The law on promoting private schools, approved after four hearings, stipulates that investors in private schools are allowed to make a "reasonable profit." The law will take effect on Sept. 1,2003.

The other four laws are amendments to the agricultural law and the grasslands law, revisions to the Criminal Law and an explanation on the crime of malfeasance as referred to in the Ninth Chapter of the Criminal Law.

The amendments to the agricultural law, effective from March 1,2003, incorporate new regulations to accelerate the transfer of surplus rural labor, ensure the safety of farm produce and advance agricultural science and technology development.

The grasslands law amendments tighten supervision of tourism ventures in grassland areas and forbid using strongly toxic pesticides at such places.

The Criminal Law revision, to be effective immediately, tightens penalties for illegal trafficking of foreign garbage into China, manufacturing and selling shoddy medical facilities and materials, endangering valuable wild plants and hiring juveniles to work under dangerous conditions or as sweatshop labor.

It was decided at the meeting that the First Plenum of the 10th NPC will be convoked on March 5, 2003 in Beijing, at which the new legislature will elect China's top state and government leaders.

The legislature also passed the list of names of the election committee of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) submitted by the Central Military Commission. The election committee, headed by Guo Boxiong, will manage the election of deputies of the armed forces to the 10th NPC.

The NPC Standing Committee approved several resolutions to ratify an agreement on setting up a regional counter-terrorism agency reached by the six member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an extradition treaty between China and South Africa, an extradition treaty between China and Lithuania, an agreement between China and Estonia on criminal justice assistance, an extradition treaty between China and the United Arab Emirates, and a supplementary agreement on the national boundaries between China and Tajikistan.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2002)