Annual Report on Promoting the Rule of Law in China(2016)

Annual Report on Promoting the Rule of Law in China(2016)

China Law Society

June, 2017

Table of Contents

Preface

China made new and great achievements in promoting the rule of law by firmly taking the socialist road of the rule of law with Chinese characteristics and firmly advancing the law-based governance of the country under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China in 2016: it persisted in scientific legislation and democratic legislation with the quality becoming better and better; it exercised administration by law thoroughly and strictly standardized fair and civilized law enforcement with conspicuous achievements in the construction of a law-based government; it made tremendous efforts to advance the judicial reform, improve the judicial management system and the mechanism for the exercise of the judicial power, standardized the judicial behaviors and strengthened oversight over judicial activities with judicial credibility further growing; it noticeably increased the people’s consciousness of the need to promote the rule of law by giving wide publicity and education on the rule of law and improving the mechanism for the popularization of the law; and it reaped rich fruits in the construction of the socialist law-based culture with Chinese characteristics by constantly innovating and developing legal education and legal research. The vivid practices in Chinese legislation, law enforcement, administration of justice, popularization of the law and legal publicity in 2016 showed the good prospect of the efforts China has made to promote the rule of law.

I. Legislation and Supervision by the National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee

The Chinese National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee formulated a total of ten laws, revised 24 laws, and adopted six decisions on legal issues and made one legal interpretation in 2016. By the end of December, there were 256 current effective laws, apart from the current Constitution.

(1) Strengthen Legislation in the Major Fields

——Formulating the Charity Law. The Charity Law is an important law in the social sphere, and a basic and comprehensive law guiding the construction of the charity system. It was adopted at the Fourth Session of the Twelfth National People’s Congress in March. Its main contents are: one, it clarifies that the “charitable activities” herein refer to the public benefit activities carried out voluntarily by natural persons, legal persons, and other organizations in the forms of donating property and providing services: such as helping the poor and needy, assisting the elderly, orphans, the ill and disabled, and providing special care, alleviating losses incurred by natural disasters, accidents, public health incidents and other emergencies, promoting the development of education, science, culture and public health and sports, and protecting environments. Two, it clarifies the definition of charity organization and the procedure for its establishment, standardizes its code of conduct and internal management and defines its obligation for the transparency of information. Three, it clarifies that charity fund raising includes public fund raising activities directed at society at large and targeted fund raising activities directed at special targets, and prescribes special standards for public fund raising. Four, it clarifies the record system for charitable trusts, the scope of trustees and the obligations of trustees and supervisors. Five, it standardizes the use of financial assets of charitable organizations. It makes clear that financial assets shall be used entirely for charitable purposes in accordance with the organizational charter and donation agreements. In addition, it includes prescriptions for the measures taken to promote the development of charitable services and charitable causes, supervision over and service guidance for charitable activities and legal responsibilities for law violations in the charitable sphere.

——Formulating the Law on the Administration of Activities of Overseas Non-governmental Organizations in the Mainland of China. In order to standardize the activities of overseas non-governmental organizations in the mainland of China and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests to promote exchanges and cooperation, the NPC Standing Committee adopted the Law on the Administration of the Activities of Overseas Non-governmental Organizations in the Mainland of China in April. The law states that overseas NGOs refer to the non-profit and non-governmental foundations, social groups and think tanks, established lawfully outside the mainland of China, and can carry out public interest activities in economy, education, science, technology, culture, public health and sports, environmental protection, poverty alleviation and disaster relief that are beneficial to the development of public interest causes. The law also prescribes the way how they carry out their activities, the procedure and promotional measures. It improves the relevant system and measures for administration, strengthens supervision over financial sources and use of their funds and clarifies the corresponding legal responsibilities.

——Formulating the Cyber Security Law. The Cyber security Law is a basic law in the cyber security field. It was adopted by the NPC Standing Committee in November. The law correctly handles the relationships between space freedom and order, security and development, and autonomy and opening-up. It upholds the principles of active utilization, scientific development, law-based management and guarantee for security, clarifies the responsibilities of the competent departments, operators and users of the networks for cyber security, and established the basic management system for guaranteeing national cyber security to provide the legal guarantee for maintaining the security and order in the cyber space and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the people.

——Formulating the Law on Traditional Chinese Medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine is a treasure of the Chinese nation, and an important component part of the Chinese medical and health service. The law was adopted by the NPC Standing Committee in December. Its main contents are: One, it clarifies the important place of traditional Chinese medicine and the principle for its development, and makes it clear that traditional Chinese medicine includes medicines of the Han and all other nationalities living in China. It makes clear that the government makes large efforts to develop traditional Chinese medicine and attaches equal importance to both traditional Chinese and Western medicines. Two, it develops the service of traditional Chinese medicine, and retains and exploits the advantages of traditional Chinese medicines. Three, it establishes a management system that conforms to the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine. Four, it increases government support to traditional Chinese medicine. Five, it strengthens supervision over the medical service, and the production and sale of traditional Chinese medicines. Six, it strengthens the training of personnel working in traditional Chinese medicine service. Moreover, it also includes provisions on support to the inheritance, innovation and promotion of traditional Chinese medicine, popularization of the culture of traditional Chinese medicine and legal responsibilities.

