UPDATE (Apr. 26, 2024): On April 26, 2024, the NPCSC approved the Academic Degrees Law (effective Jan. 1, 2025) and the Tariff Law (effective Dec. 1, 2024). It also adopted the amendments to the Agricultural Technology Popularization Law, Minors Protection Law, and Biosecurity Law. For reasons unknown, the State Council’s request for an authorization to pilot reforms of the Food Safety Law in the Hainan Free Trade Port was not put to a vote.
China’s top legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), will convene for its ninth session from April 23 to 26, the Council of Chairpersons decided on Tuesday, April 16. The Council proposed an agenda with ten legislative bills, which we preview below. It also approved the NPCSC’s 2024 work priorities as well as 2024 plans for legislative, oversight, and delegates-related work, which we expect will be released after the upcoming session.
Returning Bills
The draft Academic Degrees Law [学位法] and draft Tariff Law [关税法] both return for their second review. Without ruling out the possibility of a third and final review later this year, we believe both are likely to pass at the upcoming session.
New Bills
Eight new bills have been submitted for review.
(1) The Council of Chairpersons submitted a draft revision to the National Defense Education Law [国防教育法]. The Law was initially enacted in 2001 and, save for a technical amendment in 2018, has not been updated since. Rather than fund education to meet China’s national defense needs, this Law is about ideology. Article 3 makes it clear: the goal of national defense education, it provides, is to “help citizens enhance their awareness of national defense, master the basic knowledge of national defense, learn the necessary military skills, develop patriotic enthusiasm, and conscientiously perform their national defense obligations.” In 2022, the Communist Party’s Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission jointly issued a policy document on “strengthening and improving” national defense education, which is expected to guide the Law’s forthcoming update. We expect the revision to pass after two or three reviews.
The State Council submitted the remaining seven bills.
(2) Draft amendment to the Accounting Law [会计法]. This Law was first enacted in 1985 and has not been substantially updated since 1999. In late 2019, the Ministry of Finance sought public comment on a prior draft of the bill (then styled as a comprehensive revision). Key proposed changes included refining rules concerning the head accountants of covered organizations; strengthening the regulation of bookkeeping agencies; increasing fines across the board; introducing civil liability for violations of the Law; and exempting individual employees from liability under certain conditions. We expect the amendment to pass after two or three reviews depending on its scope.
(3) Draft amendment to the Statistics Law [统计法]. Enacted in 1983 and last revised in 2009, this Law regulates the government’s statistical activities. The National Bureau of Statistics sought public comment on a prior draft in fall 2019. Domestic media coverage of the draft focused on proposed provisions that would stiffen penalties for providing false, inaccurate, or incomplete data or otherwise failing to comply with the government’s statistical investigations. The draft would also improve the sharing of statistical information among government agencies and require more rigorous review of proposed statistical investigation projects. We expect the amendment to pass after two or three reviews depending on its scope.
(4) Draft Energy Law [能源法]. This Law is designed as a “fundamental and comprehensive statute” for the whole energy sector, according to the accompanying explanation of a draft released by the National Energy Administration for public comment in early 2020. That draft includes over 100 articles in eleven chapters, including ones on energy strategy and planning; energy development and processing; energy supply and consumption; energy markets; and energy security. We expect the bill to pass after three reviews.
(5) Draft Atomic Energy Law [原子能法]. As the Ministry of Justice explained in seeking public comment on an early draft of the Law (principally drafted by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) in fall 2018, China’s existing nuclear legislation generally ranks low in the legislative hierarchy, has yet to form a complete system, and contains many gaps. The Law is therefore envisioned as a fundamental statute governing the field of atomic energy. That 2018 draft includes separate chapters on scientific research and technological development; nuclear materials and the nuclear fuel cycle; use of nuclear power; safety oversight and regulation; as well as nuclear import and export, and international cooperation. We expect the bill to pass after three reviews.
(6) Draft revision to the Anti–Money Laundering Law [反洗钱法]. This Law has not undergone any update since it was enacted in 2006. The People’s Bank of China, which sought public comment on a draft of the revision in 2021, identified a number of issues with the current legislation: the scope of predicate offenses of money laundering is too narrow; the regulatory and penalty provisions are not detailed enough; those who do business with regulated institutions are not themselves subject to any anti–money laundering (AML) obligations; the AML regimes for specified non-financial industries need improvement; and the Law has not adopted the concept of “beneficial ownership.” The 2021 draft would introduce a raft of changes to address those problems. We expect the revision to pass after three reviews.
(7) Draft amendments to the Agricultural Technology Popularization Law [农业技术推广法] and two other laws. As so-called “packaged amendments” [打包修改], this bill is expected to make only minor or technical changes to the three laws, though it is so far unclear what those changes would be and what the other two laws are. We expect the bill to pass at the upcoming session.
UPDATE (Apr. 19, 2024): According to a legislative spokesman, the other two laws are the Minors Protection Law [未成年人保护法] and Biosecurity Law [生物安全法], and the bill will introduce technical amendments to implement the 2023 State Council Institutional Reform Plan.
(8) Draft decision authorizing the State Council to “temporarily adjust the application of” unspecified provisions of the Food Safety Law [食品安全法] in the Hainan Free Trade Port (which covers the entire Hainan Island). Since late 2012, the NPCSC has issued various authorizations to the State Council to temporarily suspend or modify specified statutory provisions in selected locales, commonly in free trade zones, before amending the relevant laws to implement the reforms nationwide. We expect the NPCSC to grant the requested authorization next week, when we will find out what provisions of the Food Safety Law are at issue.
Comments & Pingbacks
Comments are closed.