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UPDATED: January 10, 2007 No.1 JAN. 4, 2007
Laws adopted in 2006
(As of December 28)
Share

Law on Agricultural Product Quality Safety (Adopted on April 29, effective November 1, 2006)

The law forbids the discharge of sewage, waste gas and solid waste or other poisonous substances in agricultural product production areas.

The law also prohibits the production and collection of farm products in places where poisonous and harmful substances exceed statutory standards.

The law regulates the use of fertilizer, pesticides, veterinary medicine, feed and feed additives, and requires the establishment of production records for agricultural products.

Passport Law (Adopted on April 29, effective January 1, 2007)

The law replaces a regulation governing passport management that had been in place for nearly two decades.

According to the law, China's passports are divided into three categories-regular passport, diplomatic passport and service passport.

The law bans fabrication, transfer, damage or illegal holding of passports, while providing penalties for people who assist in passport fraud.

The Amendment to the Compulsory Education Law (Adopted on June 29, effective September 1, 2006)

The revised law aims to give children in both the cities and the countryside nine years of free compulsory education.

The expenditures will be jointly shouldered by the Central Government and local governments. Local governments must put the expenditures for compulsory education in their budgets.

The revised law says the children of migrant workers will enjoy equal education rights as children in cities and the education rights of children with disabilities should be also secured.

In cities, educational resources, such as teachers, school facilities, program designs and investment, should be allocated equally among schools. There will no longer be a division of schools into key schools and common ones, according to the revised law.

In a bid to improve educational quality in rural schools, the law also requires teachers in urban schools to work in rural schools for a certain time to make up for the inadequate rural education resources.

Sixth Amendment to the Criminal Law (Adopted on June 29, effective on that date)

The amendment intensifies a crackdown on work safety violations, financial fraud, money laundering, organized gambling and arbitrage fraud. It provides penalties of up to seven years in jail, probation and fines for those who force people to work under unsafe conditions and regulation when that results in serious accidents and casualties.

The Supervision Law of the Standing Committees of People's Congresses at Various Levels (Adopted on August 27, effective January 1, 2007)

It aims to enhance the supervisory power of lawmakers and prevent administrative and judicial bodies from abusing authority.

China's top legislator Wu Bangguo said the promulgation of the supervision law attaches great importance to improving socialist democracy and the socialist legal system, and will enhance people's congresses' supervision capability and help promote judicial justice and administration by law.

He said the objective of the supervision work conducted by the people's congresses is to ensure that the Constitution, laws and regulations can be correctly implemented, administrative and judicial power be well exerted, and the legitimate rights of citizens and corporations be safeguarded.

Corporate Bankruptcy Law (Adopted on August 27, effective June 1, 2007; the current enterprise bankruptcy law will be abolished at the same time.)

The new corporate bankruptcy law will apply to all kinds of enterprises and financial institutions. All the country's companies and enterprises, whether state-owned or private, will have to follow a unified corporate bankruptcy law if they founder.

The new law stipulates that from June 1, 2007, all insolvent enterprises will pay credit guarantees to creditors first, and use other assets not earmarked as credit guarantees to pay laid-off workers.

The new law makes an exception for around 2,000 state-owned enterprises (SOEs). It is stipulated that SOEs that declare bankruptcy before June 2007 can be closed down with the aid of government bailouts and can pay laid-off workers first.

The new law also provides a bankruptcy restructuring system complete with liquidators, as well as rules to prevent fraud during the bankruptcy process.

The new law stipulates that financial supervisory institutions can apply for bankruptcy for financial institutions.

Anti-Money Laundering Law (Adopted on October 31, effective January 1, 2007)

The definition of money laundering has been expanded to include corruption and bribe taking, violating financial management regulations and financial fraud. Previously, the law only identified drug trafficking, organized crime, terrorist crimes and smuggling as money-laundering crimes.

The law demands that financial and some non-financial institutions maintain records of clients and transactions and report large and suspect transactions.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, is the nerve center of the anti-money-laundering campaign. Its provincial branch offices are authorized to investigate suspect fund transfers of financial institutions. Its offices are empowered to monitor and investigate suspect money flows and mete out administrative punishment to employees for allowing the illegal transfer of money.

The law demands that financial and certain non-financial institutions keep data on clients' identity and transaction records, and report large and suspect transactions.

The law allows the China Anti-Money-Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center under the central bank to gather "necessary information from departments and institutions under the State Council."

Law on Farmers' Professional Cooperatives (Adopted on October 31, effective July 1, 2007)

It is the first law to give legal status to cooperatives founded by farmers to better protect farmers' business interests.

It also stipulates that the government shall offer incentives and subsidies to encourage more farmers to join economic cooperatives against the backdrop that household businesses, the backbone of China's rural economy, have become more vulnerable when facing a more competitive market.



 
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