On March 5, the draft amendment to the Representation Law was submitted to the Third Session of the 14th National People's Congress for deliberation, which is the fourth amendment since the promulgation and implementation of the Representation Law. Overall, the revision of this law revolves around the main theme of how to fully leverage the role of National People's Congress deputies Tong Weidong, director of the National Law Office of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said. Highlight 1: Highlighting the political requirements for representatives to perform their duties. One major highlight of this amendment is to implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, enrich the provisions of the General Provisions, and highlight the political requirements for representatives to perform their duties. The revised draft clearly states that representatives should adhere to the leadership of the Party and the guiding ideology of the Party and the state, and clarify their responsibilities and missions in adhering to, improving, and operating the system of people's congresses. National People's Congress deputies are an important force for the construction of the "four organs" of the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee. Clarifying the role of National People's Congress deputies in adhering to and improving the system of people's congresses is an important manifestation of strengthening the self construction of the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee Tong Weidong said. At the same time, the revised draft implements the major concept of people's democracy throughout the entire process, clarifies the principle of close ties between representatives and the people, and adds provisions: representatives should adhere to the people-centered approach, practice people's democracy throughout the entire process, always maintain close ties with the people, faithfully represent the interests and will of the people, and consciously accept people's supervision. In addition to the provisions in the General Provisions, there are also multiple specific provisions in other chapters that reflect the content of people's democracy throughout the entire process. All of these reflect the role of the People's Congress system as an important institutional carrier for realizing the full process of people's democracy in China Tong Weidong said. Highlight 2: Deepening the institutional mechanism of "two connections" and strengthening the connection between state organs and NPC deputies, as well as between NPC deputies and the people, is a clear requirement of the Party Central Committee and an important measure to strengthen and improve the work of deputies. A major highlight of this amendment is the addition of content in improving, expanding, and deepening the institutional mechanism of the "two connections". The revised draft clarifies the principles and requirements for state organs to contact representatives, and adds provisions: the standing committees of people's congresses at or above the county level and the presidium of township people's congresses should closely contact representatives, enrich the content and forms of representatives' contact with the people, strengthen the capacity building of representatives' work, support and guarantee representatives' lawful performance of duties, and fully play the role of representatives; Supervisory committees, people's courts, and people's procuratorates at all levels should strengthen their contacts with representatives, listen to their opinions and suggestions, and enhance and improve their work in all aspects. At the same time, the system of "one government, one committee, and two houses" contacting representatives has been improved, and regulations have been added: people's governments at all levels and their subordinate departments, supervisory committees, people's courts, and people's procuratorates shall invite representatives to participate in relevant work and activities and listen to their opinions and suggestions in accordance with the overall arrangements of the standing committee of the people's congress at the corresponding level. In addition, the revised draft further improves the system of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress contacting representatives and the system of representatives contacting the people. In the past, people believed that deputies were mainly related to the National People's Congress. To strengthen the connection between state organs and deputies, the first thing that came to mind was that the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress should have close contact with deputies. This amendment clarifies that the people's government, supervisory committees, people's courts, and people's procuratorates should also strengthen their contacts with deputies, make major decisions, and carry out important work, and attach importance to the opinions of deputies to the National People's Congress Tong Weidong said. Highlight 3: Improve the content and form of activities during the recess period. "Representatives' activities during the recess period of the conference are also the execution of their representative duties." Tong Weidong said that the role of representatives is not only during the conference, but also during the recess period. This revision of the Representative Law focuses on improving the relevant provisions on the activities of representatives during the recess of the National People's Congress, and strengthening the participation of representatives in the work of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress at the corresponding level. According to the current Representative Law, the activities of representatives during the recess are mainly collective activities, with representative groups as the basic form. The representative group can be formed according to the principle of facilitating organization and carrying out activities. It is reported that during the process of soliciting opinions, it was suggested that the representative group could be composed according to professions and industries, which can better integrate the execution of representative duties and the performance of representative duties, and provide targeted opinions and suggestions. Based on recent practical practices, the revised draft improves the composition of representative groups and clarifies that representatives of the people's congress at or above the county level form representative groups "according to regions, fields, etc. The 'field' here includes both professional fields and industry fields Tong Weidong explained. He also emphasized that the performance of duties by representatives of the National People's Congress at all levels in China should reflect the overall interests of the people, not only the interests of a certain group, but also from the perspective of the overall situation and the overall situation, and handle the relationship between local interests and overall interests well. The revised