Fellow Deputies,

I have been entrusted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) to present this report on its work for your deliberation and approval.

Major Work of the Past Year

The year 2009 was the most difficult year for our country's economic development since the beginning of the new century. Faced with a complex situation and severe challenges, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), with Comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary, united with and led the people of all the country's ethnic groups in fortifying their confidence, meeting difficulties head-on, and winning new victories in socialist economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological development.

Over the past year, the NPC Standing Committee comprehensively implemented the guiding principles of the Seventeenth National Congress of the CPC and the third and fourth plenary sessions of the Seventeenth CPC Central Committee; took Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as its guide; thoroughly applied the Scientific Outlook on Development; intimately integrated the leadership of the Party, the position of the people as masters of the country, and the rule of law; carried out its duties in accordance with the law and the guiding principles of the Second Session of the 11th NPC, firmly focusing on the overall work of the Party and state; and made new progress in all of its work. In the last year, the NPC deliberated 22 bills and draft decisions on legal issues and passed 14 of them; adopted two resolutions; listened to and deliberated 14 reports by the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate and an investigative report on a special topic and a follow-up inspection report; checked compliance with three laws; handled 518 bills submitted by NPC deputies; approved six treaties and accords China concluded with foreign countries and accession to an international convention; made decisions on and approved the appointment and removal of a number of employees in state organs; and made new contributions to building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

1. Taking decisive steps toward creating a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics by both enacting new laws and sifting through existing ones

Last year was a key year for reaching the goal of creating a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics by 2010. While raising the quality of legislation, we made decisive progress in creating such a system by both enacting new laws and sifting through existing ones.

1) We revised the Electoral Law of the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses and pressed ahead with the self-improvement and self-development of the socialist election system with Chinese characteristics. In order to implement the requirement set forth at the Seventeenth National Party Congress that we gradually achieve the goal of electing deputies to people's congresses based on the same population ratio in urban and rural areas, the NPC Standing Committee made the revision of the Electoral Law of the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses a focus of its legislative work and promptly began this work. After conscientiously sorting through deputies' proposals and suggestions, conducting thorough investigations and studies, and listening to the opinions of a wide range of sources, we formulated a draft amendment to the Electoral Law. The Standing Committee held a meeting to perform a preliminary evaluation of the draft amendment in October, after which it posted the entire text of the draft on the NPC website and broadly solicited the opinions of the people and all sectors of society. The Standing Committee undertook a further evaluation of the draft at its December meeting and decided to present it to this session of the NPC for its deliberation and approval. The members of the Standing Committee all agree on the guiding ideology and work principles for this amendment to the Electoral Law. We believe that the amendment that proposes electing deputies to people's congresses based on the same population ratio in urban and rural areas and assures an appropriate number of deputies from every locality, ethnic group, and sector is in accord with the guiding principles of the Seventeenth National Party Congress, the realities of our country's economic and social development, and the will of the people; better embodies the principle that all people, all localities, and all ethnic groups are equal; is beneficial for broadening the scope of people's democracy; and guarantees that the people are masters of the country. Everyone emphasized that amending the Electoral Law and pressing ahead with the self-improvement and self-development of the socialist election system with Chinese characteristics is an important aspect of upholding and improving the system of people's congresses and a necessary requirement for developing socialist democratic politics.

Amending the Electoral Law is a major issue in our legislative work and also an important item on the agenda of this session of the NPC. Before this session, we distributed the draft amendment to the Electoral Law to all NPC deputies and asked them to carefully read, discuss, and comment on it as necessary preparation for deliberation of it at this session. The Standing Committee has also explained the draft amendment at this session. We believe that through the efforts of all deputies, we can amend and improve the Electoral Law.

2) We promulgated and submitted for deliberation a succession of important laws. The Law on Tort Liability is an important civil law that has a direct bearing on the vital interests of the people, and the Ninth NPC carried out an initial review of it as a draft civil law. The Standing Committee of this NPC has exerted considerable effort to carry out major revisions to this draft and deliberated it on a number of occasions. The newly formulated Law on Tort Liability takes our country's conditions and realities as its starting point; details, supplements, and improves the basic system established on the general principles of civil law; and clarifies the basic principle for assigning tort liability and the way that liability is borne. It sets forth specific provisions on issues for which there is public concern and widespread agreement, such as medical malpractice, environmental pollution, product defects, traffic accidents, and damage caused by animals. This law is of great importance for protecting the legitimate rights and interests of civil subjects, preventing and punishing infringements of rights, reducing and resolving conflicts in society, and promoting social harmony and stability.

