Grassroots People’s Congress Elections in China, 2011–12

Abstract: Observations reveal that People's Congress elections at the county/district and town/township levels in China in 2003, 2006–07 and 2011–12 were not entirely free and just. There are many loopholes, and they had been fully exploited by the Chinese authorities to control the elections. The problem does not lie in the specific provisions of the Election Law; the fundamental question is that the Chinese leadership has no intention to conduct free and just elections at the grassroots level. Its most important consideration is to control, or to maintain political stability, and this consideration became even stronger in 2011–12 because of the domestic political difficulties.