Li Peng Making Report on Work of 9th NPC Standing Committee

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 10, 2003

Li Peng Making Report on Work of 9th NPC Standing Committee

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Li Peng Making Report on Work of 9th NPC Standing Committee

Li Peng, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), is delivering a report on the work of the 9th NPC Standing Committee at the third plenary meeting of the First Session of the 10th NPC Monday morning.

A Constitution-based socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has initially taken form thanks to the efforts of the Standing Committee of the Ninth NPC, said outgoing Chinese top legislator Li.

Over the past five years the Ninth NPC and its Standing Committee, China's top legislature, has deliberated a total of 124 draft laws, judicial interpretations and decisions on legal issuesand promulgated 113 of them, said Ninth NPC Standing Committee chairman Li Peng.

Li elaborated on how laws have been made or revised in seven major legal categories, namely constitutional, civil and commercial, administrative, economic, social, criminal and litigation and non-litigation procedure laws.

Li said the second session of the Ninth NPC in 1999 passed an amendment to the Constitution, writing Deng Xiaoping Theory and the principle of governing the country according to law into the Constitution.

The enacted law on rural land contracting in particular codified and safeguarded Chinese farmers' right to long and stableuse of land, he said, adding that a systematic and comprehensive civil law has been drafted and tabled to the lawmakers for first round of deliberation.

Li said the Ninth NPC Standing Committee has enacted a law encouraging the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and the Governmental Procurement Law, revised a series of other laws on trade and intellectual property right protection in compliance with the rules of the World Trade Organization.

China has set the objective of establishing a complete socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics by 2010.

Major progress in NPC's supervisory work

The 9th NPC Standing Committee has attached equal importance to both supervisory and legislative work and made much progress, said Li Peng, chairman of the 9th NPC Standing Committee.

"Over the past five years," he said in his report on the work of the 9th NPC Standing Committee to the ongoing first session of the 10th NPC Monday morning, "the NPC Standing Committee has checked the enforcement of 22 laws and legal decisions, and heard and deliberated 40 special work reports by the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate."

Checking up on law enforcement and hearing and deliberating work reports of the State Council and the supreme court and procuratorate are the two basic ways for the NPC Standing Committee to exercise supervision, Li noted.

The check up on the enforcement of the agriculture law and the criminal procedure law have helped promote the development of agriculture and rural economy and discovered a number of common problems and typical cases, he added.

Apart from hearing and deliberating the central government's budget and audit reports and the State reports on plans at the annual NPC full sessions, the 9th NPC Standing Committee also heard and deliberated a number of additional reports submitted by the State Council concerning the country's reform, opening up and economic development, said Li.

The Standing Committee has also intensified efforts to monitor the central government's budget implementation and economic work, and make regular analysis of the country's economic situation, he added.

The NPC Standing Committee has always focused its supervisory work on major issues relating to reform, development and stability,as well as issues of great public concern, said Li.

The NPC Standing Committee has also made its supervisory activities part of its efforts to improve the existing laws, he said.

Ninth NPC Standing Committee active in parliamentary diplomacy

The Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) has been active in establishing and enhancing ties with foreign parliaments, said Li Peng.

Over the past five years, the Ninth NPC Standing Committee, China's top legislature, has received more than 440 delegations from foreign parliaments, and their visits have helped increase their understanding of China, said Li Peng in his report on the work of the Ninth NPC Standing Committee to the third plenary meeting of the first session of the 10th NPC.

He said NPC has deepened its relations with congresses of neighboring countries and expanded friendly ties with congresses of other developing countries, adding that it has maintained a high-level exchange of visits with parliaments of Russia and othermembers of the Commonwealth of Independent States and has set up regular communication mechanisms with congresses of various developed countries like the United States and France.

Li said that the Ninth NPC Standing Committee has taken an active part in multilateral parliamentary diplomatic activities.

He said during the Conference of Presiding Officers of NationalParliaments in 2000, the Chinese delegation won widespread approval when it urged congresses across the world to actively promote the process of multi-polarization and economic globalization.

The 9th NPC Standing Committee hosted the third annual session of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace, the Seventh General Assembly of the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development and the 3rd Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians' Conference on Environment and Development, he added.

People's congress system must continue

The top legislature said that the system of people's congressis a political system of fundamental importance in ensuring the prosperity and long-term peace and stability of the country and must continue for a long time to come.

"The work experiences of the NPC Standing Committee over the past five years have made us see more clearly that the people's congress system is a fundamental political system best suited to China's actual conditions," said Li in his report.

Li said that NPC and its Standing Committee should conscientiously accept the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and implement to the letter and in spirit the Party's policies and guidelines while performing their duties according to law.

"We should translate CPC's guidelines into the will of the State through legal procedures, and take concrete steps to better integrate the upholding of CPC leadership with the efforts to make people true masters of the country and governing the country according to law," he said.

"This is the most important political principle we must stick to in the work of people's congresses, as well as the most fundamental political guarantee for the success of our work," he stressed.

Li pointed out that NPC is exercising the supreme power of the state on behalf of the entire people, and must, therefore, attach the utmost importance to safeguarding the fundamental interests ofthe overwhelming majority of the people and must conscientiously subject itself to the supervision by the people.

He went on to say that the people's congresses must correctly handle their relations with the governments, people's courts and people's procuratorates, performing their roles well in supervising the governments, people's courts and people's procuratorates, he added.

He also stressed the necessity for the people's congresses to display the pioneering spirit and creativity in theoretical and institutional innovations with regard to the work of people's congresses so as to live up to the expectations of the people.

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