WUHAN, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Zhou Hongyu, one of the nearly 3,000 Chinese national lawmakers, has submitted 31 proposals to the ongoing annual session of China's national legislature.

A professor at the Central China Normal University in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, Zhou, 63, had conducted in-depth researches for the proposals.

His proposals include formulating a national strategy on hydrogen energy development, a national strategy of integrated development of city clusters in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, promoting clean and low-carbon heating in southern cities, and fine-tuning the country's birth support policy.

Zhou has been serving as a national lawmaker since he was first elected a deputy to the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, in 2003.

Putting forward proposals is the basic and most important way for NPC deputies to perform their duty, Zhou said.

"As an NPC deputy, I take into account issues at the national level and put forward proposals for national development strategies and plans. Based on my research, the proposals are made to match local development needs, conforming to the country's macro strategies," Zhou added.

Each of his proposals consists of three parts -- subjects, grounds and schemes. The full text averaging 4,000 characters is illustrated with charts and data to highlight his arguments.

Zhou is a member of the China Association for Promoting Democracy (CAPD), one of China's eight non-communist parties. Founded in 1945, the party mainly consists of intellectuals working in the fields of culture, education, publishing and science.

As the chairman of the Hubei Provincial Committee of CAPD, Zhou has mobilized the party members from various sectors to assist with his research for the proposals, calling the results a "collective cooperation of professional teams."

Four years ago, Zhou put forward a proposal on formulating a law on the Yangtze River protection. On March 1 this year, the Yangtze River conservation law took effect. With 96 provisions in nine chapters, it is the country's first legislation on a specific river.

As a teacher, Zhou has paid constant attention to the education sector. During the drafting of his first NPC deputy proposal in 2003, he visited a number of rural primary and secondary schools in Hubei. Poor infrastructure conditions, such as broken school desks and chairs propped with bricks, had left him deeply touched.

"China had 795.63 million rural population, accounting for 62.3 percent of the country's total. How well the rural education problem is solved is directly related to the success or failure of China's education modernization campaign," Zhou said, shedding light on what he wrote in the proposal after the trip.

With four decades of teaching experience, Zhou has been an advocate of free nine-year compulsory education, free textbooks in compulsory education and free secondary vocational education during his NPC deputy terms.

He has also participated in the formulation of legislative bills such as Family Education Law and Preschool Education Law, and revised legislative bills such as Education Law and Compulsory Education Law.

Besides, Zhou has authored two books -- "How to Be an NPC Deputy" "How to Write an NPC Proposal" -- to share his experience of the role.

"After the term of office expires, regardless of whether I still have the opportunity to continue to serve as an NPC deputy, I would like to summarize my experience to enlighten my successors," Zhou said. Enditem