Category: NPCSC Work Plans

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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Chinese Legislature’s 2025 Oversight Agenda: “New Quality Productive Forces,” Government Debt, Climate Action, Food Safety, Gig Worker Rights & More

Caption and opening lines of the NPCSC’s 2025 oversight plan.

A few weeks ago, on May 14, 2025, China’s national legislature, the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), released its 2025 oversight plan. Today, after an eight-year hiatus, we are resuming coverage of this annual document on this site. We begin with some background before delving into the 2025 plan itself.

The full NPCSC conducts oversight primarily by reviewing reports, either submitted by the state organs subject to its oversight or produced by its subordinate bodies. Every year since 2010, it has also held two or three “special inquiries” [专题询问]—essentially Q&A sessions where lawmakers question officials on specific issues—to supplement its review of selected reports. These inquiries, as well as the follow-up oversight measures available to the NPCSC after it hears a report, are discussed here.

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China’s National Legislature Releases 2025 Legislative Plan

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.

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China’s National Legislature Releases 2024 Legislative Plan

On Wednesday, May 8, China’s national legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), released its legislative work plan for 2024 (Plan). The Plan was preliminarily approved by the Council of Chairpersons in December 2023 and finalized on April 16. It sets forth priorities for all aspects of the NPCSC’s legislative work in 2024, which include a list of legislative projects slated for review or research this year. Other aspects of the NPCSC’s legislative work include dealing with expiring reform authorizations; conducting constitutional review of draft laws; improving the quality of legislation and legislative procedure; and raising public awareness of the NPC’s legislative activities. As usual, we will focus on the list of legislative projects in this post, but will also note a few other notable tasks included in the Plan.

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Understanding Chinese Legislature’s New Five-Year Legislative Plan

On September 7, China’s national legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), released its five-year legislative plan (Plan or New Plan), setting the contours of its legislation through 2028. As a refresher, the Plan includes 79 top-priority projects in Category I, 51 lower-priority projects in Category II, and about a dozen topics for potential legislation in Category III. Starting with this post, we will take a close look at the Plan in a two-part analysis. Below, we will first discuss the principles of agenda-setting embodied in the Plan (and the relevant legislative tasks), then examine the fate of the uncompleted projects in the 13th NPCSC’s five-year legislative plan (Old Plan), and finally look at the areas of law that are featured prominently in the New Plan. The second part will take a primarily quantitative approach and evaluate the same metrics we used to analyze the Old Plan several years ago.

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Translation: Five-Year Legislative Plan of China’s National People’s Congress for 2023–2028

On Thursday, September 7, 2023, China’s national legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), released the five-year legislative plan for its current term ending in 2028. Since 1993, each NPCSC has adopted such a plan to outline and prioritize the legislative tasks during its five-year term. Those plans are important documents that require the approval of the Communist Party’s central leadership.

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China’s National Legislature Releases 2023 Legislative Plan

On Monday, May 29, China’s national legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), released its legislative work plan for 2023 (Plan). The Plan was preliminarily approved by the Council of Chairpersons in December 2022 and finalized on April 14. It sets forth priorities for all aspects of the NPCSC’s legislative work in 2023, which include a list of legislative projects scheduled for review or research this year. Other aspects of the NPCSC’s legislative work include upholding the Communist Party’s leadership of lawmaking, implementing the Constitution, dealing with expiring reform authorizations, and improving legislative procedure. We, as usual, will focus on the list of legislative projects in this post, but will also note a few other notable tasks included in the Plan.

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NPC Standing Committee Releases 2022 Legislative Plan

On Friday, May 6, the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) released its legislative plan for 2022 (Plan). The Plan was preliminarily approved in November 2021 and finalized by the Council of Chairpersons on April 11. It lists bills that are scheduled for review or research this year, and also sets forth priorities for all aspects of the NPCSC’s legislative work in 2022. As usual, we will focus on the legislative projects listed in the Plan below.

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NPC Standing Committee Releases 2021 Legislative Plan

Photo by Breakingpic from Pexels.

On Wednesday, April 21, the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) released its legislative plan for 2021 (Plan). The Plan was preliminarily approved in November 2020 and finalized by the Council of Chairpersons on April 16. The NPCSC’s annual legislative plans serve two primary purposes: listing bills that are scheduled for review or research each year, and laying down guiding principles for all facets of the NPCSC’s annual legislative work. As usual, we will focus on the NPCSC’s 2021 legislative agenda below.

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Analysis of 13th NPCSC Legislative Plan Pt. 2: Statistics

Two years ago this month, the 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) released its five-year legislative plan (Plan or 5YLP), a blueprint for its legislative agenda through 2023. This Plan, like its previous iterations, includes three categories of legislative projects. Category I projects are relatively ripe and should “in principle” be completed within the 13th NPCSC’s term (ending in March 2023), whereas Category II projects are less so and require additional work. Both Category I and Category II projects are numbered. By contrast, Category III includes a series of unnumbered topics for potential legislation, which was deemed not entirely feasible at the time.

Soon after this Plan was released, we published a mostly qualitative analysis, comparing it with previous Plans and distilling a few themes from it. In this long delayed second (and final) part of our analysis, we will take a primarily quantitative approach, examining the Plan and its five predecessors (the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th NPCSCs’ 5YLPs) from a few different angles.

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