Chinese State Councilor Zhou Yongkang Saturday asked all regions and relevant departments to improve their handling of petitions, saying it is important for the "building of a harmonious society".

Zhou, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the call at the opening ceremony of a special workshop on the revised regulations on petitions.

Zhou called for paying attention to work in the following fields in improving the handling of petitions in line with the basic principles of the regulations, due to officially go into effect on May 1 of this year:

• Establishing a new pattern in handling petitions based on keeping an easy and smooth channel of filing and receiving petitions and maintaining good order in this process;
• Innovating the mechanism of handling petitions and defining the duties more clearly;
• Concretely protecting the legal rights and interests of the masses;
• Combining the legal approaches with ideological education;
• Reducing the causes of petitions.

Zhou instructed all regions and relevant departments to work concretely to ensure the smooth implementation of the regulations.

Chinese State Councilor Hua Jianmin presided over the opening ceremony. Participants in the workshop include relevant officials from various regions and departments.

Speeches calling on "building a harmonious society" made by state leaders have repeatedly made top newspaper and TV news in China these days.

Addressing the opening ceremony of a weeklong training course attended by major provincial- and ministerial-level leaders on Feb.19 in Beijing, Chinese President Hu Jintao instructed the country's leading officials and Party cadres to place "building a harmonious society" top on their work agenda.

Hu defined the harmonious society as one that features democracy, the rule of law, equity, justice, sincerity, amity, vitality, stability and order and harmonious co-existence between man and nature.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2005)