Preface

　　In 2017, China continued to adhere to the principle of managing the country in accordance with the law, and the new achievements and progress have been made in all areas of the construction of the rule of law:adhered to scientific legislation, democratic legislation, legislation in accordance with the law, focused on strengthening legislation in key areas, and the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics has been further improved; deepened the promotion of administration according to law, strengthened the restriction and supervision of power, and the law enforcement has become more strict, fair and civilized;solidly promoted the justice for the people and impartial justice, comprehensively deepened the reform of judicial system, and obviously increased the quality, efficiency, and credibility of the judiciary; further implemented the publicity and education on the rule of law, focused on strengthening the use of new media and new technologies, and the concept of the rule of law of the public has been significantly strengthened; further improved the legal education system and mechanism, prospered and innovated the development of jurisprudence, and achieved remarkable results in the construction of socialist legal culture with Chinese characteristics and the cultivation of legal talents; continued to strengthen and improved the leadership of the Party in administering the country in a comprehensive manner, made effort to strengthen the construction of the party's internal laws and regulations, and made a overall progress in administering the country according to law and promoting the party in accordance with the rule.

　　In October, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held. This congress has confirmed "keeping the rule of law in a comprehensive and legal manner" as one of the basic strategies for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, emphasized that "to fully govern the country according to law is a profound revolution in the governance of the country, it is thus necessary to uphold the rule of law, and promote scientific legislation, strict law enforcement, impartial justice, and compliance with the law by the whole people", and further made full arrangements for deepening the practice of governing the country according to law, including: Establishing a central leading group for comprehensively governing the country in accordance with the law, and strengthen unified leadership over the construction of the country under the rule of law. Developing the Socialist Theory of the Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics, strengthening the implementation and supervision of the constitution, advancing the review of constitutionality and safeguard the constitutional authority. Carrying forward scientific legislation, democratic legislation and legislation according to law, promoting development with good laws, and guarantee good governance. Establishing a government under the rule of law, promote legal administration, and strictly regulating fair and civilized law enforcement. Deepening the comprehensive reform of the judicial system, fully implementing the judicial responsibility system, and striving to make the people feel fair and just in every judicial case. Intensifying legal popularization to the public, create a socialist legal culture, and establishing a concept of the rule of law where the constitutional law is supreme and everyone is equal before the law.

　　The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has painted a magnificent blueprint for China’s development to the middle of this century, opened a new journey to build a socialist modernized nation, and started a new era of China's legal construction. Looking to the future, China will surely take a more solid footing in adhering to a comprehensive rule of law.

　　 

　　I. Legislation and Supervision of the National People's Congress and Its Standing Committee

　　In 2017, the National People's Congress of China and its standing committee formulated a total of 7 laws, amended 32 laws, and passed 14 decisions on relevant legal issues and major issues. As of the end of December 2017, there were 263 laws currently in effect in China.

 

　　A. Strengthening Legislation in Key Areas

　　— Formulating the General Provisions of the Civil Law. Civil law, as an encyclopedia of social life, is a basic and comprehensive law in the civil field. Compiling a civil code, which meets the requirements for the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, accords with China's national conditions and reality, and has a scientific style, a strict structure, a reasonable standard and a harmonized content, is the long-cherished wish of several generations of Chinese people. Formulating the General Provisions of the Civil Law is the first step in compiling the Civil Code. In March, the Fifth Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress reviewed and passed the General Provisions of the Civil Law. The General Provisions of the Civil Law stipulates the basic principles and general rules that must be followed in civil affairs, and rules the specific provisions of civil laws. The specific provisions on various civil systems will be made on the basis of the General Provisions of the Civil Law. The main contents of this law includes: The first is to improve the basic principles of civil law and the rules of legal application. Clarifying the personal rights, property rights, and other legal rights of civil entities shall be protected by law, and no organization or individual may infringe on them, and establishing certain basic principles such as the principles of equality, voluntariness, fairness, good faith, law-abiding, and green. Stipulating civil disputes shall be resolved in accordance with the law; or if the law is silent, customs may apply, but not contrary to public order and good morals; and if there are any special provisions on civil relations in any other law, such special provisions shall apply. The second is to improve the system of civil subject. Separately defining three types of civil subject, which are natural persons, legal persons and unincorporated organizations, increasing the provisions for protecting the interests of unborn child, adjusting the minimum age limit for minors with limited capacity for civil conduct to “eight years old” and improving the guardianship system; dividing legal persons into for-profit legal persons, non-profit legal persons and special legal persons in accordance with the differences in the purpose and functions of legal entities; giving unincorporated organizations civil status. The third is to highlight the protection of civil rights. Ensuring the physical freedom and personal dignity of natural persons are protected by law, natural persons enjoy the rights to life, physical rights, right to health, right to name, right to portrait, right to reputation, right to honor, right to privacy, autonomy in marriage, etc., and the personal information of natural persons is protected by the law; clarifying the property rights of civil entities shall be protected by the law equally, and civil subjects enjoy property rights, obligation rights, inheritance rights, equity and other investment rights in accordance with the law; making general provisions on intellectual property; stipulating that data and network virtual property shall be protected by law in order to adapt to the needs of the Internet and the era of big data development; regulating the exercise of civil rights, and making joint provisions on the special protection for the civil rights of vulnerable groups. The fourth is to improve the civil legal acts and agency system, such as expanding the connotation of civil legal acts, increasing the rules of meaning expression, and improving the rules of the effectiveness of civil legal acts. The fifth is to improve the system of civil liability and limitation of action.

