China to promote online petitions handling

China plans to promote the reform of its petition system to deal with more cases online, according to a national conference attended by chiefs of local petition-handling administrations.

The National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration called for the use of a national online petition submission system to make reporting complaints more convenient.

The administration also required an online response and offline communication for each online complaint or proposal, adding that it would strengthen supervision over the work of regional petition-handling authorities.

Petitioning, also known as "letters and calls", is China's administrative system for hearing public complaints and proposals in areas including land acquisition, education and environmental protection, among others.