2017 NPC Session: Schoolchildren, Heroes, Good Samaritans & Draft Civil Law (UPDATED)

The annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) is currently underway. Apart from the routine budget, development plan, and four central State organs’ work reports, this year a major piece of legislation is also being reviewed by the NPC: General Provisions of Civil Law (GPCL). As the name suggests, it is a set of guiding principles for a future civil code—codified laws that modulate personal and property relationships between civil entities. After the delegates spent last Friday deliberating the bill, several important changes were made to the draft. This post reviews these changes as reported by the press, starting with some background information.

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2017 NPC Session: Schedule of Press Conferences (UPDATED)

The Press Center of the 5th Session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) has released a preliminary schedule of press conferences to be held during the Session, as (almost completely) translated below.

In the next ten days, other outlets’ reports, commentaries, or analyses relating to those press conferences will appear regularly on this Blog’s Twitter feed. We ask our readers to send us such links by leaving comments, messaging us, or tweeting to us.

The following schedule is subject to change. For the newest information, please follow us on Twitter (or check back here often if you aren’t on Twitter).

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2017 NPC Session: Press Conference Provides First Look at NPCSC’s Tasks in 2017

The 5th Session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) held its first press conference earlier on Saturday. The spokeswoman for the Session, Fu Ying, who is also Chairwoman of the NPC Foreign Affairs Committee, answered a total of 15 questions from both Chinese and foreign journalists. While her answers on China’s 2017 national defense budget made headlines elsewhere, here we’ll focus instead on what she revealed about the top legislature’s tasks planned for 2017.

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2017 NPC Session: Agenda and Daily Schedule

The 5th Session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) just released its agenda and daily schedule. According to the schedule, this Session will run from March 5 to 15. The agenda contains 11 items, ten of which the delegates will first hear at three different plenary meetings on March 5, 8, and 12. (The 11th one is a NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) member’s request to resign, which needs the NPC’s approval.) The NPC will vote on all items on the agenda on March 15.

Throughout the Session, links to other outlets’ reports, commentaries, or analyses relating to items on the agenda will appear regularly on this Blog’s official Twitter feed. We ask our readers to send us such links by leaving comments, messaging us, or tweeting to us.

For the latest updates, please follow us on Twitter (or check back here often if you aren’t on Twitter).

Below is a rundown on the three plenary meetings. All times are in China Standard Time (UTC +8:00).

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