国内英语资讯:China Focus: Grassroots presence growing at NPC_时事

国内英语资讯:China Focus: Grassroots presence growing at NPC

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Yu Chun, 50, retired from her job as a bus driver in east China's Hangzhou City last month, but it hasn't been all rest and relaxation.

Yu is in Beijing as a deputy to the 12th National People's Congress (NPC). Every year in March, national leaders, government officials, workers, farmers, professionals and soldiers gather under the same roof to discuss state affairs. NPC deputies come from all walks of life, and Yu is one of the growing number of deputies representing the "grassroots."

Of the nearly 3,000 deputies of the 12th NPC, about 14 percent were workers and farmers, up more than 5 percentage points from the 11th NPC. The number of professionals and technicians also rose by more than 1 percentage point.

Party and government cadres accounted for about 35 percent of the deputies, down nearly 7 percentage points.

GRAVE RESPONSIBILITY

Yu drove a bus for 21 years, covering enough distance to circle the equator nearly 20 times. Over the past four years, she has submitted transit-related bills on everything from pollution caused by e-bus battery packs to the industry's shortage of professionals.

According to China's electoral law, the quota of deputies to be distributed according to the size of population shall follow that one deputy represents about 670,000 people in rural or urban areas.

The NPC Standing Committee reserves, however, some deputy seats to ensure that each and every of China's 56 ethnic groups can have at least one seat at the NPC, no matter how small its population is.