. In June, 2011, after listening to the introduction to the typical experience from the People’s Congress of Wenling City during the provincial conference on exchanging the experience in the work of the people’s congress, Secretary Zhao Hongzhu highly commended the experience and vowed to promote it in other towns in due time. In 2011, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province issued the Opinions of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on Strengthening the Construction of the Primary-level Foundation for Building Zhejiang under the Rule of Law (Zhe Wei (2011) No. 85), calling for promoting the new primary-level practices, including the participatory budget. The Opinions called for giving full scope to the important role of the primary-level people’s congress in pushing forward the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law. Actions should be taken to actively carry out the system of the participatory budget, the deputies to the people’s congress and the people’s representatives should be organized by the primary-level people’s congress to hold democratic

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earnest talk about the formulation and execution of government and department budgets, thus substantively reviewing and supervising budgets, making the government’s fiscal budget and department budget more scientific and transparent.

6.4.2 Improving the Decision-Making Consulting System to Making Public Decision-Making More Scientific The 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out, “It is necessary to strengthen the building of the new-type think tanks with Chinese characteristics, establish and improve the system for consultation on decision-making”. The public issues in the modern society have become increasingly complicated and specialized, thus the decisions of local governments are changeable and comprehensive. A major decision often involves many fields in the political, economic, cultural and social life of the people; the knowledge, information and wisdom required by it cannot be fully owned by any single decision-maker. In an effort to stimulate the governments at various levels to change from experiential decision-making to scientific decision-making, it is essential to give full scope to the role of expert consulting. In order to make sure that the governments at various levels make decisions in a scientific way, procedural institutional arrangements are required, more importantly, administrative decision-making should be guided by scientific theories and supported by advanced technology, regularized procedures and objective evaluation.9 The ability of decision-makers is obviously far from enough, experts’ theoretical quality and professional knowledge should be relied upon to effectively cover this inadequacy. Improving the system of consultation with experts regarding the government’s decision-making is aimed at leveraging the “external brain”, broadening the horizon of decision-makers, activating the leaders’ line of thought to make sure that the decisions of local governments are correct and forward-looking.10 The governments at various levels in Zhejiang have given great importance to the building of the system of decision-making by means of consultations, and have given full scope to the intellectual supporting role of experts in public decision-making. According to the Working Rules of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, in making decisions on major matters, it is necessary to give full play to the role of the decision-making consulting body of the provincial government, experts and scholars, and to extensively solicit opinions via various channels to make sure that the decisionmaking philosophy is advanced, the orientation is correct, the contents are systematic and the operations are feasible. In developing public policies, it is necessary to highlight the roles of the consulting bodies for the government’s decision-making, of the research and consulting bodies and the people in feasibility studies and of evaluation and analysis, and it is essential for the decision-making units to entrust experts, specialized service bodies or other organizations with the corresponding capability 9 Jiang

and Fan (2005). (2007), p. 296.

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to complete the professional work, and let the legal affairs, development and reform research bodies of the government provide legal, policy and professional consulting and other relevant services. On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the surveys relating to the decision-making involving major matters, the governments at various levels have taken surveys and research as the basic work for decisionmaking, some provincial departments have also established consulting committees made up of experts. Surveys and research are carried out to provide a scientific basis for the government’s decision-making. On the other hand, it is necessary to gradually identify the scope and responsibility relating to the making of major administrative decisions with a view to performing classified and fine management. The Regulations of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province on Improving the Scientific and Democratic Decision-Making System, issued by the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, specifying ten aspects—including “deliberating major construction projects, especially government-invested major projects and major projects involving government procurement and the land use policy for major or special construction projects”–which fall within the scope of major decisions. The governments at various levels ensure scientific and rational decision-making by carrying out a feasibility study on and an evaluation of major decisions, openly soliciting opinions on major decisions.11 At present, the major decision-making matters of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, including examination and approval of important plans and the establishment of investment projects, are subject to a feasibility study hosted by the provincial consulting committee. In the meantime, local authorities have actively experimented the third-party evaluation of government decisions. For instance, in order to prevent the government from concurrently serving as “athlete” and “referee”, to enhance the authority ad credibility of risk evaluation and to introduce and energetically cultivate the third-party evaluation bodies, Ningbo City has transferred the risk evaluation of some large and difficult projects to be undertaken by social organizations. The evaluation bodies make a large number of visits and conduct extensive surveys to collect information, to establish a level of risk and countermeasures for preventing and defusing risks and to develop an impartial, professional and scientific evaluation report as the decisionmaking reference for relevant departments. Currently, Ningbo has 10 third-party risk evaluation bodies and more than 100 third-party risk evaluation personnel. In all of the more than 140 decisions and projects evaluated by the third-party bodies, risks have been effectively averted and reduced and no incidents affecting social stability have occurred. The evaluation of the risk to social stability is closely related to local development and to the people’s interests. In order to guarantee the quality of the evaluation conducted by the third-party evaluation bodies, Ningbo has issued the detailed rules for strengthening the cultivation and management of the third-party evaluation bodies, stating that entering the field of social stability project evaluation is subject to obtaining evaluation qualification, passing training evaluation and getting a permit to carry out stability evaluation; evaluation personnel must receive centralized training and pass a qualification evaluation and obtain a relevant qualification 11 Ma

(2009).

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certificate; each evaluation body must have a specified number of professionals and social stability risk evaluators and they must obtain a permit to carry out stability evaluation. At present, Ningbo City has adopted this procedure: decision-making and project initiation are subject to an evaluation of the risk to social stability.

6.4.3 Improving the Institutional System for Citizens’ Decision-Making, Promoting the Rule of Law in Public Decision-Making Zhejiang has always regularized and institutionalized scientific and democratic decision-making and put it under the rule of law. First, regularizing the administrative decision-making procedure. According to the Regulations of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province on Improving the Scientific and Democratic DecisionMaking System, issued in August, 2005, the suggestions about the decisions of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province on major matters are put forward directly by the leaders of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province or offered by the governments of cities, counties (county-level cities, districts), the departments of and those directly under the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, examined by the leader in charge at the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province and reported to the provincial governor for approval; for the decision-making matters put forward by the leaders of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, preparatory work is assigned to the departments of and those directly under the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province by the General Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, it is undertaken by consultations, research bodies or other social forces; for the decision-making matters proposed by the provincial leaders or other people, the undertaking units put forward plans, a full consultation is held, opinions are solicited, a feasibility study is carried out and evaluation is made before decisions are made; for the decisions of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province on major matters, discussions are conducted and decisions are made by the executive meeting of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, and where necessary, by the plenary session of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province. Second, establishing and improving the hearing system. Zhejiang has made and carried out the Measures of Zhejiang Province for the Implementation of the Procedure of the Administrative Penalty Hearing and the Measures of Zhejiang Province for Administrative Permission Hearing, specifying and regulating hearing matters, the hearing body and the hearing procedure according to the reality of the industries. Relevant departments have developed the model texts relating to hearings, including hearing application forms and hearing invitation letters and they have made regularized hearing records. Third, establishing the system of review of major decisions. For major decisionmaking matters, after plans are developed, they are reviewed by a legal advisor and the legislative affairs office of the government; after the first draft on decision-making is developed, it is reviewed by the legislative affairs office. Zhejiang has made the

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Measures of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province for Making Draft Local Regulations and Rules and the Regulations of Zhejiang Province for the Filing and Review of Administrative Normative Documents, specifying the procedures and relevant responsibilities for the planning, management, drafting and review of normative documents. Fourth, improving the system for the disclosure of information on government decision-making. In strict compliance with the Regulations on Government Information Disclosure, Zhejiang has established the supporting systems for confidentiality review of information disclosure, a review of the information relating to the official documents of administrative organs, the accountability of information disclosure, thus putting in place information disclosure. Fifth, improving the accountability system for government decision-making. Zhejiang has comprehensively carried out the administrative accountability system, under which, if regulations are violated so that mistakes occur in major government decisions, major government decisions cannot be fully, promptly and correctly carried out, the administrative chiefs and the persons directly responsible are held to account in strict compliance with relevant laws and regulations. With the establishment and improvement of the system of making major matters public, the hearing system and the audit system, administrative decisions are not made blindly, and government decisions are made in a regularized and procedure-based way.12

6.5 Constantly Promoting the Reform of the Cadre and Personnel System “The key to governing the country lies in making use of the right personnel.” The key to building socialism with Chinese characteristics consists in developing a large contingent of high-caliber cadres. Who are good cadres? In the national conference on the organizational work, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward five criteria for good cadres: having a firm conviction, serving the people, being diligent and pragmatic, having a strong sense of responsibility, being upright and free from corruption. Zhejiang has always given great importance to reforming the cadre and personnel system, adopted the principle of “choosing the outstanding people in a democratic, open and competitive way”, given prominence to key points and taken into account various respects so as to comprehensively intensify the reform of the cadre and personnel system, it has improved the cadre selection and appointment mechanism, the evaluation mechanism, the management supervision mechanism and the exit mechanism and it has cultivated and selected a large number of good cadres necessary for the Party and the people; Zhejiang has stayed ahead nationwide in a great deal of work.

12 Ma

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6.5.1 Bringing About Innovations to the Cadre Selection and Appointment Mechanism “Selection of cadres by the minority is turned into selection of cadres by the majority”; constantly increasing the degree of democracy in selecting and appointing cadres is the basic characteristic of Zhejiang’s innovation to the cadre selection and appointment mechanism. In recent years, Zhejiang has regularized the selection and nomination of cadres, combined strengthening the Party’s leadership with giving full scope to democracy, explored multiple cadre selection, appointment and nomination modes, including the recommendation and nomination of important cadres by the members of the plenary session of the Party committee, and it has expanded democracy in nomination. In 2004, based on summarizing the practice of Rui’an City, Zhejiang fully carried out the system of recommending and nominating important cadres by the plenary session of the Party committee in cities, counties (county-level cities, districts), made nomination more democratic, turned “selection of cadres by the minority” into “selection of cadres by the majority”, made implicit powers apparent and regularized apparent powers. In the meantime, local authorities have actively explored a variety of cadre selection, appointment and nomination modes; for instance, Zhoushan City has explored and built the online cadre recommendation platform. This practice not only regularizes the right to initially nominate cadres, but it also makes sure that the design is scientific and rigorous and that the process is highly operable. First, in the online recommendation of cadres, the right to initially nominate cadres rests with the people, thus enhancing the credibility of cadre selection and appointment. Second, the online recommendation mode lowers the threshold for the people’s participation and saves the recommendation costs. Third, real name authentication is required, ensuring that online cadre recommendation is impartial. It should be noted that in the provincial conference on developing a contingent of cadres in 2013, the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Xia Baolong, vowed to develop high-caliber cadres and to keep the correct orientation of utilizing personnel; he also vowed to fully and correctly carry out the Party’s cadre line of thought and policy, vigorously advocate the lion type cadres, take the overarching and long-term perspective to view the cultivation of the lion type cadres, really select the “lions” with a firm political conviction, outstanding performance, solid work, high popularity among the people and an enterprising spirit into the leading body, make best use of them in the right place and provide a strong organizational guarantee for Zhejiang’s economic and social development.

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6.5.2 Innovating the System of Evaluation of the Leading Cadres For evaluation of the leading body and leading cadres in cities, counties (county-level cities, districts), the performance of cadres is not evaluated merely by the GDP and speed of development, such an evaluation gives prominence to economic change and upgrading, ecological development, ethical and cultural development and social harmony, and covers the improvement of the people’s well-being, energy conservation and emission reduction, environmental protection, cultural improvement and social management. In the system of indicators of performance evaluation relating to the leading bodies of the Party and the government, the original development-focused indicators and constraint indicators have been adjusted to regular indicators, dynamic indicators and a public satisfaction indicator. It should be noted that indicators are no longer unified. Each area and department have respective development and work priorities, the revised evaluation measures give more stress to dynamic classification and individualized evaluation according to cadres’ posts and functions and to the work characteristics of areas and departments.

6.5.3 Strengthening the Leading Cadre Supervision and Management In order to carefully carry out the cadre management and supervision systems, in June, 2004, Zhejiang made and implemented the Opinions on the Evaluation of the Life Circle and the Social Circle of the Leading Cadres, focusing on comprehensively evaluating the life circle and the social circle of the cadres below the level of county division in the municipal and county-level Party and government organs. The cadres at the key posts were put under focused management. In 2009, 1,518 leading cadres directly under the Department of Organization of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province underwent annual centralized evaluation for the first time. Zhejiang made and issued the Implementation Opinions on Further Developing the Secretaries of the County-level Party Committees, calling for strengthening the selection and appointment, education, training, classified evaluation, supervision and management of the secretaries of the county-level Party committees. During the period 2004–2009, the personnel in charge of 103 provincial units, 5 mayors and 56 heads of counties (county-level cities, districts) underwent an economic responsibility audit. As from 2009, the economic responsibility audit was concurrently carried out among the secretaries of the Party committees of counties (county-level cities, districts) and the heads of counties (county-level cities, districts). Upholding and improving the system for evaluating the social work of cadres is an effective way for the organizational departments to accept social supervision. As from 2008, Zhejiang carried out the activity of evaluating 10,000 people regarding their organizational work each year and entrusted the Survey Office of the National

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Bureau of Statistics in Zhejiang to carry out a sampling survey on the satisfaction with the organizational work among more than 10,000 cadres across the province. In the meantime, Zhejiang has sought to make important breakthroughs in “promoting, demoting, appointing and removing cadres” by improving the system of adjusting the unsuitable incumbent cadres. A number of reform measures, including adjustment of incompetent cadres, the resignation system and the tenure system, have more effectively forced the incompetent cadres to leave.

References Chen Guangsheng, Moving towards Good Governance, Zhejiang University Press, 2007. He Xianming, From Expanding the Powers of Strong Counties to Making Counties Strong through Power Expansion: the Logic behind the Evolution of Zhejiang’s Reform Involving the Direct Administration of Counties by the Provincial Government, Journal of the Zhejiang Party School of C.P.C, 2009(3). Jiang Xiaoping, Fan Fengchun, Explorations and Innovations in the Establishment of the Expert Consulting System for Administrative Decision-making by Local Governments, Chinese Public Administration, 2005(2). Ma Bin, The Intergovernmental Relationship: Power Allocation and Local Governance—A Study Based on the Relationship among the Provincial, Municipal and County Governments, Zhejiang University Press, 2009, pp. 151–160. Ma Guangming, Ensuring that Government Decisions Are Made in a Scientific and Democratic Way and under the Rule of Law, Zhejiang Today, 2009(21). Wu Chaoxiang, Zhejiang Releases the First List of Responsibilities for Provincial Departments in China, Qianjiang Evening News, November 1, 2014. Wu Yunfa, An Analysis of the Fiscal System of Zhejiang Province with Counties Directly Administered by the Provincial Government, Review of Economic Research, 2004(86). Xia A’guo, Lan Weiqing et al., A Safe Zhejiang—Building a Harmonious Society in All Respects, Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, 2006, p. 166. Zhao Wei, Do Zhejiang’s Economic “Miracles” Encounter Troubles?—A Review of the Zhejiang Model (I), Zhejiang Economy, 2009(18).

Chapter 7

Incessantly Innovating and Improving the System of Power Operation Restrictions and Supervision Caihong Sun

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Zhejiang has continuously improved the system of power operation restrictions and supervision, brought about innovations to the modes and methods of supervision, broadened the channels of supervision, made power operations institutionalized, regularized, open and transparent and built and improved the system of punishment for and prevention of corruption with Zhejiang’s characteristics, constantly experimented and strengthened the practice of innovation within the mechanism of power supervision at various levels and in multiple fields. These beneficial experiments have produced significant effects on promoting integrity and an anti-corruption campaign within the Party, giving rise to rich innovative and practical experience and theoretical achievements.

7.1 The Multidimensional Line of Thought About and Mechanism for Restrictions on Power Operations The line of thought about the restrictions on and supervision of power is the foundation for power operations and practice, while the operation and practice of power is the realistic embodiment of the line of thought regarding the restrictions on power. Zhejiang’s realization of economic and social development achievements and goals is impossible without the important guarantee of the restrictions on and supervision of power. The line of thought of the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province regarding the system and mechanism for the restrictions on the operation of power in recent years is mainly embodied in utilizing institutions to control powers, strengthening mutual restriction among powers, ensuring that state organs exercise their powers according to the statutory authority and procedure, making power operations transparent. C. Sun (B) The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 N. Fang et al. (eds.), Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics, Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8_7

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7.1.1 Valuing the Line of Thought of Utilizing Institutions to Control Power First, power must be strictly regulated and effectively restricted by institutions. With a focus on the fundamental goal of strengthening the restrictions on and supervision of power, on a concrete line of thought and mechanism, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have stressed the philosophy of governance of utilizing institutions to restrict powers so as to make sure that the exercise of power is under actual supervision. Regarding the utilization of institutions for restricting power, Zhejiang has always upheld the philosophy that the reform measures should reflect the requirement of preventing corruption and control power at its source. Second, the institutional improvement was made in strengthening the restrictions to and supervision of power operations. In nearly ten years, in an effort to strengthen the restrictions on and supervision of power to ensure economic and social development, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province gave importance to reinforcing institutional development and persisted in the line of thought and practice of utilizing institutions to restrict power operations. The institutional development in strengthening restrictions on power operations is mainly as follows. Strengthening the building of a system of punishment and prevention so as to ensure all-round effective prevention and control. Carrying out the system of responsibility for improving the conduct of the Party and of the government. Strengthening intra-party supervision. The Party Committee of Zhejiang Province introduced a number of intra-party measures of supervision, such as report on work, virtue and integrity, a conversation about clean governance with the newly appointed leaders, talks on persuasion and admonition and a system of inquiry via letters.

7.1.2 Strengthening the Mechanism of Mutual Restriction and Coordination Among Powers In recent years, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have carried out a number of institutions to reinforce the restrictions on and coordination of power operations. Zhejiang worked on improving the conventional power operational mode, solving the problem concerning an excessive concentration of power, imposed further restrictions on the operations of the chiefs’ power. On the regularization of power operations, Zhejiang comprehensively carried out a system in which the main leaders of units are not directly in charge of personnel, financial resources, materials, project examination and approval and regularly exchanged the personnel in charge of important departments and the personnel at key posts among

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different posts.1 Zhejiang also established and improved the mechanism of restrictions on the allocation of power, ascertained power according to the requirement that functions and power are defined by laws and procedures are lawful, and comprehensively carried out such systems as collectively voting on the decisions regarding major matters, the appointment and removal of important cadres, the arrangements of important projects, and the use of large-sum funds, so as to prevent an excessive concentration of power. Local authorities in Zhejiang also carried out the mechanism of mutual restriction among powers, with a focus on moderate separation of the decision-making power, the executive power and the supervisory power, and the supervision over the chiefs.

7.1.3 Reinforcing the Mechanism of Supervision Over the Open Operation of Power Transparency is the best preservative. In order to strengthen power supervision, it is first necessary to keep the operation of power open and transparent; this is a basic prerequisite. The Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have strengthened the open operation of power in the multidimensional mechanism of strengthening the restrictions to and supervision of power, while this strengthening is one of the priorities. With the goal of maintaining clean politics, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province has carried out the Sunshine Project to strengthen the supervision over the operations of power, and it established and improved the mechanism of open and transparent operation of power. The Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Xia Baolong, stressed that it was necessary to expand the execution of the Sunshine Project, and make sure that supervision and restriction closely follow the operations of power. Since2013, Zhejiang has stepped up its efforts to push forward the Sunshine Project, and has gradually expanded from the initial pilot disclosure of 21 power matters involving 14 departments to full coverage at the provincial, municipal, county, town and village levels, 47 provincial departments have made 2645 administrative power matters public, and 68 key matters involving the people’s well-being required by the people have been made public.2 Based on promoting the Sunshine Project, Zhejiang has comprehensively pressed ahead with the system of a power list and made efforts to ensure that functions and powers are defined by laws, responsibilities come with power, the use of power is subject to supervision, law breakers are brought to justice and infringers must make compensation. The system of the power list focuses on clearing up, reducing and curbing power, making public the procedure of power 1 The

Discipline Inspection Commission of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Province Works on Promoting Full Coverage of the Integrity Risk Prevention and Control Mechanism, Zhonguo Jijian Jiancha Bao, September 16, 2011. 2 Fang (2014).

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operation and the result of power exercise. Such a line of thought and practice of making the operations of power public serves as an important reference for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to make major decisions on making the operations of power public and supervising them. With further expansion of the scope of making the operations of power public through the system of a power list, Zhejiang has adopted the Internet line of thought and modern information technology to promote the transformation of governmental functions, and has become the first nationwide to launch the network of services of the government of Zhejiang. Zhejiang has pioneered the top-down full-scale network of the provincial government in China, so its network is hailed as the first governmental service network in China. With regard to this, Zhejiang has effectively combined disclosure of government affairs and power operations with power supervision, thus giving shape to a system of the operations of power that is under vigorous supervision.

7.2 Building and Improving the Punishment and Prevention System and the Supervisory System 7.2.1 The Characteristic and Effective System of Punishment for and Prevention of Corruption 1. Taking the critical step in advance, with the key consisting in building a system of prevention of corruption Since 2002, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province has made active explorations, and has become the first nationwide to comprehensively build a punishment and prevention system with Zhejiang’s characteristics suited to a socialist system of a market economy, thus vigorously pushing forward Zhejiang’s practice of combating corruption and advocating integrity. In July, 2003, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province became the first nationwide at the provincial level to issue the Opinions of Zhejiang Province on Carrying Out the System of Combating Corruption, Prevention and Upholding Integrity (Trial), calling for intensively establishing and improving six mechanisms, including ethical and cultural education, restrictions on power, supervision and management, law and discipline restriction, integrity incentives, evaluation and early warning. Such pioneering work suggested that Zhejiang had entered a phase of three-dimensional, all-round and multi-tiered development and a new stage of holistic and active evolution in combating corruption and upholding integrity.3 This provides a important reference for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on which to make major decisions. In 2005, with a focus on the Party and government organs, the rural primarylevel units, enterprises and public institutions, Zhejiang started adopting the mode of 3 Ma

(2004).

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holistic, special, industrial, joint building and science and technology-driven building to establish a system of punishment and prevention with the goal of reducing the occurrence of corruption to the greatest extent. Such a characteristic building mode is conducive to effectively recombining and optimizing various forces for punishing and preventing corruption, effectively enabling resource sharing for combating corruption and upholding integrity and bringing about an organic whole and developmental synergy; this is the “booster” for comprehensively building a system for punishment and prevention with Zhejiang’s characteristics. 2. Strengthening the system of responsibility for improving the Party’s conduct and promoting integrity The system of responsibility for improving the Party’s conduct and promoting integrity is a basic institution for completely improving the Party’s conduct, promoting integrity and combating corruption; it is an important institutional guarantee for putting in practice a leadership system and a working mechanism for combating corruption. In recent years, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have always upheld and carried out such a system. When working in Zhejiang, comrade Xi Jinping stressed, “The system of responsibility for improving the Party’s conduct and promoting integrity is an overarching and leading institution and the forerunner in boosting the work on combating corruption and upholding integrity. Such an institution must be persistently carried out.” As early as 2004, he pointed out that the Party committees and the governments at various levels, the leading bodies of the Party and the government and the leading cadres were the main players within the system of responsibility, the heads of the Party and the government should assume the political and leadership responsibility of “the first person responsible”. Zhejiang has established and carried out a number of relevant systems, including the system under which the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province regularly inspect the implementation of the system of responsibility for improving the Party’s conduct and promoting integrity. First, dividing responsibilities, forging synergy in combating corruption and upholding integrity. Second, innovating the mechanism for implementation, thoroughly carrying out the system involving the Report on the Division of Responsibility, the Leading Task Notification, the Proposal for the Implementation of the System of Responsibility, the Report on the Execution of Special Tasks by the Leading Unit and the Report on the Execution of Special Tasks by the Leader in Charge. Third, intensifying efforts to hold the responsible personnel to account, ensuring rigid operations of the system of responsibility. 3. Expanding innovations regarding the mechanism for the prevention and control of the risk to integrity Zhejiang has unceasingly intensified innovations to the system and mechanism of combating corruption and upholding integrity, including the prevention and control of risks to integrity. In recent years, given the risks in power operations and the weaknesses in supervision and management, Zhejiang has taken a number of prevention

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and control measures, including early prevention, the monitoring of the process and later handling and gradually established the long-term mechanism for preventing and combating corruption through institutional development, producing good effects. 4. Giving a great deal of importance to promoting the culture of upholding integrity Culture default is an important cause for corruption. Fostering a good atmosphere in the whole society is conducive to creating a good social environment for improving the Party’s conduct and promoting integrity. Thus, the development of a culture of integrity was specified in the document of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province for the first time. Zhejiang has made many experiments on developing a culture of integrity and has incorporated it into the overall plan for building a culturally large province with a view to making unified arrangements and carrying out relevant work. Zhejiang has combined the promotion of integrity with cultural development, and conformed to the tide of the era development by promptly giving a rich connotation, the spirit of the times and advanced philosophy to the culture of integrity; Zhejiang has taken developing a culture of integrity as an important means for carrying out the education of combating corruption and upholding integrity, and for building an advanced socialist culture; Zhejiang has intensified its cultural efforts in preventing corruption during the process of promoting integrity, built the ethical and moral defense line and worked on preventing and curbing corruption at the source.

7.2.2 Improving the System of Supervision and Accountability for the Leading Cadres of the Party and the Government Enhanced supervision over the exercise of power by the leading cadres contains the system of holding to account the leading cadres who exercise power in violation of laws and discipline; only when such a system is really put in place can the system of supervision become a reality. 1. Strengthening the requirement of holding to account those exercising power With respect to increasing the intensity of holding relevant personnel to account according to the results of the operations of power, General Secretary Xi Jinping has developed a series of profound thoughts. He stressed, “We should improve the restrictions on the operations of power and the system of supervision, ensure that responsibilities come with power, the use of power is subject to supervision, those with dereliction of duty are held to account, law breakers are brought to justice, and the power granted by the people is always used in the interest of the people”.4 Afterwards, when expounding the reform tasks for building a government under the rule of law and changing government functions, he pointed out, “It is necessary to 4 Xi

(2012).

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promote the building of a government under the rule of law, utilize institutions to manage power, affairs and personnel, improve the system of making government affairs public, ensure that responsibilities come with power, the use of powers is subject to supervision, law breakers are brought to justice”.5 He also took “increasing the intensity of holding relevant personnel to account” as part of the reform of the anticorruption system and mechanism, “one very important aspect of the reform of the anti-corruption system and mechanism lies in clarifying responsibilities and putting them in place. If responsibilities are not stressed and relevant personnel are not held to account, even excellent institutions will become paper tigers and scarecrows”.6 Besides strengthening the supervision of power and increasing the intensity of holding relevant personnel to account at the overall level, Zhejiang has also stressed the importance of the accountability system in concrete work. For instance, Zhejiang has called for establishing the accountability system for the main leading cadres in the field of ecological and environmental protection, “it is essential to establish the accountability system; the people who make decisions blindly in disregard of the ecological environment and cause severe consequences must be held to account during their lifetime”.7 2. Strengthening intra-party supervision and stepping up efforts to hold the leading cadres to account During a period of nearly ten years, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province always gave importance to and constantly improved the intra-party supervisory system. In 2005, Zhejiang became the first nationwide to issue the Measures of Zhejiang Province for Carrying Out Ten Systems for Intra-party Supervision (Trial), covering the system of supervision by public opinion, the inquiry system, the system of requirements and handling of dismissals or replacements, the system for the division of collective leadership and responsibilities, the system for the reporting on important situations, the system for the reporting on work and integrity, the system of the meeting of a democratic life, the system for the handling of complaint-related letters and visits, the inspection system and the system of conversations, persuasions and admonitions. Zhejiang made efforts to build and carry out an accountability system, seriously investigated, handled and punished the corruption of power, constantly improved the case handling system, always maintained a good momentum of combating corruption and developed a mechanism for punishment so as to create a deterrent, among the Party members and cadres, against corruption.