　　— Formulating the National Intelligence Law.In order to strengthen and safeguard national intelligence work and safeguard national security and interests, the National People's Congress Standing Committee reviewed and adopted the National Intelligence Law of the People's Republic of China in June. This law adapts to the new requirements and situation of intelligence work, highlights the characteristics of national intelligence work, clarifies the tasks and institutional mechanisms of national intelligence work, the authority of national intelligence agencies, the guarantees for national intelligence work and the regulation and supervision on the work of national intelligence, emphasizes the intelligence work shall be carried out in accordance with the law, respecting and safeguarding human rights, and providing a strong legal guarantee for strengthening national intelligence work and capabilities.

　　— Formulating the Nuclear Safety Law. Nuclear safety is an important part of national security and a lifeline for the development of the nuclear industry. In September, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress reviewed and passed the Nuclear Safety Law. This law implements the overall national security concept, establishes a nuclear safety standard system highly and strictly, carries out the supervisions and risk prevention and control on the entire process of selection, design, construction, operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities, nuclear materials and related radioactive waste, clarifies responsibility for nuclear safety information disclosure and liability for nuclear damages, improves coordination mechanisms for nuclear safety work and international cooperation mechanisms, and provides a solid legal guarantee for achieving lasting safety and healthy development of nuclear energy.

　　— Formulating the National Anthem Law.The national anthem established by the Chinese Constitution is an important symbol of the country. In September, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress reviewed and passed the National Anthem Law. The main contents of this law: The first is to clarify the status of the national anthem, provide that the national anthem of the People's Republic of China is the "March of the Volunteers", and the national anthem is the symbol of the People's Republic of China. The second is to clarify that the national anthem shall be played and sung on the following occasions, including opening and closing ceremonies of sessions of the National People's Congress and local people's congresses at all levels; opening and closing ceremonies of sessions of the National Committee and local committees at all levels of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; congresses at all levels of all political parties and people's organizations, among others; ceremonies of pledging allegiance to the Constitution; national flag raising ceremony; major ceremonies, commendations, commemorative ceremonies held by organizations at all levels, etc.; national public ceremony ceremonies; major diplomatic activities; major sports events; and other occasions where the national anthem shall be sung. The third is to clarify the etiquette and norms of the national anthem and to sing and play the national anthem. The fourth is to clarify the approval, release, and use of standard score of the national anthem. The fifth is to explicitly strengthen the propaganda and education of the national anthem, and stipulate that the national anthem shall be included into the primary and secondary education, the news media shall actively carry out propaganda on the national anthem, and popularize the anthem's singing etiquette knowledge. In addition, the national anthem law also stipulates the supervision and management of singing, playing and using the national anthem, and the legal responsibility for violating the national anthem law. In November, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the amendment to the Amendment (X) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China to clarify the criminal responsibility for insulting the national anthem; made the Decision on Expanding the List of National Laws in Annex III to the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and the Decision on Expanding the List of National Laws in Annex III to the Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, and ensure the national anthem law is implemented in the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions.

　　— Amending the Law on Red Cross Society. In February, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the amendment draft of the Law on Red Cross Society. This amendment has further improved the responsibilities, supervision mechanism and internal governance structure of the Red Cross Society, added special chapters on legal responsibilities, and increased efforts to crack down on illegal activities. In addition, this amendment emphasizes the internationalism, requires connecting with the International Red Cross Movement, and makes a good legal environment to ensure the Red Cross will be able to perform its duties according to law, enhance the credibility and promote the continued healthy development.

　　— Amending the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law. In June, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress amended the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law. This amendment strengthens the responsibilities of local governments, clarifies the river length system, and strengthens joint water pollution control and ecological protection in the river basin; improves water pollution prevention and control measures in key areas, strictly guarantees the safety of drinking water, and strengthens pollution treatment of rural domestic sewage and livestock and poultry breeding; further clarifies the responsibilities of the polluter, increases the intensity of illegal punishment, and plays a active role in preventing and controlling water pollution, protecting water resources, and the protecting water ecological security.

　　— Amending the Law on the Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (hereinafter referred to as SMEs) are an important part of the socialist market economy and have important strategic significance for the national economy and social development. In September, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress reviewed and approved the Amendment Draft of the Law on the Promotion of SMEs. This amendment increases support from fiscal and taxation, financing promotion, entrepreneurship support, market development, etc., makes clear provisions in regulating administrative licensing and other relevant matters, reduces the burden on enterprises, simplifies tax collection and management procedures, etc., strengthens the protection for property rights and other legal rights and interests of SMEs, and makes efforts to create a great environment for SMEs to participate in market competition.

　　— Amending the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. In November, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress reviewed and passed the Amendment Draft of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. In response to the emerging new business models and new models, this amendment aims to further define unfair competition behaviors, improve unfair competition behavior regulation rules, improve the legal liability system where civil compensation liability is prioritized and concurrent with administrative punishment, and increase the credit punishment against the perpetrators. Moreover, it makes connection with certain legal provisions in the Anti-Monopoly Law, the Tendering and Bidding Law, and the Trademark Law, and promotes the establishment of a more unified, open and competitively regulated market system from the legal system.