——Formulating the Public Cultural Service Guarantee Law. The law is a basic law of overall importance in the cultural field. It was adopted by the NPC Standing Committee in December. Its main contents are: One, it clarifies the extents of the public culture service, that is, public cultural facilities, cultural products, cultural activities or other relevant services in which the government takes the lead and social resources participate, and which are supplied mainly for the purpose of satisfying the basic cultural demand of citizens. Two, it clarifies the principles that should be observed for public cultural services, that is, adhering to the orientation for the advancement of the advanced socialist culture, adhering to the people as the center, and adhering to the guidance of the socialist core values; and, giving support to the creation and production of fine public cultural products to enrich the content of public cultural services in accordance with the policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend". Three, it clarifies the standards for the basic public cultural services and the systems for free public cultural service facilities or preferential admission and public notices on public cultural services. Four, it defines the responsibilities of the government for the work of public cultural services. Five, it prescribes the procedures for the demolition and reconstruction of public cultural facilities. Six,it strengthens the digitalization of the public cultural services and the construction of the webs. Seven, it improve the effectiveness of public cultural services. Moreover, it also includes the financial guarantee, supervision and management, personnel training, and the legal responsibilities for the violations of the law.

——Formulating the Environmental Protection Tax Law. It was adopted by the NPC Standing Committee in December. It was the first tax law adopted by the current NPC Standing Committee. It was based on the current pollution discharge fee system and connected with the newly revised Law on Environmental Protection. In accordance with the principle of “level shift from pollution discharge fee to the tax burden”, it clarifies the systems for tax payers, targets for taxation, basis for taxation, tax items, tax amount, tax collection and management.

——Revising the Law on the Protection of Wildlife. The NPC Standing Committee revised the Law on the Protection of Wildlife in July. The revision upholds the principles of giving priority to the protection of wildlife, rational utilization of wildlife resources and strict supervision and control, further strengthens the protection of wildlife and its habitat, improves the systems and measures for the protection of wildlife, supervision and control. It explicitly prohibits the production and sale of foods made of wildlife under special government protection and their products, and explicitly prohibits the illegal purchase of wildlife under special government protection and their products for food. It increases guard against and punishment to the illegal capture and hunting of wildlife, and illegal trading of wildlife.

——Revising the Law on Promoting Privately-Run Schools. In order to advance the reform of classified management and promote the healthy development of privately-run schools, the NPC Standing Committee adopted the decision on revising the Law on Promoting Privately-run Schools in November. It clarifies the classified management of privately-run schools, prohibits the establishment of profitable privately-run schools, improves the mechanism for the management of privately-run schools by legal persons, increases the government measures to support privately-run schools, and includes provisions on the issue of transition from current privately-run schools.

In 2016, the NPC Standing Committee also adopted the Law on the Exploration and Development of Deep Seabed Area Resources, the Asset Evaluation Law, the National Defence Transportation Law, and the Law on Promoting the Film Industry, revised the Law on the Protection of Maritime Environment, and reviewed the Red Cross Society Law, the Law on Promoting Medium-sized and Small Enterprises, the revised draft of the Surveying and Mapping Law, the drafts of the amendments to the Nuclear Security Law, the State Intelligence Law, the Electronic Commerce Law and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution. The NPC Standing Committee also reviewed the draft of the General Principles of the Civil Law.

(2) Support and Guarantee the Reforms in the Relevant Fields

——Making decisions on authorization according to law to provide the basis for the experimental work of reforms. The deepening of the reform of the national supervision system has a great deal to do with the reform of the major political system that concerns the overall situation. In the spirit of the instruction that “all major reforms should be based on law”, the NPC Standing Committee made the decision on making experiments on the reform of the national supervision system in the municipality of Beijing and the provinces of Shanxi and Zhejiang. It made clear that supervision committees would be set up in the experimental regions to exercise the power of supervision. The supervision committees, elected at the people’s congresses at the same level, are responsible to the people’s congresses and their standing committees and the supervision committees at the upper level and accept their oversight. The supervision committees exercise supervision over all public officials in their respective regions who use public power according to law. The regions making experiments temporarily adjusted or suspended the application of the relevant provisions of the Administrative Supervision Law, Criminal Procedure Law and local organic laws.

The NPC Standing Committee also adopted decisions on authorizing the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate to make experiments on adopting the system of giving leniency to whoever admit guilt and submit to punishment, authorizing the State Council to make temporary adjustment to the application of relevant provisions of the Civil Servant Law of the People's Republic of China in some regions and some central organs in Beijing, and authorizing the State Council to make temporary adjustment to the application of relevant provisions of the Social Insurance Law of the People’s Republic of China in the administrative areas of Handan in Hebei Province, and eleven other cities, and make temporary adjustments to the application of provisions of the relevant laws during the period of the reform of the officer system.

——Making an overall plan for revising a number of laws to continue the reforms in the relevant fields. The NPC Standing Committee adopted a decision on revising six laws including the Energy Conservation Law in July to further optimize the process of examining and approving investments and improve the efficiency of administrative examination and approval. It adopted another decision in November on revising the Foreign Trade Law and eleven other laws and making changes to the similar or relevant clauses and paragraphs in the laws related to administrative examination and approval and the acceptance of professional qualifications. The two overall revisions provided the legal support and guarantee for deepening the reforms to streamline administration, delegate more powers, improve regulation, provide better services, and promote the transformation of government functions. The NPC Standing Committee made two decisions in August 2013 and December 2014 on authorizing the State Council to make temporary adjustments to the administrative examination and approval prescribed in the relevant laws in the pilot free trade zones in Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian and made a explicit provision that if the relevant reform measures “proved to be workable in the three years of experiments, the relevant laws should be revised and perfected.” The State Council submitted a proposal after summing up the experience in the experiments, and the NPC Standing Committee made an overall revision in September, 2016, of the Law on Foreign Capital Enterprises, the Law on Chinese-Foreign Equity Joint Ventures, the Law on Chinese-Foreign Contractual Joint Ventures and the Law on the Protection of Investments of Taiwan Compatriots, and upgraded the reform measures taken for the experiments in the pilot free trade zones into laws, and at the same time terminated the legal validity of the two authorization decisions.

