On Friday, March 15, 2019, the National People’s Congress adopted the Foreign Investment Law [外商投资法] by a 2929–8 vote, with 8 abstentions and 3 delegates not voting. Upon taking effect on January 1, 2020, the Law will replace China’s currently fragmented foreign investment regime: three separate foreign investment laws enacted in the early years of China’s economic reform. Our English translation of the new Law is available here.
Continue reading “Summary of China’s New Foreign Investment Law”2019 NPC Session: Agenda and Daily Schedule
On Monday, the 2019 NPC session released its agenda, daily schedule of meetings, and a tentative schedule of press conferences (Excel). The Session will open on the morning of Tuesday, March 5 and close on the morning of Friday, March 15, lasting a total of 10½ days. All times below are in Beijing Time (UTC +8:00).
Continue reading “2019 NPC Session: Agenda and Daily Schedule”NPC Calendar: March 2019
The 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) will convene for its second annual session on Tuesday, March 5. The Session’s agenda has not yet been finalized, but we expect it to include the following:
- Hear and deliberate the Government Work Report;
- Hear and deliberate work reports by the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), the Supreme People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate;
- Review and approve the report on the execution of the 2018 National Economic and Social Development Plan and on the draft 2019 National Economic and Social Development Plan;
- Approve the 2019 National Economic and Social Development Plan;
- Review and approve the report on the execution of the 2018 Central and Local Budgets and on the draft 2019 Central and Local Budgets;
- Approve the 2019 Central Budget;
- Deliberate the draft Foreign Investment Law [外商投资法].
We also expect the Session to retroactively approve the resignation of Zhang Rongshun [张荣顺] as an NPCSC member in June 2018. He has since been appointed a deputy director of the Central Government’s Liaison Office in Macau. Under Chinese law, an NPCSC member must resign if he is to serve in an administrative agency.
On March 4, the Session will convene for a preparatory meeting to select members of the Presidium (which will preside over the Session) and to finalize the Session’s agenda. The Presidium will then immediately meet to decide on (among other matters) the Session’s daily schedule. Shortly thereafter the Session is expected to hold its first press conference.
We expect the NPC’s 2019 annual session to close around March 15. On that last day, we expect it to approve the Foreign Investment Law.
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Second Draft of Foreign Investment Law: A Summary of Main Changes (UPDATED)
UPDATE (Feb. 18, 2019): The NPCSC apparently did quietly release the full text of the second draft of the Foreign Investment Law on January 29. (So quietly that we could not find the webpage unless we use the website’s search function.) We thank the reader who sent us the link.
We shall start by saying that, no, the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) has not released the official second draft of the Foreign Investment Law [外商投资法] that it reviewed in late January. We instead found an unofficial version of the second draft on WeChat—specifically this post by a public account focusing on fiscal and tax issues.[*] After checking this document against state media reports on the second draft, we have every reason to believe that it is authentic.
An English translation of the second draft of the Foreign Investment Law (along with the Chinese original) is now available on China Law Translate.
Continue reading “Second Draft of Foreign Investment Law: A Summary of Main Changes (UPDATED)”NPC Calendar: February 2019
The 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) will convene for a regularly scheduled session late this month. The Council of Chairmen is expected to meet soon after the Lunar New Year holiday (February 4–10) to decide on the dates and agenda of the session.
The NPCSC will mainly prepare for the 2019 NPC session (including by discussing a draft of its annual work report) at its upcoming meeting, but may still review one or two legislative bills. Possible candidates include:
- draft revision to the Securities Law [证券法];
- draft revisions to the Judges Law [法官法] and the Procurators Law [检察官法];
- draft Basic Healthcare and Health Promotion Law [基本医疗卫生与健康促进法]; or
- one or two parts of the draft Civil Code [民法典].
The NPCSC is soliciting public comments on the draft Foreign Investment Law [外商投资法] through February 24, 2019. It is also seeking comments on the following draft laws through February 3, 2019:
- draft revision to the Procurators Law [检察官法];
- draft revision to the Judges Law [法官法];
- draft Contracts Part of the Civil Code [民法典合同编];
- draft Tort Liability Part of the Civil Code [民法典侵权责任编];
- draft Vaccine Administration Law [疫苗管理法];
- draft Resource Tax Law [资源税法];
- draft amendment to the Patent Law [专利法];
- draft amendment to the Land Management Law [土地管理法] and the Urban Real Estate Administration Law [城市房地产管理法].
