This will be the last crosspost for NPC 2026. This year, I’ve decided not to crosspost our substantive coverage of the session, as we published quite a few pieces. Here they are, in case you missed any:

• On the Ecological and Environmental Code

  • “A First Look at China’s New Environmental Code“

  • “China Elevates Environmental Law to an Official Branch of Law“

• On the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress: “China Enshrines Xi-Era Ethnic Policy in New Law“

• On the Law on National Development Plans

  • “China Enacts Law on the Formulation and Implementation of Five-Year Plans“

  • “New Development Planning Law to Codify Party Authority in Detail“ (for the Brookings Institution)

• On the cleanup of national laws: “Chinese Legislature Revokes Landmark 1985 Delegation of Economic Lawmaking Power to the State Council“

Next week, I’ll try my best to get the Winter 2025–26 triple issue out, and then recap March shortly thereafter. And then hopefully we’ll be back on schedule!

If you’re enjoying the newsletter, I hope you’ll share it widely. —Changhao

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[The following post was first published on NPC Observer]

The fourth session of China’s 14^th National People’s Congress (NPC) concluded on Thursday, March 12. Below we have compiled a list of all official documents from this session (except for several legislative reports the NPC has so far neglected to release1). We have also included the submitted (i.e., draft) versions of key documents for your reference. Documents are available in Chinese only unless otherwise noted. The vote results for each bill and resolution are listed below in brackets, in the order of for–against–abstention, followed by the number of delegates not voting (NV), if any.

Work Reports

State Council (i.e., Government Work Report)

• Approved version: zh | en

• Submitted version: zh | en

• Approval resolution [2759–1–2]

NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC)

• Approved version: zh | en

• Submitted version: zh (with appendices) | en

• Approval resolution [2757–2–3]

Supreme People’s Court

• Approved version

• Submitted version (with appendices)

• Approval resolution [2703–44–15]

Supreme People’s Procuratorate

• Approved version

• Submitted version (with appendices)

• Approval resolution [2726–23–13]

15^th Five-Year Plan

• Full text

  • Approved version

  • Submitted version: zh | en (unofficial)

• NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee (FEAC) review report

• Approval resolution [2758–1–2, 1 NV]

Annual Development Plans

• National Development and Reform Commission report

  • Approved version: zh | en

  • Submitted version: zh | en

• NPC FEAC review report

• Approval resolution [2748–3–11]

Central and Local Budgets

• Ministry of Finance report

  • Approved version: zh | en

  • Submitted version: zh | en

• NPC FEAC review report

• Approval resolution [2745–11–6]

Legislation

Ecological and Environmental Code

• Full text [2752–7–3]

• Explanation

• NPC Constitution and Law Committee (CLC) report on results of deliberations (pending)

• NPC CLC report on suggestions for revisions (pending)

• Presidential order

Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress

• Full text [2756–3–3]

• Explanation

• NPC CLC report on results of deliberations (pending)

• NPC CLC report on suggestions for revisions (pending)

• Presidential order

Law on National Development Plans

• Full text [2753–3–6]

• Explanation

• NPC CLC report on results of deliberations (pending)

• NPC CLC report on suggestions for revisions (pending)

• Presidential order

Decision approving NPCSC’s report on legislation cleanup

• Full text [2759–1–2]

• NPCSC report on legislation cleanup

  • Approved version (pending)

  • Submitted version

• NPC CLC report on results of deliberations (pending)

• Presidential order

Other

• Secretariat report on the disposition of delegate bills

I’m crossposting all our coverage of the 2026 NPC session on our main site to this Substack. You can deselect “NPC Observer Crossposts” in the settings for this newsletter to opt out of the crossposts.

If you’re enjoying the newsletter, I hope you’ll share it widely. —Changhao

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[The following post was first published on NPC Observer]

China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) has released its 2026 session’s agenda and daily schedule of meetings, as well as a preliminary schedule of press events during the session. This year’s session will open on the morning of March 5 and close on the afternoon of March 12, lasting eight full days. As the NPC spokesperson announced in 2024, Premier Li Qiang will not hold a press conference after this session (or during the remainder of this NPC term “absent special circumstances”).

