Lawmakers draw up plan for key topics

Top legislature requires deputies to collect opinions from all walks of life

Thirty-five legislative items, including on national security, financial stability and livelihood, are scheduled to be reviewed this year to promote high-quality development in the new era, according to China's top legislature.

The items have been listed in the 2023 legislation plan that was disclosed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislative body, on its website recently.

Of the total, three items have already been accomplished. In March, the NPC adopted an amendment to the Legislation Law, and in April the NPC Standing Committee passed a law on ecological conservation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and a revision to the Counter-Espionage Law.

In the following months, the NPC Standing Committee will review multiple draft laws concerning the economy, such as those on value-added tax, tariffs and financial stability, with deliberation on a draft amendment to the Corporation Law, to help build a high-level socialist market economic system, according to the plan.

It revealed that legislators will advance high-quality growth in livelihood and security fields, preparing to amend a law on the popularization of science and technology, and to formulate laws on preschool education, academic degrees, atomic energy and food security.

"The legislation plan was made after soliciting opinions. It aims to improve a legal system that can strengthen State governance, meet the public's ever-growing demand for a better life and safeguard national security," Legal Daily quoted Yang Heqing, an official from the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission, as saying.

Highlighting the importance of implementing the Constitution and upholding the whole-process people's democracy approach in legislation, Yang told the paper that the plan focuses on legislative affairs in major, emerging and foreign-related areas.

Draft laws on foreign State immunity and external relations have been included in the plan, which shows that both will be submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for review late this month.

The plan requires lawmakers to make full use of grassroots-level stations to collect legislative opinions from all walks of life, increasing communication with residents and learning their demands, in a bid to solve their difficulties by legislation.

It also calls for upholding the spirit and authority of the Constitution, stressing that the process of formulating and amending laws must not contradict the Constitution, the country's fundamental law.

A few legislative items involving public health, a prominent issue in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, are also in the plan.

The NPC Standing Committee said in the plan that it will research 25 legislative items, such as real estate registration and prevention of online and telecom crimes, with the endeavor to help create a sound business environment, ensure fair competition, optimize the fiscal budget and promote social insurance.

Whether the 25 items can be submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for review this year will depend on the results of the research, according to the plan.