Chinese Legislature to Review 13 Laws

The Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, convened its 18th session Monday.

Li Peng, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over today's meeting.

During the nine-day session, Chinese lawmakers are expected to review 13 draft laws or existing laws to be revised, including amendments to the marriage law and laws concerning foreign investment in China.

Shi Guangsheng, minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, gave a presentation on draft amendments to the laws on Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures, Chinese-foreign cooperative ventures and solely foreign funded ventures in China.

The draft abolishes some limitations in purchasing and exports imposed on the above-mentioned enterprises, in a bid to facilitate China's impending accession to the World Trade Organization, Shi said.

The heatedly debated marriage law amendment was also submitted to the meeting for deliberation. The draft proposed a total of 23 amendments to the Marriage Law of 1980, which include some measures to tackle the increasingly serious social issues of bigamy and domestic violence.

According to a recent national survey conducted by the All-China Women's Federation, people across China are seriously concerned about issues of bigamy, extra-marital affairs and divorce, and 91.6 percent of Chinese citizens back the revision of the present marriage law.

The International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, one of the two United Nations human rights conventions signed by the Chinese government, was also up for deliberation and ratification. The other convention, which is on the political and civil rights of citizens, is currently under scrutiny by Chinese government departments concerned.

Other law drafts tabled before the lawmakers today were:

-- a draft regulation on Internet security and information security.

-- three pieces of legislation on taxation, regional autonomy of ethnic minorities and improvement in the nation's "people's jury system."

-- four draft laws previously deliberated, on the national written and spoken language, fishing industry, extradition, and the protection of the interests of returned overseas Chinese.



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