Role of representatives

It is noticeable that the new crop of deputies to the National People's Congress and new members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee are younger, better educated and from more diverse career backgrounds, and that fewer of them are government officials.

These are positive changes. They are conducive to our national legislature and top political advisory body becoming more energetic, better informed, more representative, and thus more capable and efficient.

They are a logical outcome of the increasingly high hopes the public is placing on the two sessions. People want their representatives to be not only faithful conveyers of their concerns, they want them to present sensible opinions on ways to improve people's livelihoods and the state of the nation.