Xinhua: “China’s top leaders on Friday met representatives for a nationwide conference on the work of handling the people’s petitions, vowing to safeguard the people’s rights and interests and strengthen ties between the authorities and the people.
President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier Li Keqiang met the representatives before the conference, extending their greetings to all the government staff handling the people’s letters and calls.
Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and secretary of the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, also met representatives and delivered a speech at the conference.
The petitioning, also known as letters and calls, is the administrative system for hearing complaints and grievances from Chinese citizens.
The bureaus of letters and calls at all levels are commissioned to receive letters, calls, and visits from individuals or groups, and then channel the issues to respective departments, and monitor the progress of settlement.”
via China top leaders vow to better handle people’s petitions – Xinhua | English.news.cn.
Petitioning has been a historic means for members of the public, however lowly to put forward their grievances to someone high enough to deal with it. Sometimes, a petition would go all the way to the Emperor or, at least, to his chief minister.
The Chinese government is merely reaffirming this historic practice.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 