Establishing a sound Social Security Law is a major issue that affects the vital interests of hundreds of millions of people; therefore, all sides are paying great attention. The Standing Committee attaches great importance to the work of formulating the Social Security Law. On the basis of proposals and suggestions made by deputies to the Tenth NPC, we urged the State Council to research and formulate a draft law. On the basis of thorough investigations and studies, widely solicited opinions from society, and a conscientious review of practical experience, the Standing Committee of the current NPC deliberated the State Council's draft a number of times and made major revisions to it. First, we made specific provisions for old-age, medical, workers' compensation, unemployment, and maternity insurance in separate chapters. Second, we set up a system for workers to transfer their basic old-age insurance accounts from one locality to another, and raised the level of unified management of basic old-age insurance funds. Third, we clearly stipulated that the state would gradually set up a new satisfactory old-age insurance system for rural residents, and formulated principles and provisions for the new type of rural cooperative medical care system. Fourth, we improved employers' and insured persons' oversight of social security, strengthened the oversight authority of the standing committees of people's congresses at all levels over the revenue and expenditures, management, and investment operations of social security funds, and insisted that parties in charge of social security funds ensure they are managed and used properly.

The draft Law on Administrative Enforcement, which the Standing Committee is in the process of deliberating, defines the principles that must be adhered to in administrative enforcement; clarifies the set limits of authority, the enforcing bodies, and related procedures for administrative enforcement; and requires that administrative enforcement be assessed before it is adopted, and that its implementation be subject to periodic evaluation to ensure that the exercise of administrative enforcement is standardized, limited, and subject to oversight in order to avoid and prevent abuses of power. It also endows administrative bodies with necessary means of enforcement, and guarantees that administrative bodies carry out their duties in accordance with the law.

The state compensation law directly affects the exercise of public power and the protection of citizens' legitimate rights and interests. On the basis of the serious problems reported by NPC deputies and people from all walks of life, the draft amendment to the Law on State Compensation improves provisions of the law mainly in order to make it easier to seek compensation, improve the procedures for awarding compensation, clarify the scope of compensation and the responsibility for producing evidence, and ensure that compensation is paid.

In the 20 plus years since the promulgation and implementation of the Organic Law of Villagers' Committees, villagers' self-governance, consisting principally of democratic elections, decision making, supervision, and oversight, has developed by leaps and bounds and won the heartfelt support of rural residents. At the same time, we need to recognize that as our country's economy and society develop and rural residents' political enthusiasm continually increases, we should constantly press ahead with the self-improvement and self-development of the socialist system of villagers' self-governance with Chinese characteristics. The draft amendment to the Organic Law of Villagers' Committees mainly revises and supplements provisions in order to improve procedures for electing and dismissing members of villagers' committees; perfect democratic procedural systems such as villagers' congresses, villagers' conferences and villagers' meetings; and strengthen the oversight and democratic discussion of village affairs.

The draft laws that we are deliberating have wide-ranging implications, will have a significant impact on society, and have complex legal ramifications; therefore, we must proceed carefully. We need to continue to listen to the suggestions of NPC deputies, all sectors of society, and especially people at the primary level, and devote ourselves to completing the revisions in order to promulgate and implement them as soon as possible.

The Standing Committee also drew up the Law on Mediation and Arbitration of Rural Land Contract Management Disputes, the National Defense Mobilization Law, the Law on the People's Armed Police Force, the Law on Diplomatic Personnel Stationed Abroad, and the Law on the Protection of Offshore Islands. It revised the procedural rules for the Standing Committee, the Postal Law, the Statistics Law, and the Copyright Law, and passed a decision granting jurisdiction over Hengqin Island where the new campus of Macao University is located to the Macao Special Administrative Region.