(3) Make the Interpretation on Article 104 of the Hong Kong Basic Law

In the light of the advocacy of “Hong Kong independence” by individual members of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region when taking oaths and their words and acts insulting the country and nation and the disputes arising from them inside the Legislative Council and the society of Hong Kong as a whole, the NPC Standing Committee exercised the power conferred on it by the Constitution and the Basic Law of Hong Kong, adopted an interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, making it clear that the provision in the article “swear to uphold the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and swear allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China” is both the statutory content that must be included in the oath prescribed in the article and the statutory requirement and qualification for entering in the contest for or taking an official post listed in the article; it makes clear the statutory procedure and content that must be abided by in taking the oath for an official post; and it makes clear the legal consequence of losing the qualification for taking the official post after violating the provision on oath taking and the legal responsibility for taking a false oath or contravening the oath.

(4) Promoting Scientific Legislation and Democratic Legislation

The NPC Standing Committee attached importance to further improving the mechanism and methods for the legislative work and strengthened organization and coordination to improve the precision and accuracy of the legislative work. One, it issued the Opinions on Establishing and Improving the System of the Working Organs of the Special Committees and the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for the Organization of Preparing the Drafts of Major Laws to strengthen its organization and coordination for the legislative work and give full play to the leading role of the National People’s Congress in the legislative work. Two, it improved the system of soliciting opinions from NPC deputies for preparing law drafts by inviting deputies to participate in the work of making legislative investigations, argumentations, reviews and assessments, and conscientiously heard and adopted opinions and suggestions from NPC deputies to give still better play to the role of the deputies in legislation. Three, it formulated the Norms for the Collection of and Argumentation for Legislation Projects and improved the system for the collection of legislation projects and the work of argumentation to advance the standardization and systematization of the legislative work. Four, it set up a legislative expert committee to give play to the role of legislative experts and advisors. Five, it actively advanced the establishment of contact points for basic level legislation and solicited opinions from four contact points for the drafts of seven laws and the legislative work plan for 2017 so that the legislative work was more closely related with the feelings and conditions of the people at the grassroots. Six, it held the Twenty-second National Symposium on Local Legislation to strengthen its guidance over the local legislative work and further promote the local legislative power of the cities with districts.

(5) The Supervision Work of the NPC Standing Committee

The NPC Standing Committee exercised its power of supervision in 2016, strengthened its supervision and innovated the method of supervision to urge the government, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate to exercise administration by law and administer justice fairly to guarantee that the legitimate rights and interests of the people were earnestly protected and the major policies arrangements made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party were implemented in an all-round way.

——Inspecting the implementation of laws. The NPC Standing Committee inspected the implementation of six laws, including the Food Safety Law, the Work Safety Law, the Road Traffic Safety Law, the Environmental Protection Law, the Water Law and the Law on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements.

The NPC Standing Committee inspected the implementation of the Food Safety Law, by laying emphasis on risk monitoring, risk assessment and classified risk management, the implementation of the relevant laws and systems related to food production and sale to prevent risks and the implementation of the supervisory laws and systems in the whole process, the implementation of the legal responsibility systems and the implementation of the relevant laws and systems for supervision over special foods and the social governance of food safety. As to the implementation of the Work Safety Law, the NPC Standing Committee focused its inspection on the establishment of the work safety system, the publicity to and implementation of the work safety law, the corresponding measures taken by the relevant departments as required by legal supervision, the main problems in work safety and the opinions and suggestions for work safety. As to the implementation of the Road Traffic Safety Law, it focused on law enforcement and supervision over law enforcement, the outstanding problems in road traffic safety and the measures and suggestions for the improvement of the ability to improve road traffic safety. The inspection of the implementation of the Environmental Protection Law focused on the efforts made by local governments and departments to promote progress in the implementation of the law and the systems, and the measures to strengthen supervision over environments, promote the prevention and control of environmental pollution and improve the environmental quality and the main problems in the environments. As to the implementation of the Water Law, the stress was laid on the inspection of the construction of the facilities and investment for farm irrigation and water conservancy, introduction of water-saving irrigation methods and water-saving technologies, protection of water sources and facilities for farm irrigation, participation of collective economic organizations and their members in the construction of farm water conservancy facilities, the reform of the system of property rights to small farm irrigation facilities, and the improvement of the water conservancy service system. When inspecting the implementation of the Law on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological achievements, the NPC Standing Committee focused its attention on the principal role of enterprises strengthened by local governments and departments in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and the measures they took to encourage schools of higher learning and research institutions to transform scientific and research achievements and improve the services provided for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, the use and disposal of scientific and technological achievements and management of the income from them, and the implementation of the law related to awards and remunerations for scientific and research achievements made on jobs, and the main problems pending solutions.

In the course of inspecting the implementation of the six laws, members of the NPC Standing Committee put forward opinions and suggestions for the revision of the relevant laws and the improvement of the work. The State Council and the related departments under the State Council paid special attention to their opinions and suggestions, and adopted corresponding measures to improve their work.

Moreover, in order to strengthen follow-up oversight over the work of the Government and the Supreme Court and Supreme Procuratorate in handling the inspection reports and the opinions and suggestions from NPC Standing Committee members on the reports and the improvements made by the government, court and procuratorate thereafter, and to urge them to solve the outstanding contradictions and problems, the NPC Standing Committee asked them to submit written or oral reports on their follow-up work. Apart from hearing the feedback report from the State Council on handling the inspection report on the implementation of the Food Safety Law and the opinions from NPC Standing Committee members, it also reviewed the feedback reports from the State Council on handling the inspection reports on the implementation of the Vocational Education Law and the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly in 2016.

