The Standing Committee, a permanent organ of the NPC, has been assigned important responsibilities by the Constitution and laws. Intensifying the Standing Committee's self-improvement efforts is extremely important to getting the NPC and its Standing Committee to play their role as the highest organ of state power, a working body fulfilling its responsibilities in accordance with the law and a representative body in close contact with the people.
The Standing Committee fully took into consideration the realities of the work of the NPC during the past five years while keeping self-improvement high on the agenda. First, we carefully studied and gained a thorough understanding of the guiding principles set out at the Sixteenth and Seventeenth National Party Congresses, firmly established the concept of giving high priority to the Party, politics, the overall situation, the people, and the law and always applied the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics to guide and promote our work. In addition, we became more conscientious and resolute in upholding and improving the system of people's congresses and in following and developing the socialist path with Chinese characteristics. Second, we formulated 13 support documents touching on six different areas related to the implementation of Document No. 9 of the CPC Central Committee on the basis of a review of past experience, promoting the institutionalization and standardization of the work of the Standing Committee. Third, we attached great importance to survey and research efforts, paid close attention to actual conditions on the ground, to lower-level organizations and to the masses and attached great importance to ensuring clean and efficient government, thus improving the work style of the Standing Committee. Fourth, we worked hard to strengthen our ability to carry out our duties in accordance with the law and improve our actual performance in doing so. We staged 30 special topic lectures to enhance our knowledge of the law and modern science and humanities in line with the legislative and oversight work of the Standing Committee, markedly improving the deliberations and work performance of the Standing Committee. Fifth, we conscientiously accepted the oversight by NPC deputies and the masses, improved the system for releasing information and the work of reporting on sessions, did a good job operating the NPC website, the People's Congresses Journal and the television program "The NPC on the Law" and started live broadcasting of meetings of the Standing Committee on the Internet, substantially increasing the transparency of the work of the Standing Committee. The special committees closely tied all their efforts to the core tasks of the NPC and its Standing Committee, took full advantage of their personnel, improved their work system, standardized their style of work and strengthened their coordination, playing an important role in raising the quality and level of the performance of the NPC and its Standing Committee.
The organs of the NPC carried out an extensive education campaign to preserve the advanced nature of Party members in accordance with the requirement for their employees to be politically reliable, professionally competent, pragmatic and highly productive, observe proper conduct in their work style, have team spirit, cooperate well with others, and be clean and honest. They diligently adhered to the Civil Servant Law and stepped up efforts to improve themselves politically, organizationally, institutionally, ideologically and professionally and to improve their work style. As a result, these organs strengthened their role as collective adviser, assistant and service provider for deputies.
The achievements of the Standing Committee of the Tenth NPC were made under the correct leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary and are the result of the hard work of the deputies, the members of the Standing Committee and the special committees and the employees of the organs of the NPC. Credit is also due to the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate for their assistance and to the local people's congresses and their standing committees and the masses for their support. On behalf of the Standing Committee of the Tenth NPC, I would now like to express my sincerest thanks to the NPC deputies, the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the deputies of the local people's congresses!
At the same time, we are fully aware that although a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has basically taken shape, there is still a pressing need for laws covering certain practical aspects of life that have yet to be formulated, that provisions of some current laws that do not meet the needs of economic and social development sorely need to be revised and improved, and that some regulations to support laws need to be formulated or improved as soon as possible. Moreover, studies on the feasibility of some legislative items have not been thorough enough, balance and coordination in legislative work need to be improved and more needs to be done to educate the public about the law. Although the effectiveness of oversight has been markedly improved, there is still not enough attention being paid to key areas and some special work reports are nothing more than "going through the motions." Though the handling of deputy proposals and suggestions has improved somewhat, it still falls short of the expectations and demands of deputies. We must pay close attention to these problems and adopt effective measures in our work to address them.