Fellow deputies,

I have been entrusted by the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) to present this report to deputies on its main work over the past five years and on arrangements for its future work for your deliberation and approval.

Over the last five years we made great progress in reform and opening up and in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. During these years we also made great progress in improving socialist democracy, the socialist legal system and the system of people's congresses. The Standing Committee of the 10th NPC diligently followed the guiding principles laid out at the 16th and 17th National Congresses of the Communist Party of China (CPC), took Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as its guide, thoroughly applied the Scientific Outlook on Development and organically integrated the leadership of the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country, and the rule of law. Focusing on the work of the Party and the state, the Standing Committee carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the law. Building on the achievements of the previous terms of the NPC, the Standing Committee kept up with the times, opened up new horizons in the work of the NPC, and made important contributions to upholding and improving the system of people's congresses, developing socialist democratic politics, continuing to carry out reform and opening up, and promoting scientific development and social harmony.

I. Legislative Work

The power to pass legislation is an important authority granted to the NPC and its Standing Committee by the Constitution and laws. At the beginning of its term, the Standing Committee of the 10th NPC clearly defined its philosophy and guide for legislative work during its term as follows: "Our goal is to establish the basics of a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, with the focus on improving the quality of legislation." During the past five years, the Standing Committee passed 100 of the 106 draft amendments to the Constitution, draft laws, draft legal interpretations and draft decisions on legal issues that it deliberated. There are 229 laws currently in force in China, divided into seven types: the Constitution and related laws, civil and commercial laws, administrative laws, economic laws, social laws, criminal laws, and litigation and non-litigation procedure laws. There are approximately 600 administrative laws and regulations and over 7,000 local ordinances currently in force. The formation of a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics consisting of seven types of laws and three levels has now been basically completed, centering on the Constitution, with laws as the backbone and including normative documents such as administrative laws and regulations and local ordinances. There are laws to cover basically every area of economic, political, cultural and social activities in the country, providing a strong legal footing for implementation of the rule of law, developing China into a law-based socialist country, and realizing lasting peace and stability in the country.

1. We completed a number of important legislative items. The law represents the unity of the stands of the Party and the will of the people. Being subservient to and serving the work of the Party and the state is the fundamental prerequisite for doing good legislative work and improving the quality of legislation. We convert the stands of the Party into the will of the state through legally defined procedures and cement the lessons learned through our achievements in reform, opening up and socialist modernization into law in accordance with the strategic arrangements and major resolutions of the Party and the state and based on what we have learned in the great process of reform and opening up and of socialist modernization. In formulating legislation, we take into consideration the objective needs of economic and social development and focus on legislative items that can play an important role in the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, that meet pressing needs in the social life of the country and for which conditions are ripe for passing. In addition to improving legislation concerning economic matters, we also concentrate on improving legislation concerning social issues, and in addition to passing new legislation, we also attach great importance to revising and improving current legislation. Following these principles, a number of important legislative tasks were completed.

In line with the suggestions concerning revision of the Constitution submitted by the CPC Central Committee, we deliberated and passed the amended Constitution, which confirms the guiding role of the important thought of Three Represents in the social life of the country, includes the major theoretical viewpoints and important principles and policies defined at the 16th CPC National Congress, clarifies the country's respect and protection for human rights and its protection of the rights of citizens to hold property and receive an inheritance. This fully reflects the unity of the CPC's stands and the will of the people and represents another major milestone in China's constitutional history. We formulated the Anti-Secession Law, which provides the legal framework for the major policies, principles and policy measures of the Party and the state for work related to Taiwan. The law fully reflects our consistent position that we are most sincere and are doing our utmost to bring about the peaceful reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. At the same time, this legislation reflects the common will and firm resolution of the entire Chinese nation to never allow anyone in any guise or in any way to separate Taiwan from the motherland and to safeguard the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. This legislation provides firm legal backing for the struggle to oppose and keep in check separatist activities aimed at Taiwan independence and promote the peaceful reunification of the motherland. We formulated interpretations and passed corresponding decisions concerning some articles in the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and its annexes in line with the original legislative intentions of the Basic Law. This played an irreplaceable role in ensuring the correct implementation of the Basic Law, promoting the healthy development of democracy in Hong Kong and safeguarding the region's long-term prosperity and stability. We formulated the Law on Oversight, improving the forms and procedures for oversight by the standing committees of people's congresses at all levels and effectively helping to institutionalize, standardize and define procedures for oversight work for the people's congresses. We formulated the Civil Servant Law in conformity with the Party's line, principles and policies on cadres, providing a strong legal footing for reform of the personnel and cadre system.

