ABSTRACT
Among the three critical relationships that the CCP must maintain, its relationship with the Chinese society is the most challenging. This relationship has three layers. The first is with individual citizens; the second is with non-governmental organizations (NGOs); and the third and most important is with the National People’s Congress (NPC). With individual citizens, the governments set up a “xinfang” system allowing public grievances to be addressed through official channels. With the mushrooming NGOs, the CCP tries to manage and control the application and operation processes through strict regulations. But in recent years, the National People’s Congress began to demand the CCP’s attention. Established in 1953, the National People’s Congress (NPC) is supposed to be China’s parliament with the authority bestowed by the constitution to legislate, to represent the grassroot people’s wishes and needs, to oversee the operations of the government, and to elect the major officers of the State. But for decades, the NPC was mocked for merely “rubber-stamping” the will of the CCP. The recent signs of transformations of the CCP-NPC relationship are trending in an encouraging direction. Such signs begin to give the Chinese people hope that maybe they will eventually be allowed to truly govern themselves.
