Institutions of Democratic Governance

The Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued an Opinion on Promoting the Construction of a New Socialist Countryside on December 31, 2005. The People's Daily published the Opinion on February 22, 2006. On February 23, the State Council issued an English language press briefing on the Opinion.

Farmers cooperatives' lack of legal status limits Chinese farmers' ability to use them to protect their rights and advance their economic interests, according to a March 8 Beijing News article. National authorities currently are considering legislative proposals that would grant legal status to such cooperatives. Official restrictions on the establishment of citizen organizations limit the development of an independent Chinese civil society. For more information, see section V(a) of the Commission's 2005 Annual Report, on The Development of Civil Society.

The China Economic Times, a State Council-sponsored publication, criticized a decision by the Shanghai local people's congress (LPC) to deny two migrant observers to an LPC session full status as representatives, according to a January 17 editorial reprinted on the People's Daily Web site. The editorial asserted that the decision provided insufficient representation for the interests of Shanghai's migrant population. On January 15, the Shanghai LPC allowed for the first time two migrant workers from Jiangsu to attend a session of the Shanghai LPC as observers. Whether the LPC intends that these two migrant workers serve as permanent observers is unclear.

The general offices of the Communist Party Central Committee (CPCC) and the State Council jointly issued an opinion that calls on Chinese authorities to strengthen controls over society and address a range of social problems as a means to "establish a harmonious society," "improve the Party's ruling capacity," and "solidify the Party's position in power," according to a December 4 Xinhua article appearing in Chinese (on the central government's Web site) and English.

Guangzhou police have accused rights defender Yang Maodong (who uses the pen name Guo Feixiong) of posing as a publisher, misappropriating the book numbers of various publications, and illegally publishing, printing, and issuing over 20,000 publications, according to a September 15 Guangzhou Daily report (in Chinese, via the Guangdong provincial government Web site). The report characterized Guo's alleged wrongdoing as "illegal operation of a business," a crime punishable under Article 225 of the Criminal Law. The Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) have both reported that police took Guo from his home during the early morning of September 14, and that they are currently holding him at the Guangzhou No. 1 Detention Center.

The Communist Party's United Front Work Department (UFWD) established a new bureau to handle Tibetan affairs in 2005 and appointed Sithar (Sita, or Si Ta), a Tibetan, as Director, according to an article in Singtao Daily (translated in OSC 15 September 06). The Tibetan affairs portfolio moved from the Second Bureau, which handles ethnic and religious affairs, to the new Seventh Bureau. Sithar previously served as a deputy director of the Second Bureau. The UFWD oversees the implementation of Party policy toward China's eight "democratic" political parties, ethnic and religious groups, intellectuals, and entrepreneurs, among other functions.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) issued a circular on August 8 announcing the results of an investigation that identified "gaps and omissions" in the online reporting of disease-related deaths, calling the lapses a "grave phenomenon." Investigators surveyed 130 medical facilities at the county-level and above in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. They found that 20 percent of the hospitals surveyed had failed to develop an online network for the reporting of disease-related deaths. The investigation also found that hospitals that had developed online reporting failed to report deaths more than 30 percent of the time. The MOH identified the lack of a unified nationwide reporting network as a major problem, and called for greater speed and accuracy among all medical facilities in the reporting of disease-related deaths.

Education Ministry Officials in Guangming Daily: "Firmly Grasp the Initiative in Online Political Ideological Education"

The following is a partial CECC staff translation of an article that Ministry of Education officials authored, entitled "Comprehensively Strengthen the Establishment of University Campus Networks; Firmly Grasp the Initiative in Online Political Ideological Education." The article appeared in the September 12 edition of the Guangming Daily, the official newspaper of the Beijing Communist Party Central Committee.