People's democracy
- By Yin Pumin
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E-mail Beijing Review, September 15, 2014
Meanwhile, such clauses as "lawful private property is inviolable" was also added to the Constitution. "The amendments will eliminate entrepreneurs' hidden worries about the security of their assets and boost their confidence in long-term investment," said Tang Haibin, an official with the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.
Along with the changes of the Constitution, many practical laws were also adopted by the NPC to reflect the distinct characteristics of the times and social changes in China.
In 1986, the NPC adopted the Law on Enterprise Bankruptcy on a trial basis. To the surprise of many Chinese people, the law allowed state-run companies to file for bankruptcy even though China is a socialist country.
Later, the top legislature issued laws on securities, trademarks, intellectual property rights and many others aimed at promoting the country's economic reform and establishing a socialist market economy.
The NPC also enacted many other laws based on Chinese people's practices in social and economic administration such as the Law on Land Contract in Rural Areas, which grants farmers long-term and guaranteed land-use rights, and the law to supervise and prevent loss of state-owned assets.
In 1989, the NPC passed the Administrative Procedure Law, which challenges all illegal administrative acts.
According to statistics from the Supreme People's Court (SPC), Chinese courts accepted more than 1.4 million administrative procedure lawsuit cases from 1989 to 2008, many of which were suing governments.
Between 2000 and 2010, China's legal system gradually became complete. Many important support laws, such as the Property Law, Social Insurance Law, Tort Liability Law and Food Safety Law, were enacted by the NPC.
The Social Insurance Law, which was passed by the NPC on October 28, 2010, is an important sign of China establishing its social laws, said Zheng Gongcheng, a professor at Renmin University of China.
"Social law is a new legal concept, mainly dealing with affairs concerning social security, social assistance, public welfare and community special care," said Zheng.
"The Social Insurance Law is the first law in China's social laws. It is a basic law," said Zheng.
"We now have a complete set of laws covering all aspects of social relations, with basic and major laws of each type already in place, together with comprehensive corresponding administrative regulations and local statutes," said Wu, then China's top legislator, at a plenary meeting of the NPC's annual session in 2011.
According to him, by the end of 2010, China had enacted 236 laws, more than 690 administrative regulations and more than 8,600 local statutes, and reviewed all current laws, administrative regulations and local statutes.
"The formation of the system has solved the problem by having laws for all government departments and people to guide their behavior," said Li Lin, Director of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
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