5 The

Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee (2014), p. 74. Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee (2014), p. 81. 7 During the 6th Collective Learning Meeting by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping Vowed to Uphold the Basic National Policy of Saving Resources and Protecting the Environment, Move towards the New Era of a Socialist Ecological Civilization, People’s Daily, May 25, 2013, Page 1. 6 The

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7.2.3 Strengthening Administrative Supervision and Audit Supervision Over Administrative Power In 2005, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Xi Jinping, called for combining “strengthening the Party’s discipline inspection” with “strengthening administrative supervision, improving the effectiveness of state organs”, giving shape to the effective system and mechanism for combating corruption, upholding integrity and promoting diligence. With a focus on the central work of the government, the supervisory organs at various levels in Zhejiang studied and identified the priorities of supervisory work and creatively carried out the work. In recent years, Zhejiang has vigorously pushed forward the building of an electronic system of supervision, incorporated nearly 30,000 administrative service matters—including administrative examination and approval and the trading of public resources—into the scope of electronic supervision, ensuring synchronous supervision and real-time monitoring. In recent years, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province has given importance to the building of the system of audit supervision; in particular, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province started economic responsibility auditing at a high starting point and early on. As early as 1996, Zhejiang became the first nationwide to conduct an auditing of the economic responsibility of the leading cadres at the level of provincial departments. As from 2001, Zhejiang piloted the auditing of the economic responsibility of mayors and county heads; afterwards, Zhejiang conducted a synchronous auditing of the secretaries of the Party committees and county heads, providing experience for the rest of the country.

7.3 Experiments and Innovations in the Local Mechanism for the Supervision of Power at Multiple Levels and in Various Fields During supervision over the operations of power, local authorities in Zhejiang have experimented innovations to the mechanism and system of supervision with respective characteristics, and promoted the innovative practice of multi-field and multichannel supervision of power. From the perspective of supervisor, this practice of and innovations to the supervision of power cover the supervision by the people’s congress, administrative supervision, the supervision by the people and public opinion.

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7.3.1 The Innovations to the Mechanism of Supervision by the Primary-Level People’s Congresses Over the Government’s Performance of Functions and Budget In recent years, the people’s congresses at various levels in Zhejiang have, according to laws, actively brought about innovations, and brought about beneficial experiments in budget supervision. The innovations in the primary-level mechanism for the supervision of power mainly cover supervision by the primary-level people’s congresses over the government’s performance of functions and the governmental budget. The typical cases are the practice of and innovation to the system of the people’s hearing in Yueqing City and that in the participatory budget with the people’s congress as the carrier in Wenling City.

7.3.2 The Characteristic System of Supervision Over Judges and Procurators by the Local People’s Congresses In an effort to innovate the judicial supervision exercised by Zhejiang’s local people’s congresses, based on exercising the supervisory functions and powers according to laws, these local people’s congresses have mainly innovated the form and mode of supervision, and strengthened supervision over judicial power by evaluating judges and procurators. Based on understanding, evaluating and inspecting the case handling by a judicial organ and its working personnel, local people’s congresses and their standing committees in Ningbo, Taizhou, Jiaxing and Quzhou have started with reporting on major matters and the evaluation of the performance of judges and procurators to make beneficial experiments and attempts regarding the ways and means of judicial supervision.

7.3.3 Innovations in the Channels of and the Mechanisms for Supervision by the People and by Public Opinion Giving scope to the role of supervision by the people and public opinion in the restrictions on power and the anti-corruption campaignis the inevitable result of socialist democratic development. General Secretary Xi Jinping once vowed to smoothen out the channels for supervision by the people, regularize supervision by public opinion and improve the system of social supervision. “When it comes to the issues regarding interests involving complicated relations and entailing great considerations in the process of comprehensively intensifying the reform, it is necessary to think about

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the reality and expectations of the people, how to safeguard the people’s interests and whether the people are satisfied with our reform”.8 1. Promoting the law-based exercise of power through supervision by public opinion Supervision by public opinion plays an important role in the supervision of power; it is a requirement of the social development of the restriction to and supervision of power; supervision by news media is conducive to uncovering and curbing corruption, ensuring that power is operated under the fundamental prerequisite of seeking welfare for the people. The Party and government departments in Zhejiang have accepted supervision by public opinion in various ways. All of the organizational departments at the provincial, municipal and county levels in Zhejiang have opened official microblog accounts, which is the first occurrence of this in China. Since 2009, each year, the directors of organizational departments at the provincial, municipal and county levels have exchanged views with netizens online, solicited opinions and suggestions from them, and frankly dealt with their criticisms. Wenzhou has carried out the activity of supervising government operations of power by means of a TV platform. It is aimed at stimulating, through media supervision, the government to better exercise its power and perform its functions. These activities are carried out according to the prescribed procedure and contain a question and answer session with the participation of the people, they offer feedback on the results of the collection of ideas and they are linked to a year-end evaluation, thus enhancing the effectiveness of collecting ideas from the people. Hangzhou has utilized new media, including the microblog, to strengthen its online anti-corruption campaign. With its official microblog account, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Hangzhou City has taken the grassroots-oriented attitude to integrate itself into the netizen group, convey the voice of the discipline inspection and supervisory organs to the society in the most convenient and accessible way. With regard to this, Hangzhou has developed and issued the Administrative Measures for “@Clean Hangzhou” Government Affairs Micoblog, specifying the content released by microblog, its source, examination and approval procedure, and the mechanisms of the delivery, review, reply, handling and evaluation of the information, and incorporating the microblog work into the evaluation within commissions, bureaus and organs and the evaluation within the system of municipal responsibility for improving the Party’s conduct and upholding integrity.9 2. New mechanisms in the practice of the people’s supervision over power Supervision by the people is the means for preventing the government from making mistakes and also the purpose of the people’s exercise of democratic rights. There are increasingly diverse practices through which local authorities in Zhejiang accept 8 Xi

(2014).

9 The Discipline Inspection Commission of Hangzhou City, The Discipline Inspection Commission

of Hangzhou City Leverages New Media, Including the Microblog, to Push Forward the Open Anti-corruption Campaign, http://www.ccdi.gov.cn, July 27, 2014.

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public supervision. Wenzhou’s citizens’ supervisory group is a typical example of citizens’ supervision over the government’s exercise of power and performance of its functions. In 2010, the Wenzhou Daily Press Group established the 1000-People Supervisory Group for Urban Greening. In March, 2012, it was turned into the Citizens’ Supervisory Group through reorganization and expansion; it has fully adopted multimedia means, including newspapers and the Internet, and has given scope to the people’s wisdom and the role of the people’s supervision to conduct a number of supervisory activities.10 The innovative value of Wenzhou’s Citizens’ Supervisory Group—its greatest characteristic– lies in combining the people’s supervision with media supervision to enhance the force and effects of the people’s supervision and make media supervision represent public opinion more. The Citizens’ Supervisory Group is the innovative aspect in not only the form of supervision, but also its content, mode and procedure; it can also be considered as the innovative aspect in the developmental history of supervision by public opinion; the more profound connotation consists of changing the ordinary citizens from onlookers into participants in the activity of supervision.

7.4 The Rule-of-Law Path for Restrictions on and Supervision of Power As shown by the practice of the restrictions on and supervision of power in democratic development in recent years, Zhejiang has made significant progress in strengthening the supervision of power, combating corruption and upholding integrity. The main experience and inspirations include the following: strengthening the supervision of and restrictions on power through institutions under the rule of law; further exploring innovations to the mechanism of supervision in key departments, the key fields and segments with concentrated power; giving full scope to the synergy between multiple actors and manners of supervision and their overall effectiveness, building an effective connection between the systems of supervision within and outside the regime.

7.4.1 Strengthening the Supervision of and Restrictions on Power Through Institutions Under the Rule of Law In order to strengthen the restrictions on and supervision of power, institutional development is crucial, and it is also necessary to develop the institutions for the 10 The Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Wenzhou City, Extensively Collecting Ideas from the People to Promote Development—the Report on the Activities of Wenzhou’s Citizens’ Supervisory Group (internal materials), December, 2012.

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restrictions on and supervision of the operations of power into a complete institutional system and make institutions more systematic and coherent. In the meantime, enhancing the concept of the rule of law and strengthening the restrictions on and the supervision of the operations of power under the rule of law is also an important part of efforts in building Zhejiang under the rule of law. In recent years, Zhejiang and local Party committees and governments at various levels in Zhejiang have continuously improved institutional development, supervised and restricted powers under the rule of law, producing marked effects in many respects. Developing supervisory institutions and mechanisms is fundamental to strengthening the restrictions on and supervision of power, combating corruption; this is the fundamental experience and inspiration for continuing to strengthen the restrictions on and the supervision of power in the future. In practice, the effects of the anti-corruption campaign are affected mainly by two problems, as mentioned by General Secretary Xi Jinping in the 1st Plenary Session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, “First, the anti-corruption institutions and mechanisms are underdeveloped, the functions of agencies are too scattered to generate synergy for supervision; second, it is difficult to investigate and handle some cases due to the impact of various factors; in some areas, corruption cases frequently occur but relevant people are less held to account.”11 Thus, the key to securing supervision of and restrictions on power lies in institutions. It is necessary to strengthen supervision, control power and put power into an institutional cage. First, it is essential to build the institutional cage and reinforce institutional development; this is a priority and a key aspect. As mentioned by General Secretary Xi Jinping, “It is necessary to put power into the institutional cage, build the mechanism for punishment with a deterrent against corruption, a mechanism for prevention under which corruption is impossible, and a safeguarding mechanism under which the people are hardly apt to become corrupt.”12 Thus, it is imperative to correctly handle the relationship among the inheritance of the system of restrictions on and supervision of power and its development, innovation, make institutions more systematic, coherent, coordinated and operable, to the greatest extent prevent institutional loopholes and mitigate the conflicts or frictions among institutions, so as not to offset institutional effectiveness. Furthermore, in an effort to develop the institutions for the restrictions on and supervision of power, it is first necessary to restrict and control discretionary power, reduce power flexibility as much as possible; make institutional design more predictable and scientific rather than take actions after power corruption has occurred; moreover, it is necessary to reduce principled design, refine and improve the supervisory procedure, make supervisory institutions more operable and feasible. In order to strengthen the restrictions on and supervision of power, it is also necessary to reform the supervisory institutions and mechanisms. This is also an important part of the restrictions on and supervision of power based on institutions. In this regard, when delivering an important speech at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11 The 12 Xi

Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee (2014), pp. 79–80. (2013).

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18th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed, “It is necessary to intensify the reforms to improve the Party’s conduct, promote integrity and combat corruption, reform the system of inspection of the Party’s discipline, improve the anti-corruption institutions and mechanisms, enhance the effects of the restrictions on and the supervision of power, ensure the independence and authority of the discipline inspection commissions at various levels in terms of their supervisory power.”13 With this thought as a guide, actions should be taken to make the dual leadership system for the Party’s discipline inspection work concrete, procedure-based and institutionalized, and put in place the principal responsibility of the Party committees and the supervisory responsibility of the discipline inspection commissions under the new supervisory institutions and mechanisms, thus making the supervision of power more effective. Upholding the line of thought of the rule of law and the rule of law is an important guarantee for the restrictions on and the supervision of power. To build China under the rule of law, it is essential to concurrently promote governance of the country under the rule of law, the exercise of state power under the rule of law and government administration under the rule of law; and it is necessary to make coordinated progress in building the country, the government and the society under the rule of law. Under the guidance of this overall goal, in order to better strengthen the restrictions on and the supervision of power, it is essential to uphold the rule of law. On many occasions, General Secretary Xi Jinping vowed to strengthen anti-corruption legislation, utilize the line of thought of the rule of law and the rule of law to combat corruption, “it is necessary to adopt the line of thought of the rule of law and the rule of law to combat corruption, strengthen national anti-corruption legislation, promote the development of intra-party regulations and institutions for combating corruption and upholding integrity, so that the legal system is under a rigid operation”.14 With the development of the intra-party regulations and institutions for combating corruption and upholding integrity, and the anti-corruption legislation, an effective mechanism under which the people do not dare to, cannot and are unwilling to become corrupt takes shape, and a well-functioning, effective anti-corruption institutional system with scientific content and vigorous procedures will be established as early as possible. “It is necessary to improve the system of regulations and institutions for combating corruption and upholding integrity, improve the laws and regulations concerning the punishment for and prevention of corruption, the prevention and control of the risks to integrity, the prevention of conflicts of interest and the reporting of individual matters by the leading cadres.”15 Overall, it is essential to seek both temporary and permanent solutions, carry out comprehensive governance, place equal emphasis on punishment and prevention, stress prevention, more scientifically and effectively prevent and 13 Strengthening

the Innovations to Institutions and Mechanisms and the Institutional Guarantee for Combating Corruption, Improving the Party’s Conduct and Promoting Integrity, Stepping Up Anti-corruption Efforts, People’s Daily, January 15, 2014, Page 1. 14 The Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee (2014), p. 71. 15 A Collection of Documents from the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, People’s Publishing House, 2013, p. 56.

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combat corruption and comprehensively push forward the building of a system for the punishment for and prevention of corruption. In the broadest sense, institutions include laws, thus strengthening the fundamental institutional development, legislation involving the restrictions on and the supervision of power is intrinsically consistent with restricting and supervising power under the rule of law. The key to strengthening the restrictions on and the supervision of power under the rule of law lies in resolutely carrying out laws and institutions, really ensuring that law breakers are brought to justice. In order to make the restrictions on and the supervision of power and anti-corruption efforts more predictable, it is also necessary to intensify legislation in relevant fields—current relatively hidden cases involving violations of laws and discipline occur due to the underdevelopment of laws. In the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Promoting the Rule of Law, adopted during the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a vigorous system of supervision under the rule of law is taken as an important part of the system of socialist rule of law. At the present stage, the legislative task for strengthening the restrictions on and the supervision of the operations of power is still arduous.

7.4.2 Strengthening the Mechanism for the Supervision of Power in Major Fields and Key Segments Based on comprehensively strengthening the supervision of and restrictions on the operations of power, Zhejiang has further given prominence to key points, stressed the main contradictions, strengthened supervision and restrictions in the fields with concentrated power and key segments. This is another important experience and inspiration of the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province in ensuring the lawful and impartial exercise of power. As shown by the current cases of power corruption, there are still some salient problems and weaknesses in the field of restrictions on and supervision of the operations of power. Corruption cases frequently occur in some departments and fields with concentrated power, funds and resources, such as project construction and major investments, examination and approval, education and health, state-owned enterprises and other relevant departments and fields, and major cases, and cases involving a number of people often occur. Compared with the supervision over the general leading cadres, the corruption of chiefs has not yet been effectively controlled, and supervision over chiefs is still relatively weak. For instance, in some prefecture-level cities, the chiefs frequently become corrupt, “in five years, 32 municipal cadres were investigated, including 11 chiefs. Nationally, the proportion of corrupt chiefs was 1/3–1/2”.16 16 The Discipline Inspection Commission of Hangzhou City, The Line of Thought of Strengthening the Restrictions on and Supervision of the Operations of Power (internal materials), June, 2014.

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The severe problems in these fields of power operations suggest the urgency for and extreme importance of strengthening restrictions and supervision in key fields of power. Given these problems, it is necessary to further strengthen restrictions and supervision in the fields with concentrated power and key segments, and ensure mutual restriction among various segments of the operation of power. In a socialist market economy, it is essential to further explore the innovations to the mechanism of supervision in the fields with concentrated power, resources and funds, the major fields, key sectors and key segments with appointment of personnel, utilization of funds and resources by cadres. Supervision should be intensified in such key sectors as the fiscal and financial sectors, transportation, land management, housing, organization and personnel. In particular, given that the cases involving a violation of laws and discipline are more hidden, complicated and technical amidst the booming information technology at the present stage, some major cases involving a violation of laws and discipline are covered by operations of financial capital, it is more necessary to explore and bring about innovations to the mechanism of supervision. It is necessary to strengthen restriction on and supervision of the chiefs among the leading cadres. This is the focus of efforts made by the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, the municipal Party committees and governments in improving and strengthening restrictions on power; this is also the top priority in intra-party supervision. The most prominent experience and inspiration is that power is separated in leadership to strengthen the restrictions on power, the scope of power for the chiefs is strictly defined, with respect to major decisions, the appointment and removal of important cadres, the arrangements of important projects, and the use of funds of a large amount, collective discussions must be carried out in order to make decisions, and decisions must be made public and subject to supervision by the people. Another key measure is that the system of not making cadres directly take charge of relevant affairs has been adopted to restrict and supervise the power of the chiefs, the power which was excessively concentrated in the past has been divided up among several people or levels, individual powers are restricted by collective powers. A further measure lies in carrying out systems of intra-party supervision, such as work and integrity reports on the leading cadres, reports on major matters, letters of inquiry and inquiries and holding relevant people to account, with a focus on overcoming the abuse of power and corruption by the leading cadres. It is necessary to strengthen supervision in the key fields of power and key segments, fully clear up relevant institutions and regulations, intensify the evaluation of institutions in order to improve the quality of those institutions. In the meantime, in order to enhance the executive force of restrictive institutions, it is necessary to identify those responsible for carrying out institutions, giving feedback and exercising supervision, seriously investigate and handle and promptly report the acts of violating and breaking institutions, thus enhancing the rigid restrictions on institutions. Reforms have been intensified to more effectively prevent and combat the corruption in key fields. As stressed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, “It is necessary to intensify the reforms in the fields and segments in which corruption frequently occurs, to the greatest extent reduce the institutional defects and loopholes, expand the fields

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for preventing and combating corruption at the source, and intensify the reforms to remove the soil which breeds and spreads corruption.”17

7.4.3 Fully Leveraging the Synergy Among and the Overall Effectiveness of Diverse Players in Supervision The operation of public power involves many aspects and multiple dimensions, the restrictions on and supervision of the operation of power are multi-dimensional and multi-level, thus it is necessary to fully leverage the synergy among and the overall effectiveness of various types of supervision. Zhejiang has comprehensively adopted multiple supervisory modes, brought innovations to supervisory mechanisms, explored new manners of supervision, fully leveraged the comprehensive supervisory forces of various supervisors. This is also the important inspiration for strengthening the restrictions on and the supervision of power in the future. 1. Really strengthening and improving intra-party supervision One priority in intra-party supervision lies in strengthening the supervision over the main leading cadres of the Party. The report delivered during the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2002 called for strengthening the supervision over the leading cadres, especially the main leading cadres. Afterwards, the important documents issued by the Party stressed efforts to strengthen the supervision over the leading cadres on many occasions. The main measure for really enhancing the effects of intra-party supervision consists in improving the systems of intra-party supervision, making well-targeted implementation measures, and especially strengthening the systems of intra-party inquiry and accountability; this is the key guarantee for the exercise of power by the leading cadres under the rule of law. In particular, with respect to the supervision over the chiefs, concentrated power should be separated moderately, and major decisions, the appointment and removal of important cadres, and the projects involving massive funds must be subject to collective leadership. Another priority in intra-party supervision lies in promoting the reform of the institutions and mechanisms for intra-party supervision in order to step up anti-corruption efforts. The reform of the discipline inspection system should be accelerated, “It is necessary to put in place the system of responsibility for improving the Party’s conduct and upholding integrity, the principal responsibility of the Party committees, the responsibility for supervision of the discipline inspection commissions and build and carry out the feasible accountability system”.18 Under the guidance of the line of thought regarding the separation of duties, “actions are taken to make the system of dual leadership for the Party’s discipline inspection concrete, procedure-based 17 The

Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee (2014), p. 74. Collection of Documents from the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, People’s Publishing House, 2013, p. 55. 18 A

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and institutionalized, and strengthen the leadership of the discipline inspection commissions at the higher levels over those at the lower levels; the leadership of the discipline inspection commission at the higher level prevails in investigating and handling cases of corruption, the handling of clues, case investigation and handling must be reported to the discipline inspection commission at the higher level while being reported to the Party committee at the same level”.19 2. Strengthening supervision by the people’s congress over the government, court and procuratorate The system of the people’s congress is China’s fundamental political system. Supervision by the people’s congress over the administrative and judicial powers is the statutory authority prescribed in China’s constitution. In practice, it is essential to further bring about innovations to the institutions and mechanisms of supervision in order to strengthen the statutory supervisory function of the people’s congress, further arouse the vitality of the system of the people’s congress and ensure that the administrative and judicial powers are subject to effective supervision and restriction. Regarding the priority of supervision, in the field of administrative power, the key lies in supervising the government budget; in the field of judicial power, the key consists in supervising judges and procurators with respect to their handling of cases and to the performance of their duties under the rule of law. Effective modes of supervision have been adopted to put in place the statutory supervisory functions and powers and enhance the effectiveness of supervision. 3. Reinforcing the democratic supervision by the PPCC over other powers The three main functions of the PPCC are political consultation, democratic supervision, participation in and discussion of state affairs. Being related to China’s basic political system, the PPCC’s democratic supervision is an important part of China’s socialist system of supervision and is a type of supervision within China’s political democracy. The report delivered during the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China called for strengthening intra-party supervision, democratic supervision, legal supervision and supervision by public opinion, letting the people supervise the power and make power operate transparently. As indicated, democratic supervision is an important mode of supervision. The PPCC’s democratic supervision is different from the legal supervision by the people’s congress, the administrative supervision by the government and supervision by the judicial organ; it is a type of supervision in which the PPCC serves as the carrier, and criticisms and suggestions are the main forms. In order to better give scope to the role of democratic supervision, in 2013, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province developed and issued the Opinions of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on Strengthening Democratic Supervision by the People’s Political Consultative Conference. This is the first document developed by the provincial Party committee in this regard; this was responded to by 19 A

Collection of Documents from the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, People’s Publishing House, 2013, p. 55.

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official instructions from and affirmed by the leaders of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Many counties and county-level cities in Zhejiang also actively made relevant documents, producing great effects. According to the experience from Zhejiang’s PPCC in democratic supervision, it is necessary to make democratic supervision institutionalized, regularized and procedure-based during the entire process of democratic supervision, build a feasible, effective and sustainable mechanism of supervision, ensure that democratic supervision plays a more effective role in operating power under the rule of law. 4. Strengthening special supervision over the government This is also supervision over special organs of the government. The key to strengthening restrictions on the power within the government lies in improving the relative independence of that supervision. It is necessary to ensure effective administrative supervision. Emphasis should be placed on the power and public policies closely related to the people’s immediate interests, comprehensively carrying out administrative supervision. It is necessary to strengthen supervision over law enforcement, the supervision and inspection of functional government departments and administrative law enforcement organs in the performance of their functions and law enforcement procedure, make sure that administrative organs and their working personnel perform government administration under the rule of law and that lawbreakers are brought to justice. In the special supervision over government power, audit supervision is a type of unique supervision over the government’s fiscal acts; it is a mechanism of supervision which urgently needs to be strengthened at the present stage of continuously improving the socialist market economic system. The key in that supervision lies in restricting the government’s fiscal power, fundamentally preventing economic corruption, strengthening prevention and control in respect of integrity. In the future, it will be necessary to constantly improve the system of audit supervision and that of audit disclosure and make sure that the power of audit supervision is exercised independently and under the rule of law. 5. Improving supervision by the people and public opinion It is necessary to provide multiple channels of supervision for the people and give scope to the roles of supervision by the people and by public opinion, including the Internet. Upholding supervision by the people is a fine tradition and advantage of the Communist Party of China. Comrade Deng Xiaoping stressed, “It is necessary to build a system of supervision by the people, let the people and the Party members supervise cadres, especially the leading cadres; the people have the right to impeach, accuse, dismiss and replace, recall the cadres who seek privileges and special treatment, do not make corrections after criticism and education, require them to make economic compensation, and subject them to legal and disciplinary sanctions.”20 On many occasions, General Secretary Xi Jinping vowed to strengthen supervision by the people, saying “It is necessary to extensively solicit opinions and suggestions 20 The

Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping (Vol. 2), People’s Publishing House, 1993, p. 332.

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from the people, and consciously accept the people’s evaluation and social supervision”.21 To restrict and supervise power through rights, it is necessary to establish a good system of citizens’ participation, and build platforms for effective social supervision and public opinion supervision as well as carriers to guide, regularize and guarantee the supervision of the government by the people. Operationally, it is necessary to improve a number of institutions, including government information disclosure, power disclosure, complaint-related letters and visits, public hearings and build effective platforms to guide, regularize and promote orderly supervision by the people. With multiple channels and ways, supervision by the people and organizations has been enhanced greatly; in particular, media supervision based on modern network technology has gradually become deterrent. Once media supervision is regularized, institutionalized and procedure-based, in particular, such as the Internet, a platform for supervision, is used in a well-regulated way, the say and effectiveness of online anti-corruption efforts can be enhanced. However, there are key issues: How can we incorporate that supervision into the system of supervision within the whole regime and how can we combine the supervision by specialized organs, including those within the Party, the people’s congress and the government, with supervision by public opinion? It is necessary to explore the system of combining restrictions on power imposed by powers with the restrictions and supervision by rights. Finally, in order to fully leverage the overall synergy among multiple types of supervision, it is also necessary to properly handle the relationships among various types of supervision. The key lies in avoiding conflicts or frictions among various types of supervision, pursuing 1 + 1 > 2 supervisory effects. The relationships include those between intra-party supervision and supervision by the people’s congress, between budget supervision by the people’s congress and special supervision by the government, between supervision by the society and the people and supervision by online media, between supervision by specialized agencies and media supervision. “It must be stressed that supervision should be exercised under the Party’s leadership, the guidance of the socialist concept of the rule of law and the principle of democratic centralism, and that the whole process and every part of supervision should be under the Party’s leadership.”22 All types of supervision should be exercised under the rule of law, within the scope of the constitution and laws and under the basic principle of exercising supervision according to laws; this is the strong means for supervising the operations of power. Various types of supervision should complement each other to enhance the overall synergy and effectiveness of supervision, thus creating an institutional environment of supervision which is more conducive to guaranteeing the operations of power under the rule of law.

21 Xi 22 Xi

(2013), Page 1. (2006).

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References Fang Li, Putting Power into the Institutional Cage, Zhejiang Daily, January 6, 2014, Page 1. Ma Lili, Building a Safety Net for Resisting Corruption and Preventing Degeneration, Zhejiang Daily, November 24, 2004, Page 1. The Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee, The Excerpts of Xi Jinping’s Remarks on Comprehensively Intensifying the Reform, Central Party Literature Press, 2014. Xi Jinping, Carrying out Concrete Work to Stay Ahead – Line of Thought and Practice in Promoting New Development in Zhejiang, The Party School of the CPC Central Committee Press, 2006, pp. 383–384. Xi Jinping, The Speech during the Meeting on Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Promulgation and Implementation of the Current Constitution with the Participation of the People from Various Sectors of the Capital, People’s Daily, December 5, 2012, Page 2. Xi Jinping, Scientifically and Effectively Preventing and Combating Corruption, Resolutely Deepening the Anti-corruption Campaign and Promoting Integrity, People’s Daily, January 23, 2013, Page 1. Xi Jinping, Really Focusing the Line of Thought on the Guiding Principles Adopted during the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Qiushi, 2014(1).

