Rural residents to get more say

The country's rural population is poised to have a larger say in its political, economic and social issues, with the coming amendment of the Election Law giving equal representation to residents in the countryside and urban areas.

The amendment has been scheduled for December, an annual legislative agenda of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee released Tuesday stated.

The present Election Law stipulates that the number of people represented by a rural NPC deputy is four times that of an urban deputy. Many academics have argued that such a rule is unfair to the country's 700 million rural residents, as they do not have the same say in congress as their urban counterparts.

Jiang Enzhu, a former senior NPC official, said the 4:1 ratio was based on Chinese society when the Election Law was first amended in 1995. Before 1995, the ratio was even wider.

"However, with progressing urbanization in China, such a stipulation needs amending," Jiang said. "It's necessary to give equal representation to the two groups."

Besides the amendment to the Election Law, a draft arbitration law of contracted rural land disputes, to be submitted for a first review in December, is also noticeable.

Such disputes have become a major point of contention in the country's vast rural areas, resulting in incidents involving large numbers of people in some cases. In recent years, the State Council has issued several documents urging the proper handling of such problems.

Other important laws on the agenda include the draft food safety law, which aims to raise standards and reinforce supervision; the State assets law, to protect State-owned property; and the law on administrative mandatory action, to prevent government abuse of power.

But a number of expected draft laws, such as a law on the correction of illegal acts and the 7th amendment to the Criminal Law, are not on the agenda.

The draft law on the correction of illegal acts, which aims to reform the system of re-education through labor, or laojiao, was listed on the NPC's legislative agenda last year, but it failed to be submitted for review on time.

Teng Wei, deputy director of the criminal law office under the NPC Standing Committee's legislative affairs commission, said some major issues, such as who should be included in the system and how the system works, need further discussion. He said there is no exact timetable for the draft law's revision.

The NPC Standing Committee also made public yesterday its annual supervision plan. According to the plan, the committee will hear 11 work reports delivered by the State Council, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court.

Among these, the State Council's report on reconstruction work following the snow disasters this spring, financial micro-control, stability of commodity prices and prevention and control of water pollution are the most anticipated.

The committee also plans to look at the implementation of the Labor Contract Law, which has fueled controversy nationwide as many entrepreneurs said it would significantly raise production costs. The law aims to protect the interests of laborers and prevent them from being exploited by employers.

He Yehui, deputy secretary-general of the NPC Standing Committee, said the committee decided to oversee these areas because "they are closely related to the interests of the people and they are what the people really care about".