　　— Amending the Law on Farmers' Professional Cooperatives. In December, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress reviewed and adopted a draft amendment to the Law on Farmers' Professional Cooperatives. This amendment clearly protects farmers' professional cooperatives from enjoying equal legal status with other market players, enriches the service types of farmers' specialized cooperatives, clarifies the members can use property such as land management rights to make capital contributions, further strengthens the protection measures for members’ rights and interests, increases the support measures for the use of electricity and land by farmers’ professional cooperatives, and establishes the legal person status of farmers’ professional cooperatives, and all these measures will be beneficial for standardizing the organization and behavior of farmers’ professional cooperatives, and helping the professional cooperatives become an important carrier for the organic integration between small farmers and modern agricultural development.

　　In 2017, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress also formulated the Law on Public Libraries, the Tobacco Leaf Tax Law and the Vessel Tonnage Tax Law, amended the Corporate Income Tax Law, the Surveying and Mapping Law and the Standardization Law, and reviewed the Securities Law, the People’s Court Organization Law, the People’s Procuratorate Organization Law, and the Judges Law, the laws and amendment to the Procurator Law, the Electronic Commerce Law, the Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law, the Heroes and Martyrs Protection Law, the Basic Medical and Health Promotion Law, the International Criminal Justice Assistance Law, the People's Assessors Law, and the Amendment Draft to the Rural Land Contract Law. In 2017, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress also reviewed the Draft of the National Supervision Law and decided to submit it for consideration at the first session of the 13th National People's Congress.

　　 

　　B. Providing Legal Protection for Reforms in Related Fields

　　— Making Decisions on Reforms and Authorizations according to Law, and Ensuring the Major Reforms are Based on Law. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has issued the Decision on Promoting the Pilot Program on the National Supervisory System Reform all over the Country, the Decision on Provisionally Adjusting the Application of the Provisions of Relevant Laws in the Reform of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force, the Decision to Extend the Period of the Pilot Program of the People's Assessor System Reform, the Decision on Extending the Period of Authorizing the State Council to Provisionally Adjust the Implementation of the Provisions of Relevant Laws in the Administrative Regions of 33 Counties (Cities and Districts) under the Pilot Program including Daxing District of Beijing Municipality, the Decision on Extending the Period of Authorizing the State Council to Provisionally Adjust the Implementation of the Provisions of Relevant Laws in the Administrative Regions of 232 Counties (Cities and Districts) under the Pilot Program including Daxing District of Beijing Municipality and 59 Counties (Cities and Districts) under the Pilot Program including Jizhou District of Tianjin Municipality, and the Decision on Extending the Period of Authorizing the State Council to Provisionally Adjust the Implementation of the Provisions of Relevant Laws in the Administrative Regions of 232 Counties (Cities and Districts) under the Pilot Program including Daxing District of Beijing Municipality and 59 Counties (Cities and Districts) under the Pilot Program including Jizhou District of Tianjin Municipality, and all these decisions provide the basis for the reform of the pilot project and ensure that relevant areas of reform are promoted on the track of the rule of law.

　　—Making Overall Plans for Amending Laws and Continuing to Promote Reforms in Related Fields. Improving the legal professional access system and the national unified legal professional qualification examination system by issuing the decision on amending the eight laws of the Judges' Law, etc., so that the legal work team has been promoted to be regular, professional, and professional. Canceling relevant administrative examination and approval and occupation qualification confirmation, improving examination and approval procedures, and further promoting the decentralization, integration and optimization of services by issuing the Decision on Amending Eleven Laws including the Accounting Law, the Decision on Amending the Bidding Law and the Metrology Law. Passing the Decision on Amending the Civil Procedure Law and the Administrative Litigation Law to sum up the experience of the reform pilot in a timely manner and formally establish a system that the procuratorial agencies can bring a public interest lawsuit.

　　Also, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress made a decided to ratify the Cooperative Arrangements between the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Establishing a Port at the West Kowloon Station of the Guangdong-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-Speed Railway to Implement “Two Inspections at One Place”, and confirms that the cooperation arrangement complies with the principle of “one country, two systems”, the Constitution and The Hong Kong Basic Law. All these provide legal protection for the integration of Hong Kong with the national high-speed rail network and the integration of Hong Kong into the overall development of the country.

　　 

　　C. Advancing Scientific Legislation, Democratic Legislation, and Legislation According to Law

　　The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress focuses on further improving the working mechanism and methods of legislation, strengthening the coordination of legislative work, and continuously improving the quality of legislation. The first is to strengthen the NPC's organization and coordination of legislative work and fully play the leading role of the NPC in legislative work. The second is to improve the system of soliciting opinions for legal draft, invite deputies to participate in the legislative research, demonstration, deliberation, evaluation, etc., earnestly listen to and adopt the views and suggestions of deputies, and better play the role of the deputies in the legislative work. The third is to issue the Working Rules for the Discussion and Consultation over Major Interest Adjustments Involved in Legislation and the Working Rules for the Introduction of Third-Party Assessments of Material Legislative Matters in Significant Controversy to promote the standardization and institutionalization of legislative work. The fourth is to establish a committee of legislative experts to fully play the role of legislative experts and consultants. The fifth is to actively promote the construction of the basic legislative contact points, seek advice from 4 contact points on 16 legal drafts and the draft of the legislative work plan in 2017, so that the legislative work become more reasonable. The sixth is to hold the 23rd National Symposium on Local Legislative Work to strengthen the guidance and promotion of local legislative work and further implement the work of granting regional legislative power to municipalities.

