Provincial People's Congresses

Abstract

This is a report of a short trip made in November 1997 to investigate the workings of the Provincial People's Congresses (sheng renda: PPCs) in Shandong and Heilongjiang as part of a more general enquiry into the democratic possibilities of the mainland's renda (NPC) system in the light of democratization in Taiwan. The visit was somewhat zouma kanhua, but since the Heilongjiang PPC at least had never before had an English-speaking visitor, some of the observations are possibly worth wider currency.