New national legislature sees more diversity
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E-mail Xinhua, February 27, 2013
More migrant workers and women, as well as younger people, have been elected to the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, while fewer government and Party officials have won places.
The 11th NPC Standing Committee on Wednesday confirmed the credentials of all 2,987 elected deputies.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and the other six members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee - Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli - were elected as new NPC deputies.
The number of farmers-turned migrant workers elected to the 12th NPC has notably increased, according to the NPC Standing Committee.
A total of 401 workers and farmers have been elected deputies. They comprise 13.42 percent of the total, up 5.18 percentage points from the 11th NPC, the Standing Committee announced.
The younger generation has also entered the national legislature, with two deputies born after 1990 and 74 born after 1980.
Chen Ruolin, the youngest deputy, was born in December 1992. She won a gold medal in the women's synchronized 10-meter platform diving competition at the London Olympic Games in 2012.
Tie Feiyan, also born in 1992, is a road toll collector in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Chinese netizens hailed her as "the most beautiful girl born after 1990," as she once rescued people from drowning and has adopted an abandoned infant.
The number of female deputies has risen to 699, accounting for 23.4 percent of the total. The proportion rose 2.07 percentage points from a year earlier.
Moreover, 1,042, or 34.88 percent of the 12th NPC deputies, are government officials and leading Party cadres, down 6.93 percentage points from the 11th NPC.
Such a decrease will help to "improve the representation of the people, motivate political participation at grass-roots levels, nurture more practical government decisions and better reflect the people's will, wishes and interests," said Xue Qingchao, researcher with the Party History Research Center of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
All the deputies were elected from 35 election units representing 34 Chinese regions and the People's Liberation Army in December and January.
The biggest difference between this election and previous elections is that deputies were elected this year using the same population ratio for both rural and urban areas, said Wang Wanbin, deputy secretary general of the NPC Standing Committee.
Each rural NPC deputy used to represent a population eight times that of an urban deputy between the 1950s and the 1990s, when the country had a dominating rural population.
Thanks to fast urbanization, the representation ratio reduced to four times after the Electoral Law was revised in 1995 and remained the same under the 2010 amendment.
This change helps to spread the notion of upholding equality during elections, according to Han Dayuan, dean of the Law School of Renmin University of China.
"It will contribute to the country's rural-urban integration, greatly encourage farmers' political participation and speed up the development of democracy. It may also help push forward reform in the household registration system," Han added.
This election has also stressed equality among different ethnic groups.
According to the 11th NPC Standing Committee, 409, or 13.69 percent of the newly elected deputies, are from the country's 55 ethnic minority groups, with each of these groups represented.
Among the elected deputies, there are 36 from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and 12 are from the Macao SAR.
All these deputies are patriotic and committed to local communities, upholding the Constitution and the Basic Laws of Hong Kong and Macao and supporting the practice of "one country, two systems," according to the 11th NPC Standing Committee.
Thirteen deputies have been elected to represent Taiwan in the 12th NPC. They were born on the mainland and are second-generation Taiwanese, who "support the country's reunification, push forward exchanges across the Taiwan Strait and oppose 'Taiwan independence.'"
The 11th NPC Standing Committee held its last bi-monthly session from Monday to Wednesday to prepare for the upcoming first annual session of the 12th NPC, which is scheduled to start on March 5.
The session adopted in principle a report on the work of the NPC Standing Committee, which will be submitted to the upcoming session of the 12th NPC for deliberation, said Wu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, who presided over the session.
A draft schedule for the first annual session of the 12th NPC, as well as a draft list of names for the presidium and secretary general, were also adopted.
The preparation for the annual session has been smooth and is nearly completed, Wu said.
Looking back on the last five years of legislation, Wu said that the 11th NPC and its Standing Committee have exercised their powers in conformity with the law.
A socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has taken shape as scheduled, and it keeps improving, he noted.
The 11th NPC and the Standing Committee have supported and supervised the central government, Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate to ensure lawful administration and judicial justice, Wu said.
The 11th NPC and the Standing Committee have fulfilled its missions granted by the Party and the people, Wu added.
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