Month: September 2024

NPC Calendar: October 2024

Here is our recap of NPC-related events in October 2024 at our monthly newsletter.

The June 28, 2024 decision of the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) authorizing the State Council to temporarily modify two provisions of the Food Safety Law [食品安全法] in the Hainan Free Trade Port (discussed here) takes effect on October 1.

The NPCSC is seeking public comment on the following bills through October 12:

The 14th NPCSC will convene for its 12th session in late October. The Council of Chairpersons is expected to meet in mid-October to decide on the agenda and dates of the session.

The session will review the draft amendment to the Law on Oversight by the Standing Committees of People’s Congresses [各级人民代表大会常务委员会监督法] according to the NPCSC’s 2024 legislative work plan, and is expected to review the following bills:

The session may also review one or more of the other bills scheduled for an initial review in 2024, in particular these two newly submitted bills: draft revision to the Anti–Unfair Competition Law [反不正当竞争法]; and draft revision to the Science and Technology Popularization Law [科学技术普及法].

Finally, the session may further review one or more of the following bills:

The NPCSC’s October 23, 2021 decision (zh | en) authorizing the State Council to suspend two provisions of the Metrology Law [计量法] in six municipalities will expire on October 23. The NPCSC may extend or codify (in whole or in part) the authorization at the upcoming session.

Commentary & Translation: China’s Plan to Raise Statutory Retirement Ages

Editor’s Note: In April 2025, we published in the Made in China Journal a longer commentary on the Decision that digs deeper into the history of retirement-age legislation and demographic changes in China, the national legislature’s post–Cultural Revolution lawmaking reforms, as well as its procedural failings in adopting the Decision.

Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash

On Friday, September 13, China’s national legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) approved the Decision on Gradually Raising the Statutory Retirement Ages (Decision) [关于实施渐进式延迟法定退休年龄的决定]. Upon taking effect next year, the Decision will finally implement a reform that has been on the Chinese government’s agenda since at least 2013.

The Decision has three visually distinct components. It begins with a short main text with five articles covering only the essentials of the reform. What follows is a set of measures, attributed to the State Council, that describe the specific steps to implement the reform. The Decision ends with four charts (technically, annexes to the State Council’s measures) that allow citizens to easily look up their new retirement ages and see how much longer they may need to contribute to the pension fund to qualify for pension payments. As a legislative official made clear, all three are integral parts of the Decision and thus have statutory force.

News outlets worldwide have extensively covered the demographic challenges driving the reform, the initial public reaction to the plan, and its details. We won’t belabor the same points here. Nor will we delve into the Decision’s substance, a task we leave to subject matter experts.

Instead, we will provide a translation of the Decision (sans the charts) and discuss three issues related to the Decision: the NPCSC’s involvement in this major policy decision; the swift and secretive way in which the Decision was adopted; and the Decision’s unusual makeup—i.e., its inclusion of the State Council’s measures.

Continue reading “Commentary & Translation: China’s Plan to Raise Statutory Retirement Ages” →

NPCSC Seeks Public Comment on 6 Bills: Anti-Corruption, Public Health Response, Energy, Anti–Money Laundering & National Parks

China’s national legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), is soliciting public comment on the following six bills through October 12, 2024:

Draft NameChinese TextExplanatory Document
Law on Preventing and Controlling Infectious Diseases (2nd Draft Revision)
传染病防治法修订草案二次审议稿		PDFPDF
Energy Law (2nd Draft)
能源法草案二次审议稿		PDFPDF
Anti–Money Laundering Law (2nd Draft Revision)
反洗钱法修订草案二次审议稿		PDF
(English · Δ)		PDF
Public Health Emergency Response Law (Draft)
突发公共卫生事件应对法草案		PDFPDF
National Parks Law (Draft)
国家公园法草案		PDFPDF
Supervision Law (Draft Amendment)
监察法修正草案		PDF Δ
(English Δ)		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 only if you use a desktop browser—this does not work on a phone or a tablet.

To submit comment online, please refer to this guide. Comments can also be mailed to the NPCSC Legislative Affairs Commission [全国人大常委会法制工作委员会] at the following address:

北京市西城区前门西大街1号 邮编: 100805
1 West Qianmen Avenue, Xicheng District, Beijing 100805

Please clearly write “<Draft Name in Chinese>征求意见” on the envelope.