3) We made great strides in the current stage of the work of sifting through existing laws. Making a concerted effort to sift through existing laws is an important measure for ensuring that we establish a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics in 2010; an internal requirement for ensuring that the legal system is scientific, unified, and harmonious; and a focus of the legislative work of this Standing Committee. On the basis of the work arrangements made by the Standing Committee, all the special committees and executive organs of the Standing Committee, together with the State Council, Central Military Commission, Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate began comprehensively combing through existing laws beginning in the second half of 2008. After sifting through existing laws, it was clear that some laws clearly do not meet the requirements for economic and social development. There is discordance of varying degrees within the provisions of laws, and a lack of accompanying regulations make it difficult to effectively enforce some laws. To address these problems, the Standing Committee carried out scrupulous research and repeated discussions, and dealt with each in one of three ways. First, it passed the decision to repeal some laws. Based on this decision, it repealed eight laws and decisions on related legal issues, including the Organic Regulations on Police Stations and the Organic Regulations on Urban Community Offices. Second, it decided to revise some laws. It revised 141 clauses of 59 laws, and identified a number of other laws that clearly need to be revised and added them to the legislative agenda and annual plan to ensure they would be dealt with quickly. Third, it urged the State Council and other relevant bodies to promptly draw up auxiliary regulations for some laws, and explicitly demanded that when a legislative subject is chosen and a draft law is written in the future, auxiliary regulations should also be drawn up so they can be put into effect at the same time.

2. Concentrating on core issues, emphasizing key points, and achieving positive results in promoting the implementation of the major decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee

Faced with the severe impact of the global financial crisis, the Central Committee sized up the situation and responded calmly by adopting a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy, and fully implementing and constantly enriching and improving the package plan and policies and measures for responding to the impact of the crisis. The Standing Committee concentrated on core issues, emphasized key points, and made promoting the implementation of the major decisions and arrangements of the Central Committee the top priority of NPC oversight work. We exercised our oversight functions and powers in accordance with the law, applied a variety of oversight methods, and supervised and supported the State Council, Supreme People's Court, and Supreme People's Procuratorate in carrying out their work on the basis of the targets and tasks set forth in their work reports, in order to ensure that the year's tasks for economic and social development were accomplished successfully.

1) We strengthened oversight of economic work. Maintaining steady and rapid economic development was the foremost task in our economic work last year. It was especially important to improve the NPC's oversight of economic work due to the special circumstances under which our economic development encountered acute difficulties. At each meeting of the Standing Committee last year, we heard and deliberated reports of the State Council on its work in this area, and the Standing Committee and special committees carried out investigations and studies closely related to this issue.

Given that the Central Government's investment plan was not only on a large scale and wide-ranging, but the time for implementing it was tight and the work load heavy, in order to ensure its effective implementation the Standing Committee, on the basis of advice from NPC deputies, chose four topics and launched three-month investigations and studies on projects to improve people's wellbeing such as low-income housing, education, and health; technological upgrading; innovations in science and technology; and water conservancy. The reports on these investigations and studies were heard and deliberated together with the related work report of the State Council at the Standing Committee meeting held in October. Investigation groups of the Standing Committee fully affirmed the results achieved by all localities and departments in conscientiously implementing the Central Government's investment plan. At the same time, to counter outstanding problems, such as the preparatory work of some projects not being done well, supporting funds not being fully available, local governments being saddled with risky debts, progress being uneven, and projects being launched indiscriminately, we promptly discussed these problems with local governments and relevant departments of the State Council by means of forums and exchanges, and submitted preliminary investigative reports to the State Council to help relevant authorities improve their work, policies, and measures. We invited leading comrades of relevant departments of the State Council to attend the Standing Committee meeting in October to hear our comments and suggestions personally. During the meeting, members of the Standing Committee stated that to use investment to stimulate economic growth, we must stay firmly rooted in the present while looking ahead to the future, plan scientifically, and not try to do more than we are capable of; strictly maintain the orientation of investment and optimize the investment structure; and ensure local governments make supporting funds available, standardize management procedures, and strengthen supervision over investment to prevent redundant construction and make sure funds are used where they are most needed. After the meeting, we collated the comments and suggestions of Standing Committee members and other comrades attending the meeting as observers, and submitted them together with the investigative reports to the State Council to study and deal with them. We required that the State Council submit a written report to the Standing Committee on how it dealt with them by the end of this April. It must be stressed here that we conducted investigations and studies on the special topics and deliberated the related work report of the State Council during the implementation of the Central Government's investment plan, and that it was a useful attempt by the Standing Committee to increase the intensity and raise the level of its oversight work. It not only made the NPC's oversight work expeditious, but also enriched its methods of oversight work. In future, we will further review our experiences and continually improve.