——Hearing and reviewing special work reports. The NPC Standing Committee heard and reviewed 20 work reports from the State Council, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on the work in economy, finance, environments and judicature in 2016.

One, it heard a report on the implementation of the 2016 National Economic and Social Development Plan, a report on the management of the state-owned assets and the system reform and a report on the work of innovations in agricultural and forestry science and technology from the State Council and firmly advanced the supply-side structural reform to promote the steady and healthy economic and social development and guarantee a good beginning of the Thirteenth Five-Year National Economic and Social Plan.

Two, it heard from the State Council the report on the implementation of the 2016 budget, the work report on the auditing of the implementation of the 2015 central budget and other revenues and expenditures, the report on the 2015 central final accounts, the report on the correction of the problems found in the auditing of the implementation of the 2015 central budget and other revenues and expenditures and the report on deepening the reform of the transfer pay system and reviewed them. It examined and approved the 2015 central final accounts, examined and approved the 2016 central budget adjustment plan submitted by the State Council and promoted the reform of the fiscal and tax system and the related legislative work to ensure that the state funds are well managed and used.

Three, it heard the report from the State Council on the environmental situation and the fulfillment of the targets for environmental protection in 2015 and the report on the construction and management of the natural preservation zones to push forward the comprehensive implementation of the strictest legal system for environmental protection and solve the outstanding environmental problems to which the people had expressed strong negative sentiments and make efforts to promote the green development mode and lifestyle. It was for the first time that the NPC Standing Committee heard and reviewed the annual report on the environmental situation and the fulfillment of the targets for environmental protection in accordance with the provision in Article 27 of the newly revised Environmental Protection Law. It will become a system for the NPC Standing Committee to hear such reports, and urge local governments at all levels to make reports on the annual environmental conditions to the people’s congresses and their standing committees at the same level and the fulfillment of the targets for environmental protection, and accept supervision from people’s congresses and the people.

Four, it heard the report from the Supreme People’s Court on deepening judicial transparency and promoting judicial fairness and the mid-term report on the experiments on the reform of the people’s assessor system, the report from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on strengthening supervision over investigations to safeguard judicial fairness and the mid-term report on the experiments on bringing public interest actions. It strengthened supervision, deepened the reform of the judicial system, supported and pushed forward the orderly proceeding of the experimental work of the reform in the judicial sphere to further strengthen judicial transparency, standardize judicial behaviors, improve the supervision mechanism and improve judicial credibility.

Moreover, the NPC Standing Committee also heard and reviewed the report on the implementation of the decision on the Sixth Five-Year Plan for Wide Publicity to the Judicial System, the report on the work of the reform and development of higher education and the work report on the implementation of the Law on Administration of Entry and Exit.

——Strengthen the implementation of and supervision of the Constitution. One, it comprehensively implemented the system of taking the oath of allegiance to the Constitution. The NPC Standing Committee held six ceremonies of taking the oath of allegiance to the Constitution and organized 23 newly appointed state functionaries to take the oath in 2016. Two, it held a symposium to mark the national Constitution Day. December 4, 2016 was the third national Constitution Day, and General Secretary Xi Jinping made an important instruction on the Exhibition Hall for the 1954 Constitution Historical Data. He stressed that to conduct publicity and education on the Constitution was an important task for the comprehensive governance of the country according to law, it was essential to uphold the organic unity of the leadership of the Party, the people becoming the masters of the country and law-based governance of the country, popularize the knowledge of the Constitution, enhance the sense of the Constitution and carry forward the spirit of the Constitution to promote the implementation of the Constitution. Three, strengthen publicity and education on the Constitution. When it heard the report from the State Council on the implementation of the Sixth Five-Year Plan for the Popularization of the Knowledge of the Law and the relevant proposals, the NPC Standing Committee made the resolution on conducting publicity and education on the Seventh Five-Year Plan for the Popularization of the Knowledge of the Law, requiring organizers to give first place to publicity to the Constitution, conduct publicity and education on the Constitution in the whole society, develop the spirit of the Constitution and establish the authority of the Constitution.

——Promote the work of examining the normative documents filed to the central organs. One, the working organ of the NPC Standing Committee examined 37 administrative regulations and judicial interpretations submitted by the State Council, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate for record one by one. It put forward explicit opinions and suggestions to all these documents whether they had the problem of inconsistency with laws. On the important matters of the revision of the Electoral Law, the implementation of the Budget Law and the reform of the administrative examination and approval system, it chose the relevant local statutes for examination and required the relevant local governments to handle the matters in time when finding inconsistencies with the revised laws. Two, it conscientiously handled suggestions for examination submitted by citizens and organizations. In 2016, the working organ of the NPC Standing Committee handled 92 suggestions, and found one document with inconsistency with the relevant law, and helped the formulating organ to include the revision of the document in the 2017 legislative plan. The feedback work for the examination of suggestions gradually became standard and normal. It gave written feedbacks to 28 citizens who submitted suggestions in 2016. It notified the suggestion makers with conclusions after the NPC Standing Committee finished the examination of the statutes and judicial interpretations within its competency, but transferred the suggestions to other normative documents not within its competency to the relative state organs for handling them. Three, it improved the work mechanism for the examination of filed documents. The working organ of the NPC Standing Committee formulated the Work Rules of the Commission of Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee for the Examination of Statutes and Judicial Interpretations Filed for Record (for trial implementation), and standardized the major links of making communications and consultations with document makers, submitting written opinions and suggestions for correction to promote the systematization and standardization of the work of examining filed documents. The NPC Standing Committee started the construction of the platform for the retrieval of information on filed statutes and put it into operation to make preparations for the electronic filing of statutes.

