How do the Chinese people communicate their desires to the policymakers?

There is a lot for a government to take care of in a country of over a billion people. The central government cannot know about all of the things people need unless someone communicates those needs to government officials. In America, people communicate their desires by writing to legislators, or submitting editorials to the media, or voting for people who represent their views. Few of these options are available to the Chinese. With that being the case, I would like to examine what local Chinese people want their government to take care of. Also I hope to discover if the Chinese people believe that policymakers care about their concerns and, if so, how they communicate those concerns and desires to the policymakers. This may mean that there will be study of the media involved, as it may be one of the ways people communicate with their government leaders.

Before I travel to China, I will attempt to discover as much as possible about local party structure. This will allow me to understand what levels of government are or ought to be concerned with which activities. In China, I will ask twenty people these brief questions:

The people I ask will include ten college students (5 male, 5 female), four professors (2 male, 2 female), and six other citizens of the neighborhood immediately surrounding BPU. This will help me compare what different groups think are important in the same neighborhood. I will be able to establish a list of the concerns of a broad selection of people and see if and how each voices those concerns to the people or institutions who need to know. I will then try to gain access to two journalists, to see if they think the media does an adequate job communicating the desires of the people to policymakers (or if they think this is even their job at all). As I am unlikely to gain access to any government officials, I will try to surmise if policymakers are in touch with or care about the concerns of the people by examining which of the concerns voiced by the people are being dealt with by the government at any level.

Key Words: China, government, policy, media.

There is a lot for a government to take care of in a country of over a billion people. The central government cannot know about all of the things people need unless someone communicates those needs to government officials. In America, people communicate their desires by writing to legislators or submitting editorials to the media or voting for people who represent their views. Few of these options are available to the Chinese. With that in mind, this researcher will set out to discover what concerns Chinese people have in their neighborhoods. Also, the researcher will investigate if the people expect their government to take heed of these concerns and finally how they communicate those concerns to policymakers.