　　 

　　D. The Supervision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress

　　In 2017, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress carefully exercised the power of supervision under the Constitution, deemed the proper supervision and effective supervision as the basic follow-up of supervision work, adhered to problem-oriented guidance, intensified supervision, innovated supervision methods, enhanced supervision effectiveness, promote "the government, courts and procuratorates" to exercise the duties according to law, form a concerted effort to strengthen and improve the work, ensure the implementation of the Party’s major decision-making arrangements, and effectively solve the hot and difficult issues that are widely concerned by people’s deputies and the people.

　　— Checking the implementation of the law. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress regards ensuring strict implementation of laws as an important starting point for comprehensively advancing the rule of law, and continues to strengthen and improve law enforcement inspections in accordance with the “whole chain” work-flow, which includes selection, organization, reporting, deliberation, rectification, and feedback. Throughout the year of 2017, the implementation situations of the Law of on the Prevention and Control of Environment Pollution Caused by Solid Wastes, the Pharmaceutical Administration Law, the Product Quality Law, the Copyright Law, the Cy-ber Security Law, the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Strengthening Information Protection on Networks and the Seed Law have been examined. The meetings of the Standing Committee in June and October were combined with the review of the Product Quality Law and the Law of on the Prevention and Control of Environment Pollution Caused by Solid Wastes, and conduct thematic enquires.

　　With regard to the Law of on the Prevention and Control of Environment Pollution Caused by Solid Wastes, the focus was on the prevention and control of the pollution of municipal solid waste, industrial solid waste, livestock and poultry breeding waste, supervision of hazardous wastes, management of imported solid wastes, solid waste treatment and recycling. The enforcement and inspection of the Law of on the Prevention and Control of Environment Pollution Caused by Solid Wastes is not only the focus of the supervision work in 2017, but also the ongoing force of the 12th NPC Standing Committee's supervision work in the field of environmental protection. With regard to the Pharmaceutical Administration Law, the focuses were on inspections of drug management work and major problems, progress in the development of new drug R&D and review and approval system for drug trials, supply of clinically used drugs, emergency drugs and rare diseases, construction of drug regulatory systems, responsibility implementation of the main body of drug production and management, and investigation and handling of drug violations, etc. With regard to the Product Quality Law, the focuses were on the inspection of major problems in product quality work, the establishment of product quality system, supervision and spot checks, risk monitoring, compensation for damages, recall of defective products, supervision and coordination of product quality departments, and product quality responsibility and social governance, etc. With regard to the Copyright Law, the focuses were on the promotion of copyright creation and use, the promotion of literary and artistic creation and the development of cultural industries, cracking down on infringement and piracy, and strengthening the copyright protection and management, the protection of copyright under the Internet environment and the collective management of copyrights. With regard to the Cyber Security Law and the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Strengthening Information Protection on Networks, the focuses were on strengthening the protection of critical information infrastructure and implementing the system of protection of network security levels, governing the violation of laws and regulations on the Internet, maintaining a good ecology of cyberspace, implementing citizen’s personal information protection system, and investigating and punishing any violations of citizens' personal information and other crimes. This inspection has fully played the role of professional organizations and experts, recruited 21 cyber security experts, entrusted the third party institutions to conduct vulnerability scans and simulated attacks on 120 important information systems, issued professional inspection reports, and improved the professionalism and effectiveness of law enforcement inspections, and accumulated new experiences for enriching, improving and innovating law enforcement inspections. With regard to the Seed Law, the focuses were on the inspection of germplasm resource banks, protected areas, the construction of protected land, the protection of new plant varieties, the transfer of breeding achievements and distribution of rights and interests, the examination and approval of seed production and operation permits, the seed quality management and the seed industry safety review, and mandatory varieties withdrew system and supervision, etc.

　　In the process of checking the implementation of these six laws mentioned earlier, the members of the Standing Committee made comments and suggestions on modifying the legal system and improving the related work. The State Council and its relevant departments have attached great importance to these opinions and suggestions, and proposed and adopted a series of measures for improvement and implementation.

　　— Hearing and considering special work reports. In 2017, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress heard and reviewed 17 working reports of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and these working reports involved in economy, politics, culture, society, ecological environments, etc.

　　Strengthening the supervision on economic work. Hearing and reviewing the report of the State Council on the implementation of the national economic and social development plan since 2017, strengthening the supervision on the overall situation of economic operations, promoting the smooth realization of all objectives and tasks for the year, and ensuring the sustained and healthy economic and social development. Hearing and reviewing the report of the State Council on advancing the supply-side structural reforms and accelerating the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industries, promoting the implementation of new development concepts, accelerating the overall quality and competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry, striving to build a manufacturing powerhouse, and achieving the transformation from made in China to created by China, from China's speed to China's quality, and from production of China to brand of China.

　　Promoting to resolute the shortboard problems with major influence. Hearing the report of the State Council on the completion of environmental conditions and environmental protection targets in 2016, researching and dealing with the report on the enforcement and investigation of the environmental protection law, the report on review opinions, and the report on grassland ecological and environmental protection work, promoting the implementation of the most stringent environmental protection legal system. Hearing the report on the work of overcoming the poverty and carrying out special queries to accurate poverty alleviation, supporting the fight against poverty, and ensuring poverty-stricken people and poor areas enter a moderately prosperous society together with the entire nation. Hearing the report of deliberating the work of cultural heritage, improving the protection and utilization of cultural heritage and the development of inheritance, and promoting the excellence of traditional Chinese culture.

