China's top legislator Wu Bangguo delivered a report on the work of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) Saturday to the First Session of the 11th NPC.
Following are the highlights of his report at the 2nd plenary meeting of the parliamentary session:
LEGISLATION
There are 229 laws currently in force in China, and approximately 600 administrative laws and regulations and over 7,000 local ordinances currently in force. In the past five years, the NPC and its Standing Committee passed 100 pieces of legislation, including:
-- the amended Constitution that enshrines the Important Thought of Three Represents, clarifying the country's respect for and protection of human rights and its protection of the rights of citizens to hold property and receive an inheritance; the Anti-Secession Law; Interpretations and decisions on articles in the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which helped promoting the healthy development of democracy in Hong Kong; and the Law on Oversight.
-- the Law on Property Rights; the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law; the Antitrust Law; and the decision to eliminate the Regulations on the Agricultural Tax, ending 2,000-year history of farmers paying taxes in China.
SUPERVISION
-- As a result of NPC law enforcement inspections, as of the end of 2006 all wages due to rural migrant workers in cities in arrears since 2003 or before, totaling 33.7 billion yuan, had been paid. All the back pays will be cleared up in the first half of 2008.
-- As of the end of 2007, 11,200 small illegal coal mines had been closed. The number of major, large-scale gas explosions was down 46.3 percent and the number of fatalities down 65.4 percent in 2007 compared with the figures for 2005. The crackdown has been a result of request to the State Council by the legislature.
FOREIGN CONTACTS
The NPC has established mechanisms for regular exchange with the congresses and parliaments of 14 countries and the European Parliament. It has established or maintains contact with the congresses and parliaments of 178 countries. It has set up bilateral friendship groups with the congresses and parliaments of 98 countries, and has become a member country of 12 international and regional parliamentary organizations and an observing member of 3 multilateral parliamentary organizations.
PARTY LEADERSHIP
The NPC must conscientiously uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China to ensure that the proposals of the Party become the will of the state through legally stipulated procedures and that the personnel recommended by Party organizations become the leaders of the organs of state power through legally stipulated procedures.
NEW LAWS IN PIPELINE
The NPC must urge relevant authorities to formulate or revise supporting regulations for laws to ensure completion of the formation of the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics by 2010.
-- New laws in the making include the Law on State-owned Assets, the Social Security Law, the Food Safety Law, the Circular Economy Law and the Law on Arbitration of Disputes Concerning Contracted Rural Land. The Electoral Law, the Organic Law of the NPC, and the Law on State Compensation will be revised.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
The NPC must further expand the orderly participation of ordinary citizens in legislative work. For laws such as the Food Safety Law that are closely tied to the interests of the people, the draft laws should be publicly posted so that the opinions of all sides can be heard, particularly those of ordinary people.
(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2008)