II. We focused on the key task of improving the quality of legislation and gave full play to the guiding and motivating role of legislation.

Legislation is an important function and power and a major task of the NPC and its Standing Committee. The Standing Committee has given top priority to improving the quality of legislation, highlighted legislative priorities, accelerated the pace of legislative work, and improved the mechanisms for and effectiveness of legislation. Over the past year, we have deliberated on 20 drafts of laws, revised 10 laws, enacted 2 laws, and issued 8 legal interpretations.

1. We have made new progress on a number of major legislative items.

The Environmental Protection Law is a fundamental and comprehensive law regarding the environment. On the basis of conducting in-depth research and broadly soliciting opinions, the Standing Committee approved comprehensive revisions to this law after deliberating, four times, on draft revisions. This was the first time this law has been revised since it was officially put into effect 25 years ago. In response to both general and prominent problems regarding environmental protection, revisions to this law have further clarified the government’s supervisory functions and responsibilities; improved the systems for establishing ecological red lines, controlling the total amount of pollutants discharged, and making joint efforts across administrative areas to prevent and control pollution; strengthened the responsibility of enterprises for preventing and controlling pollution; established systems for releasing environmental information, facilitating public participation in pollution control, and filing public interest litigation; and strengthened accountability and administered harsher punishment for violations of the environmental law. The revised Environmental Protection Law also stipulates that people’s governments at and above the county level shall report to people’s congresses or their standing committees at their respective levels on environmental conditions and the fulfillment of environmental protection targets every year.

Administrative litigation, a system by which people bring the government to court, involves the exercise of government power and the protection of citizens’ rights. In response to the new requirements of the new conditions, the Standing Committee made important revisions to the Administrative Procedures Law, which was the first time this law has been revised since it was enacted and put into effect 24 years ago. In revising the Law, we paid great attention to the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, legal persons, and other organizations, and helped to promote the law-based exercise of administrative power and impartial administration of justice. With a focus on resolving major difficulties in the filing and trial of administrative litigation and in the enforcement of court rulings, we improved the administrative litigation system by expanding the scope of administrative litigation cases that can be filed, opening up the channels for filing such litigation, making adjustments to jurisdiction over such cases, and standardizing administrative litigation procedures, all of which helped to better solve administrative disputes.

The Legislation Law is an important law that concerns China’s legislative system and legislative work. To satisfy the requirements for improving the legislative system and ensuring effective and democratic legislation, the Standing Committee promptly started work on revising the Legislation Law. We revised and improved the law with regard to a number of areas, such as giving full play to the leading role of people’s congresses in making laws, improving delegated legislation, and endowing all cities divided into districts with legislative powers. After holding two deliberations, the Standing Committee has submitted the draft revisions of the Legislation Law to this session of the NPC for consideration.

In addition, the Standing Committee formulated the Waterway Law, revised the Military Facilities Protection Law, and deliberated on the draft revisions of the Food Safety Law, the Advertising Law, and the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law, the draft Amendment IX to the Criminal Law, and draft revisions to the Law on Promoting the Application of Scientific and Technological Advances.