All times below are in China Standard Time (UTC +8:00). For a primer on the NPC and its annual sessions, check out this FAQ.

The 2026 session’s agenda contains the following eleven items:

1. Deliberate the Government Work Report;

2. Review a draft Outline of the 15^th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (“15^th FYP”);

3. Review a report on the implementation of the 2025 Plan for National Economic and Social Development (“Development Plan”) and on the draft 2026 Development Plan; and review the draft 2026 Development Plan;

4. Review a report on the execution of the 2025 Central and Local Budgets (“Budgets”) and on the draft 2026 Budgets; and review the draft 2026 Budgets;

5. Deliberate a draft Ecological and Environmental Code (“Environmental Code”)[生态环境法典];

6. Deliberate a draft Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress (“Ethnic Unity Law”) [民族团结进步促进法];

7. Deliberate a draft Law on National Development Plans (“Planning Law”) [国家发展规划法];

8. Deliberate the work report of the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC);

9. Deliberate the work report of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC);

10. Deliberate the work report of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP); and

11. Deliberate the NPCSC’s Report on Efforts to Clean Up Laws and Opinions on Handling Relevant Laws and Decisions (“Cleanup Report”) [关于法律清理工作情况和有关法律和决定处理意见的报告].

Key documents will be introduced and voted on according to the following schedule:

• March 5 (a.m.): Hear the Government Work Report; review the draft 15^th FYP; review the report on the Development Plans and the 2026 Development Plan; review the report on the Budgets and the 2026 Budgets; hear explanations of the draft Environmental Code, draft Ethnic Unity Law, and draft Planning Law.

• March 9 (a.m.): Hear the NPCSC’s, SPC’s, and SPP’s work reports; and review the Cleanup Report.

• March 12 (p.m.): Vote on all resolutions, the draft Environmental Code, draft Ethnic Unity Law, draft Planning Law, and a draft decision to approve the Cleanup Report.

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A more detailed description of the session’s daily schedule follows. “Delegates’ Corridors” [代表通道] and “Ministers’ Corridors” [部长通道] are brief Q&As that will take place immediately before and after, respectively, each plenary meeting. We will update this post with links to all plenary meetings and press events throughout the session. [Please check the original version of this post for updates.]

Thursday, March 5

🎙 a.m.: Delegates’ Corridor #1

9 a.m. (plenary meeting #1): Hear the Government Work Report from Li Qiang (Premier); review the draft the 15^th FYP; review the report on the Development Plans and the 2026 Development Plan; review the report on the Budgets and the 2026 Budgets; and hear explanations of the draft Environmental Code, draft Ethnic Unity Law, and draft Planning Law by Li Hongzhong (NPCSC Vice Chairman).

🎙 a.m.: Ministers’ Corridor #1

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the Government Work Report as delegations.

Friday, March 6

9 a.m.: Delegates review the draft 15^th FYP as delegations.

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the Government Work Report and review the draft 15^th FYP in small groups.

🎙 p.m.: Press conference on the economy

Saturday, March 7

9 a.m.: Delegates review, in small groups, the report on Development Plans and the draft 2026 Development Plan, as well as the report on the Budgets and the draft 2026 Budgets.

🎙 a.m.: Press conference on “the people’s livelihood”

3 p.m.: Delegates review, in small groups, the report on Development Plans and the draft 2026 Development Plan, as well as the report on the Budgets and the draft 2026 Budgets.

Sunday, March 8

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate the draft Environmental Code in small groups.

🎙 a.m.: Press conference on foreign affairs

📄 12 p.m.: Deadline for submitting delegate bills

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the draft Ethnic Unity Law and draft Planning Law in small groups.

Monday, March 9

🎙 a.m.: Delegates’ Corridor #2

9 a.m. (plenary meeting #2): Hear the NPCSC’s work report from Zhao Leji (NPCSC Chairman); hear the SPC’s work report from Zhang Jun (SPC President); hear the SPP’s work report from Ying Yong (SPP Procurator-General); and review the Cleanup Report.

