On Sept 2, the 36th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) passed the law on anti-telecom and online fraud and adopted the revised Law on the Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products, which will take effect on Dec 1, 2022 and Jan 1, 2023 respectively.

Following the progress, the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee and other departments involved held a media briefing via video link on Sept 5, to explain the new priorities and features of the laws.

Wang Aili, head of the Criminal Law Office of the Legislative Affairs Commission, said the anti-telecom and online fraud law is problem-oriented and makes detailed provisions on major links and measures, in addition, the law went through three reviews and was adopted by lawmakers in less than a year, which demonstrates the NPC Standing Committee's flexible legislation practice.

Wang said the new law puts more emphasis on preventive and comprehensive efforts, adopting a whole-chain approach where all stakeholders are involved to deter telecom and online fraud.

The law also reflects the philosophy of ensuring security while pursuing development, with provisions on complaints and the remedy process also being specified, according to Wang.

At the briefing, Jiang Guoli, deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Bureau with the Ministry of Public Security, said that public security departments, working with financial authorities, including the People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, have taken a slew of measures to help recover financial losses for victims in fraud-related cases.

Such efforts include establishing a rapid-response platform to stop payments and freeze money, which helped suspend the transaction of 329.1 billion yuan ($45.68 billion) made by some 1.5 million people trying to pay scammers last year, according to Jiang. Another mechanism helped intercept 14.8 billion yuan from 1.02 million bank accounts suspected of online scams, he added.

For the revised agricultural products safety law, Yue Zhongming, director of the Economic Law Office of the Legal Affairs Commission, said the revision enhances the regulation and supervision of products’ quality and safety in active response to people’s concerns, such as excessive pesticide residue and toxic additives.

The revision is also more consistent to the Food Safety Law so as to keep a close eye on all links related to food safety, including production, processing and consumption, stressing whole-chain supervision to enhance the legal protection of the endeavor, Yue added.