By Wan Qigang

Law is the cornerstone of national governance, good laws are a prerequisite for good governance and legislation forms the foundation for the comprehensive law-based governance of a country.

Legislation is a vital political activity that formalizes and institutionalizes the Party's propositions and the people's will into laws and systems in accordance with statutory procedures. In China, the National People's Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee exercise the legislative power of the State on behalf of the people. They shall formulate, revise and repeal laws to ensure that the legislative power firmly remains in the hands of the people, making the law serve the people.

Specifically, the power to amend the Constitution is the supreme legislative power, which can only be exercised by the NPC. The NPC shall also formulate and revise basic laws governing criminal offenses, civil matters, State institutions and other matters. The NPC Standing Committee shall formulate and revise laws other than those that shall be formulated by the NPC, and when the NPC is not in session, shall supplement and revise laws formulated by the NPC, on the premise that the supplement and revision are not in contradiction to the basic principles of the original. Article 11 of the Legislation Law explicitly stipulates the exclusive legislative power of the NPC and its Standing Committee, which involves matters such as national sovereignty, fundamental political systems, basic economic systems, the political rights of citizens and personal freedom.

The procedure for the NPC and its Standing Committee to formulate laws involves four stages: the introduction of legislative bills, deliberation on legislative bills, voting on draft laws, and the promulgation of laws. Throughout the legislative procedure, the centralized and unified leadership of the Communist Party of China Central Committee shall be upheld over legislative work, and the principles of scientific, democratic and law-based legislation be adhered to.

Sponsoring legislative bills is the first step in the legislative procedure. There are two categories of entities entitled to sponsor legislative bills to the NPC: first, institutions, including the Presidium of the NPC, the NPC Standing Committee, the State Council, the Central Military Commission, the National Supervisory Commission, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and special committees of the NPC; second, a delegation or a group of over 30 deputies making a joint proposal. Similarly, there are also two categories of entities entitled to sponsor legislative bills to the NPC Standing Committee: one is institutions including the Council of Chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee, the State Council, the Central Military Commission, the National Supervisory Commission, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and special committees of the NPC; the other is a group of over 10 members of the NPC Standing Committee making a joint proposal.

It is worth noting that according to the Legislation Law, legislative bills to be submitted to the NPC may first be submitted to the NPC Standing Committee when the NPC is not in session. After deliberating on these bills, the NPC Standing Committee may decide to submit them to the NPC for deliberation. In recent years, laws such as the Organic Law of the State Council (revised), the Legislation Law (amended), and the Organic Law of the Local People's Congresses and Local People’s Governments (amended) all have been deliberated twice by the NPC Standing Committee before being submitted for deliberation and approval by the NPC.

The process of deliberating legislative bills by the NPC and its Standing Committee is a process that fully embodies democracy, collective wisdom and consensus building. The procedure for the NPC to deliberate legislative bills includes sending the draft laws to deputies one month before the session, hearing explanations on the bills by the sponsors at the plenary meeting, conducting deliberations in plenary or group meetings of delegations, and conducting unified deliberations by the Constitution and Law Committee of the NPC based on the opinions of delegations and relevant special committees.

The basic procedure for the NPC Standing Committee to deliberate legislative bills is as follows: first, sending the legislative bills to the members of the NPC Standing Committee seven days before the session of the NPC Standing Committee; second, hearing explanations made by the sponsors of the legislative bills at the plenary session of the NPC Standing Committee; third, conducting deliberations in groups, and if necessary, convening joint meetings for deliberation; fourth, relevant special committees reviewing the legislative bills and providing their opinions, followed by unified deliberations by the members of the Constitution and Law Committee of the NPC. During the process, the NPC Standing Committee actively promotes orderly public participation in the legislative procedure by incorporating public opinions and gathering public wisdom through local legislative outreach offices, public consultations, third-party evaluations and other means.

The Legislation Law stipulates that legislative bills shall be deliberated three times. Legislative bills included in the agenda of the NPC Standing Committee sessions generally shall be deliberated three times before being put to a vote. According to the Legislation Law and legislative practices, for legislative bills with relatively straightforward amendments or partial modifications and where opinions are largely consistent, or in cases of emergency, they can be put to a vote after a single deliberation by the NPC Standing Committee session. Decisions on legal issues and "package of amendments" to legislative bills are generally adopted by the first deliberation, and some may be put to a vote after deliberations for the second time at the NPC Standing Committee sessions.

In the case that significant issues remain after a bill has been deliberated three times by the NPC Standing Committee sessions and further study may be required, the bill may not proceed for passage but be further deliberated by the Constitution and Law Committee and relevant special committees of the NPC. For example, the draft property law was deliberated by the NPC Standing Committee seven times before being submitted to the NPC for deliberation; the draft administrative compulsion law was deliberated six times, and the draft securities law was deliberated five times before being put to a vote. Additionally, in the case that the deliberation of a legislative bill has been suspended for two years due to substantial differences of opinion on the necessity and feasibility of enacting a law after deliberation, or that a bill has not been included in the agenda of the NPC Standing Committee session for two years, the Council of Chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee may decide to terminate the deliberation and report to the NPC Standing Committee; and if necessary, the Council of Chairpersons may also decide to postpone the deliberations.

In China, the voting on legislative bills follows the principle of majority rule. Legislative bills submitted to the NPC sessions for deliberation shall be passed by over half of all deputies. Amendments to the Constitution shall be proposed by the NPC Standing Committee or by at least one-fifth of the NPC deputies, and shall be adopted by a two-thirds majority of all NPC deputies. Legislative bills submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for deliberations shall be adopted by over half of all members of the NPC Standing Committee.

The promulgation of laws is the final step in the legislative procedure. Laws are promulgated by the president of the country in accordance with the decisions made by the NPC and its Standing Committee. The presidential order to promulgate laws shall specify the enacting body, the date of approval and implementation.

The author is director of the National People's Congress Library.