We comprehensively improved economic legislation to meet objective requirements for developing China's socialist market economy. We enacted the Law on Property Rights in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution, specifying rules for resolving some common issues related to the system of property rights. Pursuing the purposes of clarifying property ownership, maximizing the utility of property, and protecting the rights of property owners, the Law on Property Rights has further improved the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics concerning property rights. In line with the normal rule in the market that better companies survive and poor companies fall by the wayside, we formulated the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law, which applies to all types of corporations. This standardizes procedures for enterprise bankruptcy and establishes a legal framework for the orderly withdrawal of enterprises from the market. We formulated the Antitrust Law in line with conditions in China, setting up a legal framework suitable for China's current stage of economic development to prevent and stop monopolies and to safeguard and promote fair competition. This law will help safeguard economic order in the market, protect the rights and interests of consumers and promote advances in technology. In order to tighten financial regulation and preserve the financial order, we formulated the Banking Oversight and Management Law and the Law to Combat Money Laundering and revised the Law on the People's Bank of China, the Law on Commercial Banks and the Securities Law, thus improving the legal framework for banking and financial activities. The Law on Corporate Income Tax, which was formulated to meet the goals of reform of the taxation system, unifies the income tax rates for domestic and overseas-funded enterprises and standardizes pre-tax deductions and favorable tax policies. The Individual Income Tax Law was revised three times, reducing the tax load on low- and medium-income wage earners and tightening tax collection and management for high-income persons. We made the decision to eliminate the Regulations on the Agricultural Tax, ending the 2,000-year history of farmers paying taxes in China and taking an important step toward unifying the tax systems for cities and the countryside. We formulated the Law on Specialized Farmer Cooperatives, which is of great significance for the effort to increase the level of organization of farmers and promote industrialized operation of agriculture. In addition, we formulated the Law on Renewable Energy, revised the Law on Energy Conservation and deliberated the Law on the Circular Economy (draft) and other laws related to resources and the environment.

We devoted a great deal of energy to improving social legislation in line with the requirements for building a harmonious socialist society. Improving the legal framework for labor and social security has a bearing on the vital interests of workers and social harmony and stability, and is therefore a priority of social legislation. During 2007 the Standing Committee passed the Labor Contract Law, the Employment Promotion Law and the Law on the Mediation and Arbitration of Labor Disputes and examined a draft of the Social Security Law. The Law on Compulsory Education was thoroughly revised to respond to the great concern among deputies about social issues. The law establishes a legal framework for the mechanism to ensure adequate funding for compulsory education, puts the requirement that students receive competence-oriented education into law and confirms the goal of making compulsory education available in all areas of the country. The Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women was revised, confirming for the first time the equality of men and women as a basic state policy. The Law on the Protection of Minors was revised, further strengthening the responsibility of families, schools, society and the government for the protection of minors and emphasizing their right to receive an education.

2. We found appropriate solutions to problems encountered in legislative work. Legislative work is a fundamental political activity in China, so following the correct guiding ideology is essential to doing good legislative work and improving the quality of legislation. Therefore, in carrying out our legislative work we always refer to the Constitution, maintain a correct political orientation, put people first, take into consideration the situation and actual conditions in the country and work in a spirit of reform and innovation to find appropriate solutions to problems we encounter in our legislative work.

The Law on Property Rights is a basic law that standardizes private property relationships in a market economy. The Law on Property Rights, which is related to China's basic economic system and affects the vital interests of the people, attracted wide attention from the general public and took 13 years to go from initial drafting to final promulgation. The Standing Committee of the 10th NPC placed great importance on passing the Law on Property Rights, adopting a positive yet cautious attitude, putting a great deal of effort into the work, making major revisions and deliberating the draft bill many times before passing it by a large margin at the Fifth Session of the 10th NPC. This law reflects the basic socialist economic system, complies with the principle of equal protection of property rights for all, strengthens protection of state-owned assets, is in compliance with the Party's current basic policy on the countryside and clarifies practical issues of most concern to the general public. In line with the objectives of the Law on Property Rights, the Standing Committee also deliberated the Law on State-Owned Assets (draft), designed to protect the rights and interests of the state in holding assets and prevent their erosion.

Work on the Law on Oversight, which is related to China's political system and the structure of the government, took 20 years to bring to promulgation, beginning with its initial conception at the Sixth NPC. The Standing Committee of the 10th NPC maintained a high sense of responsibility toward the Party and the people in making major revisions in the draft on the basis of a careful review of experience and extensive solicitation of opinions. The Standing Committee adjusted the scope of applicability of the Law on Oversight, focusing on clarifying the issues the standing committees of people's congresses at all levels were most concerned about and most hoped to see clarified, correctly balancing the need to strengthen the oversight work of the people's congresses and the need to uphold the leadership of the Party, and correctly balancing the need to strengthen the oversight work of the people's congresses and the need to support the legally sanctioned work of the people's governments, people's courts and people's procuratorates. The law fully reflects the organic integration of the leadership of the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country and the rule of law.

