The new legislative system aims to curb bureaucracy and allow expediency, and should be established by inviting a third party who is neutral but professional.

Shu Shengxiang (China Business Time): Legislation is, essentially, a process in which public power and interests have been redistributed. In most cases, however, administrative departments naturally have ready access to public resources and would be very likely to seek self-benefits.

Meanwhile, legislation should be a full expression of public willingness and requirements. But when the enactor is also the executor of the laws, the laws that they have made cannot be impartial.

To avoid the administrator's role in legislation is part of the democratic process, and may effectively expel interfering factors for its implementation. Usually, legal drafts are open to public discussions, but habitually the legislature decides on what will be adopted or not. The less government departments interfere, the more just and fair it will be.

Yang Tao (Oriental Morning Post): It is social progress to allow society to have a say in making laws. The prerequisite is that drafting teams should not be dominated by any one side, but to achieve equilibrium by authorization from the legislative body. Irregularities and insufficient supervision on legislation may cause the abuse of state power.

The new legislative system, starting from drafting to deliberation, avoids any relevant interest group so as to ensure justice and impartiality.

Gao Fusheng (hlj.rednet.cn): As long as the legislative process is dominated by the governing body, it is difficult to supervise and restrain its administrative power. Improper authorization and punishment harm public interests, and overlapping stipulations made by governing departments add extra costs to the functioning of administration.

To build a harmonious society ruled by law demands a constantly innovative legislative system, through which the public can be widely heard. For that purpose, Chongqing's initiative may be a good beginning that should be promoted.

Drafting laws is governments' work

Li Kejie (Beijing Youth Daily): In spite of defects, a governing-body-dominant legislative system is a necessity that is based on China's reality. On one hand, the upheaval of Chinese society compels a large number of new rules to upgrade the current legal system, either in strengthening political democracy or the market economy. It is evident that, our present legislative body, which lacks experience and expertise, cannot complete such a huge project alone. The involvement of governing departments is therefore very necessary. While on the other hand, further division of labor and the advancement of technology complicate the legislative process by requiring professional knowledge and industrial know-how. Under these circumstances, the government should step in to adjust and reallocate human resources in a more comprehensive way to make better and more suitable laws.

Yang Jianshun (Legal Daily): The Chinese legal system stipulates that, the drafting of administrative regulations to be effective countrywide is organized by competent departments of the State Council (China's cabinet), and the responsible departments are empowered to designate their affiliated agencies to do the work. As to specific local provisions, provincial-level governments can authorize either their affiliated agencies or independent experts and organizations to draw up legislation. That is to say, the drafting work is an obligation of governments at all levels, and delegated legislation is a possible alternative. It is also stipulated that, a draft version of laws should be reviewed under the current legal framework, with opinions of relevant organizations, governing bodies and citizens equally taken into account, for maximum impartiality.

Yang Yifei (guancha.gmw.cn): Normally, ordinary citizens expect less interference in legislation by administrators to better guard their rights and interests. But this new system can not be that effective, because while it is easy to prevent these administrative departments from drafting legislation, when it comes to deliberation and appraisal of the laws, their influence will still dominate.