Tag: Bid Invitation and Bidding Law

NPCSC Session Watch: Finance Law, Central Bank Reform, Procurement & Trademarks

UPDATE (June 23, 2026): According to the official readout of the session’s opening meeting, the State Council also submitted a draft amendment to the Lawyers Law [律师法]. The amendment appears primarily intended to codify a pilot program authorized by the NPCSC that allows eligible lawyers licensed in Hong Kong or Macao to practice mainland law within the Greater Bay Area (subject to various limitations). The pilot is due to expire on October 5; on Tuesday, the NPCSC also heard the State Council’s report on the pilot.

According to a brief summary published by Xinhua, the amendment would additionally address issues including “Party building within the legal profession, the full coverage of legal defense by lawyers in criminal cases, the encouragement of lawyers’ participation in public-interest legal services, and the regulation of lawyers’ professional conduct.” Yet, because this bill is styled as an “amendment” [修正], it is unlikely to be the comprehensive “revision” [修订] contemplated by the State Council’s 2026 legislative plan. Although the NPCSC could approve the bill on Friday, June 26, we believe a second and final review in late August (before the pilot expires) is more likely. The scope of the amendment will become clear once a draft is released for public comment later this week.

The readout also confirms that the NPCSC will approve the draft revision to the Trademark Law [商标法] and the draft amendment to the Certified Public Accountants Law [注册会计师法] on Friday.

UPDATE (June 26, 2026): The NPCSC approved the revision to the Trademark Law and the amendment to the Certified Public Accountants Law; both will take effect on January 1, 2027. The NPCSC also adopted the decision authorizing Hong Kong to exercise jurisdiction over the Hong Kong side of the redeveloped Huanggang Port.

Former head office of the People’s Bank of China in Beijing. Photo by Eagle (stock.adobe.com).

China’s top legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), will convene for its 23rd session from June 23 to 26, the Council of Chairpersons decided on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. According to the agenda proposed by the Council, the session will consider ten legislative bills and four oversight reports, among other business. As usual, we preview the session’s legislative agenda below.

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NPCSC to End 2017 with Blockbuster December Session (UPDATED)

UPDATE (Dec. 23, 2017): The NPCSC has released the finalized agenda and daily schedule of the ongoing session. This agenda, unlike the agendas of past December sessions since the early 1990s, does not include a draft decision to convene the NPC session of the following year (which would be the 1st Session of the 13th NPC). This is highly unusual. But the significance (if any) of the absence of that decision is not clear at this point. Elsewhere, in a report on the draft Supervision Law (as reported by state media), the NPC Law Committee seemed to be deliberately avoiding referring explicitly to the 1st Session of the 13th NPC: It recommended that the NPCSC submit the draft Supervision Law to “a session of the NPC” [全国人民代表大会会议] for deliberation, short of identifying the specific NPC session (unlike what it had done before). Through this update we merely wish to point out these irregularities. It is still premature to speculate whether the 2018 NPC session will convene as usual on March 5 because the Council of Chairmen could always add a convening decision to the agenda (though it doesn’t explain why it hasn’t done so already). In any event, we will find out on December 27 when the ongoing NPCSC session closes.

As predicted, the Council of Chairmen met on Thursday (December 14) to set the dates and propose an agenda for the second last session of the 12th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC). According Xinhua’s report of the Council’s meeting, an astonishing 12 legislative bills (among others) were submitted to the upcoming six-day NPCSC session (December 22–27) for deliberation, the most ever since the start of the 12th NPC. Most of these bills are worth paying close attention to because of their subject matters, as we will discuss below.

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