Professor Rocco Lacorte. (COURTESY PHOTO)

By LONG Yun

Italian scholar Rocco Lacorte described his impression of China as "Democratic, promising and socialist." He currently serves as an associate professor at Nankai University (NKU).

Based on his observation，Lacorte considered China's whole-process people's democracy covers all sectors of society through electoral democracy, consultative democracy, and community-level democracy. He said that this whole-process people's democracy embodies the Communist Party of China's innovation in advancing China's democratic theories, systems and practices and guarantees the "principal position of the people."

According to Lacorte, the NPC is different from the legislative systems in many Western countries. It is designed to provide "an institutional guarantee" for the people to wield power that they have gained after the revolution and developed through the years, creating a stable and vital balance system of political decision-making. As the Two Sessions approach, Lacorte expects that the focus will be on addressing key issues related to social and economic development, as well as environmental problems. He said that  China is already ahead of the West in terms of green policies.

On China's policies in promoting international cooperation, Lacorte applauded China's contribution to common development via global initiatives such as Belt and Road Initiative. "It is essential to recognize that true development and security cannot be achieved by a single country alone, but require joint efforts of many countries," he said, adding that, "Development and security are only true if they are true for all."