　　Ensuring that reforms are carried out in an orderly and lawful manner. Paying close attention to the progress of relevant reforms, hearing to reports on the reform of the stock issuance system, the plea of guilty and penalties in criminal cases, and the intellectual property court, etc., and ensuring all reforms are actively and steadily promoted in an orderly manner on the track of the rule of law. Hearing to the reports of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on comprehensively deepening the reform of the judiciary respectively, fully affirming the major phased achievements of the judicial reform, promoting the courts and procuratorates to thoroughly implement the latest deployment of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, further deepening the reform on supporting measures of judicial system, fully implementing the judicial responsibility system, and focusing on solving the deep-seated problems that affect judicial justice and the ability to control the judiciary.

　　— Enhancing the effectiveness of financial budget review and supervision. Hearing and reviewing the report of the State Council on the implementation of the budget since 2017, the audit report on the implementation of the 2016 central budget and other working reports of fiscal revenues and expenditures, and the report on the central government accounts in 2016, reviewing and approving the central accounts of 2016, promoting the reform of the fiscal and taxation system, and strengthening the management budget. Hearing and reviewing reports on the central budget implementation and the rectification of problems found in the financial revenues and expenditures audits, strengthening the effectiveness of supervision, urging relevant parties to implement rectification tasks, clarifying the responsibility of rectification, strengthening rectification, and enhancing transparency of rectification. Hearing and reviewing the report on the allocation and use of state financial education funds, and further strengthening the management and supervision of special funds in key areas.

　　In addition to hearing the special reports, and reviewing and approving the final accounts, the Standing Committee of the NPC also actively exploring the ways to improve budget review and supervision, and establishing a sound budget review and supervision system. Formulated the Opinions on Establishing a System of Reporting the Situation of Managing the State-owned Assets by the State Council to the Standing Committee of the NPC, clearly stipulating the State Council shall report to the Standing Committee of the NPC on the state-owned assets management each year, and put forward specific requirements on the report frameworks, report priorities, deliberation procedures, deliberation priorities, and organizational guarantees, etc. Issued the Guiding Opinions on Advancing the Network Supervision Work on the Budget of Local People's Congresses to actively promote the network supervision on the budget, plan to form a budget supervision network with horizontal connection and longitudinal transfixion vertically-connected in three years, and gradually realize the supervision of the whole process of budget execution.

　　—Strengthening the work of filling and reviewing the normative documents. In 2017, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress carried out filing and reviewing normative documents as an important task in fulfilling its duty of legal supervision. According to the requirements of "all normative documents shall be filed, all filed documents shall be reviewed, and all mistakes shall be corrected", hear the report on filing and reviewing normative documents for the first time, ensure the implementation of the Constitution, and maintain the unity of laws in China.

　　The first is to actively review administrative regulations and judicial interpretations. In 2017, the work bodies of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress reviewed 14 administrative regulations submitted by the State Council and 17 judicial interpretations submitted by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and put forward clear examination opinions.

　　The second is to focus on the special review of local regulations. In 2017, more than 150 local regulations were proactively reviewed. Carrying out an active review on all new local regulations one by one, focusing on controlling the situation of legislation in the city with the districts and new local legislative power, and providing guidance for the city with districts to better carry out legislative work and improve the quality of legislation. In response to the outstanding problems and profound lessons in the Qilianshan Nature Reserve in Gansu Province, special review and research were conducted on 49 local regulations concerning nature reserves. In addition, promoting the standing committees of the NPC at the provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) to comprehensively review and research the local laws and regulations on nature reserves, environmental protection and ecological civilization construction have been fully self-examined and cleared, amending and abolishing 35 local laws and regulations, and planning to amend and abolish more than 600 local laws and regulations.

　　The third is to seriously consider and deal with the review proposals put forward by citizens and organizations. In 2017, receiving and handling 939 review proposals submitted by citizens and organizations, and all these proposals belong to review scope of the NPC Standing Committee. Writing feedback for the review proposals submitted by to 66 citizens and organizations, and organizing personal feedback for 4 citizens and 1 organization. In 2017, for the first time, reviewing and correcting many issues such as adding the provision of the “detention of non-motor vehicles and consignment back to their origins”, the “conditional arrest” system stipulated by the judicial interpretations, the rule of governmental Investment and government-funded construction projects, which used the audit results as a basis for project completion settlement, in local laws and regulations, the rule concerning population and family planning in local laws and regulations, and the typical cases concerning article 24 of the judicial interpretation of the Marriage Law (2), etc., disclosing the result to the public and were disclosed to the public, and receiving good social repercussions.

　　The fourth is to strengthen the filing and examination system and the capacity of construction. Utilizing the NPC's information platform of filing and reviewing to achieve full electronic coverage of administrative regulations, judicial interpretations, and local regulations. Actively promoting the establishment and improvement of the information Platform of filing and reviewing at the provincial level, and accelerating the establishment of a unified national filing and reviewing information platform. Improving the connection and linkage of the mechanism of filing and reviewing, and transferring 37 normative document review proposals to relevant agencies.

