On Wednesday, May 14, China’s national legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), released its legislative work plan for 2025 (Plan). The Plan was preliminarily approved by the Council of Chairpersons in December 2024 and finalized on April 18. It sets forth priorities for all aspects of the NPCSC’s legislative work in 2025, which include a list of legislative projects slated for review or research this year. Other aspects of the NPCSC’s legislative work include conducting constitutional review of draft laws, improving legislative procedure, raising public awareness of the NPC’s legislative activities, and offering guidance to local people’s congresses. As usual, we will focus on the list of legislative projects in this post.
Legislative agenda overview. The Plan schedules 37 projects for review in 2025: 14 that were already pending before the Plan was approved and 23 that would be reviewed for the first time. The main themes of this year’s legislation include business and financial regulation, grassroots governance, ideology and ethnic policy, social welfare, public health and safety, environmental and resource protection, and national security.
Completed projects. Because the Plan was initially approved in late 2024, it includes three bills that have since been enacted:
- amendment to the Law on the Delegates to the National People’s Congress and Local People’s Congresses [全国人民代表大会和地方各级人民代表大会代表法] (adopted on Mar. 11);
- Private Economy Promotion Law [民营经济促进法] (adopted on Apr. 30); and
- revision to the Law on Preventing and Controlling Infectious Diseases [传染病防治法] (adopted on Apr. 30).
The following four bills went through an initial review in accordance with the Plan:
- draft revision to the Civil Aviation Law [民用航空法] (Feb.);
- draft Ecological and Environmental Code [生态环境法典] (Apr.);
- draft Law on National Development Plans [国家发展规划法] (Apr.); and
- draft revision to the Prisons Law [监狱法] (Apr.).
In addition, the draft Atomic Energy Law [原子能法] and draft revision to the Arbitration Law [仲裁法] went through a second review in April as planned.
Returning bills. The other 9 bills that had been submitted prior to the Plan’s adoption will return for further review according to the following schedule:
| NPCSC Session | Bills |
|---|---|
| June |
|
| August | draft Financial Stability Law [金融稳定法] |
| October | draft Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law [危险化学品安全法] |
New bills. The NPCSC also plans to review the following 20 bills this year (without setting any specific timetable):
| Amendments or revisions |
|
| New laws |
|
Potential unenumerated projects. Like its previous iterations, the Plan leaves open the possibility that the NPCSC would need to consider other legislative projects in 2025 to accommodate new legislative needs, including to “promote comprehensively deepening reform, develop national defense and the armed forces, safeguard national security, and improve the foreign-related legal system.”
Backup projects. The Plan concludes the NPCSC’s 2025 legislative agenda with a list of 23 “backup projects.” These are laws that most likely will be enacted eventually but are lower priority for now, so they are unlikely to come before the NPCSC in 2025. Of course, legislative priorities may shift in the course of a year, and some backup projects may be later prioritized. (Bill pages are not always available for backup projects.)
In addition to the titled projects below, the Plan also directs research into “legislative projects on issues such as the fiscal and tax system, the regulation of unlawful online conduct, and the healthy development of artificial intelligence.”
| Amendments or revisions |
|
| New laws |
|
Legislation clean-up. Among other tasks under the umbrella of “legislative work,” the NPCSC will “study and launch efforts to carry out a comprehensive clean-up of laws” in 2025, aimed at “resolving problems of incompatibility and inconsistency with the system of laws in a focused, proactive, and systematic manner.” In other words, it will thoroughly examine existing legislation to identify laws and provisions that are grossly outdated or inconsistent with each other. According to the Plan, the NPCSC Legislative Affairs Commission will establish (or, as is more likely, has established) a dedicated task force to “conduct preliminary research on the scope, criteria, and relevant theoretical issues” of the clean-up. The NPCSC will likely pass a batch of repeals and amendments to resolve the issues identified by this clean-up sometime next year.