BEIJING - China will start a new round of governance reforms in democratic decision-making, as the Communist Party of China (CPC) goes to work on a roadmap for the next five years, according to a major political theorist.

The work will take place at the 17th CPC Central Committee's fifth plenary session, which opened in Beijing on Friday for the purpose of discussing the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).

Yu Keping, deputy director of the CPC Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, says that governance reform means exercising democracy in elections, decision-making, management and supervision. It also means guaranteeing the people's rights to be informed, to participate, to be heard and to oversee.