Local People's Congresses In China's Parliamentary Diplomacy In The Positioning And Role

With the advent of globalization era, the parliamentary diplomacy, as a diplomatic form, has gradually rise and begun to attract attention. In China, the external exchanges undertaken by National People's Congress (NPC) have been given a high degree of attention in recent years. At the same time, those conducted by local people's congress, which is the local state power organ as well as legislature, have become increasingly active. With certain diversity and local characteristics, they become an indispensable part of China's parliamentary diplomacy and a supplement of the foreign exchanges by NPC.This paper comprehensively analyzes the main body, form, content, feature and other aspects of the parliamentary diplomacy conducted by local people's congress. By focusing on the research of external exchanges carried out by Shanghai Municipal People's Congress (SMPC) and its Standing Committee, which has been at the forefront and accumulated valuable experience, the paper expounds the position and role of the parliamentary diplomacy by local people's congress in China with actual cases. It enriches the understanding of China's contemporary parliamentary diplomacy, explores the effective way of foreign exchanges by people's congresses under new situation, and makes the proposals with reference value, so as to achieve the purpose of guiding practice.The first chapter of this paper is the foreword. It contains the main reasons for choosing the topic, current researches and research approaches, etc.The second chapter is an overview of the parliamentary diplomacy. It defines the concept of parliamentary diplomacy, reviews its formation as well as development, discusses its position in the overall diplomacy of a country, and traces the history of parliamentary diplomacy in China in the comparison with that in foreign countries.The third chapter is the position and the role of the local people's congress in China's parliamentary diplomacy. By hierarchical analysis, it gives a brief account of the parliamentary diplomacy at local level. Then, it analyzes the main body and form of the external exchanges at the level of local people's congress, which are the important component of the foreign exchanges by people's congresses and of local foreign affairs. Meanwhile, the chapter discusses its importance to China's overall diplomacy, the foreign exchanges by NPC as well as the local economic and social development itself.The fourth chapter focuses on the external exchanges carried out by SMPC, which exert the demonstrative effect among China's parliamentary diplomacy. The analysis is performed from the aspects of both position and role, and then it introduces two specific cases, namely the external exchanges by SMPC during 2010 Expo and with Busan City Council in South Korea, for the purpose of raising the overall capacity and level of local parliamentary diplomacy.The fifth chapter is the conclusion. It looks forward to the future development of local parliamentary diplomacy, through the analysis of the limitations exposed by recent practice. Then it suggests establishing the regular exchange mechanism, giving full play to the role of deputies, and strengthening the external publicity. At the same time, the chapter reiterates that China should attach great importance to the parliamentary diplomacy at local level.