The 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) concluded its fifth session last Friday and adopted the E-Commerce Law, the Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law, and an amendment to the Individual Income Tax Law. All three laws will take effect on January 1, 2019. Due to competing offline commitments, we are able to discuss only two laws in relative detail below.
Tag: E-Commerce Law
NPCSC Session Watch: Separate Parts of Civil Code, Tax Bills, Criminal Procedure, and More
The Council of Chairmen met on August 17 and decided that the 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) will meet for its fifth session from August 27 to 31. The session will consider at least seven legislative bills, including the much-anticipated draft Separate Parts of China’s first Civil Code, draft E-Commerce Law, and three tax bills. As usual, below we take a look at the legislative bills on the session’s agenda.
NPC Calendar: July 2018 (UPDATED)
UPDATE (July 1, 2018): This post has been updated with information from this news release. We will not separately report on the NPCSC’s special session this month unless the resolution contains especially newsworthy content.
The Tobacco Leaf Tax Law (烟叶税法), Vessel Tonnage Tax Law (船舶吨税法), revised Specialized Farmers’ Cooperatives Law (农民专业合作社法), and Decision on the Exercise of Maritime Rights Protection and Law Enforcement Authority by the China Coast Guard (关于中国海警局行使海上维权执法职权的决定; see this post for details) take effect on July 1.
The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) is currently soliciting public comments on the following bills through July 28, 2018 (see this post for details):
- draft E-Commerce Law (电子商务法);
- draft revision to the People’s Courts Organic Law (人民法院组织法);
- draft revision to the People’s Procuratorates Organic Law (人民检察院组织法);
- draft amendment to the Individual Income Tax Law (个人所得税法).
The NPCSC will convene a special session on July 9–10 to hear a report on inspecting the enforcement of the Atmospheric Pollution Prevention and Control Law (大气污染防治法). In conjunction with hearing the report, the NPCSC will conduct a special inquiry (专题询问) (which senior State Council officials are expected to attend to answer questions) and adopt a resolution related to one of the Communist Party’s three ongoing “tough battles” (攻坚战): preventing and controlling pollution.
The NPCSC’s next regular session will take place in late August.
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NPCSC Solicits Public Comments on Four Draft Laws: June 28, 2018
UPDATE (Jun. 28, 2018): The deadline has been updated per newest information on the NPC’s website.
The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) is now soliciting public comments on the following four draft laws through July 28, 2018:
- draft amendment to Individual Income Tax Law 个人所得税法修正案草案 (Summary)
- second draft revision to People’s Courts Organic Law 人民法院组织法修订草案二次审议稿 (English)
- second draft revision to People’s Procuratorates Organic Law 人民检察院组织法修订草案二次审议稿 (English)
- third draft of E-Commerce Law 电子商务法草案三次审议稿 (English)
All linked files are PDF documents in Chinese. English translations are either completed or underway at the links provided above. The accompanying explanations of these drafts can be read here (PDF).
To submit comments online, please refer to these instructions. The “Occupations” dropdown lists for draft revisions to the People’s Courts Organic Law and the People’s Procuratorates Organic Law include these items, from top to bottom: court staff (法院工作人员), procuratorate staff (检察院工作人员), staff of other state institutions (其他国家机关工作人员), lawyers (律师), and other personnel (其他人员).
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:
Chinese: 北京市西城区前门西大街1号 邮编：100805
English: No. 1 West Qianmen Avenue, Xicheng District, Beijing 100805
Please clearly write “[BILL NAME IN CHINESE]征求意见” on the envelope.
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NPCSC Defers Vote on E-Commerce Law, Grants Law Enforcement Powers to Military-Controlled Coast Guard
The 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) concluded its third bimonthly session on Friday (June 22) without adopting any legislative bills, including the draft E-Commerce Law that it had already reviewed three times (this session included). Several new provisions in the latest draft have sparked heated discussion during the session and could potentially further delay passage of the law. The session did adopt a decision granting law enforcement powers to the now-militarized China Coast Guard, the details of which will be discussed below.
NPCSC Session Watch: E-Commerce Law, Judicial Reform & Militarized China Coast Guard (UPDATED)
UPDATE (June 19, 2018): On Tuesday (June 19), it was revealed that the State Council had submitted a draft amendment to the Individual Income Tax Law (个人所得税法) to the ongoing NPCSC session. This amendment came as a surprise because it was only a preparatory project in the NPCSC’s 2018 legislative plan. State media on Tuesday also released the Ministry of Finance’s explanation of the draft amendment. We expect to publish a summary of the draft after it is released for public comments.
In addition, the NPCSC will not vote on the E-Commerce Law at the end of the current session. We thus expect it to return for a fourth and final round of deliberation by the end of 2018, likely in August or October.
The Council of Chairmen decided on Monday (June 11) that the next NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) session will take place from June 19 to 22. The session will consider three draft laws and two potentially significant draft decisions. A rundown of the agenda follows.
NPC Calendar: June 2018
The 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) is expected to convene for its third session later this month. The Council of Chairmen is expected to meet in mid-June to decide on the dates and agenda of the session.
The following draft laws (links to our law wiki pages) have been tentatively scheduled for this upcoming session according to the NPCSC’s 2018 legislative plan:
- draft revision to the People’s Courts Organic Law (人民法院组织法);
- draft revision to the People’s Procuratorates Organic Law (人民检察院组织法);
- draft E-Commerce Law (电子商务法);
- draft revision to the Patent Law (专利法).
It is possible that the draft amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law (刑事诉讼法) would be submitted for another round of deliberation as well. We also expect the State Council to submit one or more amendments to existing laws to implement its 2018 reorganization plan.
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NPC Standing Committee Releases 2018 Legislative Plan
The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) on Friday released its annual legislative plan for 2018. As usual, the plan is divided into two sections—the first listing specific legislative projects slated for discussion at the NPCSC’s remaining five sessions in 2018, and second setting forth general guiding principles for its legislative work this year. We will discuss only the first part in this post.
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NPC Calendar: February 2018
The 12th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) will convene for its 33rd—and last—session in late February. The Council of Chairmen is expected to meet to set the dates and agenda for the session before the week-long Chinese New Year holiday begins on February 15.
This session will certify results of the currently ongoing elections of the delegates to the 13th NPC, which will first convene on March 5. An explanation of the guidelines for these elections can be found here.
We also expect the upcoming session to hear the State Council’s mid-term report on a pilot reform of the social insurance system. Authorized by the NPCSC in late 2016, the reform suspends the enforcement of two provisions of the Social Insurance Law in twelve cities so as to combine the maternity insurance funds and the basic health insurance funds, which would have been run separately under the suspended provisions.
We expect only a few (perhaps one or two) legislative bills to be submitted to the session for deliberation. Possible candidates include the draft E-Commerce Law and the draft Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law.
(Editing by Changhao Wei)
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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.
Continue reading “NPCSC to End 2017 with Blockbuster December Session (UPDATED)”