NPCSC Session Watch: Finance Law, Central Bank Reform, Procurement & Trademarks

UPDATE (June 23, 2026): According to the official readout of the session’s opening meeting, the State Council also submitted a draft amendment to the Lawyers Law [律师法]. The amendment appears primarily intended to codify a pilot program authorized by the NPCSC that allows eligible lawyers licensed in Hong Kong or Macao to practice mainland law within the Greater Bay Area (subject to various limitations). The pilot is due to expire on October 5; on Tuesday, the NPCSC also heard the State Council’s report on the pilot.

According to a brief summary published by Xinhua, the amendment would additionally address issues including “Party building within the legal profession, the full coverage of legal defense by lawyers in criminal cases, the encouragement of lawyers’ participation in public-interest legal services, and the regulation of lawyers’ professional conduct.” Yet, because this bill is styled as an “amendment” [修正], it is unlikely to be the comprehensive “revision” [修订] contemplated by the State Council’s 2026 legislative plan. Although the NPCSC could approve the bill on Friday, June 26, we believe a second and final review in late August (before the pilot expires) is more likely. The scope of the amendment will become clear once a draft is released for public comment later this week.

The readout also confirms that the NPCSC will approve the draft revision to the Trademarks Law [商标法] and the draft amendment to the Certified Public Accountants Law [注册会计师法] on Friday.

China’s top legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), will convene for its 23rd session from June 23 to 26, the Council of Chairpersons decided on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. According to the agenda proposed by the Council, the session will consider ten legislative bills and four oversight reports, among other business. As usual, we preview the session’s legislative agenda below.

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NPC Calendar: June 2026

The 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) will convene for its 23rd session in late June. The Council of Chairpersons is expected to meet in mid-June to decide on the agenda and dates of the session.

The session is expected to review the draft Financial Stability Law [金融稳定法] and the recently submitted revision to the Bid Invitation and Bidding Law [招标投标法]. It may also take up the draft revision to the Law on the People’s Bank of China [中国人民银行法] approved by the State Council on May 21.

In addition, one or more of the following pending bills are likely to return for further review:

Finally, the session may also consider one or more bills that the NPCSC has tentatively scheduled for an initial review in 2026.

China’s National Legislature Releases 2026 Legislative Plan

Photo by Markus Mainka (stock.adobe.com)

On Monday, May 11, China’s national legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), released its legislative work plan for 2026 (Plan). The Plan was preliminarily approved by the Council of Chairpersons in December 2025 and finalized on April 20. It sets forth priorities for all aspects of the NPCSC’s legislative work in 2026, including the legislative projects slated for review or research this year. Other priorities concern conducting constitutional review of draft laws, improving legislative procedure, and publicizing its legislative activities, among others. As usual, we will focus on the list of legislative projects in this post.

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NPC Calendar: May 2026

The following laws take effect on May 1:

The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) is seeking public comment on the following bills through May 29:

The NPCSC is expected to release its 2026 work priorities as well as 2026 plans for legislative, oversight, and delegates-related work sometime this month.

It will convene for its next regularly scheduled session in late June.

Chinese Legislature Seeks Public Comment on 6 Bills: Defense Mobilization, State-Owned Enterprise Assets, Healthcare, Water Resources & Agriculture

China’s national legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), is soliciting public comment on the following six bills through May 29, 2026.

Draft NameChinese TextExplanatory Document
Healthcare Security Law (2nd Draft)
医疗保障法草案二次审议稿		PDFPDF
Cultivated Land Protection and Quality Improvement Law (2nd Draft)
耕地保护和质量提升法草案二次审议稿		PDFPDF
Law on the State-Owned Assets of Enterprises (Draft Revision)
企业国有资产法修订草案		PDF 🆚PDF
Agriculture Law (Draft Revision)
农业法修订草案		PDF 🆚PDF
National Defense Mobilization Law (Draft Revision)
国防动员法修订草案		PDFPDF
Water Law (Draft Revision)
水法修订草案		PDF 🆚PDF

English translations will be provided if available. All explanatory documents are in Chinese and compiled in a single PDF; the links above will take you to the corresponding pages in the PDF.

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NPCSC Session Watch: Prison Administration, Social Welfare, Defense Mobilization, State-Owned Enterprise Assets, Water Resources & Agriculture

The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. Photo by sinitar (stock.adobe.com).

China’s top legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), will convene for its 22nd session from April 27 to 30, the Council of Chairpersons decided on Monday, April 20. According to the Council’s proposed agenda, the session will consider eight legislative bills, which we preview below. The Council also approved the NPCSC’s 2026 work priorities as well as 2026 plans for legislative, oversight, delegates-related, and foreign-affairs work. We expect all but the foreign-affairs work plan to be released after the upcoming session, likely in early May.

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NPC Calendar: April 2026

The 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) will convene for its 22nd session in late April. The Council of Chairpersons is expected to meet in mid-April to decide on the agenda and the dates of the session.

The Council is also expected to approve the NPCSC’s 2026 work priorities as well as plans for legislative, oversight, and delegates-related work. These documents will be released after the upcoming NPCSC session (likely in early May).

The session is expected to review the recently submitted draft revision to the Bid Invitation and Bidding Law [招标投标法] and draft revision to the Water Law [水法].

The session is also likely to review one or more of the following bills:

China Elevates Environmental Law to an Official Branch of Law

Photo by Pcess609 (stock.adobe.com)

On March 12, 2026, shortly after China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) adopted the Ecological and Environmental Code (Code) [生态环境法典], the legislature separately announced that it had also upgraded “ecological and environmental law” [生态环境法] to an official “branch of [Chinese] law” [法律部门], joining the existing seven, including civil and commercial law and criminal law.

The 9th NPC (1998–2003) was the first to divide Chinese law into official branches. In fall 1997, the Communist Party announced at its 15th Congress the goal of establishing “a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics” [中国特色社会主义法律体系] by 2010. This task primarily fell to the national legislature, which decided that, to achieve that goal, it must (among other criteria) enact enough legislation to cover all branches of law, which in turn raised the question of how those branches should be defined.

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NPC 2026: Chinese Legislature Revokes Landmark 1985 Delegation of Economic Lawmaking Power to the State Council

Image by Nuthawut (stock.adobe.com)

As we previewed, on March 12, 2026, China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), approved a decision declaring that 35 instruments it adopted between 1982 and 2018 had lapsed, while confirming the continued validity of past actions taken under them.

The oldest among them, adopted together with China’s current Constitution on December 4, 1982, provided that certain provisions of the 1978 Constitution would continue to apply until the next NPC elected a new president, vice president, and NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), which took place in June 1983. The newest instrument, adopted on March 17, 2018, prescribed voting rules for the 2018 state leadership transition at the first session of the 13th NPC.

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NPC 2026: Documents and Votes

The fourth session of China’s 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) concluded on Thursday, March 12. Below we have compiled a list of all official documents from this session (except for several legislative reports the NPC has so far neglected to release). We have also included the submitted (i.e., draft) versions of key documents for your reference. Documents are available in Chinese only unless otherwise noted. The vote results for each bill and resolution are listed below in brackets, in the order of for–against–abstention, followed by the number of delegates not voting (NV), if any.

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