The 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) concluded its seventh session on Saturday with the adoption of a series of laws and decisions. Below we will take a brief look at each.
Continue reading “NPCSC Takes No Further Action on Foreign Investment Law (for Now), Adopts Two Tax Laws & Codifies Civil Service Reform”Tag: Rural Land Contracting Law
NPCSC Session Watch: Foreign Investment, Patent, Resource Tax, Local Government Debt & More
The 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) will convene for its last session in 2018 from December 23 to 29, the Council of Chairmen decided on Friday. This session is another of those end-of-year, week-long NPCSC sessions that we have come to love (and definitely not hate). We counted 14 legislative bills plus several more decisions and reports on the agenda. And there is absolutely no festivity-related reason why we would rather not work around that period. Because we expect six of those bills to pass on December 29, we will publish summaries of them after the session concludes rather than in this session preview. Here is our rundown on the agenda.
NPCSC Solicits Public Comments on Draft Revision to Civil Servants Law and Three Other Bills
The NPC Standing Committee is now soliciting public comments on the following draft laws until December 1, 2018:
- draft amendment to the Drug Administration Law 药品管理法修正草案
- second draft amendment to the Rural Land Contracting Law 农村土地承包法修正案草案二次审议稿
- second draft of the Basic Healthcare and Health Promotion Law 基本医疗卫生与健康促进法草案二次审议稿
- draft revision to the Civil Servants Law 公务员法修订草案
All linked files are PDF documents in Chinese. English translations will be linked to if and when available. The accompanying explanations of these drafts can be read here (PDF).
Most notably, the draft revision to the Civil Servants Law seeks to strengthen the Communist Party’s control (or rather codify the Party’s already strengthened control) over China’s civil servants—a broad category that encompasses both those working in governmental bodies and also those working for political parties and other quasi-governmental entities (e.g., the CPPCC). Continue reading “NPCSC Solicits Public Comments on Draft Revision to Civil Servants Law and Three Other Bills”
NPCSC Session Watch: Anti-Corruption, Judicial Reform, Stock Buybacks, Drug Approval & Patent Litigation (UPDATED)
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UPDATE (Oct. 22, 2018): According to the finalized agenda released on Monday, the State Council submitted for consideration a draft amendment to the Drug Administration Law [药品管理法] to codify the marketing authorization holder system (discussed below), among other changes. It appears that there will be an opportunity for public comments before this amendment passes.
In addition, the draft decision relating to patent litigation procedure (see below) is poised to authorize the Intellectual Property Division of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) to hear (second-instance) appeals in all civil or administrative patent cases (other than those involving design patents) and certain other types of intellectual property cases involving technical expertise—thus bypassing provincial high courts. In other words, it looks like that the SPC’s IP Division will essentially act as China’s Federal Circuit. But whether the Division’s decisions are further reviewable is not clear at this point. As we said below, we expect the decision to pass this Friday, at which point we will have more information.
The Council of Chairmen decided on Monday (October 15) that the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) will hold a five-day session next week, from October 22 to 26. Absent any bill added at the last minute, the session is scheduled to review 12 legislative bills. Below is our usual rundown.
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.
Continue reading “NPC Standing Committee Releases 2018 Legislative Plan”
NPCSC Solicits Public Opinions on Draft E-Commerce Law, Amendment to Rural Land Contract Law & Vessel Tonnage Tax Law
UPDATE (Nov. 20, 2017): An English translation of the draft amendment to the Rural Land Contracting Law is now available. See link below.
In addition to the draft Supervision Law, the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) is now also soliciting public opinions on the following three draft laws. The comments period for each is noted below.
- E-Commerce Law (Draft for 2nd Deliberation) 电子商务法草案二次审议稿: Nov. 7, 2017 – Nov. 26, 2017
- Rural Land Contracting Law (Draft Amendment) 农村土地承包法修正案草案: Nov. 7, 2017 – Dec. 6, 2017. An English translation of the draft amendment is available here. The NPCSC has released an “authoritative explanation” (权威解读) of the draft amendment here.
- Vessel Tonnage Tax Law (Draft) 船舶吨位税法草案: Nov. 7, 2017 – Dec. 6, 2017
All linked filed are PDF documents in Chinese.
Given the short comments period for the draft E-Commerce Law, we expect the NPCSC to deliberate and pass it at its upcoming December session.
To submit comments online, please refer to these instructions. The “Occupations” dropdown list for the draft amendment to the Rural Land Contract Law includes these items, from top to bottom: (1) agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, or fishery workers (农、林、牧、渔从业人员); (2) employees of scientific research institutions (科研机构工作人员); (3) employees of state organs (国家机关工作人员); and (4) other (其他).
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 to Consider New Criminal Law Amendment, Apply National Anthem Law to SARs & Hear Judicial Reform Reports
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UPDATE (Oct. 30, 2017): The finalized agenda and daily schedule of the session are released. One new item—a draft decision to carry out pilots to reform the state supervision system in an additional 28 provinces*—was added to the agenda just a day after the Communist Party announced that it had made such a decision. We will report on the details of the NPCSC decision either tomorrow when the full NPCSC hears an explanation of it or when the NPCSC passes it on November 4.
*The reform will therefore be carried out in 31 of 32 of China’s provincial-level administrative divisions (excluding Hong Kong and Macau).
Buried in the pre-19th Communist Party Congress propaganda frenzy was a bland official report on the Council of Chairmen’s latest meeting on October 16. The Council decided that the 30th—and third last—session of the 12th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) would take place from October 30 to November 4, consistent with our earlier predictions. This post is a (fairly detailed) rundown of the items on the Session’s agenda.