Public Participation in China

Over the past two decades, Chinese leaders and legal scholars have come to recognize that achieving rational and effective regulation in a rapidly changing modern society requires opening up China’s lawmaking and regulatory processes to a far greater degree than ever was the case during China’s long history. Public participation – through public hearings and open meetings, publication of draft laws, rules and policies for public comment and other means – is now increasingly recognized to be an important mechanism for gathering the information and expertise on which rational regulation is based and for gaining public acceptance of and compliance with new laws and regulatory decisions.

As part of The China Law Center’s ongoing research and cooperative work in the area of administrative law and regulatory reform, this site is designed to share information both about the development of public participation in China and international practice and experience that may be of relevance to China’s quest to promote greater citizen participation in and openness of government affairs, as well as government “administration in accordance with the law.”


Chinese Law and Policy on Public Participation

Legislation Law of the People’s Republic of China, effective July 1, 2000, http://www.china.org.cn/english/government/207419.htm (English); http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2003-01/21/content_699610.htm (Chinese)

Regulations of the State Council on the Procedures for Formulating Rules, effective January 1, 2002, http://www.gov.cn/english/laws/2005-08/24/content_25827.htm (English), http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2005-06/03/content_4138.htm (Chinese)

State Council Outline on Comprehensively Promoting Administration in Accordance with the Law, April 20, 2004 (Chinese)

State Council Office of Legislative Affairs Notice on Further Intensifying the Degree of Public Participation in Matters Related to Government Legislative Work, issued March 31, 2007, http://www.chinabaike.com/law/zy/bw/bs/fzb/1376475.html (Chinese)

Guangzhou Municipal Measures on Public Participation in Formulating Rules, effective January 1, 2007 (English) (Chinese)

Hunan Provincial Administrative Procedure Provisions, effective October 1, 2008 (Bilingual PDF), http://www.hunan.gov.cn/tmzf/zfxgz/200810/t20081018_123286.htm

Articles on Public Participation in China

Jamie P. Horsley, “Public Participation in the People’s Republic: Developing a More Participatory Governance Model in China” (2009) (PDF)

Jamie P. Horsley, "Public Participation and the Democratization of Chinese Governance," in YANG ZHONG AND SHIPIN HUA, eds., POLITICAL CIVILIZATION AND MODERNIZATION: THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF CHINA'S REFORM. (Singapore: World Scientific Press, 2006)

Wang Xixin, “Public Participation and its Limits: An Observation and Evaluation on Public Hearings as Experimented in China’s Administrative Process” (2003), http://www.publiclaw.cn/article/Details.asp?NewsId=220&Classid=&ClassName=
(PDF)

Wang Xixin, “The Public, Expert and Government in the Public Decision-making Process: A Case Study of China's Price-Setting Hearing System and Its Practice,” Peking University Journal of Legal Studies (2008) (PDF) (with permission of the author)

Materials on Public Participation in the United States and Around the World

U.S. Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§551-559, 701-706 http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/5/pI.html

United States White House, President Barack Obama Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government (English) (Chinese)

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, June 25, 1998 (referred to as the “Aarhus Convention”), http://www.unece.org/env/pp/documents/cep43e.pdf (English) and http://www.unece.org/env/pp/documents/chinese.pdf (official UN Chinese translation)

Relevant Websites

Carter Center, China Transparency.org, http://www.chinatransparency.org (in Chinese)

Center for Public Participation Studies and Supports, Public Participation Website, Professor Wang Xixin, Peking University Law School, http://www.cppss.cn (in Chinese)

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association (CECPA), Greenlaw website, http://www.greenlaw.org.cn (Chinese) and http://www.greenlaw.org.cn/enblog (English)