Complaint letters and petition visits by wronged or maltreated citizens, a major headache for many local officials, might be a unique channel for China's State leaders to learn the country's reality and push ahead government and judicial reforms.

"Handling the people's complaint letters and petition visits is an important part of the supervisory work of the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee," Wu Bangguo, China's top legislator, told fellow lawmakers in the NPC, currently in a 10-day annual full session, Wednesday afternoon.

The NPC and its Standing Committee, which shoulder the responsibility of overseeing the governments and judiciaries, shall carefully study "sensitive issues and common problems" exposed in the people's complaints and petitions, and make sure they are "probed into timely and handled justly", said Wu.

It was a centuries-old tradition of the Chinese to seek justice from higher authorities and even the top leaders, be it emperors or presidents, when they were maltreated by officials or wronged in courts. After the Communist Party of China (CPC) came to power in 1949, a nationwide system of "Xin Fang" -- which literally means "letters and visits" -- was established to guarantee this right to them.

However, in recent years an increasing number of petitioners have by-passed the local "Xin Fang" offices to send their complaints and pleas directly to Beijing, a move some local officials described as a "social destabilizing factor".

While the NPC is convening the 10-day annual full session in Beijing this month, witnesses say that local government representatives can be seen staying outside the State Bureau for Letters and Calls (SBLC), or the main petition office of the central government, in downtown Beijing every day, persuading almost every incoming petitioner to leave.

"In 2003 the overall amount of complaint letters and petition visits maintained a rising momentum," Zhou Zhanshun, director of the SBLC, told Xinhua.

Zhou conceded that more than 80 percent of the complaints and pleas were "reasonable and well-founded", while at least 80 percent of the petitioners had chosen to come to Beijing because the local governments and "Xin Fang" offices had failed to help them.

A survey showed that among the people's complaints and pleas, some 40 percent were about the police, courts and prosecutors' offices at all levels, 33 percent about governments, 13 percent about corruption and 11 percent about injustice.

"Frequently disappointed at the indifference and poor efficiency of local administrations and judiciaries, people naturally expect the top legislature and departments of the central authorities to deal with their problems sooner and better, " says a Beijing political analyst.

And it worked in the case of Liu Ping, a farmer-turned- contractor from east China's Shandong Province. After winning a lawsuit against a local court in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province over payment defaults, Liu was never able to get the 80, 000-yuan (US$9,670) compensation granted by the court ruling in more than three years.

Liu was forced to quit her profession and became a "full-time petitioner". Fortunately, in June 2003 she had her case accepted by officials of the NPC, who co-worked with judges from the Supreme People's Court to help her retrieve the money in three months.

According to Wu's report, the "Xin Fang" office affiliated to the NPC Standing Committee handled more than 57,000 letters of complaints and received 31,000-strong petitioners in 2003.

While reporting to the on-going NPC session, Premier Wen Jiabao, Chief Justice Xiao Yang and Procuratorate-General Jia Chunwang all acknowledged that there remained many problems and shortcomings in the work of the governments and judicial organs, and pledged greater emphasis on "properly handling letters and complaints from the people".

Observers say that China's new generation of top leaders, who have repeatedly stressed the need to always "put people first" in their first year in office, are clearly aware that people's complaints and criticism are something to be valued, not to be suppressed.

In 2003, at least two ordinary Chinese earned overnight fame for their blunt complaint about social injustice and unyielding exposure of corruption.

Xiong Deming, a pig farmer in Yunyang County of southwest China 's Chongqing Municipality, was picked as one of China's top 10 business figures in 2003 for her face-to-face complaint to Premier Wen about wage arrears owed to her husband, which prompted the central authorities to launch a nationwide campaign to help millions of rural workers retrieve their defaulted payment.

Guo Guangyong, a low-ranking official in north China's Hebei Province who was ruthlessly persecuted for eight years for reporting the corrupt provincial Party chief Cheng Weigao to higher authorities, was completely vindicated and hailed as an " anti-graft hero" by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party's discipline watchdog, in 2003. His memoirs "The war between a citizen and a provincial Party boss", published in January this year, became an instant best seller.

Highly-placed sources say that the downfall of many corrupt senior officials in recent years could be attributed to letters of exposure from the general public. As a result, while the CPC promulgated its Regulations on Internal Supervision, the first of its kind in the Party's 54 years in power, on a trial basis in February this year, all Party members were encouraged to report their corrupt colleagues, peers and superiors alike, to higher authorities via signed letters, with the secrecy of their identities and their personal safety fully guaranteed.

"The soaring number of complaint letters and petition visits reflects the people's heightened awareness to safeguard their individual rights and interests, a natural outcome of the economic growth," said Chen Derong, mayor of Jiaxing City, east China's Zhejiang Province, and also an NPC deputy. "However, the reform and transformation of the functions of our governments have lagged behind this new development."

In his government work report to the NPC session on March 5, Premier Wen pledged more efforts for the government's "self- improvement", which involves a further transformation of government functions, scientific and democratic policy-making, administration according to law, acceptance of public supervision, and a better civil service contingent.

Xiao Yang, president of the Supreme People's Court, also said in his report to the NPC session Wednesday afternoon that courts across the country in 2004 would pay special attention to cases involving disputes caused by the demolition of urban residential housing and expropriation of rural farmland, impairment of workers ' interests in the retooling of enterprises, defaulted payment of wages, and pollution of the environment.

The courts will also raise efficiency, improve judicial justice and work hard to prevent any lawsuit-related complaints and petitions, Xiao pledged.