■Text by Reporter Zhang Qi
“The non-motor vehicle management problems that I am most concerned about are pedestrian road safety and charging safety. I hope that there will be corresponding regulations to restrict behaviors such as red-light running,” said courier Fu Wenguang, who, for the first time, excitedly attended the forum on soliciting opinions for Regulations of Shanghai on Safety Administration of Non-motor Vehicles (Draft) held at the grass-roots legislative contact point of Jiangning Road Sub-district, Jing’an District, “It is great that everyone can speak out freely and express opinions fully, and also listen to other people’s opinions.”
In June 2016, the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress determined the first 10 grassroots legislative contact points, including the one in Jiangning Road Sub-district. In April 2020, the Standing Committee, once again, determined 25 grassroots legislative contact points, also including the one in Jiangning Road Sub-district. Since its establishment, the grassroots legislative contact point of Jiangning Road Sub-district, based on its own realities, given play to the advantages of its community, pursue active exploration and innovation, and made certain achievements.
Pay attention to people’s livelihood,
listen to real public voices
Public opinions are being widely solicited for Regulations of Shanghai on Safety Administration of Non-motor Vehicles (Draft), which is under the legislative review of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress. According to the characteristics and target group of the Regulations, the grassroots legislative contact point of Jiangning Road Sub-district convened a forum to solicit opinions.
Representatives of management and law enforcement departments, such as Jing’an District Construction Administration Committee, Jing’an District Traffic Police Detachment, Shanghai Jing’an District Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau, Jiangning Road Sub-district Safety Construction Office, and Jiangning Road Restrictiveness Urban Operation Center, and representatives of lawyers, community residents, commercial building workers, couriers, etc., attended the forum. “First, it is suggested the following content be added to Article 5 and Article 8: Jing’an District People’s Government shall have a special committee or an agency to supervise the implementation of the Regulations. Second, it is suggested is it more appropriate and accurate to replace ‘electric bicycle’ by “non-motor vehicle” in the parking and charging safety management in Article 29. Ding Xia, a representative from the grassroots legislative information collection center of Jing’an District People’s Congress and Joy City Shopping Mall in Jing’an, brought about a lot of opinions and suggestions for specific articles. The staff of the contact point recorded residents’ opinions and suggestions on specific provisions; such opinions and suggestions would be all recorded and conveyed to the legislative branch of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress with professional opinions.
Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Public Health Emergency Management, which came into effect on November 1, 2020, clearly stipulates that it is a legal obligation for citizens to wear masks in public places. When opinions were solicited for its draft, the grassroots legislation point of Jiangning Road S proposed that “wearing masks” should be written into the Regulations.
Zhu Xuejia, the director of the Leading Group Office of Jiangning Road Sub-district Grassroots Legislative Contact Point, introduced: “Residents all think that wearing masks can not merely protect themselves but also protect others in public, as entering public places without wearing masks might pose a potential threat to public interests. It would be more binding if ‘wearing masks’ is written into the Regulations.” In Zhu’s view, what pleased the residents most is that the proposal of “wearing masks in public places” has been adopted in the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Public Health Emergency Management.
Collect public wills,
Allow the public to experience warmth of legislation
Veterans Protection Act of the People’s Republic of China, which came into force on January 1, 2021, is the first special law of China on veterans. For the milestone law, there are opinions from the grassroots legislative contact point of Jiangning Road Sub-district.
On July 17, 2020, the grassroots legislative contact points of Hongqiao Sub-district of the Legislative Affairs Commission (LAC) of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) paid a visit to Jiangning Road Sub-district and held a legislative forum on Veterans Protection Act of the People’s Republic of China. This is the first time that the contact point of Jiangning Road Sub-district has undertaken the task of soliciting opinions on national laws and also the first time that the NPC legislative contact point has cooperated with the legislative contact point of the municipal People’s Congress in soliciting opinions. For the forum, Jiangning Road Sub-district specially invited representatives of different groups, such as workers from Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Veterans Affairs, lawyers, active servicemen, military spouses, and so on, who expressed their opinions and suggestions on the Law from their respective perspectives.