Chapter 8

Constantly Consolidating and Developing the Broadest United Front Jun Xu

Zhejiang is one of the key provinces in the country for the work of the united front. The united front is characterized by broad coverage, long extension and numerous members. New fields, new objects, new situations and new problems are constantly emerging, and the tasks are very onerous. The then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping, gave great importance to the work of the united front and required that it be done well from “cold” and “hot” lines. The “cold” line means that we must think calmly, conduct in-depth investigations and carry out research on the deep-seated contradictions and problems; and the “hot” line means that we must have a clear idea of hot spots, difficulties, and key issues 1 to forge ahead, earnestly implement and do a good job. Under the leadership of the successive Party committees of Zhejiang Province, the whole province united into a concerted effort and paid close attention to the implementation of the guidelines and policies of the united front in all areas, so that the work of the united front has made important contributions to the aspects of the cohesion of people, the promotion of development, the enhancement of unity and the advancement of harmony.

1 The United Front Work Department under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Comrade Xi Jinping, Emphasized Doing Well in the United Front Work from “Cold” and “Hot” Lines, Chinese United Front, 2005(5), p. 8.

J. Xu (B) The Department of Work for the United Front of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Beijing, China © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 N. Fang et al. (eds.), Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics, Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8_8

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8.1 New Developments of Multi-party Cooperation in Zhejiang Province Since the reform and opening-up, the multi-party cooperation in Zhejiang Province has gradually become institutionalized, normalized and procedure-based. The Party Committee of Zhejiang Province has incorporated the political party consultation into a decision-making process and will consult and communicate with democratic parties and people without party affiliation before a decision on major issues or after major political events, and listen to the opinions and suggestions of democratic parties and then reach consensuses. When comrade Xi Jinping was working in Zhejiang, the construction of system of multi-party cooperation in Zhejiang Province made great progress.

8.1.1 Importance Given by Leaders is the Key to the Development of Multi-party Cooperation The main leaders of the Party committee give great importance to the work of democratic parties, they take the lead in doing the work of democratic parties and set an example for the implementation of the guideline and policies on the work of democratic parties. These are significant features of the work of multi-party cooperation in Zhejiang that are warmly welcomed and highly praised by people outside the Party. First, paying close attention and providing vigorous support. After the inauguration of the successive Secretaries of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, they visited the provincial committees of democratic parties and the organs of the Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce, met with the personnel in charge of the provincial-level democratic parties and the federation of industry and commerce and with representatives of people without party affiliation, and encouraged everyone to focus on the center, serve the overall interests, build on the achievements, improve deficiencies, grasp key points, tackle difficulties and make new contributions to the development of Zhejiang. Second, actively creating the conditions for democratic parties to play their roles. The successive Secretaries of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province have given great importance to creating the conditions for democratic parties and people without party affiliation to perform their functions and play their roles. Comrade Xi Jinping paid special attention to the improvement and perfection of the working conditions of democratic parties and of the federation of industry and commerce. Third, making friends and touching them with heart and soul. The people in charge of the Party committee must make friends with the leaders of democratic parties and with people without party affiliation. This is the glorious tradition and important method for the work of democratic parties. The successive Secretaries of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province have all taken the lead and set a good example. They have played a very important role in leading cadres at various levels in the province.

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Comrade Xi Jinping has pointed out many times that the leading cadres at various levels of the Party committee must make friends with democratic parties, with the federation of industry and commerce and with people without party affiliation and they must be politically concerned, ideologically sympathetic, emotionally intimate and concentric in the cause.

8.1.2 The Construction of a System is the Important Content for Political Party Consultations The successive Party committees of Zhejiang Province have given great importance to the construction of a system in the field of multi-party cooperation. In 2003, in accordance with the instructions of comrade Xi Jinping, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province issued the Opinions on Further Strengthening the Work of Democratic Parties, the Federation of Industry and Commerce and People without a Party Affiliation to further regulate the system of multi-party cooperation. In 2005, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province released the Notice of Printing and Distributing the Regulations of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province on Improving the System of Scientific and Democratic Decision-Making, which stressed that in the major decision-making process, the government should, by means of various forms, sufficiently listen to opinions from all sides including democratic parties and people without a party affiliation and promptly notify the formulation and implementation of major decisions. In 2005, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province issued the Implementation Opinions of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on Further Strengthening the Construction of the System of Multi-Party Cooperation and Political Consultation under the Leadership of the Communist Party of China, further clarifying the relevant systems, regulations and procedures regarding multi-party cooperation and political consultation in Zhejiang Province. Moreover, after the promulgation of the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Consolidating and Expanding the United Front during the New Stage in the New Century, the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening the Construction of a Team of Representatives outside the Party under the New Situation and other files, Zhejiang Province also put forward specific measures on the multi-party cooperation as stipulated in the Implementation Opinions. On July 11, 2011, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province also distributed the Opinions on Strengthening the Work of the United Front at the County Level and set out requirements on the work of democratic parties. A series of files have been issued in succession and they contain detailed provisions on the content and form of political consultations, the participation of the heads of democratic parties in important internal and external activities, investigation and research by democratic parties, and democratic supervision by democratic parties. They provided a sound and perfect institutional guarantee for the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation in Zhejiang Province.

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Further, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province laid stress on the specific implementation of various policies. The successive Party committees of Zhejiang Province treated the implementation of the policies as equally important with their formulation and organized the supervision after each important file was issued. After the issuance of the Opinions on Further Strengthening the Work of Democratic Parties, the Federation of Industry and Commerce and People without a Party Affiliation, in 2004, supervision and inspection were conducted on the implementation of the files of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province as well as the work of multi-party cooperation within the province. In November, 2005, according to the requirements of comrade Xi Jinping, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province supervised the implementation of File No. 9 and focused on the issues on the perfection of political consultations, on the participation of people in charge of democratic parties regarding important internal and external activities, the improvement of the investigation and research of democratic parties and democratic supervision by democratic parties. In order to thoroughly implement the guiding principles of the five files, including the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening the Construction of the Team of Representatives outside the Party under the New Situation, the Implementation Opinions of Zhejiang Province and the Opinions on Strengthening the Work of the United Front at the County Level, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province decided to carry out special supervision and inspection on the implementation. Comrade Xia Baolong, the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, specifically gave instructions and put forward clear requirements. In June, 2013, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province organized several supervisory teams for field inspection and to make sure that the work could be practically done, thus greatly promoting the work of the united front.

8.1.3 Multiple Forms of Consultation Are Important Ways to Develop Inter-Party Cooperation The main forms of political party consultation in Zhejiang Province include conference consultations, written consultations and special consultations. The conference consultation refers to the symposiums of people outside the Party, democratic consultation meetings, briefings, small-scale talks, and heart-to-heart talks and the making of friendships among the members of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the leaders of the provincial committees of democratic parties; the written consultation refers to the provincial committees of democratic parties making written proposals to the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province; and the special consultation refers to the political consultation which integrates discussions and written reports after the key projects are determined by the Department for the Work of the United Front under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province; the results are generated through in-depth investigations by the provincial committees of

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democratic parties and the provincial leaders, and relevant departments are invited to attend. The most common forms are detailed as follows: First, the symposiums of people outside the Party organized by the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province. These symposiums mainly focus on the central work and important files of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, hot issues in the society, as well as the implementation of the spirits of important meetings of the Central Committee of the CPC and the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province. In recent years, before the Democratic Life Conference of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province was held, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province convened the symposium with the provincial committees of democratic parties, the people in charge of the Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce and representatives without a party affiliation, and they listened to the opinions of those groups. The symposium of people outside the Party convened by the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province mainly discusses the draft report of the government work before the “Two Sessions” every year and solicits the opinions and suggestions from everyone. Second, the democratic consultation meetings organized by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province. This type of meeting aims to inform the provincial committees of democratic parties, the Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce and people without a party affiliation before the Communist Party of China decides to recommend the candidates for the leaders of the People’s Government, the People’s Political Consultative Conference, the High People’s Court and the People’s Procuratorate of Zhejiang Province. People outside the Party may express their opinions on the candidates recommended by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province. The consultation on the work of personnel generally includes two agendas. The leaders of the Communist Party of China first notify the candidates, then they listen to the opinions and suggestions of the people outside the Party, and finally reach a consensus. Before the election upon the expiration of the terms of office of the People’s Congress, the People’s Political Consultative Conference and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, the Communist Party of China conducts democratic consultations with people outside the Party, solicit their opinions and suggestions on the candidates and reach a consensus before the review procedures on the “Two Sessions” of Zhejiang Province. Third, the briefings held by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province. The briefings aim to inform people outside the Party of important meetings and important personnel arrangements within the Party, and major issues concerning the economic and social development of the country. These contents are notified only after the decision has been made. From October, 2002 to October, 2003, within one year after comrade Xi Jinping took office in Zhejiang Province, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province convened 19 briefings to inform the relevant spirits of the meeting of the Central Committee of the CPC and to solicit opinions on personnel arrangements, on the work of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and on the economic and social development of Zhejiang. Fourth, the unique special consultation meetings of political parties organized once a year. Special consultation refers to the special consultation meetings led by

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the Department for the Work of the United Front under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and organized on the basis of the results of the investigation and research on a series of important projects of democratic parties. Since 2011, Zhejiang adopted the topics of “social management innovation”, “cultural development” and “intensifying the reform of the system of science and technology” for three consecutive years. The topics were determined by the Department for the Work of the United Front under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province at the beginning of the year, which coordinated the provincial committees of democratic parties for in-depth research and investigation separately from different perspectives. In the middle of the year, they exchanged information on the status of the investigation, and a special consultation meeting was held at the end of the year. The Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the people in charge of relevant departments of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province were invited to attend the meeting and listen to opinions and suggestions. Thus, good results were achieved. In 2014, around the central work of governing “five waters” in tandem, the democratic parties decided on the topic for the special consultation of that year as the “protection of the ecological environment”. Therefore, they could carefully organize the research, produce valuable research reports, contribute insights and provide support for promoting scientific and democratic decision-making

8.1.4 Construction of the Team of Representatives Outside the Party is an Important Basis for the Development of Multi-party Cooperation The construction of the team of representatives outside the Party is one of the priorities of the work of the united front. Comrade Xi Jinping requires that giving due consideration to the reality of the united front and multi-party cooperation in Zhejiang Province, under the principle of “making up what is deficient”, we should strive to build up a team of broadly representative people outside the Party, who consciously accept the leadership of the Communist Party of China, unswervingly follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, are strongly capable of participation in the political discussions, establish long-term close cooperation with the Party and have both integrity and talent. In accordance with these requirements, Zhejiang Province is committed to the task of upholding and improving the socialist political system, consolidating and strengthening the patriotic united front under the new situations, and striving to construct a team of outstanding representatives outside the Party with sufficient quantity, reasonable structure, high quality and outstanding roles. In this regard, Zhejiang Province focuses on the following four aspects. First, broadening the channels. Zhejiang Province is continuously broadening the channels for the selection of representatives outside the Party from the entities, such as higher learning institutions, research institutes and state-owned enterprises, new social stratum, and returned overseas students. The construction of a backup

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team of representatives outside the Party is incorporated into the overall plan for the construction of the team of talents and cadres in the region, and strengthens the construction of a team of backup cadres for the leaders of democratic parties and the Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce. The lists of backup teams are established for people without a party affiliation, as well as for ethnic and religious leaders, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and overseas Chinese. Second, laying stress on practice. Zhejiang Province actively brings about innovations to ways and means, broadens the channels, and successively launches the six methods of practicing outside the Party, such as exchange of appointments, dispatching downwards, dispatching upwards, horizontal job rotation, practice in bases and special job-related practice. Third, enhancing the selection efforts. Zhejiang Province strictly enforces the provisions of the Central Committee of the CPC on the proportion and number of people outside the Party in the people’s congresses and the people’s political consultative conferences at various levels; except for those departments with special requirements, other government departments may choose cadres outside the Party to serve as leaders, who may increase in number based on the original number, especially in departments involving administration, law enforcement and supervision, which are closely related to the interests of the masses, closely connected with intellectuals and having high requirements on professionalism. The people’s courts and people’s procuratorates at various levels continuously increase the selection of qualified cadres outside the Party to serve as the leaders. The leaders of colleges and universities must generally include representatives outside the Party. Further, large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises, research institutes, people’s organizations and various hightech development zones, economic development zones and business startup parks of returned overseas students are encouraged to have cadres outside the Party. Fourth, bringing about innovations to the methods. In the construction of the leadership team and the cadre team, the management of cadres outside the Party is strengthened through regular assessments, reporting on jobs and anti-corruption performance and admonitory talks. The database is established for the representatives outside the Party at the provincial, municipal and county levels and dynamic and scientific management is strengthened.

8.2 Doing Practical and a Good Job in the Work Regarding Ethnic Unity and Progress The Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province always give a great deal of importance to the ethnic work, which is incorporated into the overall planning of the construction of the modernization of Zhejiang Province. The ethnic policies of the Party and the state laws and regulations are seriously enforced, the institutional mechanisms of ethnic work are constantly improved, the support for ethnic minority areas are effectively increased, the new socialist ethnic relations are

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vigorously consolidated and developed and therefore new achievements are made in ethnic unity and progress and in the cause of ethnic prosperity and development in the province.

8.2.1 Promoting the Comprehensive Development of Ethnic Minorities and Ethnic Areas As far as the ethnic work in Zhejiang Province is concerned, the ethnic areas are mainly faced with a problem of development. The key point is to promote the leapforward development of Jingning and 18 ethnic townships (towns) and 437 ethnic villages, so that they can keep up with the development of the province. Comrade Xi Jinping has pointed out that scientific development is the key to solving ethnic problems. It is necessary to put it in a more prominent strategic position, which means accelerating the development of ethnic minority areas, including them into the overall planning for economic and social development in Zhejiang Province and enhancing the poverty alleviation and development efforts of ethnic minorities and ethnic areas. First, continuously improving the supporting mechanism. The Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province put great emphasis on their ethnic work, they seriously implement the ethnic policies of the Party and the state laws and regulations and constantly improve the system of and mechanism for ethnic work. The successive Party committees and governments of Zhejiang Province have identified Jingning as the point of contact regarding the work of the Secretary of Party Committee or the Governor of Zhejiang Province, and the party and government leaders at various levels also take the ethnic autonomous counties, ethnic townships (towns) and ethnic villages as their contact points. The province has formed a pattern of ethnic work in which the party and government work together to co-manage, the ethnic work departments are responsible for comprehensive coordination and all departments cooperate with each other. The ethnic minority areas are supported by the developed areas. This mechanism is perfected to strengthen the pertinence and effectiveness of the support of the counterpart. Ethnic minority areas can carry forward the spirit of self-reliance, emancipate the mind, update ideas, enhance the subjective consciousness and truly transform the various preferential policies and other aspects of support into capabilities for self-development Second, continuously increasing the efforts at support. Since the beginning of the 21st century, governments at various levels have continuously enhanced their support, strengthened the work on poverty alleviation and development in ethnic minority areas, implemented various supporting policies and increased the fiscal transfer payments. In 2008, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province specially issued File No. 53 [2008] to support the development of Jingning and specially grant the subsidy of 200 million yuan to Jingning each year. In 2012, once again File No. 115 [2012] was promulgated to clearly propose

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the goal that Jingning “will continue to advance its compressive strength among 120 ethic autonomous counties nationwide by 2017 and take the lead in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects”. In 2013, the General Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province issued the Opinions on Further Accelerating the Economic and Social Development of Ethnic Townships (Towns), clearly stating that the per capita net income of rural residents of 18 ethnic townships (towns) in the province in 2017 should not be lower than the average level in the counties (county-level cities, districts) where they are located. In April, 2014, the provincial field meeting was held for the deployment of the development of ethnic townships (towns) and further proposed that the per capita GDP and the per capita net income of rural residents in 18 ethnic townships (towns) of the province should double in 2017 on the basis of the 11th Five-Year Plan and that the province will construct one model town that is a leader among ethnic townships (towns) nationwide. During the 11th Five-Year Plan, the fiscal arrangements of the province allocated 115 million yuan in total as the special fund of ethnic minorities, which increased by 2.5 times as compared with that during the 10th Five-Year Plan. Since the 12th Five-Year Plan, the province has granted 110 million yuan of the ethnic development funds from the central and provincial financial departments, which puts stress on the support for the construction of agricultural development projects of ethnic minority villages and characteristic She Villages. In 2014, the ethnic development funds from the provincial financial arrangements increased to 25 million yuan, which was 5 million yuan more than the previous year. In recent years, the provincial finance makes the transfer payment of 58 million yuan for ethnic minorities in the province. Since 2014, the provincial finance arranges for 2 million yuan of supporting fund for each ethnic township (town) each year by means of a transfer payment, and 30 provincial departments and 18 economically developed counties (county-level cities, districts) are paired with 18 ethnic townships (towns) to provide support. The provincial united front has implemented “three double-hundred projects”, which means “100 members of democratic parties contact 100 villages, 100 private enterprises help 100 villages, and 100 overseas Chinese help 100 villages”. In total, 115 ethnic villages are helped with 323 supporting projects, supporting funds of 26,929,200 yuan, the introduction of 282 talents, the adoption of 45 technologies, 214 times of training classes for 10,726 trainees, the organization of 3,634 dispatched labor services, and the help of 3,066 poor people and students with 1,250,100 yuan. From 2013 to 2017, the provincial united front has started a new round of assistance and support and strives to improve the production and living conditions of the low-income people in 100 ethnic minority villages within five years, so that their per capita income reaches the average level of the cities and counties they are located in or achieves an annual increase rate higher than that of the province, and the goal of “becoming materially affluent and culturally advanced” proposed by the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province can gradually be achieved. Third, implementing the catch-up strategy and promoting the comprehensive and coordinated development of ethnic areas. The Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province give priority to the implementation of the supporting policies for ethnic areas, they accelerate the development of ethnic areas as

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an important part of constructing the new socialist countryside, and they improve the capabilities for the development of ethnic areas and the living conditions of ethnic minorities. First of all, this means the acceleration of economic development. The construction of infrastructures is enhanced. Through the implementation of a number of key transportation projects, such as the Yunjing Expressway, the traffic conditions are effectively changed in Jingning and other ethnic areas. Supported by the developmental funds of ethnic minorities, based on the construction of the project, the province takes full advantages of the water, mountain forests and land resources in ethnic areas for the cultivation and development of the characteristic agricultural industry. Then, it actively increases the income of farmers. In view of the work on poverty alleviation and development and the construction of a new countryside in Zhejiang Province, ethnic minorities in the underdeveloped areas are guided under the mountains, they dispatch their labor forces, develop the characteristic cultivation and breeding, the processing of ethnic handicrafts and leisure tourism of a “farm life fun (She life fun)” and thus increasing their income. Next, to develop the ethnic minority culture. The province actively explores the traditional culture of the She people, strengthens the study of their culture, completes the compilation of the Zhejiang Part in the Synopsis of the General Catalogue of Ancient Books of Ethnic Minority Groups of China · The She Volume, and successively published the series of books on the She minority, including the Medicine of the She Chinese Ethnic Group, the Collection of Folk Songs of the She People and the Simplified Book of the She Language. The She Culture Research Center was established at Lishui University and the She Culture Research Association was set up in the province. The She costume design competition was held. The cultural charm of the She minority was actively explored to construct the “Third Day of the Third Lunar Month” Festival to be a brand event integrated into the economy of ethnic culture and tourism, which can not only promote the development of the culture and tourism industry in ethnic areas, but it can also create the opportunities and vitality for the development of the ethnic minorities and ethnic areas. Fourth, promoting the ecological and green sustainable development of ethnic areas. Zhejiang Province puts emphasis on promoting innovative ideas for development in ethnic areas, exploring their potentials and advantages, changing the manner of economic growth, vigorously developing the characteristic economies and focusing on protecting the ecological environment. In November, 2003, when investigating within the She village, comrade Xi Jinping stressed that the ecological advantages of Jingning were obvious and unique, that this was the late-mover advantage with a huge developmental potential and that we must protect this advantage, give full play to the characteristics and advantages of the She village and venture down the road of sustainable development. Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that we had to look farther; once the ecological advantage was destroyed, it would be possible to recover; the price paid was far greater than the gains obtained; and we should not only pay attention to immediate interests. Following the instructions of comrade Xi Jinping, Zhejiang Province supervises Jingning in making full use of its environmental resources, vigorously developing eco-tourism and cultural tourism, adequately showing the characteristics of the She village and fully embodying the

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potential of bamboo tea in the town of tea. The construction is advanced pursuant to the model of “village treatment + ethnic elements”, “a beautiful countryside + She characteristics” for the purposes of building a well-off village with ethnic unity and progress and constructing a characteristic She village, so that beautiful She villages can better reflect the ancient style, village landscape, livability and tourism and have a new look. By now, a total of 100 ethnic villages in the province have been established as provincial-level well-off villages with ethnic unity and progress, 34 ethnic villages have carried out the pilot programs for the protection and development of ethnic minority villages, 15 ethnic villages have been selected in the Catalogue for the Protection and Development of Characteristic Ethnic Minority Villages of China and 6 ethnic villages are listed as the candidates for application of the listing of Chinese characteristic ethnic minority villages.

8.2.2 The Continuous Advancement of the Innovative Practices of Urban Ethnic Work With the acceleration of the process of urbanization in Zhejiang, the migrant population of ethnic minorities has increased rapidly. The migrant population of ethnic minorities is similar to that in permanent residences, both with the characteristics of large dispersion and small agglomeration, reflected by relative ethnic agglomeration, industrial agglomeration and regional agglomeration. Starting from the characteristics of the migrant population of ethnic minorities, Zhejiang Province makes full use of the tools of the Internet age, aims at the personalized service needs of the migrant population of ethnic minorities, focuses on organization, windows, hotlines and the construction of platforms, strengthens the innovations brought about to the institutions and mechanisms of urban ethnic work and is devoted to building a new pattern of urban ethnic work in Zhejiang. First, developing the organization and extending the reach of the network. Most of the migrant population of ethnic minorities work in enterprises and live in communities. Therefore, the urban ethnic work should be oriented towards the grassroots level, it should weave a system for a network of the urban ethnic work that connects “antenna” and “locality” and continuously improves the organizational degree of the social government of ethnic work. The leading groups of ethnic work have been established in the counties (county-level cities, districts) with many migrant populations of ethnic minorities for assuming the functions of analysis, organization, coordination and supervision of ethnic minority work. Based on this, the focus is on strengthening the construction of organizations of ethnic minority management services in sub-districts and communities, promoting the vertical extension of the organizational structure, requiring the towns and sub-districts with relatively concentrated migrant populations of ethnic minorities to establish organizations for the coordination of the leadership of minority work and ethic studios and employ full-time staff or part-timers for ethic work, as well as establishing councils for the

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coordination of ethnic work in key communities with migrant populations of ethnic minorities for determining the assistants and liaisons. Meanwhile, associations for the promotion of ethnic work, ethnic minority friendship associations and other social organizations have been established among migrant populations of ethnic minorities. Key people in the migrant population of ethnic minorities have been organized. Through their self-participation in management, we can enhance the abilities of selfeducation, self-management, and self-service of the migrant populations of ethnic minorities. Second, opening up windows and aiming for precise services. In view of the employment structure, customs and habits of ethnic minorities, we will focus on the daily management, grasp the regular work, build the mechanism and strive to achieve precise and individualized management of ethnic minority services through the construction of various types of windows. In terms of tangible window construction, the “green service channels” are universally established in the 365 Convenient Service Centers and the sub-districts and communities where ethnic minorities are concentrated, to provide comprehensive services, such as employment and entrepreneurship, certification services, and social security, and to meet the needs of the migrant population of ethnic minorities for basic public services. In terms of the construction of individualized windows, in response to the special needs of ethnic minorities, the precise and personalized services are provided by localities according to the actual situations. For the construction of self-service windows, we actively mobilize and exert the enthusiasm of ethnic minorities to make a contribution. By establishing volunteer service teams. such as the “Home of Ethnic Groups” and the “Urban Volunteers”, we build a mobile service team to show the ethnic brotherhood. Jimingshan Community in Yiwu City is a community with a relatively dense migrant population of ethnic minorities. The community organization has established a service team for ethnic minorities with social workers as the backbone and representatives of the ethnic minorities and volunteers of business households as members. They provide a one-on-one volunteer service for the migrant population of ethnic minorities, which makes them deeply feel the warm friendship of the national family. Third, establishing hotline and smoothing channels to enhance interaction. In the key sub-districts and communities with a migrant population of ethnic minorities, the activities of creating hotlines with the content of “four ones” are carried out to build bridges connecting the government with the ethnic minorities. The opening of telephone service hotlines: the communities open the service hotlines for providing convenience for people from ethnic minorities to express opinions, consult problems and ask for help. Many sub-districts and communities also specially print the service hotline cards and distribute them into the hands of ethnic minorities. The establishment of QQ group or WeChat groups of ethnic minorities: because the migrant populations of ethnic minorities are mainly young people, QQ groups or WeChat groups have been established in each community to promote the policy of the Party through the network platform, exchange experiences on ethnic work, answer questions of people from ethnic minorities and guide them to sing the “good voice” of ethnic minorities. Organizing a team of ethnic informants: ethnic work departments discover and develop a group of outstanding members and enthusiasts

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of ethnic minorities and identify them as informants for ethnic work cadres and community workers, so that we can have true knowledge about the wishes and needs of people from ethnic minorities, promptly grasp the dynamics and information of the migrant population of ethnic minorities and provide services for doing well in the ethnic work. Formation of a series of fast and efficient mechanisms for information response: This means building and improving the response mechanism of the hotline from acceptance, registration to handling, reporting and evaluation and the stability of a plan for emergencies in the ethnic field, so as to try our best to respond to all complaints, deal with them, discover emergencies in the bud and solve them at the beginning. Fourth, building a platform for promoting development and making dreams come true. The migrant population of ethnic minorities comes to Zhejiang to seek development and realize their personal dreams of a business startup, employment and becoming rich. Therefore, the fundamental foothold of urban minority work should also be placed on boosting the development and achievement of dreams. Zhejiang regards the inflow of ethnic minorities as a kind of resource and wealth and strives to create various platforms for promoting development, so that the people of ethnic minorities can stay, be integrated in and develop well in Zhejiang. Building a platform for a business startup and employment: through the establishment of a two-way mechanism for communication between the outflow region and the inflow region, opening of an online employment supermarket, the holding of special job fairs and granting loads for business startups of ethnic minorities, we provide support for the members of ethnic minorities in their employment, business startups, production and operation in Zhejiang and create an atmosphere of “zero discrimination” and a “low threshold” for employment and business startup. Providing the personal promotion platform: in order to improve the knowledge and skills of ethnic minorities and enable them to adapt to the increasingly fierce market competition and the unique private economic environment in Zhejiang, local governments actively set up service platforms such as ethnic schools, skill training classes and entrepreneurial practice bases, they create numerous good carriers and models to enhance the quality of ethnic minorities, such as the Ethnic Class of Production Skill Training of the Migrant Population in Zhoushan and the Education Practice Base of Ethnic College Students in Beilun, Ningbo. As a result, groups of ethnic minority compatriots bid farewell to the identity of a low-end labor force and achieve progress and development in Zhejiang. The creation of a platform for the display of talent: This aims at exploring the wisdom hidden deep in the people of ethnic minorities, particularly the unique charm of the ethnic minority culture. Through the formation of the artistic light cavalry, holding the ethnic arts festival, selecting the fine artwork of ethnic groups and carrying out ethnic costume design competitions, this can not only show the cultural charm of ethnic minorities, but it can also enhance the sense of ethnic belonging and values, allow the ethnic culture to be exploited and developed commercially and open up new ways to increase the income of ethnic minorities.

