Progress in China's Human Rights in 2014

II.

Rights of the Person

In 2014 China strengthened supervision over foodstuffs, improved laws and regulations on production safety, combated terrorism according to law, attached more importance to protecting the rights of the accused, detainees and criminals, and stepped up drug-control efforts to protect citizens' personal rights.

Stricter supervision over food safety. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) deliberated the revised draft of the Food Safety Law, which enhances the supervision of the whole process in this field from food production and circulation to catering services, and food import and export, sets up a food-traceability system and a quality labeling system, and increases the penalties for violations of food safety to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers in accordance with the law.

In March 2014 the Supreme People' s Court put into effect the Provisions of Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Food and Drug Disputes, increasing efforts to crack down on crimes endangering food and drug safety. People's courts at all levels concluded a total of 11,000 related cases in that year. In March 2014 the Food Safety Office of the State Council, China Food and Drug Administration and State Administration for Industry and Commerce, jointly issued the Notice on Cracking Down on Illegal Acts of Making and Selling Counterfeit and Poor-quality Food, and Strengthening Supervision of Rural Food Markets, launching a special campaign to address problems in the rural food markets such as doing business without a license, and selling and using food and foodstuffs from illegal sources. During this nationwide campaign, the competent departments inspected food producers 424,200 times, food sellers 3,868,800 times, wholesale markets and pedlers' markets 142,900 times, spot-checked these markets 253,600 times, banned 22,800 unlicensed businesses according to law, revoked 1,142 licenses for food production and marketing, cancelled 642 business licenses, destroyed 1,375 counterfeit and poor-quality food-producing workshops, checked and confiscated 361,900 kg of foodstuffs that violated trademark laws, investigated and prosecuted 45,100 cases of foodstuffs illegality, and handled 46,800 related complaints and reports from consumers.

Improvement of work safety laws and regulations. In August 2014 the Standing Committee of the NPC approved the Decision on Amending the Work Safety Law, which enhances regulations, mechanisms and measures concerning standardization, planning, liability insurance, responsibility of management organizations and public announcement of serious breaches of the law in the field of work safety. The Decision has helped raise awareness of work safety, strengthen responsibility for law enforcement and supervision, and routine checks and supervision, both overt and covert, to curb violators. In 2014, 453,000 work safety inspection groups conducted 2,342,000 inspections of production and business units, dealing with 1,278,000 incidences of violations, halting the operations of 7,745 such units for rectification and shutting down over 5,000 units. The government strengthened rectification of safety risks, made known to the public all enterprises posing major risks, meted out punitive measures to them such as rectification within deadlines, suspending production for rectification, imposing a fine or shutting down the business completely. The accountability system has been strengthened, and work safety incidents have been thoroughly dealt with. The average time spent on dealing with major and extremely serious safety incidents in 2014 was shortened to 113 days from 123 days in 2013. All the 51 major and extremely serious safety incidents occurred in 2013 have been dealt with, and 38 out of 42 such incidents occurred in 2014 have been dealt with, with 969 persons called to account and 302 of them held criminally liable.