China to Intensify Supervision over CustomsChina's top legislature has vowed to stamp out smuggling by increasing the power of customs and to stop corrupt activities of customs officials by supervising them more closely.Zhou Keyu, a vice-chairman of the National People's Congress ( NPC) Law Committee, delivered the message in a report on the revision of the Law on Customs to the 15th meeting of the NPC Standing Committee, which opened Tuesday in Beijing. Many NPC Standing Committee members want to add a clause in the draft which says: "Customs and their staff should accept supervision by supervisory departments when they conduct their administrative law-enforcement; anti-smuggle police should accept supervision by people's procuratorates when they conduct investigations." Another suggested clause reads: "Auditing departments conduct auditing and supervision on the financial income and expenditure of customs in accordance with law, and have the right to carry out special auditing and investigation on matters that are related to the financial income and expenditure of the State." Zhou said the NPC Law Committee and the Commission of Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee had sent investigation teams to Guangdong, Yunnan and Hainan provinces to gather suggestions from official departments and foreign trade companies. It is imperative that the existing customs law be revised to meet the needs of China's further opening up to the rest of the world, setting up a modern customs system, cracking down on smuggling, and ensuring the healthy development of the socialist market economy, he said. The NPC law committee proposed that an anti-smuggling public security department be set up in the General Administration of Customs, which will be composed of special anti-smuggling police. If necessary, the customs anti-smuggling public security department could ask public security departments of the State Council to direct and coordinate other police forces to help deal with smuggling cases, the committee proposed. |
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