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8.2.3 Consolidation and Development of Socialist Ethnic Relations Based on Equality, Solidarity, Mutual Assistance and Harmony Zhejiang Province adheres to the correct direction in its work and uses scientific methods to promote the continuous consolidation and development of socialist ethnic relations based on equality, solidarity, mutual assistance and harmony. We not only continue to do well in the work of minority residents living in permanent residences, but we also strive to do well in the work of immigrants and migrant population of ethnic minorities and promote the harmonious coexistence and development of people of all ethnic groups in the province. We focus on doing more practical and good things that are conducive to ethnic unity and harmony, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of ethnic minorities and enable the ethnic minorities in Zhejiang to share the fruits of reform and development and feel the warmth of the socialist family. In dealing with ethnic relations, we give great importance to and properly handle various issues affecting ethnic relations. No trivial matters exist in terms of ethnic groups, and ethnic issues are highly sensitive. Individual contradictions and partial problems may lead to serious consequences if they are not properly handled. When dealing with ethnic issues in Zhejiang Province, we adhere to principles, laws, policies and strategies and instate on treatment according to laws but with caution. For those belonging to internal contrasts of the people, they should be resolved by means of solidarity education and reconciliation, to prevent any event from harming ethnic feelings. We can cope with the contrasts and disputes between ethnic minorities and the local population properly. Anyone who violates the law, no matter which ethnic group and religion he or she belongs to, should be judged according to the law, but attention should be paid to the methods and strategies. Those engaged in ethnic separatist activities must be resolutely cracked down according to the law, so as to effectively resist the infiltration and destruction of hostile forces at home and abroad by using ethnic issues and firmly take the initiative in the struggle.

8.3 Actively Guiding Religions to Suit the Socialist Society Zhejiang is a big religious province with five major religions and a long history of religious development. There are many religious believers and places for religious activities, and religious tasks are onerous. Comrade Xi Jinping, the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, stressed that we must uphold and develop the Marxist view of religion, accurately grasp and carefully deal with religious issues, profoundly understand and seriously implement the Party’s basic policy on religion and actively guide religions to suite the socialist society. The Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have given great importance to religious work, conscientiously implementing the Party’s religious policy, strengthening the management of religious affairs in accordance with the law, adhering to the principle

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of independent self-management, and giving play to the active role of religious personages and religious believers in promoting economic and social development. The religious work continues to make new progress.

8.3.1 Strengthening the Construction of Patriotic Religious Organizations and Religious Representatives Since the beginning of the 21st century, Zhejiang Province has continuously strengthened the self-construction of patriotic religious organizations and intensified the training of representatives in the religious circles. A group of young and middleaged faculty members have taken up leadership positions, and the linking role of religious organizations has been fully exerted. The patriotic united front of the Party and the religious circles have been further consolidated and developed. First, doing a good job in the construction of patriotic religious organizations. The quality of religious organizations is directly related to the future outlook of religious organizations at various levels and the stability of the religious circles in Zhejiang Province, the adaptability of the religions to the socialist society and whether the will and strength of the masses can be concentrated on socialist modernization. This lays the foundation for the religious work. From 2010 to 2014, six organizations elected new leaders, namely, the Zhejiang Buddhist Association, the Zhejiang Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches, the Zhejiang Christian Council, the Zhejiang Taoist Association, the Zhejiang Catholic Patriotic Association and the Zhejiang Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church. Moreover, the Zhejiang Islamic Association was founded. The religious organizations at the provincial level realize the replacement of leaders. The leadership team highlights a reasonable structure. In 2012, based on the experiments of the evaluation mechanism of religious organizations in Hangzhou and Zhoushan, the Measures for the Assessment of Responsible People of Provincial Religious Organizations was formulated to promote the institutionalization of the assessment of responsible people of provincial religious organizations. Since 2009, 2.5 million yuan have been granted by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance each year to subsidize the office space rental fees, headcount expenses and office expenses of provincial religious organizations and to help them solve practical difficulties. Second, strengthening the building of a team of representatives of the religious circles. After training and fostering for many years, Zhejiang Province has initially established a group of clerical personnel and believers of religions who are “politically reliable, religiously versed, morally convinced, and important at critical moments”. Some already hold important positions in provincial religious organizations and some have made certain political and social arrangements to play a leading role. At the same time, among the previous trainees who participated in the training, we identified a batch of backup talents with developmental potential and promising prospects, we established a network of contacts, continued to follow up on their edu-

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cation and did a good job in training them. Practice has proved that they can shoulder the heavy burden at critical moments, such as playing an active role in the disposal of illegal religious buildings in the “three renovations and one demolition”. Third, carrying out the training in batches at different levels. In order to implement the “100-1,000-10,000 Project” under the Department of the Work of the United Front of the CPC Central Committee and execute the Opinions on Strengthening the Building of a Team of Representatives of the Religious Circles under the New Situation, in addition to recommending the trainees to the training course in the Renmin University of China, Zhejiang Province has initially built a database of around 500 religious representatives at the provincial level and focuses on long-term planning and the construction of an echelon. The province and cities have made the training programs in three to five years for planned training in batches at different levels. At the provincial level, besides annual summer reading classes for the people in charge of provincial religious organizations, at the Zhejiang Institute of Socialism, we also hold research classes for the representatives of religious circles in the provincial and municipal people’s congresses and people’s political consultative conferences and the training classes for the young and middle-aged backbones in the religious circles, mainly aiming at improving their comprehensive quality and ability to participate in politics. Moreover, according to characteristics and problems of each religion, at the provincial level, we organize the classes for the standing committee of the Catholic Churches, classes for the standing committee of the Christian Churches, training classes for the young and middle-aged Buddhist and Taoist backbones, training classes for Islamic representatives and training classes for the backbones of the Catholic Patriotic Association. At the city level, according to the actual conditions of each city, various types of training programs are carried out in a targeted manner, which are divided into the training of responsible people of municipal religious organizations, the training of responsible people of places for religious activities and the training of young and middle-aged backbones in the religious circles. Training generally adopts the forms of reading classes, seminars, special symposiums, meetings to report on the situation, patriotic base education and visits. It combines lectures by experts with exchanges and discussions, theoretical study with study in other cities, so as to enhance the effectiveness of learning. It also guides religious organizations to strengthen their self-training. According to statistics, every year at the provincial level, there are 300 training sessions for the religious circles and nearly 30,000 trainees.

8.3.2 Giving Full Play to the Initiative and Creativity of the Religious Circles Actively guiding religions to suit the socialist society is an important task of the current and future religious work, which requires the efforts of our comrades respon-

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sible for the united front and religious work and also devoted efforts to be carried out by the religious circles. First, deepening the construction of harmonious temples and churches with the theme of “safety” and “religious styles”. Since 2009, Zhejiang Province has been responding to the call of the Department of the Work of the United Front of the CPC Central Committee and the National Religious Affairs Administration of China and has carried out a campaign on constructing harmonious temples and churches. In the in-depth development of harmonious temples and churches, we have creatively organized the selection of star-rated places for religious activities. Second, actively experimenting with new measures for the construction of a religious culture. In the religious circles of the province, the practical educational activity of “Chinese Dreams, Normal Behaviors” is held in an in-depth manner with the theme of patriotism, to guide religious personages and believers to interpret the teachings and rules in line with the requirements of social development and progress and to supervise the widespread activities in various places, such as Buddhist sermons and exchanges, Taoist sermons, discussions on the construction of a Christian theology, and the Islamic new Waz; we have also actively promoted the construction of religious culture and support Zhoushan and Ningbo in constructing the excellent projects of “Avalokite´svara Culture” and “Maitreya Culture”. Third, actively guiding and promoting the healthy development of religious philanthropy. In recent years, the religious circles of Zhejiang Province have played an active role in poverty alleviation, disaster relief, disability aid, old-age care, education, free clinics and economic and social development. Since 2008, the religious circles in the province have donated more than 800 million yuan. They have actively responded to the “Religious Charity Week” of the National Religious Affairs Administration of China. Based on this platform, they actively expand the fields and channels of serving the society and they have created a religious charity brand with Zhejiang characteristics. For example, in 2013, the activity with the theme of “Religious Charity Week” was launched to express a love for ethnic areas and people with disabilities. In 2014, they launched a charity event with the theme of “governing five waters in tandem with five religions”. Fourth, carrying out the special governance of Buddhism and Taoism. In 2011, special work was carried out on the construction of temples and open-air religious statues, which were managed by means of a classification. In 2013, according to the Opinions on Handling Issues Related to the Management of Buddhist and Taoist Temples, jointly formulated by 10 ministries and commissions, the emphasis was put on regulating “chaos”, “fakes” and “unusual popularity”. “Regulating chaos” mainly focuses on the behavior of collecting money by chaotic construction and contracting temples in the name of religions; “regulating fakes” mainly aims at profit-making behaviors by fake monks and Taoists and in non-religious places; and “regulating unusual popularity” means investment in temples for operations, binding for being listed on the stock exchange, spending high prices to burn high incense and engaging in lotteries, divination and other acts. In 2013, in the field of Buddhism and Taoism, 79 cases were included in the special treatment and 72 cases were regulated. Local authorities treat the problems of the “contracting of temples for listing”, “short-term

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monks” and “burning the first incense”, such as the typical cases of the “contracted operations” of the Mishan Buddhist Temple in Chun’an County, Hangzhou, and the Xiyin Buddhist Temple in the Tianxia Yuyuan Scenic Area in Yuyao City, Ningbo, as well as “profit making in non-religious places” at the Xiuzhen Taoist Temple in Tongxiang City, Jiaxing. The Tiantong Temple in Ningbo took this opportunity to coordinate the relationship with the Tiantong Scenic Spot, exempted the temple tickets and rectified the mobile vendors in front of the temple, thus changing the status of being dirty, chaotic and terrible around the temple. By means of special governance activities, the good image of the Buddhist and Taoist circles in Zhejiang Province was further safeguarded. Fifth, using the advanced culture to guide and enrich the spiritual life of the people. Due to the mutual agitation of various ideologies and cultures and the increasing diversification of the socio-economic composition, organizational form, employment methods, interest relations and distribution methods in China, the independence, selectivity, diversity and difference of people’s ideological activities have been significantly enhanced. Some people become confused and chaotic in their mind and hope to seek spiritual comfort in religions. This provides room for the spread and expansion of religions and offers opportunities for the penetration of religions from abroad. To do a good job in religious work, we must strengthen the foundation and solve the new problems in the field of the material and cultural life of our people in social changes. Zhejiang Province has always held the banner of advanced culture high, has continuously developed the socialist culture, promoted and cultivated the national spirit, and enriched the spiritual world of the Chinese people. We persevere in and confidently carry out propaganda and education on dialectical materialism, historical materialism and atheism to the masses of people, especially young people, constantly establishing a scientific spirit, applying scientific ideas and expanding the stronghold of atheism, and we have always improved the ideological and moral, scientific and cultural qualities of the whole nation. We identify and explore the positive components of the religious culture, study and summarize the useful content of the integration of Chinese religion into the traditional culture of the nation, and encourage the majority of religious believers to establish good standards of morality and pursue a healthy spiritual life. Sixth, uniting and guiding the masses of religious believers to make contributions to building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. Zhejiang gives great importance to uniting and guiding the religious personages and the majority of religious believers, and continuously strengthens their steadfastness in accepting the Party’s leadership, taking the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics, consciously resisting overseas infiltration activities, and serving the maintenance of national unity, social stability and reunification of the motherland; and Zhejiang inspires and guides the majority of religious believers to study modern scientific knowledge, improve the level of cultural education, and serve the establishment of a new, scientific, healthy and civilized lifestyle, it helps and guides the masses of religious believers to work hard and improve their lives, and to concentrate their wisdom and strength on the primary goal of comprehensive construction of a well-off society.

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8.3.3 Exploring the Management of Folk Religious Belief Affairs and Places for Religious Activities First, managing the affairs of folk beliefs. The province has a total of more than 30,000 places of religious activities. In 2009, Zhejiang Province placed the management of the affairs of folk beliefs on an important agenda, insisted on pilot and trial programs and actively explored the effective ways of managing folk beliefs. Aiming at the problem of “who is going to manage and what is to be managed”, Zhejiang Province has conducted pilot projects in Ninghai of Ningbo, Wenzhou, Linhai of Taizhou. According to the reality, all localities implemented an “orderly entry” into folk beliefs on the basis of strict screening, gradually formed a model of management of “territorial management, hierarchical responsibility, and self-governance” and found new ways to manage folk beliefs with the local characteristics of Zhejiang Province in line with the actual situation in Zhejiang. Second, standardizing the management of places of religious activities. Taizhou City took the lead in establishing the “Financial Entrustment Agency Center for Places of Religious Activity” in Luqiao District and towns (sub-districts) of Huangyan District for supervision and management of the financial affairs in the places of religious activities. With a “unified system, unified bills and unified accounts”, the standardized management of financial affairs are enhanced. At present, 90% of the places of religious activities in Taizhou City have adopted this system. The experience of Linhai City in conducting the standardized management work of folk religions is being promoted by the National Religious Affairs Administration of China as one of the three pilot management models for folk belief activities in China and it is promoted all over the country. This measure can better solve the problems regarding whether the places of folk beliefs should be managed, who can manage them, how they should be managed and what should be managed. Third, regulating the religious buildings. In view of the chaos in the field of religious buildings, there is a lack of design specifications. Religious buildings show a developmental trend of pursuing luxury without paying attention to connotations. In order to further guide the healthy and orderly development of religions and advance the lawful, standardized and long-term management of religious affairs, religious authorities and those in charge of construction as well as architectural design institutes began to study and formulate the Technical Specifications for Religious Buildings in Zhejiang Province, which aimed at promoting the standardization of religious architecture in Zhejiang Province, integrating more Chinese elements and Zhejiang characteristics and reflecting the concept of a conservation-oriented society and a modern style. Fourth, promoting the demolition of illegal religious buildings. In the specific process of demolition, the illegal religious buildings in Zhejiang Province are strictly determined according to law, and the process of demolition ensures that the procedures are proper. The buildings that must be dismantled according to law shall, while serving the notice of rectification, provide an in-depth and meticulous ideological education and guidance, clarify the deadline and mobilize self-demolition.

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Self-demolition is the mainstream process throughout the province except for a few illegal religious buildings. Regarding those that can be rectified, responsible persons or religious organizations file applications, and relevant departments of the government help them during the process of rectification. With respect to the places that have been registered in religious authorities according to law, but for various reasons, without a complete set of “three certificates”, namely, the certificate of land use rights, the real estate certificate and certificate of registration as a religious place, the religious organizations should be responsible for investigation, and the related functional departments of the government should handle the formalities for them on the premises of lawfulness, reasonableness and sympathy. Throughout the process, attention is always given to the ideological work of religious circles and play is given to the role of religious personages. When dealing with key illegal buildings, the responsible people within the relevant religious organizations in various places are personally present to do the work of diverting and dissolving the sentiments of the religious masses. Fifth, strengthening the daily management of places of religious activities. The campaign of striving to be “civilized places for religious activities” was carried out in a step-by-step manner, the experience of standardized management of temples was actively explored, and the registration of places of Christian religious activities was earnestly carried out, thus ensuring reasonable arrangements for places of religious activities, normal religious activities and effective protection of the legitimate rights and interests of religious organizations.

8.4 Efforts to Extend the Work of the United Front of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and of Overseas Chinese Zhejiang Province is one of the eight key provinces for the work of the united front of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and of the overseas Chinese. The overseas Chinese originating from Zhejiang and the Zhejiang compatriots living in Hong Kong and Macao are not only large in number, but also of a high level, with a large number of commercial giants, political celebrities and cultural personages. An increasing number of people from Zhejiang Province began to study and operate businesses in Europe, the USA, Japan and other countries and regions year by year. Rapid economic and social development also attracts more and more “three types of compatriots” to develop in Zhejiang. When comrade Xi Jinping served as the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, he pointed out that Zhejiang has rich resources and great responsibilities in the work of the united front of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and of overseas Chinese, so it must obtain achievements and show its characteristics.

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8.4.1 Distinctive Themed Activities Since the beginning of the 21st century, Zhejiang Province has highlighted perfecting the working mechanism, it has relied on activities with distinctive, influential and effective effects, “going out and inviting in”, has carried out work with family ties, nostalgia, friendship and business, has continuously expanded the work of the united front of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and overseas Chinese and it has extended exchanges and cooperation. In terms of the work of the united front of Hong Kong and Macao, the connections of Zhejiang Province and associations and representatives from Hong Kong and Macao have been enhanced through activities such as the spring festival greeting party of the Zhejiang Overseas Friendship Association, participation of the provincial leaders in the talks with the Deputies to the National People’s Congress and Members of the CPPCC National Committee from Hong Kong and Macao but who originated in Zhejiang, as well as the attendance of provincial leaders in the opening ceremony of the United Zhejiang Residents Associations (Hong Kong) Limited. Through the support of the construction of the countrymen’s associations, we further develop and strengthen the patriotic forces who love China, Hong Kong and Macao. The activities are organized, such as the “Hong Kong · Zhejiang Week” and the “Macao · Zhejiang Week”, to promote economic and trade exchanges and cooperation between Zhejiang and Hong Kong, and between Zhejiang and Macao. With regard to the work regarding Taiwan, we fully implement the policies of the central government on Taiwan and the Anti-secession Law and strengthen the sense of identity and solidarity of the people of Taiwan. We organize exchange activities such as the “Zhejiang Summer Camp for Taiwan University Students”, the “Hometown Tour in Golden Autumn” and the “Economic and Trade Delegation of Young and Middle-aged Entrepreneurs” to continuously promote cross-strait personnel communications and economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation. We conscientiously do a good job in solving problems and difficulties for the family members of “three kinds of compatriots”, expand the influence of the motherland, especially of Zhejiang, on Taiwan, and play an active role in the struggle for Taiwan’s popular support and advancing the progress of national unity. With respect to the work of the united front of the overseas Chinese, we utilize the overseas associations as an important carrier, platform and window for Chinese people in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and further expand the coverage of the work of the overseas united front. A series of themed activities in diversified forms have been successfully held, inclusive of the Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s Instructions on “Mobilizing the People of Ningbo throughout the World to Build Ningbo”, and the First Worldwide Conference of the People of Wenzhou, organizing hundreds of overseas Chinese leaders on a tour to their hometown, a tour of hundreds of overseas doctors to Zhejiang, a volunteer team of high-level overseas students returning to serve the homeland and the symposium of the Zhejiang Overseas Chinese to promote the peaceful reunification of China.

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8.4.2 Making Full Use of the Advantages of Overseas Chinese Resources After the reform and opening-up, Zhejiang has made tremendous achievements, and economic and social development has been changing greatly with each passing day. One reason for such changes is that the vast number of returned overseas Chinese and overseas compatriots have made positive contributions to their hometowns. Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that Zhejiang is a big province of overseas Chinese resources. It can be said that where there are seas, there are people from Zhejiang, and where there are populations, there are Zhejiang businessmen. This is a major advantage of Zhejiang. It is both an advantage in resources and a cultural advantage as well as a political advantage. Zhejiang Province must continue to make good use of these advantages, sum up the good experience, explore new laws, find new characteristics, study new methods and further improve the work of the overseas Chinese from Zhejiang. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Party committees and governments at various levels in the province have fully recognized the importance of strengthening overseas Chinese affairs under the new situation, they have comprehensively implemented the Party’s policy regarding the affairs of overseas Chinese, abided by and enforced the laws and regulations on overseas Chinese affairs, and they have worked creatively in accordance with the laws and regulations. The relevant authorities of the united front can give full play to the role of bridges and ties, make adequate use of the period of strategic opportunities, increase their efforts in the promotion of investments, and mobilize the vast number of overseas Chinese originating from Zhejiang Province to continue to develop their businesses in Zhejiang, invest for business startups and donate funds to develop the industry and benefit the hometown. In light of the characteristics of the widespread distribution of the people of Zhejiang and Zhejiang businessmen being good at seizing business opportunities, we advance the “going global” strategy, extend Zhejiang enterprises to the international market and take full advantage of two kinds of resources and two markets; we also carry out overseas connections via multiple channels, at multiple levels and in multiple forms, promote the Chinese culture, push forward “anti-independence and promoting reunification” and facilitate the great cause of the motherland’s reunification; moreover, we promptly understand and study the situation of the overseas Chinese, actively explore new ways and new measures to contact, serve and play the role of the overseas Chinese community, earnestly safeguard the interests of the overseas Chinese, attract them, concentrate their wisdom, bring their power into play and constantly open up a new situation in the work of the overseas Chinese of Zhejiang Province.

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8.4.3 Actively Promoting Cooperation and Exchanges with Hong Kong and Macao Zhejiang has always had close ties with Hong Kong and Macao. The ancestors of about 400,000 Hong Kong and Macao compatriots originated in Zhejiang, including many industrial and commercial giants and celebrities. There are more than 80 Zhejiang associations in Hong Kong and Macao. Especially after the reform and openingup, the relationship between Zhejiang and Hong Kong and Macao has become closer in economic development, cultural exchanges and personnel exchanges. When comrade Xi Jinping served as the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, he pointed out that maintaining the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macao and promoting the peaceful reunification of the motherland represent the proper meaning of building a harmonious socialist society and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. According to the requirements, Zhejiang Province actively promotes cooperation and exchanges with Hong Kong and Macao in the fields of economy and trade, science and education, culture, sports, tourism; it relies on the overseas associations at various levels and Zhejiang associations in Hong Kong and Macao to strengthen the connections with various associations and communities in Hong Kong and Macao, especially the contact with and communication of professionals and the younger generation; it also insists on methods and ways of the work in Hong Kong and Macao being the responsibility of those from Hong Kong and Macao, strives to build a team of patriots for Hong Kong, Macao and the motherland, gives full play to the roles of Deputies to the National People’s Congress and members of the CPPCC at various levels and representatives from various sectors and patriotic groups and makes contributions to the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macao.

8.4.4 Facilitating the Construction of a New Countryside in the Hometowns of the Overseas Chinese In 2008, after the village-level democratic elections, Qingtian County appointed 36 “overseas Chinese village officials”, who have overseas experience, a broad horizon, new ideas and a strong sense of innovation. Many of them have achieved success in their careers. Some of them are also the heads of overseas Chinese organizations. With enormous advantages, such as capital and contacts, they have a lot of appeal in the overseas Chinese community and make up an important part of the overseas Chinese resources of Zhejiang. After returning to their hometowns and serving as “village officials”, they became important leaders in the construction of a new countryside. After nearly two years of practice, the village-level economy under their leadership achieved development, they changed the appearance of the villages, enriched the cultural life of the masses and increased the income of the villagers. The achievements and speed of development in these villages outperformed those

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without “overseas Chinese village officials”, typically manifested in the following aspects: in the hometown of the overseas Chinese, the construction of rural infrastructures and the level of spiritual civilization have been continuously improved, the village-level economy is constantly developed, villagers become more affluent and the construction of democratic politics at the village level is continually perfected.

8.4.5 Encouraging Overseas Students to Return to China to Start Up Businesses As an economically developed province and a large province with abundant overseas Chinese resources, Zhejiang is expected to usher in the “biggest tide of returns in history” during the next five years. At present, with the advancing of the “Eight-Eight Strategies” and the “building of Zhejiang into a materially affluent and culturally advanced province, a beautiful province for a good life”, we must fully exploit and make good use of this “bonanza” of special talents to better boost the industrial transformation and upgrading and more broadly assist the intensification of the reform in an all-round way. Returned overseas Chinese value the good ecosystem for the startup of a business. Faced with the rising enthusiasm of returned overseas Chinese for the startup of businesses, all the provinces in China frequently give them “the glad eye” (look well upon them) and create a good environment for entrepreneurship counseling, project funding and convenient services. First, relying on the technology “incubator” and making entrepreneurship counseling more convenient. The key to the transformation of entrepreneurial achievements lies in the construction of the “incubator” and its effectiveness. All cities and departments across the province give a great deal of importance to the construction of specialized “incubators” and parks in which the overseas Chinese can start up businesses. In June 2013, under the joint efforts of the Department for the Work of the United Front under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, the Zhejiang Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, the Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurship Association and the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Area, the Overseas Student Pioneer Park of Zhejiang Province (Xiasha) was unveiled. This is the first overseas student entrepreneurship park to be created within the system of the unified front of Zhejiang Province with the cooperation of the province and the locality, and it is also the new carrier in the system of the unified front of Zhejiang Province to promote economic transformation, implement innovation-driven developmental strategies and train representatives. Second, having a clear knowledge of industrial demand and achieving smoother project docking. Returned overseas Chinese are the masters of new technologies, the pioneers of new industries and the founders of new subjects. In order to actively exert the unique advantages of the “two resources”, namely, finance and intelligence, Zhejiang Province has taken the lead in setting up associations for overseas students and their families. Since August, 2006, during the summer vacation every year,

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the overseas doctors and experts are organized for the campaign of “the team of volunteers for overseas talent services” in the province. In June, 2010, the “team of entrepreneurship supervisors for returned overseas Chinese” was established with the mode of “supervisor + apprentice”, the “business startup practice base for returned overseas Chinese” and the “business startup practice projects for returned overseas Chinese” were launched to facilitate the effective docking with a large number of overseas talents, capital, technology and projects. The province has introduced a system of “talent stations”, and overseas talents who work in enterprises can link their relationships to colleges and universities. Third, becoming integrated into the financial ecosystem with more abundant funding carriers. To help returned overseas Chinese better integrate into the financial ecosystem, in January, 2011, a number of returned overseas Zhejiang people founded the “Haibang Talent Fund”, which was the first special fund for “help for the newly returned overseas talents by the older ones” and provided funds for over 20 teams of entrepreneurship and innovation made up of returned overseas Chinese. This fund raised 1 billion yuan in Hangzhou, invested in 40 high-tech projects, such as Longcheer Technology and LenFast, introduced a series of high-level overseas talents and teams and drove the social investment of over 1 billion yuan. In June 2013, linked by the Zhejiang Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, the first 1-billionyuan “Overseas Chinese Industrial Development Fund” in the province was jointly initiated by returned elites who had graduated from the University of Cambridge and Yale University and was officially put into operation. Centering on building an “entrepreneurial paradise for returned overseas Chinese”, Hangzhou City laid stress on the Overseas Student Pioneer Park, threw out the olive branch for funds, created the “science and technology guidance fund” and actively introduced various types of capital, such as angel investments, venture capitals and private equity funds; the City also established the financial development center and the venture capital service center and regularly held investment and financing meetings, project roadshows, and real-time promotion activities.

8.5 Broadly Uniting and Actively Guiding the New Social Stratum The new social stratum is mainly composed of those working in the non-public economic sectors and freelance intellectuals. They are an emerging force to improve the socialist market economic system and promote the economic and social development, showing a rapid increasing trend in Zhejiang Province. The new social stratum is the new focus of the work of the united front. It is an important task for the united front in uniting the people of the new social stratum, maximally uniting them around the Party and giving full play to their role.

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8.5.1 Clarifying the Main Content of the Work of the United Front of the New Social Stratum In terms of the work of the united front of the new social stratum, Zhejiang Province mainly starts from the following aspects. First, close contact with people in the new social stratum, understanding and mastering the development of and changes in them, smoothing out the channels for reflecting opinions and suggestions, protecting their legitimate rights and interests, encouraging and helping them develop their careers, and recognizing and promoting advanced models among them. Second, strengthening the ideological and political work and guiding them, especially the entrepreneurs among them, to be patriotic, dedicated to work, honest, law-abiding and contributing, to think of the source and make progress after getting rich, to constantly improve their strategic vision, continuously enhance their sense of social responsibilities, be enthusiastic for social welfare undertakings, return to the society and benefit other people and become qualified constructors of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Third, using associations as the link, based on the community, with the network as the media and activities as the starting point, and continuously expanding the channels for doing a good job in the work of the united front of the new social stratum. It is necessary to give active play to the role of trade unions, the communist youth league, women’s federations as well as various united front associations such as intellectual organizations and overseas students’ associations, in liaising and uniting the new social stratum. Fourth, strengthening the work on the building of the Party in new economic and social organizations and giving full play to the Party’s core role of leadership and the vanguard and exemplary role of party members. Fifth, on the basis of the pilot project, establishing and improving the comprehensive evaluation system for the representatives of the new social stratum, and incorporating their training and selection into the overall plan for the building of the team of representatives outside the Party, and selecting and gradually establishing a team of representatives according to the standards of high political quality, great contributions to society, strong ability to participate in politics and a great influence within the social stratum they keep contact with.

