Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday called for closer ties between people's congresses at all levels and the people so as to play a better role of the people's congress system.
  
Addressing a grand rally to mark the 50th founding anniversary of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, Hu urged the 2.8 million people's congress deputies across the country to listen to the appeal of the people, learn about their lives, reflect their will and pool their wisdom.
  
Efforts are also needed to strengthen the organization system and work system of people's congresses and their standing committees at all levels, he said.
  
Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, described the people's congress system as the prominent feature of China's socialist democratic politics.
 
"We should value the experience in the development of the people's congress system over the last 50 years, stick to the path of political development with Chinese characteristics and firmly push forward the socialist democratic politics by adhering to China's national conditions and new realities," he said.
 
Hu stressed that a government will become a diligent one when the people are encouraged to supervise over it, and a government will perish unless everyone takes the responsibility.
He promised the rally to actively and steadily boost political reform, expand socialist democracy, improve the socialist legal system and build a country under rule of law for the consolidation and development of a democratic, united, lively, stable and harmonic situation.
  
The political system that a country adopts must accord with the national conditions and characteristics, he said, noting the socialist democratic politics best suits China's conditions.
 
"We must be active in learning from all human civilizations, including the positive results of political civilization. But we will never blindly copy the mode of other countries' political system," the president said.
  
Along with China's economic and social progress, its socialist democratic politics will perfect gradually and its superiority and strong vitality will be fully demonstrated, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2004)