Page 24 - REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE’S CONGRESS

reached between heads of state, and ensuring that all the diplomatic tasks
assigned by the Party Central Committee are accomplished; (2) better
identifying the NPC’s position, tasks, features, and strengths in the country’s

diplomatic work and, through its contact with foreign legislative bodies,
fostering a positive international environment for China’s development and
winning more international friends to protect our national interests; (3)
stepping up to the front lines of any legal, political, or diplomatic struggle
whenever the country requires, without the slightest hesitation, to carry out
our political responsibilities as the national legislature and defend China’s
sovereignty, security, and development interests.

6. Intensifying self-improvement efforts under the overarching
principle of strengthening ourselves politically

Upholding the Party’s overall leadership over the work of people’s
congresses and complying with General Secretary Xi Jinping’s requirement to
fulfill the four-fold role, we constantly enhanced our political ability and our
professional competence and worked hard to become an institution that is
trusted by the Party Central Committee and that meets the expectations of the
people.

(1) We improved our operating mechanisms.

We improved the timing, procedures, and content of our meetings and
applied the principle of democratic centralism. We convened 5 NPC sessions
and 39 Standing Committee meetings and heard and deliberated 1,029 issues.
Fully playing its role, the Council of Chairpersons held a total of 136 meetings.
We strictly observed our rules of procedure, put forward, pursuant to law,

times of meetings, lists of voting and nonvoting participants, and schedules
for general meetings and group meetings, and enforced strict procedures for
requesting leaves of absence, thus keeping the meeting attendance rate above
96 percent. We earnestly carried out work related to proposal submission and
deliberation and developed a mechanism for holding an additional Council of
Chairpersons meeting in each odd-numbered month to discuss draft laws to

be submitted to Standing Committee meetings for votes. We further
standardized the hearing and deliberation of work reports, inquiries on
special topics, speeches, and voting.
(2) We gave full play to the roles of special committees and working commissions
and committees.

To better adapt to the needs of the NPC’s work in the new era, we
respectively renamed the Law Committee and the Internal and Judicial

Affairs Committee the Constitution and Law Committee and the Supervision
and Justice Committee, established a Social Development Committee, and
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