8.5.2 Summarizing the Successful Experience in the Work of the United Front of the New Social Stratum Zhejiang constantly brings about innovations to guiding the new social stratum to consciously assume economic, political and social responsibilities, and it has gained a certain amount of experience. First, taking the lead in carrying out comprehensive evaluations of people in the new social stratum, and enhancing the effectiveness of political guidance. In 2005, Zhejiang Province launched a pilot project for the comprehensive evaluation system of representatives of the non-public economic sectors and finally formed a

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pilot model for the comprehensive evaluation of non-public economic representatives in Zhejiang Province. In 2006, this model was promoted nationwide. In 2008, based on the pilot project, the Department of the Work of the United Front under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province formulated and issued the Opinions on the Comprehensive Evaluation of Representatives of the New Social Stratum (Freelance Intellectuals) (Trial) and established the system of comprehensive evaluation of the representatives of freelance intellectuals and strove to institutionalize, standardize and proceduralize the comprehensive evaluation of freelance intellectuals. Through comprehensive evaluation, we can do a good job in cultivating, selecting and arranging people in the new social stratum and establish a correct type of political demonstration and orientation so that the broad masses of the stratum can be politically united with the Party and economically able to help each other in the same society, live in harmony with other social strata and value the national interests in the tide of international competition, thus truly becoming an important supporting force for our party in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and constructing a harmonious socialist society. Second, taking the lead in carrying out the pilot work that the representative of the non-public economy serves as the president of the federation of industry and commerce, and establishing a platform for political guidance. The pilot work has achieved great results. It can allow more representatives of non-public economic sectors to participate in the leadership of the federation of industry and commerce, help mobilize them and further stimulate their enthusiasm for doing business creatively. It is more conducive to uniting the majority of people in non-public economic sectors and enhancing the affinity and influence of the federation of industry and commerce among them; reflecting the united front, economic and folk nature of the federation of industry and commerce and highlighting their special status and important role in the development of the socialist market economy. Third, taking the lead in launching a pilot project for building up the party and for work of the united front in two types of new organizations, and laying the foundation for political guidance. Zhejiang Province gives a great deal of importance to the work of building up the party of new economic and social organizations, actively explores effective ways to establish party organizations and continuously expands the coverage of party organizations. The department for the work of the united front under the Party committee, the new models of an office for the work of the united front at the party branch (general branch) and liaison stations are established in localities to expand coverage of that work in new economic and social organizations and effectively strengthen it in the two types of new organizations. In 2011, the New Economic and Social Organization Working Committee of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province was established, and this type of working committee was required at the provincial, municipal and county levels, so as to enhance the construction of such committees in accordance with the requirements of “having an organization, having leaders, having a team, having funds and having a system”. According to the requirements of strengthening and innovating social management, we expand the implementation of six projects of “a strong foundation and a fixed network, double strong competition, party talents, concerted efforts, harmonious demonstration and

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a guarantee of promotion” to expand the area of work, boost innovation in work and raise the work of building up the party of the two types of new organizations to a new level. Fourth, taking the lead in proposing and implementing the action plan for the construction of a network for the work of the united front of the new social stratum, and consolidating the cornerstone of political guidance. The rapid development of the economy and society in Zhejiang has provided a fertile ground for the development of new social organizations and a healthy growth of freelance intellectuals, making Zhejiang one of the provinces with the largest number of new social organizations and freelance intellectuals. Zhejiang Province regards freelance intellectuals as the new focus of the work of the united front. Based on the in-depth research, in-depth practice and in-depth thinking, Zhejiang Province has formulated and issued the Implementation Opinions of Networking the Action Plan on the Work of the United Front of the New Social Stratum (Freelance Intellectuals) and actively built a network of freelance intellectuals for the work of the united front. It is a united system of a network for the work under the unified leadership of Party committees and coordinated by the departments for the work of the united front at various levels in the province, guaranteed by the mechanism of the joint conference, with the construction work of the party as the core, comprehensive evaluation as the guide, the associations as the link, the community as the basis, the network as the medium and the activities as the starting point, comprehensively covering all kinds of people in the new social stratum from all levels in Zhejiang Province, extending the tentacles of the work of the united front and expanding the Party’s coverage of grassroots work. Efforts will be made to form a new pattern of work of the united front for the new social stratum with upper and lower links, left and right coordination and internal and external participation. Through the implementation of the action plan for the construction of a network, people in the new social stratum are transformed from “unit man” to “social man”, from “social man” to “organized man” and further become the “harmonious social man”, thus truly becoming the mass basis for the long-term ruling of our Party. Furthermore, Yiwu and other cities brought about innovations to the social management of chambers of commerce and businessmen from other places and the chambers of commerce in Ningbo and Jiaxing have undertaken the governmental function of management; the building of the work of the united front in Hangzhou, the intellectuals’ work in the united front in the business circles of Ningbo and the that of management and technical staff in foreign enterprises of Beilun District are eye-catching new developments.

8.5.3 Encouraging, Supporting and Guiding Individual and Private Economies to Accelerate Development Comrade Xi Jinping required that the Party committees and governments at various levels must unswervingly encourage, support and guide the individual and private

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economies to accelerate development and boost a new leap in the private economy. In accordance with the instructions of comrade Xi Jinping, Zhejiang Province mainly focuses on the following aspects: First, understanding the significance of developing a non-public economy at the height of the socialist road with Chinese characteristics. The role of the non-public economy lies not only in its contribution to the value of production, taxation, employment, charity, etc., but more importantly, in terms of market and economic structure, it is conducive to promoting competition, facilitating the allocation of resources, enhancing vitality, advancing entrepreneurship and innovation, participating in international competition, boosting the development of non-public economy and accelerating the transformation of the mode of economic development. Without the development of the non-public economy, the new victory for socialism with Chinese characteristics cannot be achieved. In this regard, we must effectively change our mindset and treat state-owned and private enterprises equally at the roots of our line of thought. We must try our best to get rid of all ideological constraints and change all the institutional obstacles and policy constraints that affect the development of private enterprises, further regulate the market order, strive to build a “credit Zhejiang”, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of private entrepreneurs and employees and create an environment of fair competition for the accelerated development of the private economy. Second, further accelerating the reform of the factor market. We must further clear up the provisions on ownership restrictions in various conditions for entry into the factor market, break the industrial monopoly and regional blockade, promote the free flow of production factors within the national market, allow various market entities to participate in the competition on the factor market and obtain production factors in the same regulatory environment. We should establish policy-oriented banks dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), guide private capital to participate in the establishment of small and medium-sized financial institutions, and form a financial structure that matches the composition of enterprises. It is necessary to build a multi-level system of equity investments and a “pyramid” system of a capital market to make the capital market benefit the SMEs. Third, strengthening the top-level design of the system in terms of “fair participation in market competition”. We must ensure the equal status of state-owned and private enterprises and allow private enterprises to participate more in the institutional design. We should effectively break the lock-in of reform by vested interests, build institutional mechanisms conducive to the scientific development of various economic sectors and stimulate the vitality of private investment and growth. On the basis of the past experience, we purposefully explore comprehensive policies and rules, for example, how to establish channels for safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests after private capital enters the field of state-owned monopolies, and how to avoid the risks involved in the mechanism of unequal dialogue in the face of the unequal trading rules when dealing with state-owned capital. It is necessary to reduce administrative approvals and resolutely clean up and cancel unreasonable charges. The monopolistic industry should introduce the mechanism of competition as much as possible, and through the measures of opening the market, diversifying

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the capital and separating the competitive links in the competitive field, the vitality of the state-owned economy can be strengthened in the competition. Fourth, making sure of “being equally protected by law” through strengthening legislation and law enforcement. We must actively construct an environment of rule of law that is equally protected by law and protect the legal property of private enterprises and entrepreneurs from infringement and their legal operations without interference. It is necessary to strictly investigate and punish all kinds of monopolistic acts such as monopoly agreements, abuse of market dominance and abuse of administrative power to exclude and restrict competition in accordance with the AntiMonopoly Law. We should intensify legislation and law enforcement in response to new situations and new problems and gradually fill in the gap of legal protection. We must further improve the network legislation, strengthen the network police force, explore the establishment of physical network police stations, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises. We should further relax the fields, lower the threshold, improve the financial support, intermediary services and talent security system, and further optimize the environment of public opinion, that of policies, of the government and the legal environment, and create better conditions for the development and improvement of the private economy. Fifth, encouraging non-public enterprises to vigorously promote the spirit of Zhejiang, focusing on the major strategic deployment of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province for giving full play to the “eight advantages” and implementing the “eight measures”, actively making progress, expanding and innovating, creating new advantages, promoting new development, realizing a new leap and making greater contributions to building Zhejiang into a materially affluent and culturally advanced province, and thus a beautiful province for a good life.

8.5.4 Positively Creating a Platform of Communication and Development for Zhejiang Businessmen In October, 2011, the First Zhejiang World Entrepreneurs Convention was held in Zhejiang with the participation of more than 1,200 representatives of Zhejiang entrepreneurs from home and abroad in order to seek development. The development and growth of Zhejiang entrepreneurs reflect the glorious course of China’s reform and opening-up and the historical achievements of economic and social development in Zhejiang and they also embody the power of the Zhejiang spirit with entrepreneurship and innovation as the core. The convening of the Zhejiang Entrepreneurs Convention is conducive to building a firm confidence in facing challenges, opening a new journey of entrepreneurship and innovation; persevering in scientific development and creating new advantages in transformation and upgrading; embracing the development of Zhejiang and being devoted to the tide of constructing their hometown. In his congratulatory letter to the First Zhejiang World Entrepreneurs Convention, comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that Zhejiang entrepreneurs, who dare to be the

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first, brave in exploring and full of innovation and entrepreneurship in the world, is a group of people who emerge in the tide of the socialist market economy. Today, the spectacular “phalanx outside the province” and “overseas legion” sourced from Zhejiang entrepreneurs invest more than 3 trillion yuan in China and over USD 10 billion overseas. Zhejiang entrepreneurs have made important contributions to boosting the sustained and rapid economic development of Zhejiang Province, promoting the coordinated regional economic development of China and upgrading the level of the open economy. Regarding the Zhejiang Entrepreneurs Convention, Comrade Xia Baolong, current Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, pointed out that Zhejiang would be more broad-minded in encouraging Zhejiang entrepreneurs to go global, start businesses and bring about innovation around the world; he called for Zhejiang entrepreneurs to nurture their hometown with more sincere feelings and jointly help Zhejiang to prosper, to vigorously implement the three major national strategies with a greater resolution and provide a broader space for the development of Zhejiang entrepreneurs, and with more solid measures, to vigorously promote the “four major constructions” and provide a larger platform of development for Zhejiang entrepreneurs; with more powerful policies, he called for Zhejiang to vigorously promote economic transformation and upgrading and provide more developmental opportunities for Zhejiang entrepreneurs, with more efficient services, to vigorously optimize the environment of entrepreneurship and innovation and create a more relaxed atmosphere for development for Zhejiang entrepreneurs. It is hoped that the majority of Zhejiang entrepreneurs can bring about innovations and create greater brilliance, benefit their hometown when they get rich, shoulder responsibility with benevolence, and write a new glorious chapter for the new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs.2

8.5.5 Striving to Guide the New Generation of Entrepreneurs As time goes by, a large number of excellent private entrepreneurs with a good political quality, a high management level and a strong ability for innovation will gradually fade out of the historical stage. Experts estimate that in the next 5–10 years, 3 million private enterprises in China will face the problem of succession, only 30% of them are expected to be successfully handed over, and various problems will occur in the remaining 70% of private enterprises, or even lead to the decline of these enterprises.3 For Zhejiang, a province with a powerful private economy, how to foster and create a group of new-generation entrepreneurs with a clear direction and aggressiveness is not only an important strategic issue in the long run, but also a very urgent practical issue. At present, although the new-generation entrepreneurs in Zhejiang Province have a good cultural level and comprehensive quality, a strong 2 Jin

and Jianyong (2011). Binsheng, Biggest Difficulty for Private Enterprises: Inheritance of Entrepreneurship

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market awareness and openness, and a high sense of innovation and entrepreneurial enthusiasm, they lack experience in entrepreneurial “real combat” with low social recognition and a weak sense of social responsibility. In response to the current situations and problems, various localities and departments in Zhejiang Province have carried out various forms of education and guidance work, encouraging and guiding the new generation of entrepreneurs to have a global vision, entrepreneurship and an awareness of innovation as well as the courage to undertake the social responsibilities and foster representatives, so that they can become private entrepreneurs who explore new paths, upload the banner and set a good example. First, fully optimizing the environment for growth for the new generation of entrepreneurs. This includes creating an open, equal and competitive policy environment, creating a fair, scientific and comprehensive environment for social recognition and creating a positive, healthy and benign environment for public opinion. In particular, in strengthening the propaganda and guidance of public opinion, we intensify efforts on the propaganda of positive representatives, put stress on appraising and publicizing the representatives who stand out in the election of “excellent builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics” at various levels and the new generation of entrepreneurs who make contributions to social charities, public welfare, technological innovations and industrial transformation, and protect their social image. Second, establishing the reasonable mechanism for education and guidance. Zhejiang Province makes full use of various forms in the education and training of the new generation of entrepreneurs, such as building the training bases of the new generation of private entrepreneurs in colleges and universities, practice, high-end forums and field investigations. In terms of the contents of training, in addition to enhancing the awareness of politics and responsibility and of the morality of the second-generation private enterprises, we also actively organize them to learn the knowledge of a market economy, modern management, science and technology, as well as sociology and psychology that are essential for modern entrepreneurs, for the purpose of enhancing the operations and managerial ability of the new generation of private enterprises. We pursue the “unity of diversity and consistency” in political guidance: the so-called diversity means that the new generation of entrepreneurs have their own opinions and ideas on all aspects, which are the embodiments of their vitality, wisdom and ability to carry out innovations; and the so-called consistency means the political consensus to adhere to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which is the basis for guaranteeing the “two healthy” kinds of development. Third, exploring and innovating the platforms, channels and carriers for the healthy growth of new-generation entrepreneurs. We actively promote the establishment and development of friendship organizations for the new-generation entrepreneurs at the provincial, municipal, county and township levels, strive to form an organization network of upper and lower exchanges and left and right connections and to include more entrepreneurs of the new generation. We provide the opportunities and platforms for political participation, actively develop and guide excellent new-generation entrepreneurs to join the Communist Party of China or democratic parties, incorporate them in the backup team of representatives of the non-public economy, and offer them more opportunities to participate in political discussions at various levels. Pri-

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ority is given to considering and recommending them in the political arrangements for serving as Party representatives, deputies to the people’s congress, members of the people’s political consultative conference and the federation of industry and commerce, with a focus on long-run planning, early arrangement, long-term development and playing their role. Also, we build the platform for fulfilling social responsibilities, actively guide the new-generation entrepreneurs to participate in activities such as “governing five waters in tandem”, “building a beautiful province for a good life”, “glorious cause” and “righteous gratitude action”, create more channels for them, offer a platform for the fulfillment of their social responsibility and provide a stage for them to create their social image. Fourth, actively guiding the new generation of entrepreneurs to establish a correct entrepreneurial philosophy. We guide them to have a global vision and a passion for innovation, uphold the banner of the development of the private economy, use their enthusiasm and high-spirited aggressiveness as the valuable spiritual wealth for the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, take over the tangible enterprises from the older generation of private entrepreneurs with an awareness of and a passion for innovation, and inherit, carry forward and create a more valuable intangible spiritual wealth. We foster them to have a sense of urgency in times of safety, cultivate their entrepreneurial courage, hard work, innovation and practice, promote the transformation and upgrading of the private economy by advanced business models and management concepts, continuously prosper and invigorate the sound and rapid development of the economic and social development of China and achieve a high-quality, healthy and rapid development of the private economy. Fifth, building the mechanism for high-quality liaison services. Zhejiang Province strives to build an effective system to connect with the new generation of entrepreneurs, strengthen communication with them, solve their practical problems in business operations and development, provide smooth channels for them to express legitimate interests and solve difficulties for them. For services to the new generation of private entrepreneurs involving organization, the united front, finance, taxation and mass organizations, we can refer to the system of joint working conventions for the united front of the new social stratum, further integrate the resources, establish the coordinating mechanism for the new generation of entrepreneurs led by the department for the work of the united front with the participation of the functional departments of the Party committee and the government and relevant social organizations, regularly carry out research, deploy and summarize the cultivation of new-generation entrepreneurs, clarify respective division of work and responsibilities and form a joint effort to carry out the work.

8.5.6 Uniting Intellectuals Outside the Party According to statistics, there are 2.56 million intellectuals outside the Party in Zhejiang Province, 2.6 million people in the new social stratum (freelance intellectuals), 8,803 registered representatives without a party affiliation and 9,400 returned

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overseas students registered. The Zhejiang Association of Intellectuals is a social organization of the nature of the united front for high-level intellectuals outside the Party in Zhejiang Province. It is the bridge and link among the Party, the government and intellectuals from all walks of life. In order to adapt to the trend of socialization of the work of the united front, we must vigorously strengthen the construction of intellectual associations, increase the attraction, cohesion and influence of such associations at various levels, closely link the Party with intellectuals outside the party, strengthen their education and guidance and give full play to their role in the overall work of the Party and the government. Being talents in all fields, intellectuals outside the Party play an important role in promoting the construction of Zhejiang Province as an important cultural province, implementing the strategy of revitalizing the province through science and education and strengthening the province by talents and even the entire economic and social development. Zhejiang Province adheres to the principle of respecting labor, respecting knowledge, respecting talents and respecting creation, it fully mobilizes the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of intellectuals outside the Party and encourages them to combine personal value with social value. On the one hand, advanced intellectuals are absorbed in order to join the Party. On the other hand, we keep some excellent intellectuals outside the Party, care about them, gather strength and help them play their role better. Intellectuals are characterized by wide distribution and great mobility, so we must classify them. Efforts should be made to have a clear idea of the characteristics and rules of the work of intellectuals outside the Party under the new situation, promptly understand and reflect their ideological dynamics and actively investigate ways and means of making it possible for intellectuals to do a good job outside the Party. In accordance with the requirements of cultivating, attracting and using talents well, we must truly retain talents with policies, emotions and careers, and attract more talents from home and abroad to work in Zhejiang or for Zhejiang. The establishment of the association of intellectuals is an important measure taken by Zhejiang Province to implement the strategy of strengthening the province by talents and a useful attempt to enhance and improve the work of intellectuals. In 2004, the Zhejiang Association of Intellectuals was founded, and the then Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, comrade Xi Jinping, sent a congratulatory letter. In the letter, he pointed out that the Zhejiang Association of Intellectuals is a social organization of the nature of the united front for high-level intellectuals outside the Party in Zhejiang Province. It is the bridge and link among the Party, the government and intellectuals from all walks of life. Its establishment is an important measure for Zhejiang Province to implement the strategy of strengthening the province by talents. It is a useful attempt to enhance and improve the work of intellectuals and will certainly play a positive role in accelerating the economic and social development of Zhejiang. The times call for talents and the great cause breeds talents. At present, Zhejiang Province is at an important historical stage of accelerating the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and basically realizing modernization in advance. It is hoped that under the leadership of the Party, the Zhejiang Association of Intellectuals can be guided by the Deng Xiaoping Theory

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and the Important Thought of Three Represents, carry forward the spirit of seeking truth and being pragmatic, vigorously pursue the spirit of seeking truth and being pragmatic, give full play to the functions of “attracting talents” and “recommending talents” and make their due contributions to building Zhejiang into a powerful talent province that is compatible with its status as a top economic province. Based on this, Zhejiang Province actively explores the “Zhejiang Model” for the construction of the association of intellectuals, becomes the first province in China to achieve the full coverage of an association of intellectuals, and has constructed a sound system of networks for the work of intellectuals outside the Party. It takes the lead in paying attention to and researching the positioning and development of the association of intellectuals, and it has put forward “five characteristics”, namely, extensiveness of the structure, representativeness of members, inclusiveness of claims, particularity of interests, and civility of operations. Moreover, the exhibition platform is built for the display of members of the association of intellectuals. We successfully held a series of events, including the first session of the forum for representatives of the new social stratum themed “New Social Stratum and Entrepreneurship and Innovation”, the second session of the forum for representatives of the new social stratum themed “Achievement, Mission, Responsibility—Reform and Opening-up and the New Social Stratum”, the first forum for overseas students, the second session of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai Intellectual Association Forum themed “Strengthening Port Cooperation and Promoting the Joint Development of the Yangtze River Delta Region”. The Zhejiang Association of Intellectuals has established an team of experts in volunteer services as well as the “Love Fund”.

8.5.7 Creatively Carrying Out the Work of the United Front in a Network Community Zhejiang is a big internet province with more than 260,000 websites and over 32.8 million netizens. The internet penetration rate is 54%, which is 12% points higher than the national average. In order to adapt to the new situation and new tasks of the work of the united front in the internet era, we collectively refer to new media practitioners and network opinion expressers as the network community. As a new focus of the work of the united front, we establish network community associations as carriers to strengthen their political guidance, maximally unify them around the Party and explore new ways for the work of the united front to serve the ideology. The united front of the network community is a kind of exploratory work that is totally new. Zhejiang Province has conducted a pilot project in Wenzhou where the network economy is relatively well-developed with a high proportion of internet users. By April 2014, the province had built six network associations and had taken the lead in the useful exploration of the work of the united front of the emerging social stratum in the internet sector.

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The network associations are social organizations for the masses with the characteristics of friendship, service, self-discipline and a united front. They can play a unique role in strengthening political guidance, boosting the network economy, giving advice regarding the network and promoting team building. First, political guidance is strengthened. Network associations can moderately organize the network community and provide an effective platform and carrier for political study, industrial education and value enhancement, so that the network community can gain a deeper understanding of the Party’s guidelines and policies. These network associations have carried out theoretical training classes on studying the guiding principles adopted during the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, “Concentric · Chinese Dreams”, and the healthy development of the Internet, so as to improve the political and theoretical qualities of the network community and continuously enhance their confidence in our path, theories and system. The Wenzhou Longwan District Network Association and the Lucheng District Network Association have carried out the activity of adhering to “seven bottom lines” and they advocate the creation of a network civilization together. Local network associations also actively held the “concentric · information classroom” aided construction activity and internet training programs so that the children of all migrant workers can share education regarding information and build the brand of network associations serving the society. Second, accelerating the development of a network economy. Network associations concentrate advantageous resources related to the Internet and achieve remarkable results in boosting the development of a network economy by striving for supporting policies, bringing about innovations to online marketing models and offering e-commerce training. Under the recommendation of network associations, the governments of Wenzhou City and Longwan District have successively issued a number of policies to support the development of a network economy. Longwan District provides the funds of over 10 million yuan per year for supporting e-commerce enterprises. The Longwan District Network Association actively helps to coordinate and integrate resources, and the half-year volume of transactions of the used car trading market jointly operated increased by 3 billion yuan compared with the previous period. It has provided eight compulsory training sessions for e-commerce enterprises in the district with more than 600 trainees, and constructed three incubation bases for university students’ business startup, thus making positive contributions to the development of the entire e-commerce sector. Third, the obvious advantage of making suggestions. All localities use the network associations as a carrier to actively carry out activities such as network participation in politics, network inquiry on politics and network anti-corruption. The social situations and public opinions can be collected more directly and extensively than ever before. For example, the Longwan District and Lucheng District Network Associations actively build the “integrated program for online suggestions and advice”. The Lucheng District Network Association speeds up the improvement of the “online workstation of representatives”. Network associations make full use of their advantages with regard to online suggestions and advice, actively play their role in deliberative democracy, democratic supervision and maintaining harmony, thus being recognized and appraised by the provincial and municipal leaders and a large

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number of netizens. Fourth, team building is preliminarily effective. By promoting the construction of network associations, the department for the work of the united front begins to notice representatives from the network community and it strengthens their discovery and training. For example, the Longwan District and Lucheng District Network Associations have recommended a total of 5 representatives outside the Party and 22 candidates to the department for the work of the united front. Network associations will further expand their memberships and optimize the membership structure according to the needs of work.

8.5.8 Actively Exploring the Work of the United Front of New Residents As a large province of a market economy, Zhejiang has a permanent resident population of 54 million, of which 12 million are a migrant population, mostly being “new residents” living there for a long period of time. In many places, there are more new residents than old residents. Promoting the integration of new residents into cities, communities and the lives of local citizens, jointly benefiting from urban development and becoming active participants in a harmonious society are inevitable requirements for strengthening and bringing about innovations to social management, and also bring new topics and new tasks to the work of the united front. The guidelines for the development of the work of the new residents’ united front in Zhejiang Province are: fair treatment, reasonable guidance, perfect management, good service, developing personages and promoting integration. Specifically, the following practices are adopted: actively bringing about innovations to carriers, platforms, mechanisms and means, giving full play to the advantages of the united front, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of new residents, and encouraging and supporting members of the united front, such as democratic parties and intellectuals outside the Party, in carrying out investigations and studies and providing suggestions on the formulation and improvement of laws, regulations and policy documents on the new residents affairs, so that the work of new residents can be governed by laws and regulations. Vigorously fostering new residents’ self-governing organizations and giving full play to their self-management role and guiding new residents to join traditional organizations or setting up new organizations are the important ways and means to fully rely on the construction of a community for facilitating the integration of new and old residents and also an important platform and stronghold for the effective work of the united front of new residents. New residents are actively guided for orderly political participation. The Department for the Work of the United Front and the relevant departments help to establish and improve new residents’ participation in politics, deliberations, consultations, talks, notifications, consulting and listening to the “Two Sessions” as well as community websites, “residents’ forums” and other platforms, constantly expand new residents’ right to know and smoothen out their channels to express requests and opinions. Attention is paid to discovering and cul-

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tivating representatives of new residents, practically finding out the total number of new residents’ self-governing organizations, caring about the leaders of various new residents’ self-governing organizations, focusing on active members who participate in the democratic management of the community and participate in the administration of state affairs. Also, emphasis is put on the development of opinion leaders on the network, discovering and cultivating representatives and making necessary political or social arrangements and honorary arrangements. Practice has proved that the new residents’ work on the united front is conducive to bettering their integration into local areas and promoting local economic development and social harmony, thus achieving remarkable effects.

Reference Jin Bo, Ying Jianyong, Solemn Opening of the First Zhejiang World Entrepreneurs Convention in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Daily, October 26, 2011, Page 1.

Chapter 9

The Basic Experience and Useful Implications of Political Development in Zhejiang Huaxing Chen

In the past 30 years of reform and opening-up, Zhejiang Province has witnessed an average annual GDP growth rate of 12%, thus being the region with the fastest growing GDP per capita among all the provinces and municipalities in China. When the economy develops to a new stage, there must be new requirements for political development. The new situation and new changes in economic and social development will inevitably be transmitted to the political field. Political development is closely related to economic development. From the perspective of the practice of political development in Zhejiang, there are many new changes and new normals in terms of the basis of political existence, political developmental content, political operational mode, political democracy, political rule of law, and political participation. In the face of the new situation, new development and new challenges, we must objectively analyze the characteristics of political development in Zhejiang Province, carefully sum up the experience and scientifically follow the trend. They are of important significance for our adoption of correct and effective countermeasures, advancing the modernization of the governance system and the capacity for governance with the times, and the construction of the country, government and society under the rule of law.

