Nay Pyi Taw- Speaker of Pyithu Hluttaw Thura U Shwe Mann held a meeting with Mr Li Yuanchao, a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat and also Minister of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee at Jiang Su Hall of the People’s Hall in Beijing at 10.30 am on 24 February.Also present together with Speaker of Pyithu Hluttaw Thura U Shwe Mann were members of the Myanmar delegation U Thein Zaw, U Hla Myint Oo, Thura U Aung Ko, U Maung Maung Swe, U Kyi Min, U Sein Tin Win, U Hsan Hsint, Dr Maung Maung Wint, Col Htay Naing, Ambassador of Myanmar to China U Tin Oo and officials of Pyithu Hluttaw while Mr Li Yuanchao was accompanied by Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Zhang Zhi Jun, Mr Deng Sheng Ming, General-Secretary of the Organization Department of CPC Central Committee Mr Deng Sheng Ming, Mr Cao Wei Zhou, Deputy Secretary-General of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), Mr Wu Yuliag, Director-General of the Office of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, Mr Hu Xiaoli, Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Standing Committee for the People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, Mr Luo Zhao Hui, Director-General of the Asia Affairs Department of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and senior officials.

During the meeting, Speaker of Pyithu Hluttaw Thura U Shwe Mann said Myanmar had envied at the development of China and he believed that the success of China would help Myanmar to achieve success. Political stability in China showed the importance of the leading of the China Communist party, he added.

He knew that Mr Li Yuanchao was playing an importance role in the CPC and he remembered the fact that Mr Li Yuanchao told him during his visit to Myanmar was that national democracy was flourishing in China, he said. What he understood is that democracy was practicing not only in the party but also in the country, he added.

We had envied at the China, the world’s most populous country with large land area and with 56 ethnic tribes, was standing with dignity in the world, he said. He hoped that Myanmar would practice the way of China, saying that the Myanmar delegation would get experiences that brought peace and stability and development to China, he said. He believed that efforts for strengthening Myanmar- China friendship and development of bilateral cooperation had benefited Myanmar, he said, and expressed his delight for China’s respect to Myanmar’s sovereignty.
He also thanked China for its stand for Myanmar when the later was facing obstacles and he expressed his hope that China would stand by Myanmar in the future. Similarly, China’s Communist Party would continue to play a leading role in promoting the cooperation between the two countries, he said.

The Speaker said that Myanmar had supported the efforts of China to achieve peaceful development. Myanmar was carrying out democratic reforms and was on road to market oriented economic system, he said. In this regard, the role parliament was playing an important role in the reform process, he added, and requested Mr Li Yuanchao to share China’s experiences with the parliament.
Afterwards, Mr Li Yuanchao expressed his delight to meet Speaker of Pyithu Hluttaw Thura U Shwe Mann whom he met during his visit to Myanmar.

He said that it was necessary to see the practices and essence of the democracy and according to their experiences, the democratic system which was practiced systematically was a good system, he said. It was the China Communist Party that lead the China’s people’s democratic system, he said.

There were other political parties in China, but they established the democratic system led by the CPC. They coordinated each other whenever political situations which need to discuss happened, he said. Their system was in conformity with their country and therefore politicians of some countries did not like the political system of China, he added. Ruling parties in those countries had changed frequently, he said.

The CPC had ruled the China for over 60 years, practicing the centralized democracy system as the country had practiced the national democratic system. Responsible personnel reported expectations of the people to the higher levels of the party, after discussion and making decisions over the issues, the bodies in the lower level had to implement the decisions. Democracy was needed, and without democracy, the political system did not reflect the views of the people.
China’s centralized system included not only study but also coordination. The parties in the CPPCC had coordinated each other and the work reflects the democratic system.

Mr Li Yuanchao said that there are many differences among nations so that there will be external interference if the country adopts democratic system of other countries. He revealed his wish that Myanmar chose the right political system fit with its own situation. He pointed out that market economy of China is socialist economy which was chosen by experiences and profits China a lot.
He continued to say that market economy was born of England but the world largest market economy now is US. He said China faced many challenges in copying it for development of market. These include the gap between the poor and the rich, inflation and so on, he said. To contain market economy, the government could control the economy by macro control, he went on. The involvement of the government is stronger in this case and key enterprises are operated by State-owned companies, he said.

He said electricity companies in China are owned by the government so that the electricity could be generated and distributed regularly. Increase in use of coal could impact on climate change of China, he said. Similarly, food companies are also owned by the government and they mainly maintain food price stability, he said. He went on that 54 State-run companies are listed in 500 world biggest companies.

There is difference between party and parliamentary democracy, he pointed out. China adopted centralized democratic system, he said. There are over 80 million members of Chinese Communist Party who have established amicable relationship with Chinese people, he went on. Representatives were elected step by step from the lowest level to the central level, he said. He went on committees of each level have been defined to obey higher ones in centralized system since the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party. The party committees have to obey the central committee, he said.

Democratic systems of the party and of the National People’s Congress are perfectly symmetric, he said.

The final resolution of the central committee could portray the will of people and could be adopted at lower levels, he said. Jiangsu Province, for example, is a province which enjoys fruits of reforms and has strong economy, he went on. If China did not establish economic zones, the economic status of the country would be at half of the current status, he said. Economic zones are higher-rate taxpayers and Jiangsu province generates income 10 times larger than provinces with no economic priority policy, he said.

To bring about equitable development to every corner of the country, the Chinese government decided to hand over 60 per cent of tax collected in Jiangsu province to the central committee. The province abided by decision of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, he said. China adopts socialist democracy led by the Chinese Communist Party with the participation of the people which is the right track suited with the country, he said.

The Pyithu Hluttaw Speaker in his address thanked Mr Li Yuanchao for elaborating on it and said he considered that democratic system and market economy adopted by China are based on experiences from the history.

He promised that Myanmar will continue to implement the system commensurate with its own situation. He went on that the people chose to build the discipline-flourishing democracy and there are now 17 parties in the Hluttaw in Myanmar. Qinhua University is as famous as Beijing University, he said. He requested to admit more students from Myanmar to the university. He said the meeting today is fruitful.