China's legislature, the National People's Congress, and its Standing Committee have enacted 229 laws currently in effect, says a white paper published on Thursday by the Information Office of the State Council.

The white paper, entitled China's Efforts and Achievements in Promoting the Rule of Law, says the modern Chinese legal system mainly consists of seven branches of legislation and three levels.

These laws covered all the seven branches of legislation including the Constitution and the Constitution-related laws, civil and commercial laws, administrative laws, economic laws, laws on society, criminal law, and litigation and non-litigation procedural laws, says the paper.

It also says that the three levels of the modern Chinese legal systems include laws, administrative regulations, and local regulations, autonomous regulations and separate regulations.

As supplements, the State Council, the cabinet, has enacted nearly 600 administrative regulations currently in effect, the paper says.

Local people's congresses and their standing committees at various levels have enacted over 7,000 local regulations currently in effect, and the people's congresses of the ethnic autonomous areas have enacted over 600 autonomous regulations and separate regulations currently in effect, according to the paper.

The departments under the State Council, the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, and the larger cities have also enacted numerous rules.

China has established "a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics" and with the Constitution at the core, says the paper.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2008)