For the first time, China proposed to create conditions for people to supervise the government more effectively in the 11th National People’s Congress—-“We will vigorously promote transparency in government affairs, improve the system for issuing government information, improve various public service systems, increase the transparency of government work, and create conditions for people to supervise the government more effectively”. At the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the protection of the people’s “right to information, participation, expression, and supervision” was written into the report of the Party Congress.
Yangdong County, Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province has its own set of democratic supervision system. The bulletin boards of the villages in the county are vividly called “institutional walls” by the villagers. The size of the village affairs has been published here and there. “disclose monthly”, ” disclose quarterly”, ” disclose Timely”, “Supplementary publicity” and “Reverberation wall” make the affairs of the village open and transparent.
In Chengdu, every major construction project involving the lives of the people, the government must publish it in the media in advance to consult the people.
In addition, various media, including the Internet, have become forms of government encouragement of democratic supervision. However, Yi Minli, (a deputy to the National People’s Congress and) a professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, believes that further promotion of this trend requires the protection of laws and regulations.
“Although many of the current policies have been formulated to collect public opinions in the form of hearings and other forms, the supervision channels of the masses are still not smooth enough and the system is not perfect. Some of the opinions have not been able to get timely feedback,” said Chen Jiagui, deputy director of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Fu Yonglin believes that at the same time as the establishment of the system, China should also educate citizens on the importance of democracy and the rule of law.
“Only expanding citizens’ orderly political participation at all levels and in all areas can maximize the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of citizens and allow government rights to be effectively exercised under the supervision of the people,” Fu Yonglin said.
We need to fundamentally reform the social system, establish a sound, comprehensive and secure democratic guarantee system to ensure the safety and autonomy of the people’s supervision. Secondly, we must establish a diversified and practical monitoring and feedback channel platform. Only in this way can the government be monitored more fully and effectively.
The Environmental Protection Law of People’s Republic of China takes effect on January 1, 2015. Citizens should learn and use the law to in supervising the government’s work to protect the environment while protecting their own rights and interests.
The contact phone number of the members of the party and government leadership group also published in detail the division of duties among the leaders. People can directly reflect the problem. It will help the government to better perform its duties and consciously accept the supervision of the people so that the leading cadres will have a sense of mission, responsibility, and urgency.
The level of public participation has continued to increase. Public participation is very important for doing a good job in environmental law enforcement and doing a good job in environmental protection. It has made great progress in recent years. In 2017, the Ministry of Environmental Protection received 170,000 reports through telephone, WeChat, and the Internet. This is more than last year. It is 3.5 times more than 2014. There were only 38,000 in the past and 170,000 last year. This shows that the public has participated. One is that the enthusiasm has been greatly increased, and the other has indeed had a channel. The public has increased their awareness of supervision.