9.1 Analysis of the Basic Characteristics of Political Practice in Zhejiang Since 2002, Zhejiang has been in a critical period of accelerated economic development and social change. The changes and characteristics that reflect trends occur in the political development of Zhejiang Province. H. Chen (B) The Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, Hangzhou , China © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 N. Fang et al. (eds.), Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics, Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8_9

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9.1.1 The Increased Autonomy of the Society and Individuals and the Continuous Growth of Social Organizations A major consequence of the development of the market economy in the political arena is the moderate separation between the state and society. This will inevitably lead to an increase in the autonomy of society and individuals, active civil organizations, growing social organizations and major changes in social foundations for political development. Social organizations are growing stronger and stronger, which profoundly change the original pattern of political life, and transform the unified structure of power of the Party and the state into a three-dimensional structure of power under the leadership of the Party and with interaction among the Party, the state and the society. The dynamic structure of political development has also changed from a unilateral drive by the state to a joint drive by the state and the society. Interests and developmental expectations from the economy and society gradually become important forces for promoting the political development and the substantial driving forces for the reform of the Party and state leadership system and the ruling system. This has a profound impact on the political development of contemporary China. Zhejiang is not only a large province of private economy, but also a major province of organizations of civil society. The total number of organizations of civil society registered and filed in Zhejiang ranks third in the country, and the number of those organizations per 10,000 people ranks second in the country.1 Organizations of civil society play an important and positive role in the political development of Zhejiang and thus continuously enhance the autonomy of the society and of individuals. For example, civil chambers of commerce and industrial associations in Wenzhou are very important in promoting industrial autonomy, maintaining market order and protecting rights. The Wenzhou Lighter Industry Association has become well known due to its successful defense in an international anti-dumping lawsuit. New changes in the basic social structure of the politics pose new challenges to how the government manages the society and exerts autonomy of the masses. It requires us to re-consider the relationships between the government and enterprises and between the government and the society, and to change the governance of taking complete charge in the past, and give full play to the role and functions of self-organization by enterprises and society. How to actively support and develop civil organizations, allow them to play a positive role, regulate them according to law and suppress their negative effects is a new topic that the government must be confronted with. Authorities at various levels in Zhejiang have issued a series of local regulations in an opportune manner, so as to enhance policy guidance according to local conditions and facilitate the healthy development of civil organizations. The government’s manner of governance is also constantly improving, developing and perfecting. 1 Wu

(2008).

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9.1.2 Continuous Consolidation and Expanding of the Ruling Foundation and Transformation from “Efficiency-Oriented Politics” to “Fair Politics” Based on economic and social development, it is the inherent requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics to build a system that can play a significant role in safeguarding social fairness and justice, gradually establish a system of guaranteeing social equity with the main contents of equal rights, equal opportunities and fair rules, strive to create a fair social environment and ensure the people’s equal participation and right to equal development. Globally, many developing countries have always been disturbed by political crises during a period of modernization and social transformation. Modernity breeds stability, but the process of modernization gives birth to unrest.2 In the modernizing process with a rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, a series of structural imbalances may arise, leading to sharp differentiation and changes in the relations of social interests, which, if not handled well, will not only hinder economic growth, but will also result in social unrest and political crisis. It is easy for the disparity between the rich and the poor to cause a crisis of political legitimacy. The increased desires for political participation by various interest groups and the lack of political participation channels can also lead to crises. The spread of political corruption seriously erodes the ruling foundation of political parties. The rapid development of a market economy creates objective conditions for the orderly advancement of the development of democratic politics in Zhejiang and provides the internal motivation for innovations to democratic politics. The rapid economic growth increases the disposable income of the people, optimizes the structure of their consumption, and upgrades their level of consumption. The demand on spiritual and cultural levels expands unprecedentedly, and the voice of the people to perfect themselves and pursue fairness and justice becomes increasingly strong. The public’s subjective consciousness has risen, and the awareness of one’s rights, autonomy, as well as the democratic awareness and the awareness of participation are greatly enhanced. This provides a prerequisite for the public participation in politics at the subjective level. With the increase in income and the accumulation of wealth, the people of Zhejiang generally live a well-off life. With enough leisure time, the base of a basic income and certain social security conditions, they have no worries about participation in politics and fully enjoying various political rights granted by the law. The objective material conditions are already in place. The rapid development of the economy provides the necessary conditions for innovation in democratic politics and makes it possible for the people to participate in politics and exercise their rights. However, Zhejiang is at a critical stage of accelerating modernization and comprehensive social change. The ruling foundation also faces severe challenges, mainly manifested as follows: First, the disparity between the rich and the poor and social 2 Huntington

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inequality become major threats to political stability; second, the increase in internal contrasts among the people show a conspicuous and fierce trend and vicious mass disturbances occur occasionally; third, corruption is spreading and escalating and occurs often; fourth, the level of institutionalization of political participation lags behind the expansion of the citizen’s needs for participation; fifth, the ideologies become increasingly complex and diverse and have an impact on the mainstream ideology. Among these realistic problems, social inequality is the root cause that threatens political stability most. In the new era, although Zhejiang achieves rapid economic growth and the overall living standards of the people are improved, the trends of an urban-rural gap, regional differences and income disparity have not been fundamentally reversed. The contradictions in the fairness and coordination of development are quite prominent. Therefore, in the new stage of development, we should continuously improve the ability for governance of the Party and the government, consolidate and expand the Party’s ruling foundation and take the pursuit of economic growth based on social justice as an effective way to enhance the ability to govern. The change from “efficiency-oriented politics” to “fair politics” has become an important feature of political practice. Only by assuming more responsibility for maintaining social justice and considering the interests of the masses in different regions and in different aspects can we effectively resolve various contrasts of structural imbalances and promote the healthy and stable development of the society.

9.1.3 Administration Changed from “Ruling” to “Good Governance”, from “Management” to “Governance” In the face of new requirements of the development of the times and the actual contrasts in political development, building a service-oriented government, transforming the governmental functions and changing the way of administration are inevitable responses to the needs of the times. The manner of managing the government shifts from a regulatory and development-oriented government to a service-oriented government. The governmental functions change from focusing on economic development only to highlighting the combination of economic development, social development and an ecological civilization. The way of governance changes from “ruling” to “good governance” and from “management” to “governance”. All of these are important features of Zhejiang’s political practice. Faced with the new situation of a market economy, social organization and people’s democratic development, the government must change its past top-down one-way style of administration with administrative orders as the core, and turn it into a two-way interactive mode of dialogue and cooperation with the society and citizens, from the closed office work approach to an open and transparent approach, from the past type of governance to the satisfaction of superiors into the satisfaction of the people, and so on.

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Because in competitive industrial sectors, the private economy can play an important role in promoting economic growth and the people’s demand for public goods and public services has increased substantially in the period of accelerated economic development, in practice, Zhejiang Province is gradually shifting from a development-oriented government to a service-oriented government, and it uses resources mainly in public goods and public services. To better coordinate the relationships between the government and the market and between the government and social development, governments at various levels in Zhejiang have already transferred their functions to provide public goods and public services according to practical needs. From the beginning of the 21st century, the government has begun to adjust its positioning gradually from development-oriented government to serviceoriented government. In order to adapt to the new situations of social and economic development, governments at various levels in Zhejiang actively weave their “service network” and “safety network” and launch a series of important reform measures to effectively accelerate the transformation of government functions and improve the government’s social governance and public services. Zhejiang has taken the lead in implementing a series of reforms, including the reform of the property rights system of township enterprises, reform of the system of household registration in small towns, and a marketization reform of grain purchase and sale, so that it becomes a leader in the coordinated development of urban and rural areas. In order to solve the problems of “agriculture, rural areas and farmers”, human resources and social security departments in Zhejiang have begun to establish and improve institutions to provide employment services for peasants. From the control of the total number of the rural labor force to the direction of its guidance and services, some regions of Zhejiang have also actively introduced the methods to protect the rights and interests of land-losing farmers, such as land in exchange for social security, provision of employment training, and the establishment of “community shareholding economic cooperatives”. In order to coordinate the harmonious development of man and nature, Zhejiang Province has formulated an action plan for sustainable development and has implemented the strategies of “green Zhejiang in ten years”, building a green Zhejiang, and building a culturally large province, a beautiful province for a good life, to strengthen the protection of its cultivated land, water and mineral resources and ecological environment, strictly control the natural growth of the population and actively explore the path of centralized and marketoriented pollution control.3 In terms of building up government capacity, Zhejiang actively facilitates the transformation of the government’s operational mechanism and has made important progress in the reform of the system of examination and approval, government affairs disclosure, public finance construction, budget preparation and management, and the government’s centralized procurement. At the same time, Zhejiang is vigorously reforming the system of cadre personnel and is focusing on improving the efficacy of organs and the work efficiency of administrative staff. The government has adopted the system of competitive selection and appointment of administrative leaders at various levels and is paying more attention to the record and 3 See

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evaluation of public opinion for ordinary administrative staff, thus greatly enhancing the efficiency of the work and the level of the services of the government.

9.1.4 The Reform of the System of Public Finance and Public Budget is Increasingly Becoming the Breakthrough in Democratic Practice and Innovation at the Grassroots Level With the in-depth development of the reform and opening-up, the reform of the progressive political system has made tremendous progress. However, relatively speaking, it is difficult to advance towards financial democracy or supervision of financial power and there is still a long way to go to “public finance” and “sunshine finance”. In response to the existing problems, the local people’s congresses and governments in Zhejiang have shown a trend of democratization of the budget. The Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province has set up a subcommittee for budget work, and the corresponding institutions of specialized work have been established at the municipal and county levels. The construction of the legalization of the budget has been promoted and the decisions, rules and regulations for strengthening budget review and supervision have been issued in succession. The people’s congress implements departmental budgets at the provincial, municipal and county levels, strengthens its supervision over economic activities of the whole society, reduces the arbitrariness of budgets and maximizes the role of financial funds. In addition to actively playing the supervisory function of the people’s congress, what is the most striking in Zhejiang is the active exploration of the reform of the public budget with “public participation”, which becomes a new pattern for innovation in democratic practice and governance reform at the grassroots level. Since 2005, Wenling City of Zhejiang Province has taken the lead in piloting public budget reforms in two towns, namely, Xinhe and Zeguo, actively used the pioneering form of primary-level democracy of Wenling—democratic earnest talks—to serve the budget review by the people’s congress at the grassroots level, and it formed a “public participatory” budget model for substantive review and supervision of the budget, which became the forerunner of the public budget reform at the grassroots level in China. Later, Wenling expanded the participatory budget to five townships (towns) and upgraded democratic earnest talks regarding departmental budgets from the town level to the city level. By 2009, it had expanded to five departments: transportation, water conservation, family planning, urban planning, and science and technology, and the participatory budget reform continued to expand. Wenling’s participatory budget reform started from budgetary democracy, it introduced the system of democratic earnest talk into the process of budget review and supervision, and absorbed public participation in terms of supervision by the people’s congress. It activated the role of the people’s congress in deliberating and supervising the fiscal budget, so that the people’s congress plays an increasingly important role in the public budget.

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9.1.5 Continuous Extension of the Connotation and Denotation of Consultative Democracy and the Increasing Perfection of the Construction of a Democratic System The diversified transformation of the society has brought about changes in interest appeals, an awareness of civic participation and a high degree of enthusiasm for participation, and this leads to the exploration and practice of democracy at the grassroots level. A large number of people’s consultations, mass consultations, villagers’ consultations, residents’ consultations and employee consultations have gradually entered the track of standardization, legalization, and institutionalization. In Zhejiang, the original primary-level consultative democracy increasingly shows great vitality, the connotation and denotation of consultative democracy is continuously extending, and the construction of a democratic system in the governance system accelerates development and becomes the new focus of developing socialist democracy. A lot of innovative practices of consultative democracy have emerged throughout Zhejiang, and democratic systems of consultation have been widely established at the village level, communities, and enterprises. As the birthplace of China’s primarylevel consultative democracy, a variety of forms of consultative democracy have been formed, such as democratic earnest talks, forum-style consultations, consultative meetings, hearings, discussion meetings, collective wage negotiation systems and network discussions. In the past ten years, Zhejiang Province has always regarded primary-level consultative democracy as an important part of local democratic political construction and an effective form of governance by local governments, it has given full play to its unique advantages in local democratic practice, and through the extensive consultations of people’s political consultative organizations, its united front, civil society organizations, ordinary citizens, political organs and other participating parties, has jointly promoted coordination, resolution and development of major problems of the provincial economic and social development and practical issues involving vital interests of the masses, so it has gradually embarked on a path of socialist primary-level democracy with Zhejiang characteristics. Meanwhile, the construction of primary-level democracy triggered by the rural reform is gradually becoming the most beautiful landscape for the development of democracy in Zhejiang. From “mass elections” to “democratic earnest talks”, from “disclosure of village affairs” to “supervision of village affairs”, the rural primarylevel democracy with villager autonomy as the core has continuously been extended and deepened. The rural democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision has become more and more normalized and institutionalized and has obtained remarkable achievements. Primary-level democracy with the contents of scientific, democratic and institutionalized governance is turning out to be the focus and characteristics of the governance reform and innovation of governments at various levels in Zhejiang.

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9.1.6 In-Depth Development of the Law-Based Exercise of State Power and Constant Improvement in the Rule of Law in Politics Since entering the new era, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have given great importance to strengthening the rule of law, they have put forward the strategy of building Zhejiang under the rule of law, demanded that the democratic requirements of the people be fully integrated into the rule of law, have always adhered to the law-based exercise of state power, unified the adherence to the leadership of the Party, the promotion of people’s democracy and have acted strictly in accordance with the law, and they have continuously improved the level of legalization of political, economic, cultural and social life. The comprehensive implementation of the strategy of building Zhejiang under the rule of law has greatly improved the level of governance by Party committees and governments at various levels in Zhejiang, continuously perfected the legal system, steadily advanced the government under the rule of law, constantly enhanced the judicial system, obviously strengthened the concept of the rule of law in the whole society and vigorously guaranteed the orderly development of politics in Zhejiang. With the development of practice, local legislation has gradually shifted from economic legislation to a joint focus on economic legislation and social legislation, to ensure the continuous improvement of environment of the rule of law. Local legislation in the fields of social and people’s livelihood of Zhejiang already shows an ever-expanding developmental trend and is playing a critical role in the economic and social development of Zhejiang. In the construction of a government under the rule of law in recent years, besides strengthening the “law-based administration of government” in the general sense and restraining public power, Zhejiang is further extending the denotation of the construction of the government under the rule of law and is committed to building a transparent government, a service-oriented government and a responsible government.

9.1.7 Complex and Diverse Political Culture and Severe Challenges to Political Ideology Since Zhejiang is a coastal province with a high degree of reform and opening-up, early development of a market economy and a well-developed market, the people’s ideological activities became independent, selective, versatile and different sooner than elsewhere, and there is a more obvious trend of diversifying ideology, morality, values and lifestyles. This leads to more severe trends, more complicated situations and more arduous tasks for Zhejiang Province in the construction of its mainstream ideology. In the process of building Zhejiang into a materially affluent and culturally advanced province, a beautiful province for a good life, with socialist core values as the guide, unifying ideology, clarifying understanding and reaching consensus are

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important tasks that urgently need to be solved in the ideological and cultural fields of Zhejiang Province.

9.2 Basic Experience of the Political Construction in Zhejiang The accelerated development of the economy will inevitably promote the transformation and development of politics, culture, society and ecology. The changes in trend regarding political development in Zhejiang have gained many experiences in practical experimentation. According to the objective requirements of modernization of the national system of governance and the capacity of governance as well as a law-based governance of the country, combined with the vivid practice of political development in Zhejiang in the past decade, it is of great significance for theoretical explorations and practical advancement to summarize experience and lessons from internal essence, basic structure, fundamental forces, internal operational mode and developmental trend of the governance practice of the socialist politics with Chinese characteristics and explore the law of development.

9.2.1 Organic Integration of the Continuous Expansion of the People’s Democracy and Construction of the Basic Political Structure of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics To develop a socialist democracy and build a socialist political civilization, the most fundamental requirements are adherence to the political path of development of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the organic integration of the Party’s leadership, the people being masters of the country and the law-based governance of the country. The Party’s leadership is a basic principle established in the Chinese Constitution and the fundamental political guarantee for promoting the scientific development of Zhejiang; the people being masters of the country is the essential requirement of a socialist democracy and the power for promoting scientific development; the law-based governance of the country is the basic strategy and essential requirement for the Party to lead the people and govern the country, and also the guarantee of law for promoting scientific development. In order to develop socialist democracy, we must actively promote democracy in a systemic way by adopting due standards and procedures, give better play to the leading and normative role of the rule of law, and guide the people to participate in the management of the country and social affairs in a lawful, responsible, rational, and orderly manner. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province have always adhered to the people’s dominant

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position in a series of major decisions and arrangements for vigorous implementation and profound deployment of the “Eight-Eight Strategies”, establishing the philosophy of scientific development, building a safe Zhejiang, Zhejiang under the rule of law, a culturally large province, a beautiful province for a good life, insisting on realizing, safeguarding and developing the fundamental interests of the people as the starting point and foothold of entrepreneurship, enriching the people and bringing innovations to and strengthening the province, accelerating the improvement of the democratic system, enriching the democratic form and further inspiring the people’s enthusiasm, initiative and creativity. The continuous expansion of the people’s democracy is organically combined with the basic political structure of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, so as to solidly promote the system of the people’s congress and give full play to the important role of the people’s political consultation. By implementing the strategy of building Zhejiang under the rule of law and the construction of the government under the rule of law, the public confidence in judicial organs continues to improve, and human rights are effectively respected and protected. The system of people’s congresses is the fundamental political system of our country and the fundamental political system that guarantees the people to be the masters of the country. Solidly advancing the system of people’s congresses is a fundamental measure to support and guarantee the people’s exercise of state power through the people’s congress. These measures lay a solid foundation for us to uphold and improve the system of the people’s congress and promote the building of a socialist democracy at the new historical starting point, namely, giving full play to the important role of the people’s congress and its standing committee as the organ of state power, law-based exercise of the legislation, supervision, decision, appointment and dismissal powers, constant improvement of the system of local law guarantee, strengthening the supervision and restriction on the government, court and procuratorate, enhancing the review and supervision of the government’s full-caliber budget and final accounts, and bringing into full play the main role of the deputies to the people’s congress. The socialist consultative democracy is an important form of Chinese people’s democracy. To uphold and improve the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, we must give full play to the unique advantages and important channels of the people’s political consultation in promoting the construction of the deliberative democratic system. In recent years, the People’s Political Consultative Conference of Zhejiang Province has fulfilled the functions of political consultation, democratic supervision and participation in the administration of state affairs, with a focus on the two major themes of unity and democracy, it has actively advanced the systematic construction of political consultation, democratic supervision and participation in the administration of state affairs, further coordinated relations, gathered strengths, made suggestions and served the overall situation. It includes political consultation into the decision-making process, sticks to consultation before and during decision-making, and enhances the effectiveness of democratic consultations. It has carried out the in-depth special consultations, counterpart consultations, sectoral consultations, and proposals for

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consultations, and has constantly explored new forms, mechanisms and initiatives for the work of political consultation. In recent years, primary-level democracy has been further expanded in Zhejiang, and various practices have emerged, such as democratic earnest talks, democratic hearings, communication with the people, and villagers’ supervision. The system of “three disclosures” of factory affairs, government affairs and village affairs has been expanded and improved, and the people’s right to know, right to participate, right to express and right to supervise are effectively guaranteed and achieved. In the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law, local legislative work is further strengthened, and the level of democratic and scientific legislation is continuously improved around the issues of concern to the people. We actively promote the exercise of state power by law, speed up the construction of the government under the rule of law and earnestly safeguard judicial justice. We strengthen the legal publicity and education and strive to create a good environment of rule of law for the people’s entrepreneurship and innovation. The practice in Zhejiang has proved that only by always taking the people as the subject and power of socialism with Chinese characteristics, respecting the people’s dominant position, exerting the people’s initiative and most widely mobilizing the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the people, the political practice can continuously draw wisdom from the people, gather strength and form a developmental situation in which everyone can do his utmost, everything can be properly done, and unity and diligence can be achieved.

9.2.2 Organic Integration of the Political Construction of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and the Construction of Other Causes It is an important experience for the political development of Zhejiang Province to strengthen political construction, step out of politics to view political practice, study political construction in the great practice of economic, cultural, social and ecological civilizations for socialism with Chinese characteristics under the leadership of the Party, organically integrate the political construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the construction of other causes (economic, cultural, social and ecological civilizations), organically unite the cause of the Party with the cause of the people, open up new realms of political work with new ideas, new horizons, and new methods, enhance the political construction in the development of the cause, allow the people to enjoy substantive democratic rights and interests in the process of practice and consolidate the people’s dominant position in essence. For more than a decade, the Party committees at various levels in Zhejiang have carried out useful experiments in accordance with the requirements of improving scientific judgment, controlling the market economy, coping with complex situations, governing by law, and overall planning. They constantly improve the ability to

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control the socialist market economy, build a socialist kind of democracy, develop an advanced socialist culture, construct a harmonious socialist society, and make a scientific judgment of the international situation, in order to cope with complex situations and organically unite political construction and the actual work of Party committees. (1) To unswervingly highlight the center of economic construction. We firmly grasp the main line of development, seize and use important strategic opportunities, expand the implementation of the “Eight-Eight Strategies”, become people-oriented, give overall consideration to and allow for comprehensive advancement, adjust the structure, work hard, raise the quality and continuously enhance the comprehensive strength of the economy and develop the vitality and international competitiveness of Zhejiang. With the determination of achieving a “rebirth from the ashes”, we accelerate the adjustment of economic structures and the growth mode and constantly enhance the comprehensive strength and international competitiveness of Zhejiang’s economy. We seize on the two key points of scientific and technological innovation and the implementation of a brand strategy, accelerate the construction of a system of regional innovation, improve the ability of independent innovation, comprehensively upgrade the industries, enterprise quality and product added value, and enhance the competitive advantage of a regional characteristic economy. We accelerate the construction of an ecological province, give great importance to building a resourcesaving society, actively develop a circular economy and focus on obtaining maximum economic benefits with the least resources and environmental costs. In the new round of reform, the reform of the government itself becomes the center of comprehensively intensifying the reform and the main starting point is building “four lists and one network” by reducing power, money and affairs, thus achieving the reform of the system of administrative examination and approval as the core, to reduce the power and fields of the government intervention in the market and retain sufficient power and vitality for the market, expanding the general transfer payment as the core, to ensure that the financial funds can be used efficiently and for appropriate purposes; and intensifying the reform of public institutions as the core, to construct a mechanism and a structure for economic and social governance focusing on social organizations and strive to build Zhejiang into a materially affluent and culturally advanced province, a beautiful province for a good life. (2) To correctly handle major issues concerning the overall situation of reform and development, and strive to build a harmonious socialist society. With “building a safe Zhejiang” as the starting point, we continuously expand democracy in the decisionmaking of important issues and the selection and appointment of leading cadres, think about problems and make decisions through discussions with the masses, consider the wishes of the masses and truly enhance the ability to do practical and good deeds for the masses, so that the Party’s various causes show a booming trend. We adhere to intra-party democracy to trigger the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of party members in the province, mobilize and organize the people of the province to manage state and social affairs, economic and cultural causes according to law and constantly improve the level of leadership and governance. We conduct in-depth studies of the rules of the construction of inner-party democracy, reform and perfect

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the Party’s leadership and ruling style, leadership system and working mechanism in accordance with the requirements of scientific governance, democratic governance and rule by law, and therefore the Party’s organization adopts scientific ideas, systems and methods to exercise good governance and state power for the people. (3) To build a culturally large province and strengthen the construction of an advanced socialist culture. In July, 2005, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province held the 8th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and adopted the Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province on Accelerating the Building of a Culturally Large Province, which proposed the building of Zhejiang, through a long period of efforts, to be a culturally large province with leading developmental indicators in the fields of education, science and technology health and sports in China. To this end, it required that Party committees, governments and leading cadres at various levels should consciously put the work of accelerating the construction of a culturally large province in an important position, embody the Scientific Outlook on Development and the correct outlook on political achievements in such work, and vigorously promote the socialist core values, further refine the common values of the people of Zhejiang based on the Zhejiang Spirit of advancing with the times, sing the ode to the “Most Beautiful Phenomenon” of Zhejiang and strive to improve the ability and level of leading and controlling the construction of an advanced socialist culture. (4) To build Zhejiang under the rule of law and enhance the Party’s and the government’s capability for governance. In April, 2006, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province held the 10th Plenary (Enlarged) Session of the 11th Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and approved the Decision of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province Concerning the Building of Zhejiang under the Rule of Law. In accordance with the general requirements of the socialist country under the rule of law, we actively build Zhejiang under the rule of law, comprehensively deploy the specific requirements and further promote the work of building the province under the rule of law. For this purpose, we must advance reform and development by the way of our line of thought and means under the rule of law, ensure political stability, guide social harmony, define governance under the rule of law as the basic strategy for the Party to lead the people and govern the society, and determine the law-based exercise of state power as the basic way of governing the country. These are the concrete practices of building a socialist country under the rule of law in Zhejiang, the concrete practices of Party committees and governments at various levels to continuously enhance the modernization of the system of and capability for governance, and the concrete practices to implement the guiding principles of the decision of the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. (5) To build a green Zhejiang and strengthen the construction of a socialist ecological civilization. With the building of an ecological province as an opportunity and a breakthrough point, we are making efforts to build a green Zhejiang, which has been the concrete action taken by Zhejiang Province since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to implement the central spirit and deploy sustainable developmental strategies. Over the past decade, the sustainable development of Zhejiang was continuously enhanced, the ecological environment improved, the

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efficiency of the utilization of resources has significantly increased, the harmony between man and nature was promoted and it has initially gotten back on the track of production development, affluent life and sound eco-civilization. In May, 2014, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province issued the Decision on Building a Beautiful Zhejiang and Creating a Good Life to promote high standards of ecological civilization. The building of Zhejiang into a materially affluent and culturally advanced province and a beautiful province for a good life is based on the specification of construction of building a beautiful countryside, with the series of standards of governing “five waters” in tandem as the breakthrough point, aiming to establish the standard system for building a beautiful Zhejiang made up of work standards, management standards and technical standards, to lead the transformation of the industrial structure, production modes and lifestyles with advanced standards, and to promote the construction of a demonstration zone for a national ecological civilization and the pilot zone of a beautiful China at a higher starting point. (6) To bring about mechanisms for innovative activities and management methods of new economic and social organizations and strengthen the grassroots party building. Development of a non-public economy is the characteristic of Zhejiang. The GDP created by the non-public economy accounts for half of that of Zhejiang. The construction of a non-public economy is also an important part of the great cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Party organizations at various levels in Zhejiang continuously strengthen the party’s building up of non-public economic organizations and they have effectively solved various problems encountered in their building work of the party. In private enterprises, we should equip or develop savvy and strong party workers, do well in the building of teams of party members by considering the actual situations of enterprises, scientifically manage migrant party members, develop private enterprises with mature conditions to join the Party, effectively carry out party organization activities, conscientiously implement the Party’s guidelines and policies, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the workers. As a new type of economic organization, foreign-funded enterprises have certain differences with state-owned enterprises and township enterprises in terms of ownership forms, leadership and management systems, and employment distribution systems. They are also different from private enterprises. Therefore, Zhejiang treats them differently, strengthens management and brings about innovations to the methods of activities and management. Party building in the community is a new situation that has emerged in the process of improving the management of urban residents. It is also part of the Party’s social management. Consequently, the community building up of the party in Zhejiang is based on creating characteristics and vitality and has created a new pattern through hard work. With the emergence of many new community organizations, the community building up of the party is also a new problem. Zhejiang generates the enthusiasm of the Party members in the province, especially the comrades engaged in the community work of building up the party, for in-depth research and innovative mechanisms, thus forming a set of effective methods of management.

