City legislature welcomes foreign students
Gao Deyi gives a brief introduction to the visiting students.
About 50 foreign students from Shanghai New York University and Shanghai Xingwei College visited the conference hall of the standing committee of Shanghai People’s Congress on Friday.
It was the fifth open-door event held by the city’s legislative body this year and the first for foreign students.
There are 856 elected members of Shanghai People’s Congress, and the 61 members of its standing committee are responsible for the legislative body’s day-to-day work.
Taking the seats of members and pressing the button on the table to talk just as the legislators do, the students were briefed by Gao Deyi, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the congress.
Gao explained four major functions of the congress — law-making, supervision, decision making and appointing government personnel. The congress makes 14 or 15 laws on average every year, and it takes one to two years for legislators to prepare a motion.
Information and suggestions are proactively collected from all members of the congress, who are from different walks of life, Gao said.
The students asked about the legislators’ power to revise tax rules, election of mayor and vice mayors and how legislative goals are determined.
Linda Tervaniemi, a Finnish student at Shanghai New York University, was impressed by seeing a place that many people have never visited.
“It’s surprising to me that the way laws are made here is really similar to what we have in Finland in terms of the fact that different regions can make their own laws,” she said.
Gao, former counselor of the Chinese mission to the EU and ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho, said the event gave foreign students a close-up look at how Chinese democracy works.
“Many previous visitors said they didn’t know before how the congress has worked to create a society ruled by law,” he said.
The visit was part of an activity “Foreign Students Getting to Know Shanghai,” said Luo Jie, executive deputy director of the office of Foreign Affairs Committee of the congress and a member of Shanghai Harvard Alumni Association.
The Friday event was sponsored by Shanghai Overseas Returned Scholars Association, and the students’ trip to the legislation hall was preceded by a visit to Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall.
Students record their visit to the congress.