draft implements the spirit of the Central People's Congress Work Conference and, based on practical practices, adds provisions that, according to arrangements, people's congress deputies at or above the city level who are divided into districts can also conduct inspections and special research across their original electoral units within their administrative regions. At the same time, based on the existing requirements for representative inspections, the revised draft clarifies that when representatives participate in special research activities, they can also provide suggestions, criticisms, and opinions to relevant agencies and organizations, but do not directly handle issues. In addition, the revised draft further expands the participation of deputies in the work of the Standing Committee and special committees of the National People's Congress, and clarifies that county-level deputies can attend the township people's congress where their original electoral district is located. Highlight 4: Improve the mechanism for handling proposals and suggestions. Proposing proposals and suggestions is a fundamental right of representatives and a basic way for representatives to perform their duties in accordance with the law. Representatives at all levels actively performed their duties, put forward proposals and suggestions, and played an important role in promoting the country's economic and social development. This amendment, based on practical practices and in line with relevant laws and regulations, ensures that representatives submit proposals and suggestions in accordance with the law, improves the quality of handling proposals and suggestions, and better plays the role of representatives. The revised draft clearly states that the suggestions, criticisms, and opinions put forward by representatives from all aspects shall be submitted to relevant organs and organizations for research and handling by the working body of the standing committee of the people's congress at the corresponding level or the presidium of the township people's congress. This further improves the delegation system for representative suggestions According to Yu Yang, Director of the Bureau of Handling Proposals proposed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, in practice, since 2005, the General Office of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress held the first meeting of handling proposals proposed by deputies. Delegates proposed that the handling of proposals should be changed from receiving the proposal documents separately to holding a meeting for unified handling. The representative suggested that the delegation has formed a relatively mature and stable work system. The revised draft adds provisions that the special committees of the people's congresses at or above the county level shall communicate with the deputies, fully listen to their opinions, and promptly report the situation when reviewing the proposals submitted by the presidium of the congress. The relevant specialized committees for reviewing representative proposals should strengthen communication and contact throughout the entire process, and continue to deepen joint discussions and joint research. Through sufficient communication, it is beneficial to have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the wishes and voices of representatives and the people, and further promote the absorption and adoption of representative proposals into the legislative and supervisory work of the National People's Congress Yuyang said. It is worth mentioning that this amendment carefully summarizes the work experience of more than 20 years and clarifies the supervision mechanism for representative suggestions. The revised draft adds provisions that the relevant special committees and standing committees of the people's congresses at or above the county level, as well as the working bodies of the township people's congress presidium, should strengthen the supervision and handling of the suggestions, criticisms, and opinions of the deputies; The Chairman's Meeting or the Director's Meeting may focus on the economic and social development, major issues and major matters related to the immediate interests of the people and of general concern to society, and determine the key representative suggestions, criticisms and opinions to be supervised and handled. These regulations provide a legal basis for carrying out key supervision and recommendation work Yu Yang pointed out that fixing the system of key supervision and suggestion work through legal means is conducive to serving the overall situation around the center, fully playing the role of representatives, serving and ensuring that representatives act as a bridge between the Party and the state and the people, better playing the role of representatives in legislation and supervision work, reflecting the thoughts and expectations of the people in legislation, supervision and other work, and better adhering to, improving and operating the system of people's congresses. Highlight 5: Strengthening the guarantee and supervision of representatives' performance of duties "The revised draft further modifies and improves the relevant provisions on the guarantee of representatives' performance of duties, encourages representatives to fully utilize their professional strengths and advantages, and organically combines the performance of representative duties with doing their job well," said Tong Weidong. The revised draft specifies that representatives shall perform their duties in accordance with the law, and the state shall provide round-trip travel expenses and necessary material convenience or subsidies as needed; Add regulations that the standing committees of people's congresses at or above the county level can use modern information technology to establish and improve a network platform for representatives to perform their duties in accordance with the law, and provide convenience and services for representatives to strengthen their learning and training in performing their duties; Improve the system of representative performance learning and training; Add regulations that when representatives with physical disabilities or other mobility impairments perform their duties as representatives, relevant departments should provide necessary assistance and care as needed. At the same time, this amendment implements the decisions and arrangements of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, strengthens the management and supervision of representatives' performance, clarifies their political responsibilities, improves the reporting system for representatives' performance, further clarifies that representatives shall not interfere with specific law enforcement cases or engage in commercial activities in a disguised manner to seek personal interests while performing their representative duties, and adds provisions for "ordering resignation" in the event of termination of representative qualifications according to actual practices. (New Society)