🎙 a.m.: Ministers’ Corridor #2

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the NPCSC’s work report and Cleanup Report in small groups.

Tuesday, March 10

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate the SPC’s and SPP’s work reports in small groups.

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate, in small groups, revised versions of the draft Environmental Code, draft Ethnic Unity Law, and draft Planning Law, as well as the SPC’s and SPP’s work reports.

Wednesday, March 11

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate the NPCSC’s, SPC’s, and SPP’s work reports as delegations.

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate, in small groups, four draft resolutions on the Government Work Report, 15^th FYP, Development Plans, and Budgets, respectively.

Thursday, March 12

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate, in small groups, three draft resolutions on the NPCSC’s, SPC’s, and SPP’s work reports, respectively; and a draft decision to approve the Cleanup Report.

🎙 p.m.: Delegates’ Corridor #3

3 p.m. (plenary meeting #3): Vote on all resolutions, the draft Environmental Code, draft Ethnic Unity Law, draft Planning Law, and the draft decision to approve the Cleanup Report.

🎙 p.m.: Ministers’ Corridor #3

Today, I’m cross-posting our year-end review for 2025. If you’d like to avoid receiving duplicative emails, head over to the settings for this newsletter and deselect “NPC Observer Crossposts.“

Thank you for following along in 2025. Happy New Year! 🎉 —Changhao

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As we bid farewell to 2025, we reflect on the work of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and of this publication over the past year.

The NPC in 2025

In 2025, the 14^th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) held six sessions, lasting a total of 24 days. In March, the 14^th NPC met for its third (week-long) session, during which it amended the law governing the delegates to people’s congresses. Their legislative output in 2025 was consistent with the previous year’s. Altogether, the NPC and its Standing Committee enacted 6 new laws, approved major changes to 13, adopted 3 quasi-statutory decisions, and issued 1 legislative interpretation. An additional 15 bills remain pending as of today. For details, please see the lists at the end of this section.

Looking back, these were the most notable developments in the NPC’s work in 2025:

• Private Economy Promotion Law (PEPL): The NPCSC approved this law on April 30 after three reviews in rapid succession—without seeking public comment on its second draft, as would have been customary. The PEPL attracted significant global attention, though it “contains little new in terms of substantive legal requirements, protections, or policy,” as our friend Jamie P. Horsley observes in a guest commentary. Instead, the PEPL’s “impact lies in serving as a political statement of the [Communist Party]’s intent to better ensure China’s private firms continue to invest, hire, train, innovate, and otherwise contribute to the country’s socioeconomic development,” she argues.

• Ecological and Environmental Code: Since April, the NPCSC has been focusing on revising this bill, which will become China’s second formal statutory code once the NPC enacts it next spring. The Code will incorporate ten statutes in full and portions of approximately two dozen others. The NPCSC has followed roughly the same deliberative process used for the Civil Code [民法典]: it first considered the Code as a whole, then its individual parts, and finally the entire Code again, before referring it to the full NPC. This time, though, it has moved at a considerably faster pace. (The Civil Code took almost two years, counting from August 2018.)

• Controversy over record-sealing for petty offenses: On June 27, after a lengthy process, the NPCSC approved comprehensive revisions to the Public Security Administration Punishments Law (PSAPL) [治安管理处罚法], which we covered in depth here and here. Just over a month before the revised PSAPL is scheduled to take effect (on January 1), however, a hitherto obscure provision requiring record-sealing for all public security violations triggered an unexpected public backlash. We commented on the controversy in this piece for The Diplomat. Last week, the legislature finally responded to the online criticisms; we summarized and translated its statement here.

• Legislation clean-up: In 2025, the NPCSC Legislative Affairs Commission carried out a comprehensive “clean-up” of existing laws—that is, an effort to identify obsolete or internally inconsistent statutory provisions. It reported its findings and recommendations to the legislature last week. The full implications of this clean-up so far remain unclear, as the Commission’s report has not been made public. But the NPCSC took an initial step to implement the Commission’s recommendations on December 27, by confirming that 104 instruments enacted between 1955 and 2021 have lapsed and are no longer in force. At the same time, the NPCSC also disclosed that it would ask the NPC (presumably next March) to address the legal force of an additional 35 obsolete documents. We will cover this development in greater detail in early 2026.