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The practice in Zhejiang shows that only by closely integrating political construction with the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics can we open up a new situation in political work and truly avoid the harm of “phony politics” and “formal politics”, essentially ensure that the people are masters of the country, and make the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province become a strong leadership core for advancing the “Eight-Eight Strategies”, building a safe Zhejiang, constructing a culturally large province, and building Zhejiang under the rule of law.

9.2.3 Organic Integration of Practical Innovations and the Building of Systems in the Grassroots Political Construction China is still in the primary stage of socialism, and its economy, politics, culture and society are still underdeveloped. Although the basic system of socialist democracy has been established, the social foundation of democratic politics is still not solid, the awareness of democracy is still weak, and the operating mechanism of democracy is not perfect. Therefore, expanding primary-level democracy, ensuring that the people manage their own affairs according to law and that they are creating their own happy life are the most extensive practical activities of a socialist democracy and the basic work for developing a socialist democracy. The “grassroots” democratic practice and innovation in Zhejiang Province achieve fruitful results and accumulate a lot of experience. We organically unite the “grassroots” democratic practice and innovation with the building of a system and constantly promote the institutionalization, standardization and legalization of the grassroots governance practices, so that the people can enhance their confidence in the path, theories and systems of socialism with Chinese characteristics during their personal political practice. This is an important experience in the political development of Zhejiang. The trinity of the Party’s leadership, the people being masters of the country and the law-based governance of the country is the inherent essence of the socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics. The people’s democracy, which is the fundamental purpose of the socialist political system with Chinese characteristics, guarantees the legitimacy of China’s political rule and guarantees the regularity and purpose of the political development of China. The democratic practice and innovation at the grassroots level in Zhejiang must adhere to the requirements of uniting the Party’s leadership, the people being masters of the country and the law-based governance of the country. We must constantly reform and improve the leadership and ruling methods of grassroots party organizations, expand the socialist primarylevel democracy, enrich the forms of primary-level democracy, make sure that the people directly exercise their democratic rights in accordance with the law, manage grassroots public affairs and public welfare undertakings, dynamically generate and improve a series of concrete systems that conform to reality, enhance the demo-

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cratic awareness and democratic habits of cadres and the masses and consolidate the foundation for primary-level democracy of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Democracy as a system which requires a series of codes and rules for its operations and implementation. Accordingly, acting in accordance with law and complying with the laws and regulations are the inherent requirements of democracy itself and the rules of democratic operations. In order to ensure the normal and orderly operations of democracy, the grassroots democratic practice in Zhejiang has always emphasized that it must act in strict accordance with the law and dynamically explore rules and regulations in specific practice. Taking the democratic earnest talks of Wenling as an example, the democratic earnest talks must strictly conform to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, the Organic Law of the Villagers Committee of the People’s Republic of China, the Organic Law of the Urban Residents Committee of the People’s Republic of China, the Regulations of the Organization of the Presidium of the Township People’s Congress, the Constitution of the Communist Party of China, the Regulations on the Work of Grassroots Organizations of the Communist Party of China, and other relevant laws, regulations, and articles of association, which are the basic legal codes and legal basis for the democratic earnest talks of Wenling. Based on the premise of observing these basic laws, organizations at various levels have also formulated specific rules, such as the Villagers’ Rules of Procedure and the system of referendums for villagers according to the actual situations of the localities and democratic earnest talks, so that the democratic earnest talks can be conducted according to laws and rules. Also, they must be handled in strict accordance with the prescribed procedures. For example, the democratic earnest talks at the town and village levels in Wenling City are held irregularly. The masses participate voluntarily and have equal dialogue, communication, exchanges and consultations with township Party committees and governments, village party branches and village committees. They are equivalent to a consultation mechanism for decision-making. The democratic hearings at the town level are generally held quarterly. They can also be held at any time when necessary. The democratic hearings are held before the annual town people’s congress to inform the masses about the annual development plan, important construction projects and other important projects involving the vital interests of the people. These are the proper procedures for people’s congresses at the town (township) level. The villagers’ council acts strictly in accordance with the Villagers’ Rules of Procedure. In short, strictly complying with relevant laws and regulations is an important institutional guarantee to effectively promote the smooth development of primary-level democracy in Wenling. The people being masters of the country is the essential requirement and inner content of democratic earnest talks. The participation of the masses, the management of the masses, the supervision of the masses, and the service of the masses are the core contents of the democratic earnest talks. They are also the basic contents of upholding the Party’s leadership and governing the country according to law. Acting in accordance with law is the institutional guarantee of democratic earnest talks in Wenling because it ensures democratic earnest talks in a systemic way by adopting due standards and procedures and enables them to be carried out in an orderly and regulated manner.

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The building of a system stems from democratic practice, and the system is constantly revised and improved with the development of democratic practice. This greatly enhances the confidence of the people in the path, theories and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics in democratic practice. First of all, the construction of a democratic political system is in line with the inherent laws of social development, it conforms to the trend of marketization, globalization and democratization of the times, coincides with the basic principles and requirements of socialism, and is consistent with the principles and requirements of distribution according to labor and common prosperity. Second, democratic practice at the grassroots level has been continuously generated and improved, and promotes the establishment of the specific democratic political system. Especially in over ten years after entering the 21st century, reform and development have advanced the rapid economic development of the province, the people’s living standards have been greatly improved, the democratic rights increase day by day, and the social and cultural construction has made great strides. The construction of primary-level democracy derived from practical experimentation and meeting the actual needs has also achieved good results. These achievements reflect the superiority of China’s model of development in both theory and practice, and embody the uniqueness of Zhejiang’s political development. In the process of the grassroots governance and democratic practice in Zhejiang, the people’s recognition and confidence in socialism with Chinese characteristics are constantly being strengthened.

9.2.4 Organic Integration of the Decision-Making, Executive and Overseeing Powers to Strengthen the Role of Democratic Supervision in the Grassroots Political Development To ensure the proper exercise of power, it is important to uphold the people’s right to stay informed about, participate in, express views on, and oversee Party and government operations. We should make sure that decision-making, executive and overseeing powers check each other and function in concert with each other, and that government bodies exercise their powers in accordance with statutory mandate and procedures. We should tighten intra-Party, democratic and legal overseeing as well as overseeing through public opinion to ensure that the people oversee the exercise of power and that power is exercised in a transparent manner. Democratic supervision is an important part of the system of the overseeing of power, an important content of socialist democracy, and a full expression of the people’s power as masters of the country. In theory, only the socialist countries can truly restore power to the people, make the people become owners and overseers of the power of overseeing, and fundamentally solve the problem of the restriction of power. In the cause of the Chinese revolution and construction, the Chinese Communists constantly explore and perfect the system of democratic supervision with

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its own characteristics according to specific conditions and the actual situations of the country, and they extract the theoretical results of democratic supervision in their practical experiments. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the successive Party committees of Zhejiang Province have given great importance to democratic supervision, they have focused on overcoming the issue of power corruption, stressed that all power belongs to the people and that the people have the right to vote, the right of recall, and the rights to participate in and to discuss political affairs, and they have emphasized putting power into the cage of the system by means of democratic supervision. In the exploration and practice of grassroots democratic politics, Zhejiang Province continuously brings about innovations to the paths, channels, methods and means and has developed advanced practices and experiences, such as “democratic earnest talks”, the “Houchen Experience” and the “Bazheng Regulations”. The construction and development of grassroots democratic politics take the lead in the country. At present, in urban communities, neighborhood committees, residents (representatives) meetings, consultation meetings, and other social resident self-governing organizations, the systems of transparency of residents’ affairs, democratic management, democratic decision-making and democratic supervision are constantly being perfected; in rural areas, the system of villagers’ self-governing organizations has gradually improved, and the innovations to the system, such as village affairs supervisory committees, democratic earnest talks and democratic hearings, continuously emerge. However, relatively speaking, within the system of innovation, innovation at the level of democratic supervision is still lagging relatively behind among the four parts of democracy. Exploring the organic unity of democratic decision-making, executive and overseeing powers and focusing on the coordination of, balance and restrictions among the three powers, especially strengthening the important role of democratic supervision in grassroots politics, have become an inherent need in order to promote grassroots democratic political development and the modernization of local governance. During practice, Zhejiang has gradually formed four representative forms of village-level democratic supervision, namely, the groups of supervision over the disclosure of village affairs and democratic financial management groups universally established in the province, the corruption overseeing station in Tiantai County, the villagers’ representative supervisory committee in Wenling City, and the committee for the supervision of village affairs in Houchen Village, Wuyi County. Among them, the committee for the supervision of village affairs of Houchen Village has realized the innovation of current rural democratic supervision at the grassroots level, and is thus a model for the successful experimentation of the mechanism for rural grassroots democratic supervision, which has been promoted throughout the province. After more than 30,000 administrative villages of the province established “village affairs supervisory committees” by the end of 2009, this form of overseeing body had achieved full coverage in the province. The establishment of committees for the supervision of village affairs has changed the relationship among the organization for the supervision of village affairs and the two committees of the village into a parallel relationship, realizing the separation of village supervision and the management of

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village affairs. The committee for the supervision of village affairs directly exercises the overseeing power to the village committee under the leadership of the village branch of the party. This rationalizes the relationship among village-level organizations and forms a three-pronged operational mechanism of the village branch of the party managing the direction, the village committee focusing on execution and the committee for the supervision of village affairs paying attention to audits and overseeing. They perform their respective functions and limit each other, thus guaranteeing the status and powers of the committee for the supervision of village affairs. Improving the mechanism for grassroots democratic supervision and enhancing the level and effectiveness of grassroots democratic supervision are the needs for promoting a balanced and complementary developmental path in the four important parts of democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision. It is not only the core issue of regional democratic political development, but also an important part of China’s process of the modernization of grassroots autonomy and governance. From the perspective of Zhejiang’s practice, it is of important practical significance for promoting innovations to social management at the grassroots level, advancing the work of the grassroots masses, facilitating harmonious rural (community) construction and impelling the grassroots anti-corruption work.

9.2.5 Adhering to the Organic Unity of Top-Down and Bottom-up and Executing the Party’s Line of the Masses in Practice Adhering to the dialectical unity of top-down and bottom-up is the organic unity of adhering to the Party’s guidelines and policies and adhering to the line of the masses. “Top-down” refers to the process of the Party’s guidelines and policies being implemented step by step from top to bottom, and eventually becoming the material forces for the practice of the masses; “bottom-up” refers to the transmission of various effective experiences and problems that arise in the process of the practice of the masses to the superior levels step by step, which can be adopted and valued by the decision-makers and eventually become the practical basis for the formulation of the Party’s guidelines and policies. The Party’s line of the masses itself also embodies the feature of being a democratic way of uniting top-down and bottom-up channels. From the perspective of political operations, adhering to the dialectical unity of top-down and bottom-up is an important experience in Zhejiang’s political practice. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the development of democratic politics in Zhejiang Province vividly reflects the dialectical unity of top-down and bottom-up channels: on the one hand, through strengthening the Party’s leadership, we can promote the continuous development of democratic political construction; on the other hand, by mobilizing and relying on the masses and respecting their creativity, we can provide an inexhaustible motive power for the development of democratic poli-

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tics. First, we must mobilize the masses and generate their enthusiasm for creation, transform the Party’s guidelines and policies into the essential inner forces of the masses, and then transform the spiritual forces into material forces, so that the “top” and “bottom” are internally unified. Second, we should sum up the experience of the practice of the masses, identify the positive and negative consequences, actively guide the masses, support the positive and suppress the negative, and unify the “bottom” actions to the basic spirit of the “top”. Third, we must uphold the truth, withstand all kinds of pressures and actively protect the pioneering spirit of the masses, so that the “top” spirit of the policy can be correctly implemented and the “bottom” activities and the “top” correct guideline are always unified. The line of the masses of “doing everything for the masses, relying on them in every task, carrying out the principle of ‘from the masses, to the masses’” is the product of our Party combining the traditional “people-oriented thoughts”, the classical Marxist view of the masses and China’s revolution and practice of construction. In June, 1943, in the article Several Issues on Leadership Methods written for the Central Committee of CPC, Mao Zedong made a brilliant summary of the line of the masses as the Party’s leadership method from the height of dialectical materialist epistemology: “In all of the actual work of our Party, the correct kind of leadership must be from the masses, to the masses. This means gathering the opinions of the masses (distributed and unsystematic opinions) (and through research, convert them into a centralized system of opinions), go to the masses to make propaganda and give explanations, turn them into the opinions of the masses, allow the masses to persist and take actions, and test whether these opinions are correct in the actions of the masses. Then, opinions are gathered from the masses again and put into the practice of the masses again. In the infinite cycles, the opinions become more correct, more vivid and richer one cycle after another. This is the epistemology of Marxism.” In the article On Coalition Government, Mao Zedong further elaborated on the core content of the Party’s line of the masses: “Another hallmark distinguishing our Party from all other political parties is that we have very close ties with the broadest masses of the people. Our point of departure is to serve the people whole-heartedly and never for a moment divorce ourselves from the masses, to proceed in all cases from the interests of the people and not from the interests of individuals or groups, and to understand the identity of our responsibility to the people and our responsibility to the leading organs of the Party.” Afterwards, the line of the masses has become one of the three “living souls” of the Mao Zedong Thought and the fundamental political and organizational guideline of the Party. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, our party’s understanding of the line of the masses has been further improved and promoted. The 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward an important proposition that “the socialist consultative democracy is an important embodiment of the Party’s line of the masses in the political field”. This clearly includes the line of the masses in the domain of the democratic political system and highlights the political significance and democratic value of this line. In other words, this line is not only the Party’s method of leadership and decisionmaking, but also the “operating form and important form of intra-party democracy

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and people’s democracy”.4 “Doing everything for the masses and relying on them in every task” reflects the dominant status of the people and the fundamental nature of the Party and the country; “from the masses and to the masses” is a method of leadership and decision-making that relies on the masses, goes deep into the masses, and serves the masses, and it is also a form of democracy that interacts between top and down and operates in both directions. “It not only emphasizes the active political participation of the masses, but also stresses that leaders should take the initiative to go deep into the masses, understand and listen to the opinions of the people, solve the people’s worries and get along with the masses.”5 Thus, the democratic value of the people’s dominant status and the sovereignty of the people can be truly and widely reflected. Therefore, adhering to the top-down and bottom-up organic unity is conducive to realizing democracy-based centralization and centralization-guided democracy. This can sufficiently promote democracy and truly achieve democracy. This kind of democratic political operations, based on safeguarding the reasonable interests of individuals, can achieve the organic unity of personal interests and collective interests, local interests and overall interests, temporary interests and long-term interests, thus avoiding individual arbitrariness and bureaucracy and preventing extreme democratization and anarchy. This is not only the ruling needs of the Party and the government, but also the actual requirements and objective reflections of China’s actual national conditions and grassroots politics. It is the objective need for citizens to enjoy the powers of staying informed, participating, expressing opinions and overseeing.

9.2.6 Pooling the Political Strength of All Quarters in the Construction of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics The report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: “The united front is a powerful instrument for winning a new victory for socialism with Chinese characteristics by pooling the strength of all quarters and harmonizing relations among political parties, ethnic groups, religions, social groups and compatriots at home and overseas.” It is an important experience in the political development of Zhejiang to pool the political strength of all quarters in the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics, so that the political strength of all quarters is united with the same thoughts and works in the same direction to consolidate the ruling foundation. 4 Decision

of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Intensifying the Reform, adopted during the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, November 9–12, 2013. 5 Liu Jingbei, Consultative Democracy—Important Embodiment of the Party’s Line of the Masses in the Political Field, http://www.people.com.cn/.

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Building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and a harmonious socialist society require that the people of the whole province, including people from all walks of life on the united front, work diligently together. We must give full play to the unique advantages of the united front to unite people’s thoughts and gather strength, mobilize all of the positive factors, and unite the wisdom and strength of all the political parties, social organizations, ethnic groups, social groups and people from all walks of life. Zhejiang Province makes full use of the political advantages of the united front participating in political discussions and democratic supervision, to make new contributions to promoting the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law and developing socialist democracy; the organizational advantages of the united front with a galaxy of talents and extensive links, to make new contributions to implementing the “Eight-Eight Strategies” and facilitating the sound and rapid economic and social development of Zhejiang; the resource advantages of the united front with intensive intelligence and rich connotations, to make new contributions to advancing the construction of a culturally large province; and the functional advantages of the united front coordinating relations and resolving contrasts, to make new contributions to building a safe Zhejiang and constructing a harmonious society. In practice, Zhejiang earnestly strengthens and improves the Party’s leadership over the work of the united front, continuously enhances its ability to lead that work, establishes and perfects the system and mechanism of that work, carefully does well in the work of the grassroots united front, strengthens the building of the united front and the united front cadres, strive to raise the united front work in Zhejiang to a new level and continuously promote the sound and rapid economic and social development of Zhejiang. In recent years, the Party Committee and the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province seriously implement the instructions of comrade Xi Jinping and impel the vigorous development and growth of the united front. Zhejiang is a province in China with rapid economic development, and is therefore a province with many new situations and new problems. Over these years, profound changes have taken place in the composition of the social strata and they result in many new situations and new problems, such as diversification of social values, diversification of interest needs and the widening of interest disparity, which puts forward new requirements for the work of the provincial united front. For example, the composition of social strata changes from the traditional structure to diversified components, changes occur in workers and peasants and a new social stratum emerges. These phenomena pose new challenges to further expanding the Party’s base of the masses and pooling political strength of all the quarters; and the diversified and variable ideologies of social strata are also new challenges to strengthening the ideological and value recognition of members of the society. Meanwhile, the diversification of the interests of the social strata leads to the complexity of social contrasts, results in changes in social structure and poses new challenges to the establishment of a corresponding system of a united front. The new social stratum is mainly made up of people from the non-public economy and freelance intellectuals, who are an emerging force, having developed quickly in recent years, for perfecting the socialist market economic system and promoting

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economic and social development. Therefore, we must widely unite the people of the new social stratum, unite them to the maximum extent around the Party, give full play to their role and regard the new social stratum as the new focus of the work of the united front. This is not only an important task for the province’s united front in the new century and new stage, but also the focus and highlight of the province’s political development. In short, all of the party organizations, the departments for the work of the united front and members of the united front in Zhejiang effectively unite their thoughts into the deployment and requirements of the central government, deeply understand and grasp the important position and role of the work of the united front in the new stage of the new century, profoundly understand and grasp the idea that the relations among political parties, ethnic groups, religions, social groups and compatriots at home and overseas must be properly handled in the construction of a harmonious socialist society, deeply understand and grasp the new requirements of the new situation and new tasks for the work of the united front, build Zhejiang in the new stage and the new century as a united front with strong cohesion and sustainable development, and provide broad and powerful support and a reliable political guarantee for Zhejiang in achieving the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

9.3 Useful Implications of the Political Development in Zhejiang For more than a decade, Zhejiang’s political development has made great achievements and accumulated a lot of experience. We can gain many useful inspirations from it.

9.3.1 Promoting Social Equity as an Important Task of Political Development and Ensuring that All People Share the Fruits of Reform and Development “Fairness and justice are inherent requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We must, relying on the concerted efforts of all the Chinese people and based on economic and social development, step up efforts to develop institutions that are vital to ensuring social fairness and justice, establish in due course a system for guaranteeing fairness in society featuring, among other things, equal rights, equal opportunities and fair rules for all, and foster a fair social environment and ensure the equal rights of the people to participation in governance and to development.” “Common prosperity is the fundamental principle of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We should adhere to the basic socialist economic system and the socialist system of income distribution. We should adjust the pattern of national income dis-

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tribution, tighten its regulation by secondary distribution and work hard to narrow income gaps so that all the people can share in more fruits of development in a fair way and move steadily toward common prosperity.” The report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly requires that under the new historical conditions, to achieve a new victory for socialism with Chinese characteristics, we must meet the basic requirements of “safeguarding social fairness and justice” and “striving for common prosperity” and make them the common beliefs of the entire Party and the people of all ethnic groups. Guided by the Scientific Outlook on Development, we must comprehensively adjust the focus of reform, shift from the theory of the development of economic priorities with the growth of the GDP as the core to the theory of the development of a social equilibrium, take the people-oriented and social equity as the basic contents and support for the political development and make sure that all the people share the fruits of the reform and development. To promote social equity, the government must accelerate the transformation of functions from development-oriented government to service-oriented government and from sheer pursuit of economic development to common development of the economy, society and the environment, strengthen the social management and public service functions, and take more responsibility for safeguarding social equity. The realization of social justice is inseparable from the government’s intervention. The market focuses on efficiency, but it is blind to justice or equality. Therefore, the government should truly concentrate its functions on the construction and maintenance of a socially equitable order, assume responsibilities for defending social fairness, rationally intervening and regulating interests and adjusting the differentiation of social strata, and guide the differentiation of interests and of stratum into justice, order and a normative track. The current emphasis is placed on strengthening the regulatory role of the government’s secondary distribution, enhancing the public service functions, coordinating the economic development and development, considering the interests of all of the social strata and highlighting the solving of differentiation and imbalance in social development, so that people of all walks of life, especially the socially vulnerable groups, can enjoy the fruits of social and economic prosperity and development.

9.3.2 Giving Full Play to the Expression of Interest and the Functions of Integration of Social Organizations so as to Ensure Social Harmony and Political Stability Under the conditions of a market economy, the interests of the people are no longer monolithic, and conflicts of interest and conflicts among various interest groups, social organizations and individuals are inevitable. This requires the Party and the government to give full play to their functions of coordinating and integrating inter-

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ests and realize, safeguard and expand the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. From the perspective of Zhejiang’s practice, to achieve an effective integration of interests and maintain political stability in society, the key point is to do well in the following three aspects of the task. 1. Actively creating and broadening the channels of the expression of interests The premise of fulfilling the function of integrating interests is the ability to accurately understand public interests, and the expression of public interests needs to have clear channels and forms of expression. Social undertakings, such as education, health and social security, have an obvious nature of public welfare and are directly related to public interests and well-being, social fairness and justice. If the demand of the masses for the development of social undertakings cannot be expressed promptly and accurately, more people will choose expressions outside the system, deepen the gap and lead to contrasts between the Party and the masses. Consequently, the Party and the government must actively unblock and broaden the channels of the expression of interests, especially to ensure the discourse power of socially vulnerable groups, such as laid-off workers, rural people living in poverty, urban poor residents and migrant workers, and help them solve their practical problems with heart and soul. Only in this way can we understand social situations and public opinions promptly and accurately, so that the Party’s decision-making can reflect the will and desire of the masses, take account of the interests of the people from all walks of life, enable the fruits of development to benefit all the people and truly reflect the effects of policies benefiting people in solving the problems regarding the livelihood of the masses and in realizing and protecting their vital interests. 2. Striving to optimize the mechanism for the integration of interests and play the regulatory role of policies The integration of interests links to the expression of interests because they are two facets of the same process. The expression of interests is the premise for and foundation of the integration of interests. The integration of interests refers to concentrating the interests of different groups and making them become policy propositions accepted by all of the classes, social strata and groups through refinement, simplification and integration. The issue of the people’s livelihood is a matter that concerns the vital interests of the people and a practical problem that the masses urgently need to solve. This requires that the Party should, in the process of policy-making, accurately identify the issues of the people’s livelihood that are most strongly reflected, which the people are most dissatisfied with, and that most urgently need to be resolved in the production and life of the people. Democratic means should be used as the basic approach to integration, so as to allocate rights and obligations as equally as possible and guarantee that every member of the society enjoys equal national treatment and obtains the basic rights of survival and development. We must further adjust the national structure of income distribution by policies, effectively increase investment in social construction, and provide more and stronger support for accelerating the development of social undertakings. Moreover, we must pay more attention to rural areas, poverty-stricken areas and vulnerable groups, and strive to change the current

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situation of unreasonable distribution of public service facilities. We should give full play to the Party’s function of interest-integration. While continuously increasing the supply of public goods and public services, we must reduce the burden of expenditure of the masses in education, medical care and housing. The economic, legal and administrative means should be comprehensively used to establish a mechanism of regulation and integration of interests that can promote fairness and justice, gradually increase the proportion of labor remuneration in the primary distribution, and create conditions for more people to have an income from property. 3. Giving full play to the role of social organizations in resolving social contrasts Affected by the traditional socialist model, many of our social organizations have the dual identity of state organizations and social organizations, are representatives of dual interests, and heavily rely on the government. Such an identity makes it difficult for these social organizations to have a substantial impact on the government’s decision-making. Orderly political development requires that the demands of various interest groups must be accommodated within the framework of the current system, so that interest appeals and social conflicts are accommodated and resolved in an institutionalized manner. In order to make the expression of these interests orderly and legalized, we must vigorously support social organizations that can represent the interests of all of the social strata, play an active role in the expression and integration of interests, and effectively mobilize social power and social capital to implement social integration. As a result, the government can be unleashed from what should not be governed, cannot be governed and cannot be governed well.

9.3.3 Perfecting an Orderly Participatory Mechanism of Citizens and Continuously Improving the Governance of the Party and the Government The report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that while accelerating the improvement of the socialist market economic system, we should “enhance socialist democracy in a systemic way by adopting due standards and procedures, expand the people’s orderly participation in governance at all levels and in all fields, and ensure that all governance functions are performed in accordance with the law”. To establish a sound mechanism of citizen participation, we must strengthen the legal system, improve the enactment of laws on the participatory right, and provide a legal guarantee for that right. Although the current laws in China have corresponding provisions on citizens’ rights to participate in politics, they are too general and lack procedural guarantees, thus they are not operable and are in need of further improvement. To change this situation as soon as possible, we should promptly implement legislation regarding relevant civil rights and other legislation that is conducive to expanding the citizens’ political participation. Strengthening the legal system for

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citizen participation, on the one hand, is conducive to protecting the individual rights of citizens, providing an institutional guarantee for citizen participation, thereby ensuring citizens’ rights and smooth channels and promoting the development of democracy; on the other hand, it is conducive to regulating citizens’ participation behaviors, enables participation to develop in an orderly manner and creates a stable and peaceful social environment. At present, the procedural law of citizen participation can be formulated first, and the specific links to participation of each participating channel can be established and guaranteed in the form of laws and regulations. By enacting laws, citizens can choose the right channel for their participation, thus avoiding the situation of appropriating resources of participation or insufficient resources of participation. To establish a sound mechanism for citizen participation, we must further improve the system of transparent government affairs and information disclosure, and expand the citizens’ right to know. The right to know is the basic political right of citizens. Adhering to the system of information disclosure and guaranteeing the citizens’ right to know are the prerequisites for citizens’ orderly political participation and the basic task for building a socialist political civilization. Lenin once said that it is ridiculous to talk about democracy without transparency. In the construction of a socialist political civilization, we must effectively protect and expand the citizens’ right to know, encourage citizens to understand the process of political decisionmaking, and arouse their enthusiasm for participation in the political life of the country. At present, we must not only adhere to and improve the disclosure policy of government affairs, factory affairs and village affairs and ensure that people at the grassroots level can exercise their democratic rights, such as the right to vote, the right to know, the right of participation and that of overseeing, but also establish and perfect various forms of the mechanism of information in the people’s congress, government and judicial organs and fully satisfy the citizens’ right to know. To establish a sound and orderly mechanism of citizen participation, we must further improve the mechanism of citizen participation in decision-making, strengthen the Party’s and the government’s function of the integration of interests and enhance the Party’s ruling authority. Before policy-making, we must improve the mechanism of the citizen’s expression of interests and broaden the channels for the citizens to express their interests so as to facilitate the prompt and comprehensive transmission of those interests to the decision-making center. Meanwhile, intermediate links for citizens’ participation in politics must be reduced to shorten the distance that the information regarding the demand for interest expressed by the citizens is transmitted to the decision-making central system and avoid the loss of such information in the process of transmission. During the process of policy-making, the role of citizen organizations must be fulfilled. The decision-making process should be fully brewed, discussed and extensively consulted in order to better communicate, coordinate and integrate the interests of all social strata and organizations and resolve social contrasts. To establish a sound and orderly participatory mechanism for citizens, we must improve the system of overseeing and ensure the citizens’ power of overseeing. It is necessary to establish a mechanism for power operations with a reasonable structure,

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a scientific arrangement, strict procedures and effective control, reform and improve the system of power overseeing, strengthen overseeing and control over the exercise of power, and make sure that the public power truly benefits the people and the society. The power of overseeing is the political power granted to citizens by the Constitution. The enjoyment and exercise of the power of overseeing by citizens is an important facet of the citizens’ orderly participation in politics. It is conducive to overcoming bureaucracy and an unhealthy tendency, improving the efficiency of work and safeguarding national interests and the legitimate rights and interests of citizens. The facts show that with checks and overseeing, the exercise of power will inevitably lead to abuse and corruption. Therefore, we must further improve and perfect the system of citizen criticism, the suggestion system, the complaint system, the prosecution system, the system of public interest litigation, and the system of letters and visits, which reflect the citizens’ power of overseeing and their orderly participation in the mechanism of political overseeing, so that they can play their due role. State organs at various levels must actively expand the channels through which citizens can participate in politics, consciously accept overseeing by the people, and be responsible to the people in substance rather than superficially.