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NPCSC Adds Special Session for Second Review of Foreign Investment Law (UPDATED)
UPDATE (Jan. 29, 2019): On the morning of January 29, the NPCSC decided to submit the draft Foreign Investment Law to the 2019 NPC session for deliberation (and most certainly adoption). It is unclear at this point whether it will release the second draft of the Law for public comments, but as we argued below, the chance is slim. We very briefly noted the main new provisions in the newest draft on Twitter:
The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) conducted an initial review of the draft Foreign Investment Law [外商投资法] last December but took no further action. Readers may recall that we then explained what we saw as the (only) two potential legislative timetables for the Law: It will be adopted by the NPC either this March (after another NPCSC review in late February) or in March 2020 (after a few more readings in 2019). The longer process would not help show China’s willingness to comply with certain demands the United States made during trade negotiations, while the shorter one faces procedural hurdles under Chinese law.
Faced with two imperfect choices, the NPCSC has decided to take an unexpected third approach. It will convene for a special session from January 29 to 30 to conduct a second review of the draft Foreign Investment Law, the Council of Chairmen announced on Wednesday. At the end of the two-day session, the NPCSC will most certainly submit the Law to the NPC, which will then most certainly approve it at its annual session in March.
Continue reading “NPCSC Adds Special Session for Second Review of Foreign Investment Law (UPDATED)”NPCSC Seeks Public Comments on Draft Patent Law Amendment, Two Civil Code Parts, Vaccine Administration Law & Four Other Bills (UPDATED)
UPDATE (Jan. 27, 2019): For a summary of and comments on the key provisions of the draft Judges Law revision, please refer to this post on the Supreme People’s Court Monitor.
The NPC Standing Committee is soliciting public comments on the following eight bills through February 3, 2019:
- second draft revision to the Procurators Law 检察官法修订草案二次审议稿
- second draft revision to the Judges Law 法官法修订草案二次审议稿
- second draft of the Contracts Part of the Civil Code 民法典合同编草案二次审议稿
- second draft of the Tort Liability Part of the Civil Code 民法典侵权责任编草案二次审议稿
- draft Vaccine Administration Law 疫苗管理法草案
- draft Resource Tax Law 资源税法草案
- draft amendment to the Patent Law 专利法修正案草案
- draft amendment to the Land Management Law and the Urban Real Estate Administration Law 土地管理法、城市房地产管理法修正案草案
All linked files are PDF documents in Chinese. English translations will be linked to if and when available. The accompanying explanations of these drafts can be read here (PDF).
Continue reading “NPCSC Seeks Public Comments on Draft Patent Law Amendment, Two Civil Code Parts, Vaccine Administration Law & Four Other Bills (UPDATED)”Year in Review: The NPC and the Observer in 2018
On the last day of 2018, we take a look at the National People’s Congress’s and this Observer’s work in the past year.
Continue reading “Year in Review: The NPC and the Observer in 2018”NPC Calendar: January 2019
The following laws and decisions take effect on January 1, 2019:
- Law on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution [土壤污染防治法];
- E-Commerce Law [电子商务法];
- amendment to the Individual Income Tax Law [个人所得税法];
- amendment to the Rural Land Contracting Law [农村土地承包法];
- revised People’s Courts Organic Law [人民法院组织法];
- revised People’s Procuratorates Organic Law [人民检察院组织法];
- a decision (discussed here) that vests in the Supreme People’s Court second-instance appellate jurisdiction over all technical civil and administrative intellectual property cases (including patent cases);
- a decision (discussed here) that authorizes the State Council for the following four years to allow local governments to issue bonds within a certain percentage of their new debts limits each year before the NPC approves the State budget in March of that year.
The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) is soliciting public comments on the draft Foreign Investment Law [外商投资法] through February 24, 2019. We also expect it to seek public comments on the following draft bills in early January:
- draft revision to the Judges Law [法官法];
- draft revision to the Procurators Law [检察官法];
- draft Vaccine Administration Law [疫苗管理法];
- draft Resource Tax Law [资源税法];
- draft amendment to the Patent Law [专利法];
- draft amendments to the Land Management Law [土地管理法] and Urban Real Estate Administration Law [城市房地产管理法].
It may also release the Part on Contracts [合同编] and Part on Tort Liability [侵权责任编] of the draft Civil Code for public comments.
The NPCSC will meet for its next regularly scheduled session in late February 2019.
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NPCSC Takes No Further Action on Foreign Investment Law (for Now), Adopts Two Tax Laws & Codifies Civil Service Reform
The 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) concluded its seventh session on Saturday with the adoption of a series of laws and decisions. Below we will take a brief look at each.
Continue reading “NPCSC Takes No Further Action on Foreign Investment Law (for Now), Adopts Two Tax Laws & Codifies Civil Service Reform”