　　 

　　II. Administration by Law

　　In 2017, the Chinese government insisted on the full implementation of government functions by the law, focused on strengthening and innovating social governance, and achieved new results in administrative work according to law.

　　 

　　A. Legislative Work of the State Council

　　In 2017, the State Council convened 12 executive meetings to discuss the adoption of 12 laws and administrative regulations, examined and approved 15 laws and regulations and administrative regulations, submitted 13 laws for amending by 5 times, formulated 8 administrative regulations, and amended 53 the administrative laws and regulations, and abolished 3 administrative regulations. The State Council has submitted 14 treaties approved by the NPC Standing Committee and approved by the State Council.

　　— Formulating the Measures for the Investigation and Punishment of Unpermitted and Unlicensed Business Operations. In June, the State Council passed the Measures for the Investigation and Punishment of Unpermitted and Unlicensed Business Operations (hereinafter referred to as the Measures), and the Measures came into force on October 1, 2017.Compared to the Measures for Investigating, Punishing and Banning Unlicensed Business Operations, the Measures relaxes the scope of investigations on the business without certifications and licenses, and stipulates that two types of business activities shall not be classified as uncertified and unlicensed; reduces the scale of punishment for uncertified and unlicensed business operations; and changes the law enforcement measures, focuses on humanity and flexible law enforcement.

　　— Formulating the Regulation on the Supervision and Administration of Financing Guarantee Companies. The financing guarantee industry plays an important role in the development of inclusive finance and the promotion of financial financing, especially in solving problems concerning the financing of small and micro enterprises and enterprises concerning “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” are difficult obtain financing. In June, the State Council passed the Regulation on the Supervision and Administration of Financing, and this regulation come into force on October 1, 2017.The regulation stipulates that the state promotes the establishment of a government-funded guarantee system, the development of government-backed financing guarantee companies, the establishment of government, banking financial institutions, and the cooperation mechanisms of financing guarantee company, and provides certain scope for small and micro enterprises and enterprises concerning “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” and maintains a low rate; At the same time, the regulation clarifies the operating rules and supervision system of the financing guarantee company.

　　— Formulating the Regulation on the Implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People's Republic of China. In December, the State Council promulgated the Regulation on the Implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People's Republic of China, and this regulation come into force on January 1, 2018.In order to ensure the implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law, this regulation focuses on the taxation object, taxation basis, taxation reduction and exemption, and tax collection and management regulations for better adapting the actual needs of raising environmental tax.

　　— Amending the Regulation on the Supervision and Administration of Medical Devices.The purpose of amendment is to encourage the research and innovation of medical devices, promote the promotion and application of new medical device technologies, and strengthen the supervision of medical devices. In May, the State Council amended the Regulation on the Supervision and Administration of Medical Devices.The revised regulation further clarifies the responsibilities of the supervisory departments, especially increases the contents of supervision on large-scale medical equipment to prevent over-examination and over-treatment of large medical equipment.

　　— Amending the Regulation on Religious Affairs. In June, the State Council amended the Regulation on Religious Affairs. The revised content fully reflects the spirit of the National Conference on Religious Work, in particular the important speech of General Secretary Xi Jinping, integrates and absorbs the experience of China’s legal work of religion in the past 13 years, implements the constitutional requirements that the freedom to religious belief and state respects and protects of human rights, adopts various measures to curb the tendency of religious commercialization, and further regulates the financial management of religious circles.

　　— Amending the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Counterespionage Law of the People's Republic of China. In November, the State Council issued the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Counterespionage Law of the People's Republic of China, and this rule came into force on the date of issuance. This rules specifies the concepts of "overseas institutions and organizations", "espionage agency agents", "hostile organizations", "funding", "collusion", and "other acts that endanger the security of the country other than espionage in the Anti-Espionage Law", etc., clarifies the duties and powers of national security agencies in anti-espionage work, and the obligations and rights of citizens and organizations in safeguarding national security.

　　— Amending the Ordinance concerning the Procedures for the Formulation of Administrative Regulations and the Regulations on Procedures for the Formulation of Rules. In December, the State Council successively amended the Ordinance concerning the Procedures for the Formulation of Administrative Regulations and the Regulations on Procedures for the Formulation of Rules to standardize administrative legislation. The revised regulations strictly enforce the necessity and procedures for the formulation of administrative regulations and rules, increase the way for the public to participate in administrative legislation, and clearly require implementing the clean-up work on administrative regulations.

　　In 2017, the State Council also formulated the Regulations on Disability Prevention and Recovery of the Disabled, the Regulation on Voluntary Services, the Regulation on the Implementation of the Statistics Law, and the Regulation on the Administration of Construction of Halls and Guesthouses by State Organs and Organizations, and amend the Interim Regulation on Value Added Tax, the Regulation on the Education of the Disabled, the Regulations on Land Requisition Compensation and Resettlement of Migrants for Large and Medium Water Conservation and Power Construction Projects, the Regulation on Pesticide Administration, the Regulations on the Administration of Construction Project Environmental Protection, the Regulation on the Civilian Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, etc.

