On this day, 27 years ago, November 14, 1998 (September 26, 1998, the lunar calendar), rural areas of China entered the era of direct elections. Shortly after U.S. President Clinton visited rural areas of Shaanxi, China and communicated with China farmers on the rural election situation, on June 29, major newspapers and periodicals across the country published the "Organic Law of the People's Republic of China Villagers Committees (Revised Draft)" in full in important places. In fact, before the draft law was promulgated, most rural areas in China had already been directly elected. On July 6, 1997, CNN broadcast a 17-minute report on China to the world, detailing the entire process of the village committee election that CNN reporters went to Sha County and Guanzhuang villages in Fujian to film."China has such a democracy that many Westerners simply cannot imagine." On November 14, 1998, the fifth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress formally passed the Organic Law of Villagers Committees, which marked that China's rural areas have entered the era of direct elections. Shortly after the law was promulgated, Guangzhou City announced that all more than 1,200 village councils will be directly elected next year.