Dr. Chen Hongtian, CPPCC National Committee member and chairman of the Cheung Kei Group, attends the second session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee

2019.03.04

On March 3, 2019, Dr. Chen Hongtian, a CPPCC National Committee member, a Justice of the Peace appointed by the Hong Kong SAR, and Chairman of the Cheung Kei Group attended the second session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) convened in Beijing. Dr. Chen Hongtian has attended the CPPCC sessions for twelve consecutive years, and he brought along two proposals to Beijing during this year's NPC &CPPCC Annual Sessions.

The second session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee convened in Beijing

As a member selected to be on the CPPCC National Committee for three consecutive years, Dr. Chen Hongtian has been participating actively in the political process over the years. He has fulfilled his obligations and responsibilities, contributing extensively to the policymaking process regarding the economy, the society, the livelihood of citizens and so on. He has advocated for the provision of civic education and patriotism education nationwide on three occasions, and the various recommendations that he has proposed, such as the real-name registration train ticket booking policy, strengthened regulation on internet finance services, and the optimization of approval processes in the administration for financial services was adopted.

During this year's NPC & CPPCC Annual Sessions, Dr. Chen Hongtian's focus was on issues regarding the education system and the legal system. In particular, he paid keen attention to hot topics such as "restoring the roles and duties of teachers" and "improvements to the property preservation system", and has put forward two policy recommendations titled: "Proposal on the Recommendations for Restoring the Roles and Duties of Teachers" and "Proposal on the Recommendations to Improving the Property Preservation System and Restricting the Provision of Guarantees for Property Preservation Using Independent Letters of Guarantees".

As his business has developed and flourished, Dr. Chen Hongtian has responded enthusiastically to the Party and the government's call for prioritizing the wholesome growth of youths. And in the name of compassion and benevolence, he has donated funds to causes and projects in the educational field. At the same time, in his role as a member of the CPPCC, Dr. Chen has also provided recommendations targeted at educational issues. In "Proposal on the Recommendations for Restoring the Roles and Duties of Teachers", he has highlighted the current phenomenon of role reversal between teachers and parents, in which teachers' roles and duties are severely misaligned. The trend of "homework being done by parents", "homework being graded by parents" persists despite being prohibited, resulting in the mounting tensions between parents and schools, and affecting the child's eventual learning outcomes. Therefore, it is imperative to clarify the role of teachers and parents play respectively in a child's education, and to ensure that the fundamental roles and duties that a teacher ought to perform are restored.

Dr.Chen Hongtian recommended for the education authorities to take effective measures and policies on reiterating the roles and duties of teachers, ensuring that they perform what is required of them in their job. Adequate controls must also be in place to prevent teachers from engaging in for-profit extracurricular classes or other micro-enterprises related to their students. The professional ethics for educators must be strengthened through ethics training programs, and regular assessments must be conducted. In addition, the shortage of teachers in certain regions must be addressed by improving the compensation and benefits for teachers, and supported by increasing the education budget and boosting publicity efforts.

In the "Proposal on the Recommendations to Improving the Property Preservation System and Restricting the Provision of Guarantees for Property Preservation Using Independent Letters of Guarantees", Dr. Chen Hongtian touched on cases in judicial practice, particularly on disputes between corporate legal persons, whereby the parties have abused the system of property preservation measures to cause severe impact on other parties. He believes that in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties equally through the law, the existing property preservation, guarantee system and the penalization system for the wrongful application for the use property preservation measures should be improved. By preventing the abuse of the legal system, it would in turn ensure that businesses are able to operate and develop in a system governed by the rule oflaw.

Dr. Chen Hongtian recommended that the policies and judicial interpretation of the property preservation measure must be comprehensively amended and improved. Any clauses that are detrimental to the fair and just protection of either party shall be abolished or amended in atimely manner. Focus should be placed on improving the approval and review process for the application of property preservations, and to be stringent in the permitting of the use of independent letters of guarantees when providing guarantees on one's property, to prevent the severe operational impacts on any parties arising from property protection being granted before any disputes areclarified.

Duringthe NPC & CPPCC Annual Sessions last year, Dr. Chen Hongtian had submitted recommendations such as a "Proposal on Strengthening and Improving the Management of the Early Childhood Care and Education Sector", a "Proposal on Improving the Compensation, Benefits, and Social Status of Doctors", a "Proposal on Formulating A Law to Promote and Encourage Quality", and a "Proposal on Combating Child Trafficking Crimes". Dr. Chen's policy recommendations have been well received by civil society, by the media and by the government authorities at various levels. He indicated that as a member of the CPPCC, he will continue to value the opportunities he has to share his views during the NPC & CPPCC Annual Sessions, to seize these chances to contribute to the policymaking process, to make the most of his role as a CPPCC member, so as to address and resolve the societal issues that the people are concerned about.