On March 8, the Second Session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) held its second plenary session. Mr. Zhao Leji, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, made a report on the work of the NPC Standing Committee on behalf of the Standing Committee of the NPC. The report noted legislative arrangements of China in 2024, mainly including:

Conscientiously work to implement the five-year legislative plan of the Standing Committee. Compile a draft environmental code to submit for deliberation. To strengthen the institutions through which the people run the country, the NPC Standing Committee will revise the Law on Deputies to the NPC and Local People’s Congresses at All Levels, the Law on the Oversight by the Standing Committees of People’s Congresses at All Levels, the Supervision Law, and the Organic Law of Urban Residents’ Committees.

In order to accelerate the creation of a new pattern of development and deepen reform across the board, the NPC Standing Committee will formulate a financial stability law, a law on rural collective economic organizations, a value-added tax law, and a private sector promotion law; and the NPC Standing Committee will revise the Mineral Resources Law, the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law, the Unfair Competition Law, the Accounting Law, the Public Bidding Law, the Statistics Law, and the Civil Aviation Law.

In regard to advancing the strategy for invigorating China through science and education and the workforce development strategy and to building a strong culture, the NPC Standing Committee plan to enact a preschool education law and an academic degrees law and revise the Science and Technology Popularization Law, the Cultural Heritage Protection Law, and the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language.

With a focus on ensuring and improving public wellbeing and ensuring social stability and harmony, the NPC Standing Committee will formulate a civil compulsory enforcement law, a law on publicity of and education on the rule of law, a public health emergency response law, and a social assistance law; and the NPC Standing Committee will also revise the Arbitration Law, the Prison Law, the Public Security Administrative Penalties Law, and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases.

To modernize China’s system and capacity for national security, the NPC Standing Committee will enact an emergency management law, an energy law, an atomic energy law, and a hazardous chemicals safety law, while also revising the National Defense Education Law and the Cybersecurity Law.

The NPC Standing Committee will formulate a tariff law and revise the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law and the Anti-Money Laundering Law in an effort to strengthen legislation in areas involving foreign affairs and develop a system of laws for extraterritorial application.

(Source: Official Website of the NPC of the People’s Republic of China)