Full Text: Work report of NPC Standing Committee (2)

2. We made progress in our legislative work, with the focus on raising the quality of legislation.

Over the past year, the Standing Committee deliberated 15 bills and draft decisions on legal issues, of which ten of them were passed; and revised 21 laws and enacted two.

First, we finished a number of key legislative projects to meet the needs of economic and social development. In order to ensure sustained, sound development of tourism, the Standing Committee enacted the Tourism Law, the main purpose of which is to protect the legitimate rights and interests of tourists; maintain order and standardize business activities in the tourism market; improve mechanisms for solving tourism disputes; and clarify the government's role in planning, promoting and overseeing the development of tourism. In light of the wide use of special equipment such as boilers, pressure vessels, elevators and escalators, and large recreational equipment in China, the Standing Committee enacted the Special Equipment Safety Law to stress the whole process of oversight and supervision of such equipment from manufacturing and installation to operation and use, maintenance, and inspection and testing, and then put in place systems for special equipment's identity management, quality accountability, and product's recalling and scrapping. This significantly strengthens safety oversight and supervision of special equipment and better protects people's life and property in accordance with the law. The Standing Committee made significant revisions to the Law on the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests, which is closely related to people's lives. The revised law maintains market order and safeguards consumers' legitimate rights and interests by specifying them in greater detail, increasing the obligations and responsibilities of managers, standardizing online shopping and other new types of consumption, and giving consumers' associations a bigger role to play. The Standing Committee also revised the Trademark Law, streamlined trademark registration and examination procedures, made more items eligible for registration as trademarks, improved the protection system for famous trademarks, and tightened legal responsibilities for trademark infringement.

The Standing Committee deliberated draft revisions to the Environmental Protection Law twice. Its members stressed the need to be fully aware that protecting the environment is an urgent and complex task that requires long-term efforts. It is necessary to fully analyze the deep-rooted reasons for environmental problems, work to solve prominent environmental problems that the people are concerned about, such as air, water and soil pollution, and strive to fundamentally reverse environmental deterioration by improving laws and regulations, strengthening supervision over the process of environmental management, tightening oversight of the discharge of pollutants, and inflicting harsher punishments for illegal practices. The Standing Committee also deliberated the draft of the Asset Evaluation Law and the draft revisions to the Administrative Procedures Law, the Military Facilities Protection Law and the Law on Production Safety.

Second, we adopted timely decisions and resolutions to ensure law-based, orderly progress of major reforms. In carrying out arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee and implementing the Plan for the Reform of State Council Bodies and the Transformation of Their Functions approved at the First Session of the Twelfth NPC, the Standing Committee decided to revise a package of laws and adopted the decision to revise 12 laws including the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics and the decision to revise the Law on the Protection of the Marine Environment and six other laws. It also authorized the State Council to make provisional adjustments to items subject to its review and approval required by law, eliminate or delegate a number of items requiring its review and approval, create new patterns for opening to the outside world, and reform the industrial and commercial registration system in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. This helped further streamline administration and delegate more power to lower-level governments, invigorate economic and social development, ensure that the market plays a decisive role in allocating resources and make the government better play its role.

The Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee clearly stipulated that the system for reeducation through labor be abolished and progressive adjustments and improvements be made to birth policies. After the State Council put forward motions to that effect, the Standing Committee carried out careful deliberation and adopted the decision to repeal laws and regulations concerning reeducation through labor and unequivocally revoked previous resolutions of the NPC Standing Committee on this punishment as well as two documents of the State Council concerning it - the Decision of the State Council on Reeducation through Labor and the Supplementary Regulations of the State Council on Reeducation through Labor. It also adopted the decision to adjust and improve birth policies and introduced the policy allowing couples to have a second child if one parent is an only child.

Third, we adopted decisions on anniversaries of some historical events and promoted patriotism. In order to ensure that the Chinese people bear history firmly in their mind, not forget the past, treasure peace, and break new ground, the Standing Committee deliberated and adopted the decision on making September 3rd Victory Day in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the decision on making December 13th National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims. The legal framework created by the NPC Standing Committee to establish these two anniversaries played a significant role in pooling the will and strength of the people of all of our ethnic groups, realizing the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and promoting the lofty cause of human peace and development.

Fourth, we worked vigorously to make legislation more scientific and democratic and raise its quality. At present, what the general public expects of our legislative work is that laws work well and are capable of solving practical problems. The Standing Committee gave higher priority to raising the quality of legislation, improved the mechanisms and methods of legislative work, and constantly made legislation more scientific and democratic.

1) We made laws more enforceable and practicable. Because some laws are too general and need too many supporting regulations and rules, the Standing Committee emphasized that laws must be scientific and well-conceived and as specific and explicit as possible in order to ensure that all enacted and revised laws are well grounded, enforceable, and practicable. When enacting the Special Equipment Safety Law, the Standing Committee carefully reviewed practical experience in overseeing and supervising special equipment safety and greatly amplified the second draft of the law submitted for deliberation and made it more detailed, increasing its draft clauses from 72 to 101.

2) We explored ways to assess laws before their promulgation. Before the draft of the Tourism Law was submitted for deliberation and vote, we invited some NPC deputies, tourists, travel agencies and experts to a conference at which comprehensive assessments were made of the feasibility of the draft and the timing of the law's promulgation, as well as its social effect after implementation to provide reference materials for making legislative decisions. Later on, such assessments were made of three other draft laws. Experience has proven that this is beneficial to integrating forward and reverse thinking and giving consideration not only to the opinions of experts and people affected by the laws but also to the comments of law enforcement departments, thus making our legislative work more scientific and comprehensive.

3) We improved the mechanism for promulgating draft laws for public suggestions. By promulgating first drafts, we made it clear we will also make full texts of second drafts known to the public to further solicit comments and suggestions of everyone. At the same time, we improved the mechanism for giving feedback to people and actively responded to their concerns. In the process of enacting the Tourism Law and revising the Trademark Law and the Law on the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests, we provided explicit legal provisions on issues of greatest concern to the public, such as deceptive zero-fee tours, forced shopping and other irregularities in the tourism market, the overly long trademark review period, and the problem of getting unconditional refunds when cancelling a purchase made online.

Over the past year, the Standing Committee ratified four treaties or agreements with foreign countries or international conventions that China concluded, and made decisions on and approved the appointment or removal of a number of employees in state bodies.