Beijing (VNA) - National Assembly (NA) President Tran Thanh Man toured the Nanmofang township legislative liaison station in Beijing’s Chaoyang district shortly after arriving for an official visit to China on October 11.
NA President Man was briefed on effective and innovative approaches the station uses to collect public feedback on draft legal documents. Those give deputies to people’s congresses at all levels more chances to engage voters and feed public concerns into the drafting, review and adoption of policy documents.
The top Vietnamese legislator later co-chaired a discussion with Wang Dongming, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), on legislative affairs, grassroots democracy and other issues of shared interest.
Li Xiuling, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, praised the visit’s significance, noting that the guest’s first stop was at the grassroots to learn about legislative work and voter engagement mechanisms. That matters for the two countries to share experience in building socialist democracy, he said.
Describing China’s “whole-process people’s democracy”, Li said the model spans more than 70 years and covers the people’s congress system, political consultation, multiparty cooperation under the Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership, and regional ethnic autonomy. It runs through the entire cycle of elections, consultation, decision-making, implementation and oversight.
China consistently combines CPC leadership, the people’s role as masters of the country and law-based governance, creating distinctive advantages for the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. The model grew out of integrating Marxist principles with China’s realities and traditional culture, he said.
On Beijing’s own practices, Li said grassroots legislative liaison stations and “deputies’ homes” have been set up across the city. Linked to the city’s 12345 public service hotline, they collect public feedback on everything from draft policy and legal documents to pressing issues in daily life. They have become an innovative way to put whole-process people’s democracy into practice and bring legislative work closer to communities across the capital.
NA President Man said his visit aims to turn high-level consensus into concrete action, lift cooperation between the Vietnamese NA and China’s NPC, deepen political trust and make legislative cooperation a pillar of ties between the two Parties and countries.
Praising the model of bringing legislative work closer to grassroots communities, voters and the public in Nanmofang and Beijing at large, he said Vietnam attaches importance to legislative work in building a socialist rule-of-law state of the people, by the people and for the people. That includes listening to experts, intellectuals, businesses, voters and the general public, especially those directly affected by policies and laws.
Channels for public feedback at the grassroots level keep expanding. Beyond traditional face-to-face formats such as seminars, discussions and conferences, online platforms and digital and smart technologies are increasingly used to make consultations more democratic, objective and inclusive and improve policies and laws.
According to him, the Vietnamese NA is shifting its legislative mindset from management to enabling development, aiming to create an optimal policy and legal environment for rapid and sustainable growth. Treating digital transformation as a key, ongoing task, it has taken the lead in using artificial intelligence and virtual assistants to draft and refine the legal system.
He said effective legislative practices offer valuable opportunities for cooperation and experience-sharing between the two legislatures, particularly between their specialised committees, consultative and local people’s congress bodies, and among elected representatives.
Established in 2022, the Nanmofang station has become a model for gathering public opinion on draft laws and related policies. People’s congresses at various levels have so far adopted 177 opinions and feedback items covering 30 draft laws, contributing to legislative work./.
