According to Guo Jun, a senior official of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, who took part in the drafting of the Labor Contract Law, said debate had accompanied the whole legislation process including investigation, drafting and deliberation. Different opinions had come from both labor and management and representatives of different interests groups.

On March 25, 2007, the Employment Promotion Law draft was publicized, becoming the third law to have a draft version released for suggestions in the five-year term of the 10th NPC Standing Committee.

The participation of the general public in creating law is gradually moving on from raising suggestions to deciding what kinds of laws and regulations need to be made.

In 2005, the government of the central province of Anhui announced that citizens could raise suggestions on Anhui's legislation plan for 2006 through sending letters, emails, faxes or paying visits to government offices over the period of one month.

Yan Taifang, a 70-year-old retired civil servant, was the first to put forward her suggestions by visiting the provincial government. After her son passed away, Yan was not allowed to visit her grandson by her daughter-in-law. When Yan went to her local court to seek legal support, she found there was no law protecting her right to visit her grandson. So Yan suggested the formulation of a new law protecting the visiting rights of grandparents to their grandchildren.

He Yuanguo, an official of the Civil Affairs Office of Anhui Provincial Government, said there were obvious disadvantages of having government-oriented law drafting plans, one of which was the difficulty in implementing them due to the gap between content and people's demands.

Normalization of public participation

Under current NPC practices around 90 percent of laws are drafted by a government organ. Usually these government organs are eager to draft laws as this allows them to define their powers and avoid their duties. Because of this, the credibility of the Electric Power Law, Civil Aviation Law, Railway Law and Postal Law has been under question since they came out.

Wang Xixin, Director of the Center for Public Participation Studies and Supports of Peking University, said whether draft laws are publicized to solicit suggestions is more than a mere technical matter. He believes that the legislation process is one of striking a balance between different interest groups and the best way is to allow all parties into this process to express their demands. Through this process it is possible to make a law that reflects the interests of parties and can be enforced effectively.

The problem for now is that inviting public participation into the legislation process has been written into China's Legislation Law, but not as a coercive measure. Professor Cai said this means the transparency of the legislative process depends on the legislature's judgment.

Cai believes an open legislation process demands not only publicizing draft laws but opening up all the procedures to the public, so that the public can know how NPC delegates and members of the NPC Standing Committee deliberate a law. Only by doing so can the public really understand whether their suggestions have been given attention. If they see this is the case, they will continue to put forward suggestions to the legislature.

The Chinese legislature has been conducting trials in this direction by live broadcasting the deliberation of laws that attract much social concern. Cai believes that the legislature in China has achieved major progress in making the legislation process more open and transparent.