While thousands of NPC deputies and CPPCC National Committee
members are filing into the Great Hall of the People to start their
annual sessions, 26.5 million common Internet surfers throughout
the country also switch on their home computers, dial up to log on
to Internet and begin their cyber tour of the congress, voicing
their views, proposals and comments.
IT
technology has indeed brought the legislative and top advisory
bodies closer to the ordinary Chinese. The annual discussion of
state affairs is no longer confined to the congress avenues. It has
in fact been unfolded in every ordinary family.
Tens of thousands of common people have frequented chatrooms and
forums of such major websites as xinhuanet.com, people.com and
beijingnews.com to air their views on issues ranging from
anti-corruption, Taiwan issue, WTO to education and social
security.
These websites have also provided opportunities to meet
face-to-face with NPC delegates or government officials. In
addition to government networks, some commercial dotcoms have also
attracted crowds of visitors by webcasting news conferences and
opening special on-line forums on NPC and CPPCC sessions.
Statistics from beijingnews.com show that the number of visitors
has kept rising. xinhuanet.com's on-line suggestions and comments
have received 1,100 proposals over the past few days.
A
person by the net-name, "Live for Love", proposed to set up of a
special social security safe net for the low-income population to
stimulate domestic demand, saying that "without a social security
umbrella, low-income people would keep their purses tight, even
there is some money in them."
Another Internet visitor, called himself "Guard of the
Environment", proposed to lay a parallel pipeline to transmit
natural gas from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Shanghai and
deliver desalinated seawater from the east to Xinjiang to quench
the thirst of the vast desert.
Local commercial dotcoms are vying with one another to make their
net layout more attractive to visitors. sohu.com said that it
received over 20,000 people on March 5 alone, when the NPC was
opened, and what the common people are most concerned about are
such issues as impartial adjudication and NPC's oversight of the
government.
Premier Zhu Rongji, who delivered a government work report Tuesday,
has won wide approval from people in chatrooms
"The premier is indeed honest and dependable," said a person during
a chat show. "He looked quite composed in the manner of delivering
the report," said another.
While enjoying the large progress China has made over the years, a
chatter challenged the budget on education proposed by Finance
Minister Xiang Huaicheng, saying that "it is not enough."
Many of the delegates are active Internet visitors, too. Bringing
their own laptops with them, they would log on to the Internet
wherever possible in order to know what the ordinary people are
talking about.
"The on-line proposals may have made up for what we have missed or
left out," said Huang Cuiyu, a woman lawmaker. She has collected a
lot of views and suggestions from the common people to enrich her
own motions, Huang noted.
China has done a great deal to promote democracy over the past two
decades. The Internet has provided a short cut. An official with
the State Council Information Office described Internet as a media
that is the most capable, the most efficient and the closest to the
people.
In
an increasingly open world, Internet has enabled the common people
to exercise their constitutional rights.
"The Internet is very useful for the public to oversee government
activities and help the government improve work efficiency," said
Li Yuanchao, secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Committee of the
Communist Party of China, capital of Jiangsu Province. During a
meeting with some visitors arranged by xinhuanet.com Tuesday, Li
disclosed that the city is now building an "e-government" in a bid
to make it clean and efficient.
(Xinhua News
Agency March 8, 2002)