The relevant person in charge of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress answered questions from reporters regarding the legislative plan of the 14th National People's Congress Standing Committee

On the morning of September 6th, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress held a legislative work conference to deploy the implementation of the legislative plan of the 14th National People's Congress Standing Committee. After the meeting, Xu Anbiao, Deputy Director of the Legal Work Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, gave an interview to reporters.

Q: The five-year term of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress is at a critical stage of starting the comprehensive construction of a socialist modernized country. What are the overall considerations for preparing this five-year legislative plan?

Answer: The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has made strategic plans for the comprehensive construction of a socialist modernized country and the comprehensive promotion of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It has made comprehensive arrangements for the overall layout of the "Five in One" initiative and the coordinated promotion of the "Four Comprehensives" strategy. It has pointed out the direction for the development of the Party and the country's cause in the new era and the realization of the second centenary goal, and established action guidelines. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also clarified the task requirements of adhering to the comprehensive rule of law and promoting the construction of a rule of law China. This year is the beginning year of implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and also the first year of this session of the National People's Congress fulfilling its duties in accordance with the law. It is of great significance to prepare the legislative plan for the 14th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, scientifically coordinate and reasonably arrange the legislative work for the next five years, fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, and comprehensively build a socialist modernized country on the track of the rule of law. At the Legislative Work Conference of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress held on September 6th, Chairman Zhao Leji put forward clear ideas, requirements, and measures for implementing the legislative plan and doing a good job in the legislative work of the new era and new journey. Vice Chairman Li Hongzhong made specific arrangements, and Secretary General Liu Qi conveyed the spirit of the legislative plan and sounded the rallying call for the implementation of this legislative plan.

We must closely focus on the overall work of the Party and the state, the needs put forward in practice, and the expectations of the people, strengthen legislation in key areas, emerging areas, and foreign-related fields, coordinate the promotion of domestic and foreign-related rule of law, deepen scientific legislation, democratic legislation, and law-based legislation, improve the legal system that is urgently needed for national governance, meet the needs of the people for a better life, and safeguard national security, and promote the more scientific, complete, unified authority of the socialist legal system with the Constitution as the core, providing solid legal guarantees for the comprehensive construction of a socialist modernized country.

Q: In order to adapt to the new tasks and requirements of building a strong country and national rejuvenation, and improve the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics centered on the Constitution, what are the important considerations in formulating legislative plans?

Actively adapting to the new situation and requirements of promoting the development of the Party and the state in the new era, this legislative planning work focuses on grasping the following points: first, fully implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Party. Include the legislative and amendment projects explicitly proposed by the Party Central Committee, as well as the legislative and amendment projects involved in important reform measures of the Party and the state, in the key areas of legislative planning, and benchmark them against the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee from the very beginning of legislative work arrangements. The second is to meet the needs of comprehensively promoting the rule of law in all aspects of national work. Strengthen legislation in key areas, emerging areas, and foreign-related fields, accelerate legal amendments related to major institutional adjustments, reforms, and prominent issues reflected by relevant parties, fill the gaps and weaknesses in the legal system, and promote the improvement of various aspects of the national system. The third is to promote the improvement of the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics centered on the Constitution. Seriously implement the revised legislative law, coordinate the legislative reform, abolishment, interpretation, and compilation, actively promote the formulation of fundamental, comprehensive, and comprehensive laws in relevant fields, give full play to the legislative role at different levels in the legal system, and enhance the systematic, holistic, collaborative, and timely nature of legislation. The fourth is to fully leverage the guiding and coordinating role of legislative planning. Persist in starting from reality, distinguish between importance and urgency, and ensure good project approval; At the same time, with a long-term perspective, we will strengthen the research and reserve of forward-looking and leading legislative projects, consolidate legislative efforts, and promote the high-quality development of legislative work.

Q: What aspects of work has the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress mainly carried out to formulate and introduce high-quality legislative plans?

One is that leaders attach importance to and promote from a high position. At the first meeting of the 14th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in March this year, Chairman Zhao Leji made a special deployment to accelerate the preparation of legislative planning. During the first work survey, he also made it an important content to listen to opinions and suggestions on the preparation of legislative planning. Leaders of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress conducted in-depth research, visited various special committees of the National People's Congress, held 8 symposiums to listen to the opinions and suggestions of 31 provincial People's Congress Standing Committees and 36 central government officials, and achieved full coverage of provincial People's Congress and major central departments.

The second is to widely gather projects and solidify the foundation.At the same time, nearly 300 legislative project proposals were solicited in writing from 177 central and local units, and legislative planning was adopted based on different situations, with corresponding arrangements made.

The third is to absorb public opinion and gather people's wisdom. Sort out and study the proposals and suggestions put forward by National People's Congress deputies, invite National People's Congress deputies to participate in relevant symposiums and discussion meetings, and fully leverage the important role of deputies in the preparation of legislative planning. We specifically solicited legislative projects from 31 grassroots legislative contact points, listened to the "authentic" opinions and suggestions of grassroots people, and made the legislative planning work more grounded and popular.

The fourth is to research and demonstrate, and gather consensus. Conduct in-depth research and analysis on the implementation of the previous legislative plan, and include the legislative projects that need to be further promoted in this legislative plan to ensure the continuity of legislative work. At the same time, we will focus on strengthening legislation in key areas, emerging areas, and foreign-related fields, and carry out thematic research and argumentation. Evaluate and demonstrate important legislative projects in relevant fields, solicit opinions from relevant parties on legislative planning drafts, communicate and coordinate repeatedly, and gather broader consensus.

