Xi Focus-Closeup: A community worker-lawmaker's interactions with Xi

BEIJING -- Zhu Guoping, a community worker in Shanghai, will be among thousands of deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, to attend its upcoming annual session this March.

In 2014, she had the opportunity to interact with her fellow NPC deputy, Chinese President Xi Jinping during an in-person deliberation session.

During the session, Zhu told Xi about the healthcare, elderly care and education issues facing residents of the community of more than 1,000 households that she served.

"Patients from across the country are flocking to big cities like Shanghai to see doctors, making hospitals no less crowded than railway stations. It is understandable if they want to get treatment for major diseases, but it is a waste of resources and efforts if they only have minor ailments," said Zhu, who hopes for a more balanced and improved healthcare system nationwide.

Zhu told Xi more stories about the everyday life of ordinary people that she had heard or seen first-hand, and Xi listened carefully.

Addressing the session, Xi stressed the important role of urban communities in social governance, and urged better services and stewardship in communities to boost the capacity of social governance.

During the "two sessions," the annual sessions of China's national legislature and top political advisory body, the candid communication between the leadership and people like Zhu mirrors the development of China's whole-process people's democracy.

Unlike many Western systems, China's NPC deputies come from all walks of life and work part-time as lawmakers. However, the performance of their duties goes beyond the "two sessions" period.

Zhu works full-time as a community worker, and she makes down-to-earth suggestions based on her experience of serving residents.

After going through due procedures, these suggestions are passed on to relevant departments, and many are translated into concrete responses and measures from the government.

Zhu said that this year, she will put forward suggestions on how to assess long-term care insurance for the elderly and tackle internet addiction among children.

In the district she works in, there is an outreach office set up by the top legislature. Zhu and local residents have used this office to participate in the revision of more than 30 laws, including laws on domestic violence and the protection of minors, and put forward over 600 legislative opinions.

Their endeavors inspired Xi to raise the concept of whole-process people's democracy when he visited the outreach office during a 2019 inspection tour in Shanghai.

"We are very happy to see our opinions were written into the law, and the feeling that we are the masters of our country has grown stronger," Zhu said.