Speech at the General Assembly Celebrating the 65th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

Speech by Xi Jinping at the General Assembly Celebrating the 65th Anniversary of the founding of the CPPCC on September 21, 2014. Contained in in Selection and Compilation of Important Documents since the 18th National Congress (Vol. 2).

The Speech summed up the valuable experience accumulated in the rich practice of the CPPCC and the united front work over the past 65 years and pointed out that the CPPCC must adhere to the leadership of the CPC in order to do a good job in the work of the CPPCC. The leadership by the CPC is the common choice of the Chinese people, including the democratic parties, people’s organizations, ethnic groups, social strata, and people from all sectors of society. It is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and it provides the fundamental guarantee for the development and progress of the CPPCC. To keep developing in the right direction, the CPPCC must unwaveringly uphold the leadership of the CPC. CPPCC is a united front organization, an organ of multi-Party cooperation and political consultation, and an important form of people’s democracy. It reflects the distinct features of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is important that the CPPCC upholds great unity and cooperation in carrying out its work. Unity and cooperation are essential to the united front and are the major characteristics of the CPPCC. On the political basis of loving the People’s Republic of China, supporting the leadership of the CPC, upholding socialism, and making joint efforts to rejuvenate the Chinese nation, the CPPCC should mobilize all positive factors to the greatest possible extent, unite with everyone that can be united with, and channel their energies into a powerful force to serve the great cause. It is essential that the CPPCC continues to promote socialist democracy in its work. The people’s democracy is the very life of socialism, and the CPPCC is an important form of people’s democracy. The speech also systematically expounded what the way forward will be for China’s socialist deliberative democracy, pointing out that socialist deliberative democracy is a unique form and a distinctive strength of China’s socialist democracy. The very purpose of the CPC’s leadership of the people in developing people’s democracy is to guarantee and support their position as masters of the country.

We should have a full understanding of this major assessment. Chinese socialist democracy takes two important forms, in one of which, the people exercise their right to vote in elections, and in the other, people from all sectors of society undertake extensive deliberations before major decisions are made. In China, these two forms do not cancel one another out, and nor are they contradictory; they are complementary, they constitute institutional features and strengths of Chinese socialist democracy. Consultative democracy is comprehensively embedded in the whole process of Chinese socialist democracy. The Chinese socialist system of deliberative democracy not only upholds the leadership of the CPC, but also gives expression to the positive role of all sides; it not only upholds the people’s principal position in the country, but also implements the leadership system and organizational principle of democratic centralism; and it not only adheres to the principle of people’s democracy, but also promotes unity and harmony. The “Speech” emphasized that we need to thoroughly understand the fundamental nature of socialist deliberative democracy as an important reflection of the Party’s mass line in the political sphere. We need to work hard to carry out the strategic task of promoting the broad-based, multi-level, and institutionalized development of deliberative democracy. We must establish a system of socialist deliberative democracy that has reasonable procedures and is all-inclusive so as to ensure that it is carried out on the basis of proper institutions, rules and regulations, and procedures.