II. Administration by Law

China continued to make large efforts to exercise administration by law, conscientiously implemented the Implementation Programme for the Construction of Law-based Government (2015-2020), and obtained new achievements in the construction of the law-based government in 2016.

(1)The Legislative Work of the State Council

The State Council submitted thirteen law bills and two resolution drafts to the NPC Standing Committee, requested the NPC Standing Committee to review ten treaties and conventions, formulated and revised eight administrative regulations, and ratified eleven conventions, agreements and protocols.

——Promulgating the Decision of the State Council on Revising Part of the Administrative Regulations. In order to promote the reform of streamlining administration, delegating more powers, improving regulation, and providing better services, the State Council cleaned up the administrative regulations related to the cancellation and adjustment of examination and approval items, the price reform and the universal measures taken to reduce fees, and issued the Decision of the State Council on Revising Part of the Administrative Regulations in February and revised part of the articles and paragraphs of 66 administrative statutes. The State Council cancelled a total of 165 examination and approval matters that the State Council departments and the local government departments they had designated to handle, cleaned up and standardized the examination and approval matters for 192 intermediary services, and the acceptance of 220 professional qualifications.

——Formulating the National Regulations on Social Security Funds. In order to standardize the management and operation of the social security funds throughout the country and strengthen supervision over the social security funds throughout the country to preserve and increase the value of the funds on the premise of guaranteeing their safety, the State Council adopted the National Regulations on Social Security Funds in February, and it became effective as from May 1, 2016. The Regulations make clear that the national social security fund is the national social security reserve fund. It is composed of allocations from the central budget, transfers from state-owned capital, profits from the fund investments and funds raised in other forms approved by the State Council, and is used to supplement or regulate the expenditures for social security at the peak of the aging population. It prescribes explicit provisions on the raising, use, management and operation of the fund and supervision over it.

——Formulating the Regulations on Farm Irrigation and Water Conservancy. In order to accelerate the development of farm irrigation and water conservancy facilities and increase the overall agricultural producing capacity to guarantee the security of the national food grain supply, the State Council adopted the Regulations on Farm Irrigation and Water Conservancy in April, and the Regulations became effective on July 1. The regulations established the principles that should be upheld for the development of the farm irrigation and water conservancy work, prescribed the procedure for the preparation of the plan for irrigation and water conservancy, enacted the corresponding measures for strengthening the construction of the irrigation and water conservancy projects, the operation and maintenance of the projects, the management for farmland irrigation and drainage and absorbing social forces to participate in the construction of farm irrigation and water conservancy projects, and clarified the legal responsibilities of behavior subject for the violation of the regulations.

——Formulating the Regulations on the Administration of Approval and Record for Enterprise Investment Projects. In order to standardize the government behavior of approval and record for enterprise investment projects, accelerate the transfer of the government function of investment management and guarantee the power of the enterprises to make decisions on investment, the State Council issued the Regulations on the Administration of Approval and Record for Enterprise Investment Projects in December, and it took effect as from February 1, 2017. The regulations are the first administrative statue China issued in the field of fixed assets investment. Its main contents are: one, it standardizes the behavior of approval for projects; two, it standardizes the behavior of submitting files for record; three, it strengthens operational and post-operational oversight; four, it provides better services and five, it ascertains responsibilities strictly.

——Revising the Regulations on the Circulation and Preventive Inoculation of Vaccines. Since the regulations became effective in June, 2005, it played an important role in strengthening the management of the circulation and inoculation of vaccines, preventing and controlling the occurrence and prevalence of infectious diseases and protecting the personal health and public health. The State Council revised the regulations in April. Its main changes are: One, it improves the legal system for the sales channel, cold chain storage and transportation of second vaccines; two, it establishes the legal system for the thorough retrospective legal system for vaccines, and three, it increases punishment and accountability for criminal behaviors and ineffective supervision in the circulation and preventive inoculation of vaccines.

——Revising the Customs Inspection Regulations of the People’s Republic of China. In order to meet the requirement for the facilitation of customs clearance for foreign trade at ports, the State Council revised the Customs Inspection Regulations of the People’s Republic of China in June. One, it adds the basic measures to support customs clearance, two, it further standardizes and optimizes the customs clearance procedure, three, it improves the power and measures for customs clearance, and four, it clarifies the principles for the implementation of the policy of combining leniency with severity in incurring punishments for the violations of laws.

——Revising the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on the Management of Radio Operation. Since it became effective in September 1993, the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on the Management of Radio Operation played a positive role in guaranteeing the rational development and utilization of the radio frequency and safeguarding the radio wave order. With the deepening of the reform and the widespread application of the radio technology in all spheres of the social life, the State Council and the Central Military Commission revised the regulations in November to meet the actual need of the radio management work. The main contents of the revised regulations are: One, it covers the management of radio frequencies, the management of radio stations and bases, the management of transmission equipment and the foreign-related radio management. Two, it improves the management system for the effectively development and utilization of the radio frequencies. Three, it reduces and standardizes the administrative examination and approvals for radio. Four, it strengthens the operational and post-operational oversight, and increases punishment for the criminal activities of using “pseudo base stations” for telecommunication frauds.

