NPCSC Session Watch: Lawmaking Reforms, Corporate Bankruptcy, Charity, Financial Stability, Foreign Sovereign Immunity, Cross-Border Litigation & More

UPDATE (Jan. 3, 2023): On December 30, 2022, the NPCSC adopted the revision to the Wild Animals Protection Law, effective May 1, 2023, and the Reservists Law, effective March 1, 2023.

UPDATE (Dec. 27, 2022): The official readout of the session’s first meeting reveals that the NPCSC is also reviewing a draft amendment to the Foreign Trade Law [对外贸易法] to codify a pilot administrative reform that recently expired on December 1. The readout also shows that the State Council has requested an interpretation of “relevant articles” of the Hong Kong National Security Law, without elaborating. We expect both to pass on Friday. Finally, it appears that the draft revision to the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law [企业破产法] has been removed from this session’s agenda.

Last Friday, the Council of Chairpersons decided to convene the 38th and second-to-last session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) from December 27 to 30. The session’s tentative agenda includes fifteen bills. The Hong Kong government’s requested interpretation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, however, is not among them. But as we have explained, the NPCSC may hide the existence of a bill until after its adoption, so it could still consider an interpretation at the upcoming session. Below we briefly preview the bills slated for review.

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NPCSC Session Watch: Telecom Fraud, Wildlife Protection, Ecological Conservation of the Tibetan Plateau & Counterespionage

The Council of Chairpersons decided on Friday, July 29 to convene the 36th session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) over a month later, from August 30 to September 2. With only five bills, the legislative agenda is comparatively light for a session held in August and in the last year of an NPCSC’s term. Perhaps the pace of legislation will pick up later in the year. Below we briefly preview the upcoming session.

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NPCSC Seeks Public Comments on Draft Personal Information Protection Law, Criminal Law Amendment, Wildlife Protection Law Revision, National Defense Law Revision & Two Other Bills

The NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) is soliciting public comments on the following six bills through November 19, 2020:

Draft NameChinese TextExplanatory Document
Yangtze River Protection Law (2nd Draft)
长江保护法草案二次审议稿
PDFPDF
Criminal Law Amendment (XI) (2nd Draft)
刑法修正案(十一)草案二次审议稿
PDF
(English)
PDF
Administrative Penalties Law (2nd Draft Revision)
行政处罚法修订草案
PDFPDF
Personal Information Protection Law (Draft)
个人信息保护法草案
PDF
(English)
PDF
National Defense Law (Draft Revision)
国防法修订草案
PDFPDF
Wild Animals Protection Law (Draft Revision)
野生动物保护法修订草案
PDF
(English)
PDF

English translations will be provided if and when available. All explanatory documents are in Chinese. The NPCSC also reviewed a second draft of the Veterans Support Law [退役军人保障法] and a draft Coast Guard Law [海警法] at last week’s session, but did not also release them for public comments today.

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NPCSC Session Watch: Patent, Export Control, Personal Information Protection, Wildlife Protection & National Defense

On Tuesday, September 29, the Council of Chairpersons decided to convene the 22nd session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) from October 13 to 17. The NPCSC’s regular sessions ordinarily take place during the last ten days of a month. This upcoming session is likely moved forward to make way for the Communist Party’s Fifth Plenum, scheduled from October 26 to 29. The NPCSC will review at least fifteen bills at its five-day session next month. A quick rundown follows.

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Recording & Review Pt. 3: Are Parrots Bred in Captivity Still “Wild”?

Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels.

Common sense would answer no. But the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) disagreed—according to its interpretation of a Criminal Law provision that punishes trade in “rare and endangered wild animals.” A Shenzhen man, convicted in 2017 under this provision for buying and selling parrots he himself bred, contested this interpretation before the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission (LAC)—the body charged with reviewing judicial interpretations (among other types of documents) at the request of citizens for any inconsistency with statutes. The Commission recently informed the man that the SPC would amend the interpretation. Yet it is far from clear that he won this battle. In this third installment of Recording & Review, we will tell the story of Wang Peng [王鹏] and his parrots.

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