On the basis of the work of the previous two terms of the NPC, we formulated a new draft version of the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law. On the basis of thorough discussions with the State Council and interested parties, we included in this draft special provisions to require giving priority to clearing up major issues such as unpaid wages, basic old-age pensions and expenses for medical insurance due from bankrupt enterprises, thus effectively protecting the legal rights and interests of the employees of bankrupt enterprises. To address the issue of possible acquisition of Chinese enterprises by foreign businesses or the emergence of foreign monopoly operations in China through other means, an issue of great concern to the public, the Antitrust Law clearly stipulates that any such action that affects the security of the country, in addition to any merger being subject to the normal legally mandated examination, will also be subject to examination for its effect on the country's security in accordance with the regulations of the state. This stipulation is conducive both to increasing the degree of the country's openness and to safeguarding the country's economic security.

In response to fairly strong contrary opinions raised during deliberation of the draft Administrative License Law, the Standing Committee attached great importance to protecting the lawful rights and interests of parties applying for administrative license by clearly defining the scope and limit of jurisdiction for administrative license in accordance with a principle of balancing compliance with the law and reasonableness, efficacy and convenience, and power and responsibility. The law rescinds the power of administrative license stipulated by the regulations of government departments and limits the power of provincial-level people's governments to stipulate requirements for administrative approval. In deliberating and revising the draft of the Law on Public Security Management and Punishment, the Standing Committee paid close attention to granting public security organs and the people's police the necessary powers while also paying close attention to instituting standards and oversight for the exercise of those powers in order to effectively safeguard the lawful rights and interests of citizens and preserve public order in society.

3. We actively worked to make legislation more scientific and democratic. Adhering to the mass line, giving full play to democracy and expanding the orderly participation of citizens in legislative work is an important way of ensuring good legislative work and improving the quality of legislation. The Standing Committee of the 10th NPC, in the spirit of reform and innovation, actively worked to find effective ways to realize scientific and democratic legislation.

First, we released the full texts of the draft bills for the Law on Property Rights, the Labor Contract Law, the Employment Promotion Law and the revised Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution to the public to gather opinions from a wide swath of the general public, especially ordinary people. Second, for the first time in history we staged a public hearing on legislation for the NPC and its Standing Committee to directly listen to the opinions of the general public and concerned parties concerning the salary threshold for the individual income tax to help us revise the Individual Income Tax Law. Third, the draft laws submitted for deliberation were printed and sent to concerned organs of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Government, local governments and organizations and various forms of conferences were convened to solicit opinions. For especially technical issues in draft laws, we held meetings of experts to discuss those issues. Fourth, before deliberating important legislation such as the Law on Property Rights and Law on Corporate Income Tax at NPC sessions, we assembled the deputies to read and discuss them to carefully listen to their opinions so we could revise and improve the drafts. Fifth, we diligently deliberated draft laws numerous times. For draft laws that affected many interests and that drew strong opposing opinions, we adopted an active but cautious approach, conducting thorough surveys and studies for areas that required such treatment, patiently negotiating areas that needed to be negotiated and fully discussing areas that needed to be discussed so we could repeatedly deliberate, revise and improve such laws and reach a basic consensus of opinion before actually voting on them. The drafts for the Law on Oversight, the Administrative License Law, the Labor Contract Law and the Law on Citizen Identity Cards were deliberated four times before they were passed. The draft of the Law on Property Rights was deliberated eight times, which is unprecedented in the legislative history of China.

II. Oversight Work

The power of oversight is another important duty and power granted to the NPC and its Standing Committee by the Constitution and other laws. The Standing Committee of the 10th NPC from the beginning of its term adopted the approach of concentrating on core issues, identifying priorities and seeking substantive results in its oversight work and constantly deepened its understanding of the oversight work of the NPC. As a result, the Standing Committee established effective work mechanisms and methods, produced results that pleased the Party and the people and provided a practical foundation for the formulation and implementation of the Law on Oversight. Over the past five years the Standing Committee listened to and deliberated 41 special work reports and 15 final accounts, auditing reports and plan implementation reports from the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. The vice chairpersons of the Standing Committee organized 25 enforcement inspection teams to survey implementation of 22 laws. The Standing Committee received over 470,000 letters from the public and entertained 210,000 visits from members of the public.

1. We identified oversight priorities. The oversight work of the NPC touches on many areas, so an important condition for achieving more substantive results is to closely tie it to the work of the Party and the state and make it closely correspond to the most common demands of the people. For this reason, we identified the priorities for oversight in accordance with the strategic arrangements that the Party and the government made for work following the 16th CPC National Congress, the comments and suggestions of deputies, and the issues of most concern to the public. We selected prominent issues that can be resolved through hard work as the breakthrough points, then used these individual cases to expand results to the problems at large. We constantly worked to enhance the scope of oversight to make it more thorough and more effective.