Legislators on Draft Amendments to Customs LawA Chinese lawmaker Thursday proposed that the country's Customs departments should strike harder against the smuggling of pornographic products, saying that they are as harmful as opium to people's minds.Pang Xianzhi, a member of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, China's top legislature, made the remark on revising the draft amendments to the Customs Law at the ongoing 15th session of the Ninth NPC. He said that those spiritual products should be listed as major targets by Customs offices. Li Peng, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, attended today 's meeting. Legislators affirmed the great achievements made by Customs in the fight against smuggling, but also expressed their concerns over a series of individual cases which were recently uncovered involving huge sums of money. Legislator Li Yining said that a reasonable mechanism should be established within Customs in order to ensure both adequate supervision and efficiency. Yang Xingfu, another lawmaker, further elaborated that since the law has endowed Customs directors with great power, a corresponding restrain mechanism should be build. He suggested that collectives, instead of the individuals, should be endowed with the power to make important decisions. Some other legislators pointed out that a series of corruption cases at some localities indicate that the supervision mechanisms within Customs offices are far from effective in curbing corruption. They suggested that departments concerned make in-depth analyses of these cases so as to sum up experiences and prevent their reoccurrence. |
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