CPPCC members walk out of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing following the closing of the third session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee on March 10. Photo: Duan Danjie/CSST

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Qubumo Bamo, a scholar of the Yi ethnic group from the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, has been actively engaged in grassroots field research over the past year, safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and conducting follow-up studies on international cooperation mechanisms.

As a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, and a research fellow from the Institute of Ethnic Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Bamo submitted a motion to this year’s “Two Sessions” calling for improvements to the mechanisms for protecting ICH in the digital environment. The Two Sessions—the annual meetings of the NPC and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)—successfully concluded on March 11.

Bamo is just one of the many academic community members who leverage their expertise to address public concerns and propose solutions to pressing contemporary issues, thereby contributing to the advancement of Chinese modernization and national rejuvenation.

Drawing on the collective wisdom of the nation for the wellbeing of over 1.4 billion people, this year’s Two Sessions brought together nearly 3,000 NPC deputies and more than 2,100 CPPCC members from 34 sectors, serving as a vivid demonstration of whole-process people’s democracy, China’s distinctive model of governance.

Preserving culture

During a deliberation of the Jiangsu delegation at the third session of the 14th NPC on March 5, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping urged efforts to optimize the supply of cultural products and services, and empower economic and social development with culture.

Responding to Xi’s call, Qian Jiasheng, a CPPCC member and executive deputy director of the Academic Committee at Anhui University, highlighted the contemporary value of Anhui culture, advocating for the integration of studies on traditional culture with governance at the primary or community level.

NPC deputy Wang Wanfu, also deputy director of the conservation research institute at Dunhuang Academy, continued to advise on the protection of unique Chinese cultural heritage.

With a strong sense of duty and scholarly dedication, these academics have not only contributed to preserving fine traditional Chinese culture but also played an active role in enhancing public wellbeing—integrating informed policy suggestions with the practice of whole-process people’s democracy. 

Protecting ecological environment

This year’s Two Sessions featured open group meetings, which welcomed domestic and international journalists to audit and report agenda deliberations in plenary or group sessions of each delegation, followed by collective interviews with some or all NPC deputies of a delegation.

At the open group meeting of the Shaanxi delegation on March 6, NPC deputy Zhu Xiaoli, a professor from the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Northwest University (NWU), discussed the improving ecological environment in Shaanxi Province, citing the recent discovery of black storks in Jinbian County, Yulin City, Shaanxi, as evidence. Dubbed the “giant pandas among birds,” this rare species is highly selective about its habitat, and thus serves as a crucial environmental indicator. The settlement of black storks in Shaanxi reflects significant improvements in the province’s ecological environment.

Zhu proposed exploring ways to maximize the value of ecological products and promote the development of green, low-carbon industries, thereby advancing the vision of a beautiful China.

Since her election as an NPC deputy in 2018, Fang Lan, director of the Yellow River Research Center at Shaanxi Normal University, has tabled dozens of suggestions and motions on the ecological conservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin from the perspective of environmental economics and water resource management. During the Two Sessions in 2021, she presented a motion on legislating Yellow River protection, which contributed to the enactment of the Yellow River Protection Law on April. 1, 2023.

At the plenary session of the Shaanxi delegation, Fang delivered a speech on advancing the transformation and upgrade of traditional industries in the Yellow River Basin with AI, proactively aligning with national strategy and public concerns, and shifting from theoretical study to empirical field investigations. Her efforts form a complete practical cycle encompassing problem discovery, policy suggestion, and legislative guarantee.

Integrating education, sci-tech innovation, talent cultivation

Presently, China’s education system stands as the world’s largest, transforming its abundant human resources into a large, highly skilled talent pool. With strengthened basic research and original innovation, major breakthroughs have been achieved in key and core technologies, further unleashing the potential of innovators and talent.

During a deliberation with fellow lawmakers from Jiangsu, Xi stressed the importance of coordinating education, science and technology, and talent cultivation, urging “more sci-tech advances to be attained and turned into concrete productive forces.”

Lu Jianjun, a CPPCC member and Party secretary of Xi’an Jiaotong University, advocated for an integrated approach to education, sci-tech innovation, and talent cultivation. He called for overcoming obstacles in deepening enterprise-led collaboration between industries, universities, and research institutes, in order to foster powerful systemic effects through the mutual reinforcement of these areas.

Prior to the Two Sessions, Cui Yali, a CPPCC member and a professor from the College of Life Sciences at NWU, conducted in-depth investigations on the development of new medical sciences, examining issues such as public health and the shortage of general medical practitioners in certain communities. Based on her findings, she proposed effectively integrating education, sci-tech innovation, and talent training by fostering new medical science programs in colleges and universities. 

Edited by CHEN MIRONG