Editor’s note: the following piece was translated and edited from an article that first appeared on the People’s Daily online. The article summarizes a recent survey conducted by the website, asking netizens about their greatest concerns and what they think should be addressed during the first annual session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), which commences on March 5, 2013.

China's top state leaders, including the next president, will be chosen during the first annual session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), which convenes in Beijing on March 5, 2013. To commemorate the occasion, the People's Daily website conducted a survey, polling its readers about the issues they were most concerned about and what they expected to be addressed during the meeting. On February 27, the website published the results of their annual “10 Pressing Issues” survey. The survey proved quite popular with Chinese netizens—771,997 netizens had taken the survey as of 17:00 on February 26, and users had already left 14,650 comments on the webpage. The results of the survey show that 18% of respondents (142,501 votes) considered "Social Security" the most pressing issue, followed by "Anti-corruption", "Income Distribution" and "Housing Security", among other issues.

10 Pressing Issues
1	Social Security	6	Price Stability
2	Anti-corruption	7	Food and Drug Safety
3	Income Distribution	8	Rule of Law
4	Housing Security	9	Administrative Reforms
5	Healthcare Reform	10	National Defense

1) 97% unhappy with rising pensions for retired enterprise employees
There's been a lot of criticism recently over China's pension insurance system, which, according to a November 2012 report, pays out a monthly pension to approximately 125 million elderly Chinese. Indeed, from 2010 to present, "Pension Insurance" (part of the “Social Security” item) has topped the 10 Pressing Issues list. According to this year's survey, more than 97% of respondents indicated that they were very unsatisfied with the pensions for retired [private] business employees, while 98% of netizens believed that it is time to get rid of the dual-track pension system for civil servants and employees of state-run institutions. Moreover, 83% of netizens supported a flexible retirement age.

In the comments section, a majority of users complained that a dual-track pension system—one in which civil servants don't need to make contributions but still get covered by the state budget after retirement—runs contrary to the principles of social justice. Even though the state has already raised the basic pension level for retired business employees nine times, the gap between them and the pensions of retired civil servants and employees of state institutions has not been significantly reduced. In some areas, the basic pension level of a retired business employee was only about one-third of the pension for a retired local civil servant. Consequently, many netizens commented that it should be a top priority for all levels of government to implement new “people's livelihood” policies that substantially increase the pension of business employees and safeguard the living standards for these retired employees, as well as immediately reduce and ultimately abolish this dual-track pension system.

2) 92% expect more reimbursements for medical treatments
Health care reform is an issue that affects the livelihood of every single person, so it should come as no surprise that the public pays very close attention to it. 31% of respondents believe that after reforms are carried out, drug prices will actually increase. 80% of respondents stated that drug prices are already too high, making it difficult for them to receive medical treatment. 92% of respondents believe that it should be easier to be reimbursed for medical treatments. Surprisingly, 32% of respondents believed that it was precisely due to mismanagement by local governments and hospitals that doctor-patient relationships are so tense.

Same as with overall health care reform, food and drug safety issues were widely followed by the public in 2012. 80% of respondents believed that they were directly affected by "tainted" drugs, while 74% of respondents were "increasingly distrustful of food products." 96% of respondents stated that they had little confidence in the current food safety measures.

Public concern should be the driving force of the government. 73% of respondents stated that the current food safety problems were largely caused by ineffective supervision and lax enforcement. 86% of respondents believe that local governments can strike back against these violations and criminal behavior with food and drug safety, but that they lack the strength. The main problems with the pharmaceutical industry are the inflated cost of drugs, the abundance of counterfeit drugs and the inconsistent efficiency of drug prescriptions and treatments.

3) 90% believe that the public's legal awareness is increasing
Over the past year, civil protests over the construction of potentially hazardous and environmentally detrimental factories broke out in Shifang, Ningbo and Qidong. Some say that this is a result of the public's increased awareness of its legal rights, while others say that this is simply the "NIMBY" effect at work (not in my backyard). In the survey, 23% of respondents agreed with the statement "If it had been me there, I'd have done the same", while 49% of respondents believe that a public hearing should have been convened to discuss the plans before construction began. 25% of respondents believed that a social risk assessment should have been conducted and that the public should have been informed of the results.

It seems that a social atmosphere of studying, respecting and abiding by the law is gradually forming in China. Consequently, whether or not the leading cadres can turn China into a country ruled according to law is something that a lot of netizens are concerned about. 61% of respondents believe that the greatest impediment to the rule of law is judicial corruption and all of the dealings between those with power and those with money. 35% of respondents believe that officials try to place themselves above the law, which is entirely possible due to lack of effective supervisory mechanisms. A comment left by one user reads: To achieve social justice and maintain the country's development, China needs "rule of law".

4) 85% believe performance evaluations should focus on “people’s livelihood”
"Administrative Reform", a new option on this year's survey, was chosen by 38,255 respondents as one of China's most pressing issues. This points to all sorts of things like promoting the separation of government administration from enterprise management, transforming government functions, creating a "super-ministry system" and innovating administration styles. All of these administration reforms are viewed as inevitable requirements of fitting the superstructure to the economic base.

According to the survey, 64% of respondents believe that an over-abundance of departments, exceeding the personnel quota and overstaffing are the greatest problems in the current administrative management system. These problems are most apparent in the current administrative examination and approval procedures. 23% of respondents complained that while navigating through all of the bureaucratic red tape, procedures are too complicated, information is not clearly disclosed and even handling simple matters often takes several visits. 29% of respondents think that an excessive number of departments are involved in procedures, while each department's responsibilities are unclear and no one really knows which government agency is supposed to handle what.

Respondents want these problems to be solved as soon as possible, and offered up a number of recommendations. 33% of respondents believe government agencies should be consolidated to eliminate overlapping responsibilities. 22% of respondents suggested simplifying the examination and approval procedures, publishing relevant information and establishing a one-stop approval center.

Another important element of administrative reform is the promotion of government performance evaluation. However, 54% of respondents complained that the performance evaluation for cadres lacks public and media participation and supervision, while 23% of respondents believe that the government lacks effective accountability mechanisms. Meanwhile, 85% of respondents believe that "the improvement of the people's livelihood" should become a top priority in Government Performance evaluation.

Source: cnr.cn
 

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