(2) Administration by Law

——Administrative reconsideration. The State Council received a total of 7,491 applications for administrative reconsideration (including 2,702 applications carried over from the previous year), and concluded 2,409 of them. It filed for the examination of 1,495 applications including cases carried over from the previous year), and concluded 373 of them. It continued to push forward the work of promoting the reform of the administrative reconsideration system and the revision of the Administrative Reconsideration Law, and guided and supervised the administrative reconsideration work throughout the country, put forward the explicit requirement for the improvement of the work of filing cases for administrative reconsideration at the original level, and developed the statistics system for administrative reconsideration and administrative response cases throughout the country.

——Filing regulations and rules for the record. A total of 891 local regulations, autonomous regulations and single regulations were submitted to the State Council for the record by local people’s congresses with legislative power in 2016. The departments of the State Council and the local governments with legislative power submitted 747 rules to the State Council for the record, including 488 rules from local governments and 259 rules from State Council departments. The Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council laid emphasis on the examination of the rules and regulations submitted by cities and autonomous prefectures with newly acquired legislative power, and made special examination of the department rules already filed for record in relation to the reform of “delegating power, improving regulation and providing better services”.

——Implementing the Implementation Programme for the Construction of A Law-based Government (2015-2020). After the programme was published, the Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council gave positive publicity to the programme, and travelled to Jiangsu and Guangdong to urge the local governments to implement the programme and called meetings of the departments under the State Council for the same purpose.

——Construction of the arbitration system. The Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council further improved the system of submitting statistics on the acceptance of cases by arbitration organs, established the system of submitting reports on the violation of laws and discipline in handling arbitration cases and the correction of wrong arbitral rulings by judicial organs, and improved the system of election of new leaderships of arbitration commissions and the review system. It actively coordinated relevant departments to formulate policies and measures for the development of the arbitration work. The Ministry of Justice formulated and issued the Opinions on Standardizing and Strengthening the Management of the Registration of Arbitration Organs to improve the credibility of arbitration. At the same time, it included the “formulation of and organization of the implementation of the Provisions on the Management of the Registration of Arbitration Organs” in the power and responsibility list of the Ministry of Justice, published it on the Web of the Central Institutional Organization Commission. The establishment of arbitration organs is defined as an administrative examination and approval matter exercised by provincial judicial and administrative organs.

——The reform of the relatively concentrated administrative licensing power. Since the Central Institutional Organization Commission and the Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council jointly issued the Circular on the Distribution of the Plan for the Work of Experiment on the Relatively Concentrated Administrative Licensing Power, the country started a new round of the reform of the relatively concentrated administrative licensing power. The relevant reform in the experimental zones of Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan and Guizhou was deepened on the original basis. In the current round of the reform, most of the experimental zones established independent “administrative examination and approval bureaus”, and greatly reduced the number of examination and approval matters, and cut down the number of organs and personnel for examination and approval, and improved the efficiency to a certain degree and explored to establish the list of division between power and responsibility for supervision.

III. Judicature, Prosecution, Public Security

And Judicial Administration

(1) Judicature

The Supreme People’s Court accepted 22,742 cases and concluded 20,151 cases in 2016, 42.3% and 42.6% respectively more than in the previous year. The local courts at all levels accepted 23.03 million cases, tried, executed and concluded 19.772 million cases with a subject amounting to 4,980 billion yuan, 18%, 18.3% and 23.1% respectively more than in the previous year.

——Trying criminal trials. The courts at all levels tried and closed 1.116 million criminal cases of first instance, and sentenced 1.22 million criminals in 2016. They severely punished the crime of endangering the state security. They tried and closed the cases of Zhou Shifeng and others for subverting the state power, and increased punishment to violence, terror, cult and other crimes. They severely punished corruption and bribery and tried and closed 45,000 cases of corruption and bribery, involving 63,000 persons. They provided judicial services for poverty alleviation, and firmly punished the crime of corruption and embezzlement of funds allocated for helping the poor by trying and closing 15,000 cases. They strengthened the work of cracking down on the Mafia-type organizations and evil forces by trying and closing 226,000 criminal cases of homicide, robbery, kidnapping and theft. They punished the drug-related crimes by trying and closing 118,000 cases. They tried and closed 23,000 cases of insider trading and financing frauds. They severely punished the crime of infringing on the rights and interests of women and children by trying and closing 5,335 criminal cases of kidnapping and sexually assaulting women and children and 213 criminal cases of bullying or humiliating people in schools. They severely punished telecommunication and cyber crimes by trying and closing 1,726 cases. The Supreme People’s Court tried Nie Shubin’s intentional homicide and rape case and changed his verdict to innocence.

——Trying civil and commercial cases. The courts at all levels tried and closed 6.738 million civil cases of first instance in 2016, 8.2% more than in the previous year. Among them, there were 1.752 million marriage and family cases, 475,000 labour dispute cases and 29,000 cases for the protection of the rights and interests of consumers. The courts at all levels tried and closed 4.026 million commercial cases of first instance, 20.3% more than in the previous year. Among them, there were 1.248 million dispute cases in relation to equity, securities, futures, bills and insurance, 3,373 bankruptcy cases, 255,000 real estate dispute cases and 318,000 cases involving the separation of the three rights of the rural land in the reform.

——Administrative trials and state compensation. The courts at all levels tried and closed 225,000 administrative cases of first instances, 13.2% more than in the previous year. The Supreme People’s Court strengthened the construction of the trans-regional courts in Beijing and Shanghai and promoted concentrated jurisdiction over administrative cases in alien places. It encouraged responsible persons of administrative organs to appear in court sessions in response. The courts at all levels tried and closed 5,812 state compensation cases.