The Standing Committee attached great importance to raising the quality and efficiency of economic growth and promoted economic restructuring and industrial upgrading. In addition to hearing and discussing the report on the implementation of the plan for national economic and social development in the first half of 2009, as is customary, we also made special arrangements to hear and deliberate reports of the State Council on transforming the pattern of economic development and restructuring the economy and on promoting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Members of the Standing Committee agreed that, owing to common efforts of the country from top to bottom, economic growth picked up each quarter in 2009, the economic turnaround gradually gained momentum, and overall economic development was better than expected. All this proved that the series of decisions, arrangements, policies, and measures made by the Central Committee to deal with the impact of the global financial crisis were correct, timely, and effective. Members of the Standing Committee stated that the serious difficulties encountered in China's economic development were both the result of the global financial crisis and a reflection of the problems of China's overall extensive pattern of development and an irrational economic structure; and that the global financial crisis makes the task of restructuring even more urgent. They emphasized that we need to correctly handle the relationships between maintaining economic growth and restructuring the economy, and between solving current difficulties and sustaining long-term development; set economic turnaround on a foundation of structural optimization and upgrading; and make responding to the impact of the global financial crisis the means by which we increase the sustainability of our development. First, we need to vigorously carry out technological upgrading in enterprises, with the focus on conserving energy, reducing its consumption, and developing a circular economy. Second, we need to strengthen technological innovation, accelerate research and development on high-end products, and upgrade industries and products. Third, we need to energetically develop emerging industries, with the focus on a green economy and a low-carbon economy, and foster new areas of economic growth.

Improving oversight of government budgets has always been an important aspect of the Standing Committee's oversight work. At the Standing Committee meeting in June last year, we heard and deliberated reports on the final Central Government budget for 2008 and the auditing work report, examined and approved the final budget for 2008, and discussed the implementation of the 2009 budget in the first five months of the year. Members of the Standing Committee noted that national revenue had declined significantly from January to May compared to the previous year, resulting in a serious discrepancy between revenue and expenditures, and making it extremely difficult to meet the budget targets for the whole year. In response to this, the State Council and its relevant departments should take this problem seriously and adopt more effective measures to solve it. First, they must conscientiously implement policies for structural tax reductions, support the development of enterprises, strengthen tax collection and management in accordance with the law, and strive to reverse the steady decline in fiscal revenue. At the same time, they must collect only prescribed taxes to avoid placing an unreasonable burden on enterprises. Second, they must use budgetary funds more effectively, strictly control the orientation of investment and policies, and ensure funding for key projects and crucial areas. At the same time, they must firmly practice austerity, refrain from taking on more than they could handle, act diligently and frugally in all their dealings, oppose extravagance and waste, avoid launching new projects indiscriminately, and never do things for appearance's sake. Third, they must press ahead with reform of the fiscal and taxation systems, set up a sound public finance system in which the financial resources of the central and local governments are commensurate with their respective responsibilities, standardize the transfer payment system, and promptly establish a mechanism to ensure adequate basic financial resources for county-level governments. At the same time, they must strictly enforce laws and regulations as well as economic and financial discipline, strengthen the oversight and supervision of key areas of revenue and expenditure, standardize budget preparation and implementation, and guard against financial risks.

2) We strengthened oversight of solving problems affecting people's wellbeing. Ensuring and improving people's wellbeing is an inherent requirement for applying the Scientific Outlook on Development and the ultimate goal of our economic development. Deputies to the NPC and members of the Standing Committee attach great importance to this issue. The Standing Committee listened to and deliberated 11 special work reports by the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate last year, six of which directly related to problems of deep concern to the people and affected their wellbeing. Last year we carried out three investigations of compliance with laws and all three directly concerned problems affecting people's wellbeing.