Over the last twenty-five years, economic reforms have fueled impressive growth rates and a strong modernization impulse. The drive to modernize has led to a growing recognition of the importance of accountability and transparency. The Chinese Government has introduced incremental reforms which allow limited opportunities for citizens to begin participating in some of government processes. In addition, China's lawmaking system has expanded to foster and protect the country's rapid economic growth as well as to bring it into alignment with international trade standards. While the changes in China's lawmaking system have been primarily economically-driven, they nevertheless foster a broader awareness of the importance of legislation and rule of law in general.
In July 2004, as part of recent efforts to encourage more open and accountable governance, China adopted a new administrative licensing law that was heralded as an important reform measure making government actions more transparent. Subsequently, China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) passed the Interim Measures for Hearing the Administrative License in Respect of Environmental Protection as implementing regulations to the new law. According to these regulations, public hearings are required whenever issuing a permit would be deemed to be of public interest or a party claims to have interests that would be affected by the issuance of a permit.
Regarding public participation in the legislative process, People's Congress staff and officials have become increasingly aware of the benefits associated with a more open and consultative legislative process. One important example of this trend is the emergence of public legislative hearings as a method to increase transparency and incorporate citizen participation in the legislative process. The Law on Legislation, passed by the National People's Congress (NPC) in March 2000, established legislative hearings as a mechanism for law drafters to gather public input on draft legislation.
The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) is working to support these incremental reforms that have provided a foundation for greater representation and openness in governance in China.
NDI Activities
In 2000, NDI launched a program in China designed to share experiences with legislators, legislative staff, and others about democratic legislative processes. Since then, the program has expanded to cover other governance areas that are open to greater public participation.
NDI co-organized a series of three national seminars in conjunction with the Center for the Study of People's Congress and Foreign Legislatures at Peking University on governance reform and strengthening mechanisms to incorporate citizen participation in the legislative process, primarily through the promotion of public legislative hearings. Through its work on legislative hearings in China, NDI provides technical support in the form of international expertise and comparative models, and has helped to standardize and institutionalize the practice in China. At the third national-level seminar on hearings that NDI sponsored, the Institute assisted participants in formulating a draft of general procedural guidelines for conducting legislative hearings in China. The Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress informally promoted these model rules of procedure.
NDI also supported the development of the Center for the Study of People's Congress and Foreign Legislatures into a resource library on comparative legislative reforms and democratic practices. NDI supported the creation of the Center's website as well as the publication of a series of books. Materials on legislative practices have become more widely available to interested Chinese scholars and citizens.
Since 2002, NDI's China program has grown after opening an office in Hong Kong to facilitate the program's development.
The Institute has collaborated with numerous Chinese partners to expand exploration and development of public hearings, including the Shanghai Legal Affairs Office, China University of Political Science and Law, and the China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics (CCCPE). In 2003, NDI and CCCPE co-organized a seminar after conducting field research on the rules governing legislative hearings and experiences in various localities, including Wuhan, Shenzhen and Guiyang. In 2004, NDI continued this program in Lanzhou to address the specific issues of cost analysis and determining the effectiveness of local legislative hearings. Following on the development of public legislative hearings in the lawmaking process, NDI and CCCPE held China's first seminar on the subject of legislative oversight in Guiyang.
In 2003, NDI cooperated with the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Shenyang Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) to facilitate a training workshop for EPB officials on methods for incorporating greater citizen participation in environmental decision-making processes. NDI continues its support for municipal EPBs to engage the public in decision-making as well as assisting environmental NGOs in starting to take advantage of these new opportunities. In 2004 NDI cooperated with the Beijing Municipal EPB to facilitate a training workshop on new legislation and the consequent need to increase citizen participation. In 2005 NDI cooperated with the Shandong Provincial EPB on an international seminar and publication on improving environmental governance through greater citizen participation. In 2006, NDI cooperated with the Ningxia Provincial EPB to hold a forum addressing how the public can participate in the environmental impact assessment process and general environmental governance in China.
NDI cooperated with the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MoCA) in 2004 to develop a training program for local elected urban community officials on increasing citizen participation. NDI brought the former mayor of San Francisco to Fuzhou to share his experience with workshop participants. He also presented on municipal government's handling of disasters and the role of citizens in that process citing the example of San Francisco's 1989 earthquake at a program co-sponsored by the China Reform Forum. Later in the year, the Institute and MoCA co-organized a second training workshop in Nanjing.
In addition to providing technical expertise to Chinese officials and academics, NDI seeks to exchange ideas about political processes around the world. In 2004, NDI brought a senior Democratic Party advisor to China for a series of lectures on the U.S. political party primary process co-hosted by the Institute of Political Science at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the China Association for International Understanding. Later in the year, NDI co-organized a seminar in Beijing with the Institute of Political Science at CASS on the comparative role of political parties in Western Europe, the United States and China in electing legislators.
NDI continues to pursue programming that focuses on public participation and information transparency in China. In 2007, in association with the Shenyang Environmental Protection Bureau and the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims, NDI is completing a handbook for China's environmental protection officials on how to address basic administrative and operational issues when providing citizens with greater access to information.
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