——Execution work. The courts at all levels accepted 6.149 million execution cases and concluded 5.079 million execution cases in 2016, 31.6% and 33.1% respectively more than in the previous year, with the amount of the subject totaling 1,500 billion yuan, 54% more than in the previous year. The Supreme People’s Court joined with the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, the People’s Bank of China, the Securities Regulatory Commission in establishing the check and control network system to solve the problem of difficulty in execution. The courts promoted the online judicial auction and held more than 430,000 auctions with the amount of transactions coming to more than 270 billion yuan. It initiated the construction of “Honest China” and united with the State Reform and Development Commission and more than 40 other central departments in signing a cooperation memorandum of understanding on punishment to create an honesty and punishment situation in which “dishonesty once leads to restriction everywhere”. The courts published a total of 6.89 million pieces of information on dishonest persons subject to punishment and adopted disciplinary measures for 8.57 million men times. The courts sentenced 16,000 persons to judicial detention, and investigated the criminal responsibilities of 2,167 persons for refusing to execute judgements.

——Registration for letters and visits and supervision over trials. The courts at all levels tried and closed 179,702 cases for appeals and applications for retrials, and brought 33,890 retrial cases according to law in 2016. They strengthened supervision over trials, and changed verdicts for 11,055 cases from among the retried cases closed in 2016 for errors in original judgements or for other reasons, accounting for 0.09% of the effective judgements. The courts at all levels accelerated the construction of litigation service centres, and made full use of the litigation service networks, APP, and the 12368 hotline to provide omnidirectional and three-dimensional litigation service to the parties. The Supreme People’s Court explored to establish electronic courts and online tribunals and other intelligent service platforms, streamlined the filing procedures. It introduced online filing and circuit filing, and the on-line filing percentage of the courts throughout the country exceeded 95%. They strengthened the work of online appeals and video receptions.

(2) Prosecution

——Performing the functions of approving arrests and prosecution. The procuratorial organs throughout the country approved the arrest of 828,618 criminal suspects of all categories and prosecuted 1,402,463 persons. They firmly safeguarded state security and deepened the struggle against secession, infiltration, subversion and cult. They severely punished serious criminal offences and cracked down on the crimes of organizing and leading terrorist organizations and spread audio-video of violence and terror, prosecuted 65,076 persons for the serious crimes of intentional homicide, rape, and arson, prosecuted 1,106 persons for the crime of organizing Mafia-type groups, and prosecuted 399,708 persons for the crimes of robbery, seizure and theft. They severely punished television and cyber fraud crimes, and cooperated with the Ministry of Public Security in supervising the handling of 62 major cases, including the Xu Yuyu case and approved the arrest of 19,345 criminal suspects for telecommunication and cyber frauds. They earnestly safeguarded security in school camps and joined with the Ministry of Education in issuing the Guiding Opinions on Preventing Primary and Secondary Children from being bullied and attacked by violence, and prosecuted 4,604 persons for using serious violence in schools and prosecuted 678 persons for instigating and inducing school children to commit crimes. They punished the crimes committed in hospitals, and launched special actions with the Ministry of Public Security and the State Public Health and Family Planning Commission to prosecute 3,308 persons for injuring doctors and other hospital staff and stirring up troubles in hospitals, and exercised supervision on handling 30 major cases related to hospital. They severely punished the crime of endangering the safety of foods and drugs, and suggested the transfer of 1,591 suspected criminal cases from the food and drug administrations, and prosecuted 11,958 persons for endangering the safety of foods and drugs. They protected the legitimate rights and interests of minors, women, aged persons and disabled people, and prosecuted 16,078 persons for sexually assaulting and kidnapping minors, and prosecuted 2,663 for infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of persons in rural areas and 24,061 persons for infringing the personal rights and interests of women, and 34,709 persons for infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly, and prosecuted 4,750 persons for infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of the disabled. They deepened the comprehensive control and improvement of the social order on the part of the procuratorial work, and prosecuted 210,325 persons for pornography, gambling and drug-related crimes, 1,405 persons for the crimes of maltreatment, abandonment and bigamy and 5,134 persons for the crimes of family violence. They resolutely combated ill-intentional back pay and prosecuted 2,135 persons for refusing to pay labor remunerations.

——Guaranteeing the steady and healthy development of the economy. They positively served the implementation of the major state strategy and strengthened judicial cooperation with countries and regions along One Belt and One Road and gave prominence to the punishment and prevention of crimes that occurred in the fields of infrastructure facilities and the construction of economic and trade cooperative industrial zones. The procuratorial organs made efforts to prevent financial risks, prominently punished the economic crimes of raising funds from residents illegally and Internet financial crimes, and prosecuted 16, 406 persons for fund raising frauds. They strengthened the judicial protection of property rights and persisted in provide equal protection and formulated the Eighteen Opinions to guarantee and promote the development of the nonpublic economy and the Twenty-two Opinions to strengthen the judicial protection of property rights, and prosecuted 13,629 persons for infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of the nonpublic businesses and persons operating nonpublic economy. They filed cases for the investigation of 1,009 criminal cases of infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of nonpublic businesses. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate formulated the Fifteen Opinions to guarantee scientific and technological innovations and prosecuted 21,505 persons to punish the crimes of infringing on intellectual property rights. They punished the crime of endangering work safety and prosecuted 2,635 persons for major responsibility accidents and investigated the responsibility of 814 officials for the crime of malfeasance that caused the accidents.

