NPCSC Session Watch: Environmental Code, Antarctic Policy, Ethnicity & Language, State Assets, Childcare, Banking Regulation & Trademarks

UPDATE (Dec. 22, 2025): The NPCSC has revealed that it will indeed submit the first three bills discussed below to the 2026 NPC session for approval and will pass the draft revisions to the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language and to the Foreign Trade Law on December 27.

Photo by Asya M (stock.adobe.com)

China’s top legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), will convene for its nineteenth session, its final meeting of the year, from December 22 to 27, the Council of Chairpersons decided on Monday, December 15. It will be the longest legislative session—lasting six days—since December 2019, with a suitably packed agenda. The NPCSC will review 14 legislative bills and hear almost two dozen reports, in addition to other business. As usual, we preview the session’s legislative agenda in detail below, while highlighting a few notable reports.

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NPCSC Session Watch: Cybersecurity, Environmental Tax, Bankruptcy, Arbitration & Mandarin Chinese Promotion

A slogan reading “Speak Putonghua, Write Standard Characters” in a Guangzhou secondary school. Photo by Gzdavidwong (Wikimedia Commons). CC BY-SA 3.0.

China’s top legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), will convene for its seventeenth session from September 8 to 12, the Council of Chairpersons decided on Tuesday, August 26. According to the Council’s proposed agenda, the session will consider 16 legislative bills—the most so far during this five-year term—and hear 8 oversight reports, among other business. As usual, we preview the session’s legislative agenda in detail below.

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NPCSC Session Watch: VAT, Anti-Corruption, Private Sector Promotion, Law Propaganda & Unfair Competition

UPDATE (Dec. 26, 2024): On December 25, the NPCSC approved the Value-Added Tax Law (effective Jan. 1, 2026); amended the Supervision Law (effective June 1, 2025); and revised the Science and Technology Popularization Law (effective immediately).

Poster has the text "abiding by laws and popularizing laws is everyone's responsibility."
“Law popularization” propaganda poster released by the justice bureau of Qingyuan, Guangdong in 2021.

China’s top legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), will convene for its thirteenth session from December 21 to 25, the Council of Chairpersons decided on Friday, December 13. The Council proposed an agenda with ten legislative bills and several reports that might be of interest, which we preview below. It also approved the NPCSC’s 2025 work priorities as well as 2025 plans for legislative, oversight, delegates-related, and foreign affairs work; these documents will be finalized next April, and at least the first four will be publicly released thereafter.

Continue reading “NPCSC Session Watch: VAT, Anti-Corruption, Private Sector Promotion, Law Propaganda & Unfair Competition”