　　 

　　B. Administrative Work according to Law

　　— The construction of the government under the rule of law. The first is to give full play to the important role of the inspector. The Legal Affairs Office of the State Council studies and formulates the work plan for the construction of the government under the rule of law, combines written inspections with on-site inspections, and comprehensive inspections with key inspections, carries out written inspections on the construction of government under the rule of law in 82 local governments and departments, and conducts on-site inspections in five provinces (autonomous regions), and further promotes the implementation of various tasks for the construction of government under the rule of law. The second is to promote the "three systems" pilot program for administrative enforcement. The administrative law enforcement publicity, the entire process of law enforcement, and the legal review on major law enforcement decision are the most important and critical links in administrative law enforcement, and these three links play integral, fundamental, and driving roles in promoting strict, standardized, fair and civilized law enforcement. The leading group of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council has carried out trials of “three systems” in 32 localities and departments including Tianjin, Hebei, Anhui, the Ministry of Land and Resources, etc., and achieved significant results: Initially establishing a unified law enforcement information platform, achieving the timely disclosure of law enforcement results, the basis for law enforcement and the law enforcement process, and forming a standardized work rules for reviewing law enforcement decision-making and working mechanisms; Promoting to use audio and video recorders to record on-site inspections, investigations and evidence collections, and delivery of services, so that the entire law enforcement process can be traced and backtracked and brutal enforcement will be effectively contained. The third is to promote government information disclosure work in key areas. The General Office of the State Council successively issued the Opinions of on Advancing Public Disclosure of Government Information in the Public Resource Allocation Field and the Opinions on Advancing Public Disclosure of Government Information in the Field of Approval and Implementation of Major Construction Projects respectively to regulate the main tasks and safeguard measures of information disclosure work in public resource allocation field, such as the transfer of rights to using state-owned land, the right to mining, the government procurement, the transaction concerning state-owned property, the tendering and bidding of project construction. Requiring to publicly approve eight types of information, including service information, approval result information, etc., in the process of approval and implementation of major construction projects. The fourth is to promote the provincial governments to publish an annual report on the construction of a government under the rule of law. Pushing forward the local governments to publish an annual report on the establishment of a government under the rule of law timely, republish the annual reports of provincial governments published on the Chinese government's legal information website, demonstrate the effectiveness of the construction of a government under the rule of law and speed up and increase the efficiency through public supervision and social supervision.

　　— The Work of Cleaning up, Filing and Reviewing work on rules, regulations and regulatory documents. First, in order to implement the decision-making spirit of the Central Office and the State Council to deal with the destruction of the ecological environment in Qilianshan National Nature Reserve in Gansu Province, various localities and departments have been organized to carry out the construction of ecological civilization and cleaning up local regulations, rules and regulatory documents of environmental protection. As of the end of 2017, local governments and departments have amended or abolished more than 260 regulations and more than 9,100 normative documents, effectively prevented problems such as making unqualified legislation, lowering standards, and loosing the regulation. Second, in order to ensure the effective implementation of "Decentralization-Control-Service" Reform, various local governments and departments carried out the special clean-up on the regulations and normative documents concerning the “Decentralization-Control-Service" Reform and the development of new kinetic energy. By the end of 2017, the special clean-up of more than 750 effective administrative regulations had been completed, and more than 1900 regulations and 79,000 normative documents were abolished, and this effectively eliminated the barriers to the implementation of the "Decentralization-Control-Service" reform measures. Third, in order to implement the requirements of "all normative documents shall be filed, all filed documents shall be reviewed, and all mistakes shall be corrected", implementing a special review on the departmental regulations concerning the "Decentralization-Control-Service" reform, and urging related departments to revise and abolish 25 normative documents; implementing a special review on local government regulations concerning treating “the audit results as a basis for completion of government investment construction projects”, and urging local governments to revise and abolish 15 of them; implementing a centralized review on 1,693 rules and regulations formulated in 2016, entrusting experts to review 740 rules and regulations formulated in the first half of 2017, and dealing with and classifying identified problems in a timely manner.

　　— The Work on Administrative reconsideration. The year of 2017 is the “cleanup year” for the accumulated administrative reconsideration decisions of the State Council, 5,638 cases of administrative reconsideration decisions have been handled in 2017, and all the backlog cases for many years have been completed. With regard to the areas where common problems and the violation of the law were prominent, the State Council further increased the strength of reporting, interviewing, and correcting in the process of handling the cases. The State Council strengthened the guidance and supervision on administrative reconsideration and administrative responding work in all regions and departments, and guided and promoted the reform of the administrative reconsideration system centered on the “concentrated administrative reconsideration responsibilities”. In order to further enhance the level of informatization of administrative reconsideration work, and explore and establish a national unified administrative information platform for administrative reconsideration, a pilot work conference for an administrative reconsideration informationization working platform was held in August. In response to the requests of the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, etc., the State Council explained the general issues in administrative reconsideration such as whether the government franchise agreement belongs to the range of administrative reconsideration.

　　— The work on legal review before issuing important reform policies. In 2017, the Legal Affairs Office of the State Council reviewed the legality of more than 2,000 major reform decisions, put forward corresponding opinions and suggestions based on the review, and ensured all reforms were always on the track of the rule of law.

　　 

　　III. Trial, Prosecution, Public Security and Judicial Administration

　　A. The Work on Trial

　　In 2017, the Supreme People's Court accepted 28,499 cases and concluded 25,808 cases. The local people's courts at various levels accepted 25,757,393 cases in total, concluded and closed 22,754,188 cases, and the amount of the subject matter of the case was 6.11 trillion yuan.

