Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the 12th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, addresses the closing meeting of the first session of the conference on Tuesday in Beijing. Attending the meeting are other top leaders including Xi Jinping, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao and Li Keqiang. [Zhu Xingxin / China Daily]

Proposals submitted this year parallel top leadership's priorities

People's livelihoods and public welfare headed the agenda of national political advisers this year, echoing the call by top leaders on Tuesday to highlight these issues.

Members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference delivered 1,760 proposals — nearly one-third of the total — related to livelihood and welfare issues during their nine-day session, which ended on Tuesday.

Proposals related to public welfare, 160 more than last year, mainly covered education, healthcare and housing.

The increase was against the backdrop of an overall reduction in the number of proposals submitted.

About 5,600 were submitted this year against last year's 6,100, the top advisory body revealed on Tuesday.

In his keynote speech at the final meeting of the conference, Yu Zhengsheng, newly elected chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC, urged fellow members to voice the public's aspirations and give detailed proposals.

This year saw 290 proposals on urbanization, land use and expanding the coverage of public services.

China's urbanization rate rose to 52.57 percent last year, an increase of 1.3 percentage points, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Chen Xiwen, deputy director of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, and a member of CPPCC national committee, warned that urbanization should focus on quality rather than speed.

"It will cause damage not only to the agricultural sector but also to social stability, if factors including employment, education, social services and environmental problems are disregarded," Chen said.

Huang Ming, vice-minister of public security, said at a meeting with CPPCC National Committee members last week that the reform of the household registration system will proceed "steadily and in an orderly manner so that the majority of migrants can live well in cities and villages".

He said a unified national residence permit system is due to be rolled out to make sure that migrant workers living in cities for a relatively long time can enjoy the same public welfare and services as residents with local household registration.

Zheng Shan, a CPPCC National Committee member, said she believed that the number of proposals fell because about half of the members were new.

"But what really matters is the quality rather than quantity of proposals," said Zheng, an adviser for six years and deputy director of Fudan University's Children's Hospital.

"After listening to many speeches and discussions, I believe that most of members have conducted excellent research and the speakers really know the issues and policies they talked about," she said.

Chinese way

Top political adviser Yu said China will not simply copy Western political systems.

"We need to more strictly follow the socialist path of political development with Chinese characteristics and under no circumstances imitate Western political systems, to always adhere to the correct political orientation, and strengthen the CPPCC's ideological and political foundations of collective struggle," Yu told more than 2,000 political advisers at the closing meeting.

Contact the writers at hedan@chinadaily.com.cn and lvchang@chinadaily.com.cn

Shan Juan, Wu Wencong and Xinhua contributed to this story.