New laws to strengthen legal system

More legislative items, especially those in key areas, emerging fields and foreign-related fields, have been unveiled this year as legislators made greater efforts to optimize the country's legal system, an official from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, said on Thursday.

Wang Xiang, spokesman for the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission, said five new pieces of laws, including the Energy Law and the Preschool Education Law, have been formulated since the beginning of the year, bringing the total number of laws in effect to 305.

Meanwhile, 14 other laws were also improved through revisions this year, with the adoption of four legislative decisions, according to him.

"Specifically, we amended laws regarding national defense education, state secrets and emergency response to better safeguard the national security and strengthen the governance capability," he said. "We also advanced the legal construction involving foreign matters by modifying a law against money laundering and formulating a tariff law."

In addition, he noted that several legislative pieces, including those on financial stability, administrative penalties, maritime and arbitration, are still being reviewed among Chinese lawmakers to serve the country's high-quality development.

As unveiled by Wang, a draft private sector promotion law will be reviewed at an upcoming session of the NPC Standing Committee, which is scheduled to be held in Beijing from Saturday to Wednesday.

"The private sector is not only a crucial part of the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics but also a major force of Chinese modernization and an important foundation of high-quality development," he said.

"Formulating a law in this sector will be conducive to maintaining fair competition, encouraging technological innovation and improving the financing environment."

Referring to a draft revision to the anti-unfair competition law, which is also ready to be discussed at the session, he said that the modification would focus more on curbing unfair competition in cyberspace and intensifying combat against commercial bribery.

A few other legislative items, such as a draft revision to the law on people's congress deputies, a draft value-added tax law and a draft amendment to the supervision law, will also be submitted to the upcoming session for review, he added.

According to a proposed agenda, a number of reports, including those regarding financial audit work, disaster and emergency response funds and farmland protection, are also expected to be submitted to the session for reading.