Wang Wenming, who entered the law industry after military service, pointed out at the forum that the article of “guaranteed object” punishment stipulated in the Law (Draft) was inconsistent with its legislative purpose. No article of guaranteed object punishment is available in China’s existing laws - Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Elderly People and Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguard of Disabled Persons
So he suggested modifications to relevant articles. After learning that his suggestion was adopted, Wang specially sent a WeChat message to the staff member of the sub-district legislative contact point: “I’ve read the NPC’s relevant explanation on the revision of the Veterans Protection Act. The issue we discussed at the last meeting has been solved in a satisfactory manner. Thanks for conveying our opinions.”
As the aging problem becomes constantly serious in Shanghai, the household service industry has increasingly become the focus of public concern. On October 21, 2019, the Legal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress led a team to Jiangning Road Sub-district to conduct legislative research on the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Household Service (Draft). Jiangning Road Sub-district organized representatives from many fields, such as heads of housekeeping service agencies, top housekeeping service attendants, heads of the general Party branches of residential areas, elderly people in communities and responsible people of the relevant departments of the Sub-district to be present at the meeting.
Chen Guizhi, a top housekeeping service attendant, said that the current Draft lacked the content of protecting the rights of housekeeping service attendants. For example, she explained, the Draft only stipulated that housekeeping service attendants should be truthfully informed when housekeeping service users and other persons living together were suffering from infectious diseases in the rights and obligations of housekeeping service users. However, more other factors might endanger housekeeping service attendants’ health or safety, such as history of mental illness, and this needed to be further improved through legislation. This suggestion was finally adopted in Article 12 of the final version of the Regulations.
Make channels open to allow more people to participate in the rule of law process
As the only sub-district among the first batch of municipal grassroots legislative contact points, Jiangning Road Sub-district always adheres to the grassroots orientation, common people’s perspectives and response to people’s livelihood, and attaches great importance to collecting, sorting out and reflecting the original opinions and suggestions of people in communities, buildings and parks, which allows the legislature to hear what people really want to say. To this end, Jiangning Road Sub-district has combined contact work of the Point with organic work, such as construction of the “Jing’an under the rule of law,” community Party building, regional Party-building, etc., and established a “1+27+X” working network. “1” refers to the Working Committee of Jiangning Road Sub-district People’s Congress which is responsible for related routine work; “27” represents grassroots legislative information collection points, including 16 grassroots legislative information collection points in residential areas of the Sub-district, and 11 grassroots legislative information collection points established by the Standing Committee of Jing’an District People’s Congress across the district; “X” refers to enterprises and public institutions, two-new organizations (new economic organizations and social organizations) within the Sub-district. It is learned that the Standing Committee of Jing’an District People’s Congress has rendered great support to the grassroots legislative contact point of Jiangning Road Sub-district by specially formulating documents to support its work and setting up 11 grassroots legislative information collection points throughout the District, further expanding the working domain of the contact point and upgrading its working abilities.
Over the past four years, staff from Jiangning Road Sub-district contact point has attended 11 legislative meetings held by Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress, cooperated in conducting 8 legislative forums and surveys of all kinds, participated in 3 various business training lectures, independently held over 40 forums on legislative opinions with over 600 person-times attendance, distributed over 3,000 survey questionnaires, and formed two special research reports on legislation. The staff of the contact point have successively undertaken the tasks of soliciting opinions on one national law of Veterans Support Law of the People’s Republic of China and 18 local laws and regulations, including Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Sub-district Offices, Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Road Traffic Administration, Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Domestic Waste Management, Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Housekeeping Service and the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Optimizing Doing Business Environment. Also, they have put forward over 300 suggestions to the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress, and relevant suggestions were adopted in 37 articles of 12 laws and regulations.
A person in charge of the contact point of Jiangning Road Sub-district said that they would always focus on the main business services to develop into “a gathering point of legislation-related social conditions and public opinions, a transmitter of the culture of rule of law, and a window for displaying the NPC system,” and make more people have the opportunity to participate in urban process of rule of law and contribute ideas and insights to the construction of a people-first city for all.