Advisers get down to business

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More than 2,000 national political advisers, about half of them new members, will tackle a host of issues, including corruption, environmental concerns and an increasing income gap, during their nine-day annual session, which started in Beijing on Sunday.

Over the past five years, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference has been making suggestions and proposals related to the work of the Party and the government, Jia Qinglin, the top political adviser, said in his work report delivered in the Great Hall of the People on Sunday afternoon.

From 2008 to 2012, the CPPCC organized more than 500 in-depth studies, focusing on the economy, people's livelihood and regional development, he said.

Many of the proposals had been adopted by governments, he added.

Jia cited the example of Hainan province to illustrate his point.

The central government mapped out a strategy to build Hainan, a tropical island, into an international tourist destination in 2009 based on a proposal that stemmed from the CPPCC.

In the past five years, advisers submitted about 28,900 proposals, according to Wan Gang, another vice-chairman of the 11th CPPCC National Committee, who reviewed the body's consultative work at the opening ceremony on Sunday.

Wu Haiyan, a veteran adviser from Zhejiang province, said that the CPPCC has provided "a brilliant platform" for her to make a real difference.

Wu, deputy director of the School of Design at the China Academy of Art, recalled that she submitted a proposal to revise an article of the intellectual property protection rights law in 2010 and a few months later she received a call from the top court.

Some urged fellow advisers to help make the CPPCC function better as a platform for consultative democracy.

Sammy Lee, a CPPCC member from Hong Kong, recalled an argument among CPPCC members a few years ago about a revision to the Labor Law. The political advisers formed two main groups, one claiming to speak on behalf of the laborers, the other for employers.

Lee, chairman and managing director of the Lee Kum Kee Health Products Group, said he believed the debate had missed the point.

"I think as national political advisers we should address problems from a national perspective, not simply speak for groups we stand for," he said.

（中国日报网英语点津 Julie 编辑）

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.