Major Tasks for 2011
In 2011, the first year of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period and the year that we will celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, the general requirements for the work of the NPC Standing Committee are: We must fully implement the guiding principles of the Seventeenth National Congress of the CPC, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Seventeenth CPC Central Committee and the Fourth Session of the Eleventh NPC; take Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as our guide; thoroughly apply the Scientific Outlook on Development; intimately integrate the Party's leadership, the people's position as masters of the country and the rule of law; focus on the overall work of the Party and the country in carrying out our functions and powers in accordance with the law; make full use of the role of deputies; maintain close contact with the people; further strengthen and improve our legislative work from a new starting point; constantly improve the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics; further strengthen and improve our oversight work in the new circumstances; give impetus to the implementation of the major decisions and arrangements of the Central Committee; strive to initiate a new phase in the work of the NPC; and make new contributions to ensuring that economic and social development in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period is off to a good start and ensuring social harmony and stability.
I. Continuing to strengthen our legislative work from a new starting point
The formation of a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics marks a new starting point for China's legislative work. Social praxis is the foundation of laws, and laws encapsulate practical experience. Social praxis is endless and legislative work should also constantly move forward. Building socialism with Chinese characteristics is a long-term historic task. Improving the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics is also a long-term historic task, and it must develop as the praxis of socialism with Chinese characteristics develops. Furthermore, the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics is not static, closed or fixed, but rather, dynamic, open and developing. We must also note that, although our system of laws has already been formed, it is not perfect or flawless: some existing laws need to be revised, some accompanying regulations urgently need to be enacted, and a few laws have yet to be introduced. The main reasons for this are that the legislative conditions for these laws are not ripe and no consensus on the relevant matters has been reached, so we must continue to explore and accumulate more experiences through praxis. In short, new changes in the domestic and international situations, new praxis of reform and opening up, new tasks of economic and social development, and new expectations of the people constantly present new tasks and requirements for our legislative work. Our legislative tasks are still painstaking and arduous, and legislative work can only get stronger and not weaker. For some time to come, we will devote more energy to revising and improving laws, and enacting accompanying regulations. At the same time, we still need to enact a number of new laws in order to ensure that the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics keeps up with the times, develops and improves. The NPC and its Standing Committee need to fully play their role as the country's highest organs of state power, exercise state legislative power in accordance with the law, make legislative work more organized and coordinated, urge relevant departments to earnestly study and solve major problems involved in legislation, improve the mechanisms of legislative work, strengthen legislative bodies and improve the competence of legislators, and initiate a new phase of our legislative work from a new starting point.
The legislative work of the Standing Committee this year is to promptly revise laws that are not compatible with economic and social development, and enact in a timely manner laws that are vital for pushing forward scientific development and promoting social harmony in accordance with the overall requirements for improving the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics. First, we will revise the Budget Law, the Law Concerning the Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases, the Criminal Procedure Law, the Civil Procedure Law, the Organic Law of Local Governments, and the Military Service Law. Second, we will enact the Law on Mental Health, the Law on Administrative Coercion, and the Law on Entry and Exit Administration. Third, we will urge relevant departments to promptly enact accompanying regulations, and do the follow-up work of reviewing laws and regulations well, with the focus on urging and guiding the Supreme People' s Court and the Supreme People' s Procuratorate to complete the concentrated review of judicial interpretations currently in force.
We will enact legislation in a thoroughly scientific and democratic manner. We will use the evaluation of enacted legislation as a new measure to strengthen and improve legislative work, carry out such evaluations in an orderly manner and in various ways based on a review of the experiences gained through pilot programs, and objectively evaluate how scientific the system of laws is, how practicable laws and regulations are, and how effectively laws are implemented in order to provide an important basis for revising and improving laws and improving legislative work. We will improve the work mechanism by means of which deputies participate in legislation, integrate the work of handling bills and proposals from deputies with the work of enacting and revising laws, invite deputies to participate in the Standing Committee's activities for improving the quality of the drafting of laws and the quality of deliberation, conscientiously study and absorb comments and suggestions from deputies, and have them fully play their role in legislative work. We will actively explore ways and means for the orderly participation of citizens in legislation; widely solicit opinions from all sectors of society, particularly from the masses at the primary level; earnestly solicit the suggestions of experts and scholars; establish a sound feedback mechanism for recommendations from the general public; actively respond to social concerns; and take new steps in making legislation scientific and democratic.