NPC plans amendments to Criminal Law to cover private firms

Corruption in private enterprises will be further combated in line with a draft amendment law, so that legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs can be better protected, an official from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, said on Friday.

Zang Tiewei, spokesman of the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission, told a news conference that a draft amendment to the Criminal Law is planning to expand a few criminal charges of State-owned employees to those working for private companies. Such charges include illegally making profits for friends or relatives, discounting stocks at low prices and selling assets of the enterprise.

"The expansion aims to prevent employees of private enterprises from taking illegal measures to damage the firms' interests, with stronger protection for entrepreneurs," he said. "It's also to provide legal basis for private companies to fight corruption effectively."

The draft amendment will be submitted for review at a session of NPC Standing Committee, which is scheduled to be held in Beijing from Monday to Friday, he added.

Zang said that optimizing the anti-corruption measures is important this time because the corrupt behaviors have been more frequently seen in private enterprises, and a number of national lawmakers and political advisors have also made relevant suggestions.

In addition, the draft will further specify circumstances in which people offering bribes should be harshly penalized, in order to implement the central leadership's requirement on combating both bribe-receivers and bribe-givers, he added.

In the next week's session, NPC Standing Committee will also review draft revisions to the Organic Law of the State Council, the Company Law and the Charity Law, with discussion on draft laws on food security, emergency response and management, and rural economic collectives.

Draft revision to the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law, along with draft decision on improving the system for recording and reviewing normative documents, have also been put on the session's agenda.

Furthermore, lawmakers will review multiple reports, including those on China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for National Economic and Social Development and NPC deputy qualifications, during the session.