Q: Regarding the strategic deployment of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, what legislative projects have been prioritized in this legislative plan?

Answer: This legislative plan closely revolves around the strategic deployment of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, adhering to the principle of prioritizing urgent needs while also focusing on long-term planning. The legislative projects are divided into three categories: the first category is "draft laws with relatively mature conditions and intended for review during the term of office," with a total of 79 items; The second category of projects is "draft laws that require urgent work and are submitted for review when conditions are ripe", with a total of 51 cases. Among the above two categories of projects, 60 laws were formulated and 70 laws were amended; The third category of projects is "legislative projects that are not yet fully met and require further research and argumentation", and a comprehensive arrangement is made for relevant legislative and amendment projects that need to be carried out in a timely manner to implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee.

The legislative planning project mainly includes seven aspects: firstly, to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern and focus on promoting high-quality development. The second is to develop people's democracy throughout the entire process and ensure that the people are the masters of their own country. The third is to solidly promote the rule of law in administration, and strictly and impartially administer justice. The fourth is to implement the strategy of revitalizing the country through science and education, and promote cultural confidence and self-improvement. The fifth is to enhance people's well-being and improve their quality of life. Six is to promote green development and promote harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. The seventh is to promote the modernization of the national security system and capabilities, and resolutely safeguard national security and social stability. Specific projects can be found in legislative planning. It should be noted that legislative planning is guiding and can be adjusted as needed during implementation. It can be supplemented and dynamically adjusted through the annual legislative work plan or special legislative work plan of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

In May 2020, the Third Session of the Thirteenth National People's Congress voted to pass the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China. This is the first law named after the "Code" since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and is a significant milestone in the construction of socialist rule of law in China in the new era. It has distinct characteristics of China, the times, and the people.The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out the need to coordinate legislation, reform, abolishment, interpretation, and compilation, and enhance the systematic, holistic, collaborative, and timely nature of legislation. Making the compilation of the code a specialized legislative form means that this legislation will make new progress and breakthroughs in the field of code compilation. The preparation of this legislative plan regards the compilation of the code as a major topic, specifically for research and argumentation. There are many projects proposed for the compilation of legal codes from various aspects. After comprehensive comparative research, the conditions for carrying out legal code compilation in the field of environment are relatively mature, while maintaining a certain degree of openness. It is listed that active research is being carried out to promote the compilation of legal codes in the field of environment and other mature conditions, and consideration is given to the organizational leadership of the compilation of legal codes.

The deliberation and approval of important legal bills by the National People's Congress is an important manifestation of its exercise of the powers of the national legislative body, a specific measure for the implementation of the Constitution, and an inherent requirement for practicing the entire process of people's democracy. This legislative planning is being prepared to conduct special research on the deliberation of legal bills by the congress and to make overall considerations. Legal clearance is an important task of centralized, proactive, and batch resolution of internal disharmony, inconsistency, and unsuitability within the legal system. Legislative planning also makes arrangements for timely legal clearance to better maintain the harmony, unity, and progress of the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics.

Q: The legislative plan clearly defines the goals and tasks of legislative work for the next 5 years. What measures and arrangements are there to ensure the implementation of the legislative plan?

Answer: The legislative plan of the 14th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is the "overall blueprint" for legislative work in the next five years. At the legislative work meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress held on the morning of September 6, Chairman Zhao Leji pointed out that it is a great responsibility and a glorious mission to complete this legislative plan. We should adhere to the Party's overall leadership over legislative work, adhere to legislation for the people and rely on the people, adhere to the national conditions and reality, adhere to the leading role of the National People's Congress in legislative work, adhere to the combination of legislation with law popularization and legal supervision, make progress while maintaining stability to promote high-quality development of legislative work, promote the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics to be more scientific, complete, unified and authoritative, and lay a solid foundation for the rule of law to promote Chinese path to modernization.

We must implement the spirit of the meeting well, and comprehensively implement all tasks of the legislative plan in accordance with the requirements of "tasks, time, organization, and responsibility". The Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress will carefully formulate an annual legislative work plan, further clarify the focus, time, and steps of work, and decompose and implement legislative planning projects in place. The leading drafting unit should make every effort to do a good job in the drafting work. The Special Committee of the National People's Congress and the Working Committee of the Standing Committee should strengthen tracking, supervision, coordination and guidance, and conscientiously provide services and guarantees for the review, improvement, and passage of legal bills by the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee, striving to achieve the goals and tasks set in the legislative plan with high quality.

To implement the legislative plan, we must seize the key to improving the quality of legislation and deepen the promotion of scientific, democratic, and lawful legislation. We need to strengthen and improve legislative research, based on national conditions and reality, strive to understand and grasp objective laws, and consolidate the public opinion and social foundation of legislative work. Seriously implement the revised legislative law, coordinate legislative reform, abolishment, interpretation and compilation, enrich legislative forms, and enhance the systematic, holistic, collaborative, and timely nature of legislation. Implement the major concept and practical requirements of people's democracy throughout the entire process, improve the mechanism for absorbing public opinion and gathering people's wisdom, build good grassroots legislative contact points, expand the channels for orderly participation of the people in legislation, and fully play the positive role of representatives in legislation. Improve the public solicitation of opinions on legal drafts, properly respond to social concerns, and widely gather legislative consensus. Strengthen the publicity and interpretation of various aspects of legislative work, actively express opinions through written answers to questions from journalists, media interviews, and providing answers and opinions, clarify doubts, tell the story of Chinese legislation well, and strive to make the legislative process a process of promoting and popularizing the Constitution and the spirit of the rule of law.