9.3.4 Accelerating the Construction of a Service-Oriented Government and Continuously Advancing Administrative Democracy Reform of the administrative system is a necessary requirement for making the superstructure compatible with the economic base. To reach the goal of establishing a socialist administrative system with Chinese characteristics, we should separate government administration from the management of enterprises, state assets, public institutions, and social organizations, and build a well-structured, clean and efficient service-oriented government that has scientifically defined functions and satisfies the people. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China required to further intensify the reform of the system concerning matters subject to government examination and approval, continue to streamline administration and delegate more power to lower levels, and make the government better perform its functions of creating a favorable environment for development, providing quality public services, and maintaining social fairness and justice; it also required to steadily advance the reform to establish larger government departments and improve the division of functions among them, optimize the structure of administrative setups and geographical administrative divisions, experiment with the reform to place counties and countylevel cities directly under the jurisdiction of provincial governments where conditions permit, and intensify the reform of the administrative system at the town and township level, as well as to exercise government administration in an innovative way, increase public trust in the government, and improve its competence so as to make the government performance-oriented, and strictly control the size of government

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bodies, cut the numbers of their leading officials, and reduce their administrative costs, and also to continue the reform of public institutions based on the classification of their functions. We should improve the mechanism for coordinating structural reforms and conduct major reforms in a holistic way according to the overall plan. Due to the rapid, sustained and healthy development of the private sectors and the growing awareness of civil rights on this basis, the voices and demands of the public to directly participate in the management of public affairs are increasing. The governments of Zhejiang at various levels take a rational and pragmatic attitude, take advantage of the situation, actively explore how to build the platform in the administrative process for public participation, and improve the legitimacy of government decision-making and effectiveness of policy execution. Continuous advancement and expanding of administrative democracy becomes a feature of the governance reform in Zhejiang. Administrative democracy refers to the democracy with governance significance based on primary-level democracy and is an important form of realizing the people’s democracy. It breaks through the narrow conception of Western democracy confined to electoral democracy and shifts the focus of democratic development from competitive democracy to participatory and consultative democracy, from electoral democracy to governing democracy (post-election democracy),6 thus highlighting the direct participation of the people in social public affairs. It is a democratic form compatible with China’s national situations and has full developmental potential, and is a promising key area for socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics. The key to advancing administrative democracy is to truly realize the change from a control-oriented government to a service-oriented government, and accelerate the construction of the service-oriented government “serving society and citizenship as the basis” and with the meaning of “limited, responsible, rule of law, efficient, and clean”. A service-oriented government is the target model of governmental management under the conditions of a socialist market economy. In terms of content, a service-oriented government is to be people-oriented, it must safeguard and realize the people’s basic rights, focus on solving various issues regarding the people’s livelihood, and improve the system of public services and social policies, while at the same time it should bring about innovations to management modes of the government, include management in services and better serve the grassroots, enterprises and the public. Building a service-oriented government will inevitably require the implementation of the spirit of democracy in the managerial activities of the government, and promote the development of socialist democracy with administrative democracy. To build a service-oriented government, we must further strengthen the concept of public services and build a responsible service-oriented government. The serviceoriented government requires that the government’s positioning must be closely related to the word “service”. Public services should reflect the needs of citizens, not the needs of the government or the needs of powerful interest groups. The thought of serving the society and serving the public should become the fundamental purpose of 6 He

(2008).

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the government’s work. We should include management into services, create a good and fair competitive environment for the development of enterprises and provide citizens with convenient and perfect public services. The service-oriented government is a responsible government. Compared with a control-oriented government, the service-oriented government puts more emphasis on democratic responsibility and the rule of law. It requires the government to be responsible for those who they provide services to, and that the government should both establish and observe the order. To build a service-oriented government, we must bring further innovations to the operational mechanism, optimize management methods and improve the efficiency of the government’s services. The soul of a service-oriented government is higher efficiency and quality of the government’s services and normative restrictions on administrative behaviors, principles and procedures. The key to bringing about innovations to the operational mechanism of government is to optimize procedures, redesign and rearrange administrative management processes and handling procedures after making clear the various relationships of rights and responsibilities, rationalize the operational procedures and strengthen the efficiency of management. Also, we must advance administrative and technological innovations, accelerate the construction of e-government, use modern information technology to transform the behavioral patterns and business processes of the government, integrate management and services through the Internet, break the constraints of time, space and departmental division and build a technical platform for the government to provide public services.

9.3.5 Scientific and Democratic Governance Under the Rule of Law, and Continuously Improving the Ability to Govern According to the Law The rule of law is the fundamental guarantee of democracy. The observance of democratic rules and procedures is inseparable from the rule of law. The consolidation of democratic achievements is also indivisible from the rule of law. Only following the track of the rule of law can democracy be operated effectively and smoothly. The important enlightenment from the political development of Zhejiang is the promotion of democratization under the rule of law and advancing democracy in practice continuously in a systematic way and by legislation. Accordingly, the further development of democratic politics in Zhejiang still needs an orderly promotion of scientific and democratic governance based on the rule of law. We must strengthen the leading cadres’ awareness of the rule of law and enhance their ability to govern and exercise state powers in accordance with the law. The rule of law means not only “governing the people” according to the law, but also “governing the officials” and “governing the power” according to the law. Due to the inertia of the traditional line of thought, “legal instrumentalism” still affects the

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thoughts of some people, who regard the law as a tool for the government to control the society and the people, weaken the protection of citizens’ rights and ignore the control of governmental power. This obviously violates the requirements of the rule of law, is not conducive to the rule of law, and must further strengthen education and training in the exercise of state power in accordance with laws and the Constitution. The filing and review of the government’s regulatory documents must be strengthened. In practice, various regulatory documents commonly known as “red-tape documents” exist in large numbers, and the procedures for their formulation and quality assurance mechanisms cannot be unified with strict local legislative procedures. Therefore, it is common to find that regulatory documents violate laws or even the Constitution. The filing and review of regulatory documents is imperative. The system of filing and review implemented by the standing committees of local people’s congresses at or above the county level has played a certain regulatory role in correcting illegal and even unconstitutional situations of regulatory documents. In future, we must enhance the effectiveness and review through mechanisms and systems, realize the legal and constitutional positioning of guaranteeing regulatory documents and defend the unity of the country’s legal system. The legalization of citizens’ participation in administration must be advanced. At present, citizens in China have diversified channels for participating in administration, with corresponding systems, such as the system of hearings and that of the disclosure of information, but there are also many shortcomings. One of the serious problems is that the guarantee of the law is insufficient. The rules that regulate the citizens’ participation in administration often lie in form, so we must further improve the existing system and strengthen legal constraints. The basic procedure should be legalized for critical administrative decisions, so as to make the decision-making democratic and scientific. The basic procedure for critical administrative decisions should generally include the following steps: decision-making research → decision-making planning → solicitation of opinions (hearings, etc.) → feasibility study → legality review → deliberation and approval → disclosure and filing. These basic procedural elements should be regulated by means of a clear system. We must bring about innovations to the resolutionary mechanism of social contrasts and actively guide the ordinary civil and commercial disputes into legal relief channels. Governments at various levels should overcome the way of thinking of “pan-administration” and arrangements when dealing with and resolving social contrasts. Ordinary civil and commercial disputes that are not caused by government actions should be actively guided to the legal relief channels. However, we should neither accept a compromise, nor “solve internal contrasts of the people with money”, otherwise it will form a bad social atmosphere of “loud noise for a big benefit, low noise for small benefit, and no noise, no benefit”. In contrasts and disputes that require the government’s intervention and actions to resolve them, we should introduce interest counterparties in the process of handling and resolving various contrasts fairly and according to law. Legislation of administrative procedures must be effectively strengthened. The building of a government under the rule of law in a country or a region can be judged

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largely through the legislative process of its administrative procedures. At present, there are still many problems in the practice of administrative procedures in Zhejiang: administrative procedures ignore the rule of law, they focus only on the legitimacy of the results, but neglect the appropriateness and correctness of the process of the law enforcement, there is a lack of proper values because current administrative procedures are mostly designed by administrative organs on their own, without effective overseeing, mainly aiming to facilitate administrative organs, with relatively few considerations to procedural rights of the people, and the mechanism of guarantees for administrative procedures is weak. Due to a lack of adequate mechanisms of guarantees in the existing administrative procedures, whether they are complied with often depends on self-discipline of administrative organs and it is relatively difficult for us to get comprehensive relief in terms of statutory procedural rights of the people. Accordingly, it is urgent to study and formulate a scientific and reasonable system of procedural rules, pre-emptively legislate administrative procedures in the form of local laws or regulations and incorporate the main administrative actions of local governments at various levels onto an institutionalized, standardized and procedural track.

9.3.6 Guiding and Integrating the Development of Political Culture, and Embracing Mainstream Ideology and Socialist Core Values In the process of social change, the diversification of ideology and the pluralistic conflicts of ideology and culture are objectively existent. However, we should not do anything. If without regulation and guide, the contrasts and conflicts of multiculturalism will cause social moral conflicts or degeneracy, damage social cohesion and solidarity, impact or weaken the cohesion and attractiveness of the mainstream ideology, and marginalize, and even subvert, the position of the mainstream ideology. Hence, we must strengthen mainstream ideology, integrate and guide the development of multiculturalism and highlight both the exploitation and promotion of the values of democracy, freedom, equality and justice in the Marxist theoretical system, but also the development of and innovations to the excellent resources of Chinese traditional culture. To strengthen mainstream ideology, we must uphold and develop Marxism, use the continuously developing Chinese Marxism to guide the development of multiculturalism, and firmly grasp the leadership of Marxism in the field of ideology and culture. In the building of an ideology, to serve social integration and the guiding functions of mainstream ideology and to enhance its attractiveness and cohesiveness, we must completely abandon the “leftist” and wrong ideas that do not comply with the requirements of the times, bring about innovations and develop the Marxist ideology that can advance with the times.

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The reason why Marxism is a science is that it is an open system constantly absorbing the achievements of the new civilization created by human beings. The mainstream ideology of contemporary China guided by Marxism includes not only Marxism-Leninism, the Mao Zedong Thought, the Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Important Thoughts of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development and the principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping’s addresses, but also the socialist core values of democracy, freedom, equality and social justice. Accordingly, strengthening the ideology must combine the new normal of the times and give great importance to the exploration and promotion of the socialist core values. To strengthen mainstream ideology, we must lay stress on the development of and innovations to traditional Chinese ideological resources and draw on the essence of Chinese traditional culture. Chinese traditional culture contains many excellent ideas and values, such as the overall values of “the rise and fall of the nation concerns everyone”, it advocates the virtues of benevolence, loyalty, diligence, simplicity and self-improvement and highlights family culture and education. This is a valuable spiritual heritage and wealth in our traditional culture. We can only change, explore, and inherit them under the new historical conditions, not interrupt or dispel them. In short, the development of the times and changes in the situation require that the mainstream ideology must advance with the times and develop and be innovated. This is the key to enhancing the persuasiveness, attractiveness and cohesiveness as well as the key to combating the effectiveness of Marxism, and also the driving force for the development of socialist ideology in an open environment. To strengthen mainstream ideology, we must enhance propaganda and guidance in the process of political socialization. Political socialization has the important functions of spreading political culture, shaping political roles and maintaining political rule. It is therefore a necessary task that all political systems need to maintain and consolidate their political order. In order to make the channels perfect and optimize the process of political socialization, we must strengthen the guidance and control of mass media and promote consistency among various organizations for political socialization. Families, groups, communities, schools, work units and mass media are units of political socialization. We must fully construct and utilize various symbolic political facilities and political symbols, such as the vigorous and long-term construction of education venues and environments, the building of memorials, museums, national parks and exhibition halls in China, provide the education on political socialization to young and middle-aged people and create a good cultural environment for the dissemination of mainstream ideology and socialist core values. In summary, to modernize the system of and capacity for governance and to construct a socialist country under the rule of law, we must have greater political courage and wisdom, offer opportunities to intensify the reform in important areas, resolutely break all ideas and institutional mechanisms that hinder scientific development and build a systematic, scientific and effective institutional system, so that our institutions and systems become more mature and finalized. Zhejiang has made great achievements in political development, but it still has a long way to go on its journey to reach the modernization of its system of and capability for governance and to the building of a socialist country under the rule of law. During the new stage of development, in

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the face of new changes, new features and a new normal in the political arena, we must use methods appropriate to the current situation and in line with local circumstances, continuously increase the intensity of reforms, and continue to promote the political development of Zhejiang.

References Huntington Samuel Phillips, Political Order in Changing Societies, trans. by Wang Guanhua et al., SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1989, p. 38. He Xianming, Going with the Flow: Evolutional Logic of the Practice of Innovation of Local Governments in Zhejiang, Zhejiang University Press, 2008, p. 339. Liu Jingbei, Consultative Democracy—Important Embodiment of the Party’s Line of the Masses in the Political Field, http://www.people.com.cn/. Wu Jinliang et al. Towards Modern Governance—Rise of Civil Organizations in Zhejiang and Structural Changes of Social Governance, Zhejiang University Press, 2008, p. 2. Yu Jianxing, Xu Yueqian, From a Development-oriented Government to a Public Service-oriented Government—Case Study of Zhejiang Province, Marxism & Reality, 2004(5).

Postscript

In order to carry out the guiding principles adopted during the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, study and carry out the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping’s major policy addresses, the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences jointly initiated the research on the major program “The Chinese Dream and Zhejiang’s Practice”. The research was conducted by seven research groups, and the final result is the series of books “The Chinese Dream and Zhejiang’s Practice” (Seven Volumes). The Politics Volume, one volume of the series of books, summarizes Zhejiang’s political development and practical experiments in more than ten years since the implementation of the “Eight-Eight Strategies”; it presents an in-depth study of the thoughts, points of view and fruitful achievements developed and made when comrade Xi Jinping was working in Zhejiang; it fully reflects the scientific system of thought developed after he led the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province to promote the vivid practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics in Zhejiang. Throughout the entire book, the chapters are arranged on the basis of the report delivered during the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the chapters from Chapter One to Chapter Seven are designed according to the seven articles in “Taking the Socialist Political Developmental Path with Chinese Characteristics, Promoting the Reform of the Political System”, and the Introduction and Chapter Eight are added as the overall introduction and a summary of the experiences for the whole book so as to ensure a logically complete system of the book. The Politics Group among the research groups is made up of the experts and scholars from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences and the Research Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province. Research fellow Fang Ning, the Director of the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, serves as the leader of the Politics Group, research fellow Chen Huaxing, the Director of the Institute of Political Science of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, serves as the deputy leader of the Politics Group; the members include research fellow Yun Jie, the © Social Sciences Academic Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 N. Fang et al. (eds.), Chinese Dream and Practice in Zhejiang – Politics, Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7368-8

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Director of the Administrative Management Research Office, the Institute of Political Science, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, associate research fellow Sun Caihong, Ma Bin, the Deputy Director of the Division of Social Development at the Research Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, Tang Yu, associate research fellow at the Institute of Political Science of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences and associate research fellow Song Xiaohai from the Institute of Law of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences. In late March, 2014, research on the major program “The Chinese Dream and Zhejiang’s Practice” was officially launched. Xia Baolong, the Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, and Wang Weiguang, the Secretary of the Leading Party Members’ Group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, made the overall arrangement and provided for the overarching guidance for research tasks and work. In late April, the Politics Group held the meeting for its establishment at the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences to determine the members of the group and the preliminary research plan. Subsequently, a number of research activities, including a meeting for the mobilization of the major research for the program, a special learning meeting and discussions about the formulation of a framework for the outline, were carried out in Hangzhou. Ge Huijun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the Director of the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Hu Jian, the Executive Deputy Director of the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and Zhang Weibin, the Secretary of the Party Committee of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, gave important instructions about the importance of the research, the line of thought regarding the research, the scheme, steps and personnel. In the middle of April, the members of the major research group for the program from Zhejiang’s side studied the guiding principles adopted during the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and those from General Secretary Xi Jinping’s major policy addresses in Tianyuan Tower in Hangzhou; based on a group discussion, they drafted the outlines of the various volumes, and listened to the guiding opinions from the leaders of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences. Afterwards, the theoretical seminar on the major research for the program was held in Zhijiang Hotel Hangzhou, in which Li Peilin, the Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, delivered an important speech on such issues as the style of writing, and Hu Jian, the Executive Deputy Director of the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, gave a detailed introduction to the arrangements of the survey. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province and the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences dealt with the connection of group work and jointly determined the research group, research framework and scheduling. The Politics Group also held talks with the corresponding units, including the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, the Politics and Law Committee of Zhejiang Province, and the Policy Research Office of the Party Committee of Taizhou City, gaining a

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preliminary understanding of the overall situation of Zhejiang’s political development. During the period April-October, 2014, the Politics Group conducted two large-scale survey activities, made several visits and held multiple symposiums. The survey group conducted field interviews and surveys in Jiande, Fuyang, Wenzhou, Taizhou, Ningbo, Zhoushan and Hangzhou many times. The surveys involved the change of governmental functions, innovations to the manner of the government’s management, the reform of the cadre and personnel system, primary-level democracy and consultative democracy, orderly political participation of citizens, supervision of power, the building of Zhejiang under the rule of law, etc. The surveys covered the Shouchang Experience in Jiande, Fuyang’s power list and other practices and experience concerning innovations in the mode of government management, the practice and experiments of people’s hearings in Yueqing, the experience and effects of the learning organization in the Zhejiang Chint Group, Wenzhou’s citizens’ supervisory group, the system for the avoidance of conflicts of interest, the governance mechanism featuring coordination among communities, social organizations and social work professionals, Taizhou’s democratic earnest talks, the participatory budget, workstations of the deputies to the people’s congress, political consultations, collective consultations on wages, Zhoushan’s primary-level grid-based management, etc. With a number of survey activities, the experts of the Politics Group gained an overall and an in-depth understanding of Zhejiang’s overall situation, the practice of major innovations and the successful experience in political development in various parts of Zhejiang, and collected a massive amount of primary data for writing and they fully exchanged views on the arrangements and writing of the whole book. In the middle of October, 2014, the authors of various chapters of The Chinese Dream and Zhejiang’s Practice
Politics Volume finished the first drafts and submitted them to the manuscript review group of the Politics Group for reviewing. Research fellow Fang Ning, the Director of the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the leader of the Research Group of The Chinese Dream and Zhejiang’s Practice
Politics Volume, basically affirmed the first drafts and provided the guiding opinions for its final compilation and the editing and revision at the next step. In late October, the Politics Group held a manuscript review meeting in Zhijiang Hotel Hangzhou, in which the deputy leader Chen Huaxing, and research fellow Yun Jie, the Director of the Administrative Management Research Office, the Institute of Political Science, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, expressed his opinion on the review of the manuscript and stressed that the revision should further highlight Zhejiang’s characteristics, deepen the theme, the layout should be more compact and the arrangement should be normative and unified; he also conducted in-depth one-to-one discussions with the authors of various chapters about the writing, and put forward some well-targeted suggestions for revision. Afterwards, The Chinese Dream and Zhejiang’s Practice
Politics Volume was delivered to the manuscript review group of Zhejiang, the meeting for the major program research manuscript review was held at the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, in which the reviewing experts

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gave detailed explanations and provided guidance about the writing of various volumes and revision requirements. In early December, the major research group of the program finished the final compilation and editing at the Hangzhou White Horse Lake Jianguo Hotel. In the design of the volume’s outline, surveys and research, writing and revision, we received the guidance, help and assistance from many leaders. They are Hu Jian, the Executive Deputy Director of the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, research fellow Chen Hongtai from the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Li Huolin, the Deputy Secretary General of the PPCC of Zhejiang Province, the Director of the General Office of the PPCC of Zhejiang Province, Jin Yanfeng, the Director of the Party History Research Office under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, Zhang Guoqiang, the Deputy Director of the Research Office under the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, Sheng Shihao, the Deputy Secretary General of the PPCC of Zhejiang Province, Zhang Weibin, the Secretary of the Party Committee of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, Chi Quanhua, the President of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, Mao Yue, the Vice President of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, Ma Lihong, the Vice President of the Zhejiang Party School of the C.P.C, Zhou Zhenghua, the Deputy Director of the Department of Political Affairs of the Politics and Law Committee of Zhejiang Province, Shao Qing, the Vice Chairman of the Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences Circles, Chen Xianchun, the Vice Chairman of the Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences Circles, associate research fellow Fan Peng from the Administrative Management Research Office, the Institute of Political Science, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, et al. We hereby express sincere thanks to them. During the surveys, we also obtained great support and help from the Party committees, the governments at various levels, other relevant departments, towns, and communities. They are the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province, the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, the PPCC of Zhejiang Province, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Zhejiang Province, the Department of Organization under the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province, the Research Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, the Legislative Affairs Office of Zhejiang Province, the Department of Civil Affairs of Zhejiang Province, the Zhejiang Federation of Trade Unions, the Women’s Federation of Zhejiang Province and also the Party Committee of Hangzhou City, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Hangzhou City, the People’s Government of Hangzhou City, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Hangzhou City, the Department of Organization under the Party Committee of Hangzhou City, the Policy Research Office of the Party Committee of Hangzhou City, the Politics and Law Committee under the Party Committee of Hangzhou City, the Decision-making Consulting Committee of Hangzhou City, the Legislative Affairs Office of Hangzhou City, the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Hangzhou City, the Federation of Trade Unions of Hangzhou City, the Office of the Party Committee of Jianggan District, the Office of

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the People’s Government of Jianggan District, the Department of Organization under the Party Committee of Jianggan District, the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Jianggan District, the Office of Rural Work of Jianggan District, Zhanongkou Sub-district, Kaixuan Sub-district, the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Jiande City, the Department of Organization under the Party Committee of Jiande City, Shouchang Town, the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Fuyang City, the Legislative Affairs Office of Fuyang City, the Administrative Service Center of Fuyang City, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Fuyang City, the Commission Office of Public Sectors Reform of Fuyang City, the Development and Reform Bureau of Fuyang City, the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Wenzhou City, the Department of Organization under the Party Committee of Wenzhou City, the Party School under the Party Committee of Wenzhou City, the Politics and Law Committee under the Party Committee of Wenzhou City, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Wenzhou City, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Wenzhou City, the Policy Research Office of Wenzhou City, the Development and Reform Bureau of Wenzhou City, the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Wenzhou City, the People’s Congress of Yueqing City, the PPCC of Yueqing City, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Yueqing City, the Department of Organization under the Party Committee of Yueqing City, the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Yueqing City, the Legislative Affairs Committee of Yueqing City, the Committee of Education, Science, Culture, Health and Sports of Yueqing City, the Quality Supervision Bureau of Yueqing City, Liushi Town, Chint Group as well as the People’s Congress of Taizhou City, the PPCC of Taizhou City, the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Taizhou City, the Department of Organization under the Party Committee of Taizhou City, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Taizhou City, the Politics and Law Committee under the Party Committee of Taizhou City, the Party School under the Party Committee of Taizhou City, the Policy Research Office under the Party Committee of Taizhou City, the Research Office of the People’s Government of Taizhou City, the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Taizhou City, the Administrative Service Center of Taizhou City, the Taizhou Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences Circles, Taizhou University, the Party Committee of Huangyan District, the People’s Congress of Wenling City, the PPCC of Wenling City, the Department of Publicity under the Party Committee of Wenling City, the Federation of Trade Unions of Wenling City, the Policy Research Office under the Office of the Party Committee of Wenling City, Zeguo Town, Xinhe Town, the Party Committee of Ningbo City, the People’s Congress of Ningbo City, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Ningbo City, the Department of Organization under the Party Committee of Ningbo City, the Politics and Law Committee under the Party Committee of Ningbo City, the Policy Research Office under the Party Committee of Ningbo City, the Office of the Party Committee of Ningbo City, the Legislative Affairs Office of Ningbo City, the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Ningbo City, the Office of the Management of Administrative Examination and Approval of Ningbo City, the Development Research Center of the People’s Government of Ningbo City, the Federation of

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Trade Unions of Ningbo City, the Ningbo Academy of Social Sciences, the Party Committee of Zhoushan City, the People’s Congress of Zhoushan City, the PPCC of Zhoushan City, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Zhoushan City, the Department of Organization under the Party Committee of Zhoushan City, the Politics and Law Committee under the Party Committee of Zhoushan City, the Policy Research Office under the Party Committee of Zhoushan City, the Research Office of the People’s Government of Zhoushan City and the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Zhoushan City, Putuo District. We hereby express sincere thanks to the above institutions. The book was written by more than ten experts. Fang Ning, Chen Huaxing and Yun Jie conducted the final compilation and editing, while Tang Yu and Sun Caihong assisted with the final compilation and editing and finished the paperwork in the later period. Due to our limited capability, it is unavoidable for there to be a lot of improper content in the book. Therefore, your criticisms and corrections are highly appreciated. The authors of various chapters of the Politics Volume are as follows: Chapter 1, Fang Ning, Yun Jie (The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences); Chapter 2, Shen Yanguo, Wu Jiang, Zou Shaoping, Fan Peng, et al. (The People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province); Chapter 3, Ye Liang (The Research Office of the PPCC of Zhejiang Province); Chapter 4, Tang Yu (The Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences); Chapter 5, Song Xiaohai (The Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences); Chapter 6, Ma Bin (The Research Office of the People’s Government of Zhejiang Province); Chapter 7, Sun Caihong (The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences); Chapter 8, Xu Jun (The Department of Work for the United Front of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Province); Chapter 9, Chen Huaxing (The Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences).

The Research Group of The Chinese Dream and Zhejiang’s Practice - Politics Volume December 8, 2014

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