China's top legislator urges stronger role for people's congresses

BEIJING -- Zhao Leji, China's top legislator, on Sunday called for efforts to promote high-quality development of the country's people's congresses, enabling them to perform a stronger role.

Zhao, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, made the remarks during an investigation and research tour in Beijing.

During the tour, Zhao visited a liaison office for lawmakers and a humanoid robot innovation center, where he talked with legislators and citizens. He also learned about local legislative work from the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress.

Zhao stressed that upholding the Party's overall leadership is the fundamental political guarantee for advancing the work of people's congresses.

He said the planning and advancement of people's congress work must align with the overall work of the Party and the country, ensuring full implementation of the CPC Central Committee's decisions and arrangements.

Zhao underlined the importance of well-conceived, democratic and law-based legislation, calling for greater efforts to improve the quality of legislation and build a legal system that is sound, comprehensive, unified and authoritative.

He also stressed that whole-process people's democracy must be put into practice, ensuring that the people's rights to information, participation, expression and oversight are implemented in all aspects and stages of the work of people's congresses.