——Investigating and preventing duty crimes. The procuratorial organs filed cases for the investigation of the duty crimes of 47,650 persons, including 2,882 former officials at the county level, and 446 officials at the departmental or bureau level. They investigated and handled 17,410 “fly grafters” in the fields of the livelihood of the people, including land requisition for demolition and resettlements, social security and funds for agriculture, the rural areas and peasants. They investigated and handled 10,472 persons for the crime of accepting bribes and 7,375 persons for giving bribes. They investigated and handled 11,916 persons for the crimes of malfeasance and tort through dereliction of duty and abuse of power. They investigated and handled the duty crimes related to cheating in the elections in Liaoning Province. They made intensive investigations of the crime of corruption behind judicial injustice and handled 8,703 administrative law enforcers and 2,183 judicial officials suspected of committing duty crimes. They cracked down on the duty crimes in the field of poverty alleviation and investigated 1,892 persons for duty crimes. They strengthened the work of preventing duty crimes at sources. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate cooperated with the China Postal Group Corporation to popularize the experience of Jiangsu Province “the Postal Road for Preventing Duty Crimes”. The procuratorial organs throughout the country put forward 11,172 procuratorial suggestions in the light of the outstanding problems found in handling cases. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate relied on the people to investigate and handle duty crimes, aroused and encouraged the initiative of individuals and units to make real-name reports, and joined with the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Finance in issuing Some Provisions on Protecting and Encouraging People to Report Duty Crimes.

——Strengthening supervision over judicial activities. They strengthened legal supervision over litigious activities and urged investigative organs to file 14,650 cases, arrested and prosecuted 43,960 persons additionally, and supervised the correction of 34,230 law violations in obtaining evidences, applying compulsory measures and extorting confessions by torture. They protested against 3,282 effective civil and administrative judgements and mediation papers with real mistakes and put forward 2,851 suggestions for retrials, and made 13,254 procuratorial suggestions against law violations in civil and administrative trial procedures and 20,505 procuratorial suggestions for civil executions. They upheld the principles of prescribed punishment for specified crimes and innocence in doubtful cases, and made efforts to improve the long-term mechanisms for reporting the discovery of framed-up and wrong cases, examination guidance, supervision over corrections and accountability for compensations. They made concentrated efforts to clean up real sentences that were not executed, found 11,379 such sentenced persons, supervised the correction for 6,381 of them and 5,062 persons were put into prison again. They verified all cases related to the property penalty sentenced by people’s courts since 2013, and supervised the execution of the sentences that were not yet executed or that were not yet finished, put forward 3,172 written correction opinions and 11,897 procuratorial suggestions. They continued to supervise the correction of the cases that had been held without decisions for a long time, and finished the correction of all cases involving 4,459 persons held without conclusion for three or more years found in 2013. They strengthened the examination of the necessity of detention and put forward suggestions for release or change of compulsory measures for 42,159 persons. They continued to supervise the correction of illegal commutation, parole and temporary service outside prison, and supervised the correction of improper requests for 23,831 persons and the correction of improper rulings or decisions for 3,703 persons. They urged the correction of escapes from control for 8,477 persons. They strengthened supervision over false civil lawsuits, put forward opinions on supervision for 2,017 “false lawsuits” in private lending and enterprise bankruptcy, and filed cases for the investigation of 146 cases of duty crimes involved in the false lawsuits.

(3) Judicial Interpretations and Guiding Cases

The Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly issued three judicial interpretations in 2016. The Supreme People’s Court issued 26 judicial interpretations separately, including seven criminal judicial interpretations, eleven civil judicial interpretations, one administrative judicial interpretation and ten other judicial interpretations, and issued 21 guiding cases. The judicial interpretations and guiding cases played a positive role in the correct implementation of the laws.

——Giving guidance to handling major and complicated issues in the work of criminal justice. The Supreme People’s Court issued the Interpretation concerning Some Issues on the Application of the Law to Hearing Drug Criminal Cases in April to punish drug crimes according to law. It and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly issued the Interpretation concerning Some Issues on the Application of the Law to Handling Criminal Cases of Corruption and Bribery in April to punish the crime of corruption and bribery. The Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly issued the Interpretation concerning Some Issues on the Application of the Law to Handling Criminal Cases of Illegal Mining and Destructive Mining in November to punish illegal mining and destructive mining. The Supreme People’s Court issued the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court concerning Some Issues on the Specific Application of the Law to Hearing Criminal Cases of Practicing Medicine Illegally in December to punish practicing medicine illegally and guarantee the health and life of citizens. It issued the Interpretation concerning Some Issues on the Concrete Application of the Law to Hearing Criminal Cases of Kidnapping and Selling Women and Children to punish the crime of kidnapping and selling women and children and guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of women and children. It and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly issued the Interpretation concerning Some Issues on the Application of the Law to Handling Criminal Cases of Environmental Pollution to punish the crime of environmental pollution.

——Giving guidance to handling the new circumstances and new issues properly in the fields of economic and social development and the livelihood of the people. The Supreme People’s Court issued the Interpretation concerning Some Issues on the Application of the Property Law of the People’s Republic of China (1) in February to guarantee the property rights and the security and efficiency of the market transactions. The Supreme People’s Court issued the Interpretation concerning Some Issues on the Application of the Law to Hearing Cases of Consumer Civil Public Interest Litigation in April. It contains provisions on the application of the law to hearing cases of consumer civil public interest litigation and the protection of legitimate rights and interests of consumers to the maxim. The Supreme People’s Court issued the Written Reply on the Issue of the Relevant Procedure for the Cases of Personal Safety Protection Order in July to provide protection to the victims of family violence. The Supreme People’s Court issued the Provisions concerning Some Issues on Hearing Cases of Disputes over Independent Letter of Guarantee in November to guide the courts at all levels to correctly hear cases of disputes over independent letter of guarantee and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the parties.

——Giving guidance to the new circumstances and new issues in the fields of administrative litigation a