I. Legislative Work
The power to pass legislation is an important authority granted to the NPC and its Standing Committee by the Constitution and laws. At the beginning of its term, the Standing Committee of the Tenth NPC clearly defined its philosophy and guide for legislative work during its term as follows: "Our goal is to establish the basics of a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, with the focus on improving the quality of legislation." During the past five years the Standing Committee passed 100 of the 106 draft amendments to the Constitution, draft laws, draft legal interpretations and draft decisions on legal issues that it deliberated. There are 229 laws currently in force in China, divided into seven types: the Constitution and related laws, civil and commercial laws, administrative laws, economic laws, social laws, criminal law, and litigation and non-litigation procedure laws. There are approximately 600 administrative laws and regulations and over 7,000 local ordinances currently in force. The formation of a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics consisting of seven types of laws and three levels has now been basically completed, centering on the Constitution, with laws as the backbone and including normative documents such as administrative laws and regulations and local ordinances. There are laws to cover basically every area of economic, political, cultural and social activities in the country, providing a strong legal footing for implementation of the rule of law, developing China into a law-based socialist country, and realizing lasting peace and stability in the country.
1. We completed a number of important legislative items. The law represents the unity of the stands of the Party and the will of the people. Being subservient to and serving the work of the Party and the state is the fundamental prerequisite for doing good legislative work and improving the quality of legislation. We convert the stands of the Party into the will of the state through legally defined procedures and cement the lessons learned through our achievements in reform, opening up and socialist modernization into law in accordance with the strategic arrangements and major resolutions of the Party and the state and based on what we have learned in the great process of reform and opening up and of socialist modernization. In formulating legislation, we take into consideration the objective needs of economic and social development and focus on legislative items that can play an important role in the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, that meet pressing needs in the social life of the country and for which conditions are ripe for passing. In addition to improving legislation concerning economic matters, we also concentrate on improving legislation concerning social issues, and in addition to passing new legislation, we also attach great importance to revising and improving current legislation. Following these principles, a number of important legislative tasks were completed.
In line with the suggestions concerning revision of the Constitution submitted by the CPC Central Committee, we deliberated and passed the amended Constitution, which confirms the guiding role of the important thought of Three Represents in the social life of the country, includes the major theoretical viewpoints and important principles and policies defined at the Sixteenth National Congress, clarifies the country's respect and protection for human rights and its protection of the rights of citizens to hold property and receive an inheritance. This fully reflects the unity of the CPC's stands and the will of the people and represents another major milestone in China's constitutional history. We formulated the Anti-Secession Law, which provides the legal framework for the major policies, principles and policy measures of the Party and the state for work related to Taiwan. The law fully reflects our consistent position that we are most sincere and are doing our utmost to bring about the peaceful reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. At the same time, this legislation reflects the common will and firm resolution of the entire Chinese nation to never allow anyone in any guise or in any way to separate Taiwan from the motherland and to safeguard the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. This legislation provides firm legal backing for the struggle to oppose and keep in check separatist activities aimed at Taiwan independence and promote the peaceful reunification of the motherland. We formulated interpretations and passed corresponding decisions concerning some articles in the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and its annexes in line with the original legislative intentions of the Basic Law. This played an irreplaceable role in ensuring the correct implementation of the Basic Law, promoting the healthy development of democracy in Hong Kong and safeguarding the region's long-term prosperity and stability. We formulated the Law on Oversight, improving the forms and procedures for oversight by the standing committees of people's congresses at all levels and effectively helping to institutionalize, standardize and define procedures for oversight work for the people's congresses. We formulated the Civil Servant Law in conformity with the Party's line, principles and policies on cadres, providing a strong legal footing for reform of the personnel and cadre system.
We comprehensively improved economic legislation to meet objective requirements for developing China's socialist market economy. We enacted the Law on Property Rights in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution, specifying rules for resolving some common issues related to the system of property rights. Pursuing the purposes of clarifying property ownership, maximizing the utility of property, and protecting the rights of property owners, the Law on Property Rights has further improved the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics concerning property rights. In line with the normal rule in the market that better companies survive and poor companies fall by the wayside, we formulated the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law, which applies to all types of corporations. This standardizes procedures for enterprise bankruptcy and establishes a legal framework for the orderly withdrawal of enterprises from the market. We formulated the Antitrust Law in line with conditions in China, setting up a legal framework suitable for China's current stage of economic development to prevent and stop monopolies and to safeguard and promote fair competition. This law will help safeguard economic order in the market, protect the rights and interests of consumers and promote advances in technology. In order to tighten financial regulation and preserve the financial order, we formulated the Banking Oversight and Management Law and the Law to Combat Money Laundering and revised the Law on the People's Bank of China, the Law on Commercial Banks and the Securities Law, thus improving the legal framework for banking and financial activities. The Law on Corporate Income Tax, which was formulated to meet the goals of reform of the taxation system, unifies the income tax rates for domestic and overseas-funded enterprises and standardizes pre-tax deductions and favorable tax policies. The Individual Income Tax Law was revised three times, reducing the tax load on low- and medium-income wage earners and tightening tax collection and management for high-income persons. We made the decision to eliminate the Regulations on the Agricultural Tax, ending the 2,000-year history of farmers paying taxes in China and taking an important step toward unifying the tax systems for cities and the countryside. We formulated the Law on Specialized Farmer Cooperatives, which is of great significance for the effort to increase the level of organization of farmers and promote industrialized operation of agriculture. In addition, we formulated the Law on Renewable Energy, revised the Law on Energy Conservation and deliberated the Law on the Circular Economy (draft) and other laws related to resources and the environment.
We devoted a great deal of energy to improving social legislation in line with the requirements for building a harmonious socialist society. Improving the legal framework for labor and social security has a bearing on the vital interests of workers and social harmony and stability, and is therefore a priority of social legislation. During 2007 the Standing Committee passed the Labor Contract Law, the Employment Promotion Law and the Law on the Mediation and Arbitration of Labor Disputes and examined a draft of the Social Security Law. The Law on Compulsory Education was thoroughly revised to respond to the great concern among deputies about social issues. The law establishes a legal framework for the mechanism to ensure adequate funding for compulsory education, puts the requirement that students receive competence-oriented education into law and confirms the goal of making compulsory education available in all areas of the country. The Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women was revised, confirming for the first time the equality of men and women as a basic state policy. The Law on the Protection of Minors was revised, further strengthening the responsibility of families, schools, society and the government for the protection of minors and emphasizing their right to receive an education.