　　— The work on Criminal trial. In 2017, the courts at all levels concluded a total of 1,296,650 criminal cases for first instance and sentenced 1,268,985 criminals. Severely punishing crimes of endangering state security, violence and terror, etc., according to law, and resolutely safeguarding national political security, especially political security and system security. Severely punishing severe criminal offenses such as murder and robbery, endangering the safety of food and drugs, environmental pollution crimes, and new crimes such as illegal fund-raising and telecommunications network fraud to maintain social stability. Severely punishing corruption crimes according to law, improve the trial work of major duty crimes, and hear a number of major job crimes such as Su Rong case. 37,519 cases of corruption and bribery for first instance were concluded. Rehearing the case of Wang Lijun and change the original sentence to acquittal, prevent the misuse of the crime of illegal business expansion, and promoting the circulation of agricultural products. Establishing the national information platform for commutation and parole, comprehensively promote the construction of standardization and informationization on commutation and parole, and promote the judicial publicity of commutation and parole cases.

　　— The work on civil and commercial trial. In 2017, all levels of courts have concluded 1,651,363 cases of various types of civil and commercial cases for the first time, and this number increased 12.71% year-on-year. Among them, there were 1,830,023 cases of marriage, family, support and inheritance, 519,621 cases of personal injury, labor disputes, education, medical care, and housing, 2,014,254 private loan cases, 767.01 million cases of transferring land contractual management rights, homestead disputes, etc. Courts at all levels have reviewed 3,850,714 commercial cases of the first instance, and this number decreased 4.36% year-on-year. Among them, there were 934,885 cases related to sale contract disputes.

　　— The work on administrative trials and state compensation. In 2017, courts at all levels have concluded 229,112 administrative cases of the first instance, and this number increased 17.83% year-on-year. The construction of cross-administrative district courts and the implementation of administrative jurisdiction and jurisdiction over administrative cases have been strengthened.13,232 cases of state compensation were concluded.

　　— The work on enforcement. In 2017, courts at all levels accepted 7,726,315 cases of enforcement, and 6,483,544 cases of them have been enforced and concluded, and these numbers increased 20.69% and 23.64% year-on-year respectively. A national unified case management platform for courts at four levels has been established, and online monitoring on the whole process of enforcement activities has been realized. Issuing the opinions on implementation of the financial products network inspection and control with relevant departments jointly, and covering major forms of property including deposits, houses, vehicles, securities, etc. By the end of 2017, the courts at all levels cumulatively issued dishonest executors name lists of 9.59 million person-times and restraining order for high-consumption orders 780 thousand person-times, and a total of 226,200 persons were restricted serving as corporate legal representative or senior executive.

　　— The work on filing cases, petition by writing letter or visiting, and adjudication supervision. In 2017, the courts at all levels concluded a total of 199,703 complaints and applications for retrial; and 38,100 cases were re-examined according to law. Strengthen the work of adjudication supervision, and in the retrial cases concluded in 2017, the original judgments of 12,096 cases had been corrected due to mistakes or other statutory reasons. Courts at all levels have promoted the construction of a comprehensive litigation service platform, 98% courts have established litigation service halls with a relatively high level of informatization, more than 2,711 courts have opened the litigation service website, 1,137 courts have opened litigation services APP, 2,405 courts have opened Litigation Service Hotline 12368, many local courts have established intelligent service platforms such as electronic courts, micro courts and online courts to implement the functions including online filing, online payment, online cross-examination, online mediation, online court trials, online marking, online delivery, etc. Convenient and efficient litigation services have been provided to the public.

　　 

　　B. The Procuratorial Work 

　　— Performing duties such as arrest and prosecution by the law. In 2017, the national procuratorial organs approved to arrest 1,069,700 criminal suspects, and prosecuted 1,664,800 people. Resolutely safeguarding national security, further conducting counter-separation and anti-infiltration campaigns against spying and anti-cults, and cracking down on violence and terrorism. Effectively protecting citizen's personal rights, property rights and personality rights, and prosecuting a total of 63,438 persons who criminals in serious violent crime such as intentional homicide, kidnapping, and arson. Among them, prosecuting 1,389 criminals for organized crimes, investigating 40 government officials who act as the umbrella for organized crimes, and prosecuting 417,300 criminals who commit money-related crimes such as plunder, snatch and steal and 351 criminals who commit the crimes cornering insult, slander and false accusation. Focusing on punishing fraud crimes in telecommunication networks, and prosecuting 32,144 people for fraud crimes in telecommunication networks. Punishing medically-related crimes, and prosecuting 4,508 criminals who intentionally harmed medical personnel, gathered in hospitals, etc. Promoting the construction of a safe campus, and jointly publishing guidance on the treatment of bully and violence that seriously endanger students' physical and mental health, and prosecuting 5,926 criminals committed violent crimes against school students, and punish the fraud, extortion and other crimes involved in “campus loans” according to law. Protecting the safety of food, promoting the connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice in the food and drug field, keeping a close eye on problems such as milk powder milk, cooking oil and pork, carrying out special case supervision, and prosecuting 11,716 criminals for making and selling counterfeit medicines and toxic and hazardous foods. Strengthening to protect the rights and interests of special groups and people with disabilities such as women, children, the elderly and the handicapped, handling cases of child abuse in kindergarten, prosecuting 19,767 criminals for committing crimes of rape, trafficking, forced prostitution, etc., punishing domestic violence crimes in accordance with the law, and handling elder abuse cases. Further advan