• Legislation database upgraded: In August, the NPCSC rolled out major upgrades to the National Database of Laws and Regulations, which we reviewed here. In short, we concluded that the revamped Database would “prove to be much more valuable for the average citizen, if not for legal professionals as well.”

• 15^th Five-Year Plan preparations: From March to July, various NPC components carried out preparatory research for the drafting of the 15^th Five-Year Plan, due to be approved next March. This work culminated in 26 (non-public) research reports. In September, the NPCSC General Office delivered a public summary of those reports to the legislature. In the meantime, the NPCSC reviewed the draft Law on National Development Plans [国家发展规划法] three times before deciding last week to submit it to the full NPC. The Law will govern the procedures for drafting, approving, and implementing China’s five-year plans and will be adopted alongside the 15^th Five-Year Plan.

• Recording and review (R&R) … for fiscal and budgetary matters: On December 22, the NPCSC Budgetary Affairs Commission reported to the legislature for the first time on its “R&R of fiscal and budgetary matters” [财政预算事项备案审查]. This report appears likely to become annual, paralleling the NPCSC Legislative Affairs Commission’s yearly reports on the more familiar form of R&R for legislation (see the next highlight). A separate R&R process for fiscal and budgetary matters is presumably necessary because the documents under review either do not qualify as legislation (e.g., local budgets) or do not fall within the NPCSC’s legislative R&R authority (e.g., ministerial documents). Requiring annual reports may push the Budgetary Affairs Commission to conduct more rigorous review, which in turn could pressure the relevant administrative bodies to stay within the boundaries of their delegated authority. We will have more to say about this report soon.

• Recording and review of local legislation: The NPCSC Legislative Affairs Commission also delivered its annual R&R report on December 22. Two of the disclosed decisions cited the Constitution, though neither relied on it exclusively. One rejected local rules requiring people with disabilities to hold a local hukou to register motorized wheelchairs; the other disapproved a local government policy barring those with criminal records from obtaining a local hukou. Once again, the report offered little reasoning for these decisions—an omission that becomes increasingly difficult to justify as the years go by. So perhaps the true highlight of the report is that, in 2025, Chinese citizens submitted a record 6,705 petitions for review, despite the legislature’s continued unwillingness to promptly provide full explanations. We will delve deeper into this report in the next issue of our newsletter.

[The following lists are omitted to limit the length of this email. Check out the original version here.]

New laws (and one legislative interpretation) passed in 2025 . . .

Revisions & major amendments passed in 2025 . . .

Legislative bills pending by the end of 2025 . . .

Quasi-statutory decisions passed in 2025 . . .

NPC Observer in 2025

In 2025, here on our main site, we published 35 posts and received almost 128,000 pageviews—a roughly 10% drop from 2024, though still our second-best year to date—by just over 67,000 visitors from 177 jurisdictions worldwide. Readers from the United States (based on recorded IP addresses) again contributed the most traffic, followed by those from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Germany, and India.

Not counting email opens, our most popular post published in 2025 was the report on the agenda and daily schedule of the 2025 NPC session, followed by Jamie P. Horsley’s guest commentary on the Private Economy Promotion Law. Two older posts—on the allocation of seats in the NPC and China’s leadership transition process, respectively—continued to attract significant traffic.

Unsurprisingly, The Primate Economy Promotion Law [民营经济促进法] page was the most viewed bill page™️ in 2025, followed by those for the Anti–Foreign Sanctions Law [反外国制裁法], Civil Code [民法典], Ecological and Environmental Code [生态环境法典], Public Security Administration Punishments Law [治安管理处罚法], Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress [民族团结进步促进法], and Cybersecurity Law [网络安全法].

On our Substack newsletter, NPC Observer Monthly, we published nine recaps (including a triple issue) and six special issues in 2025. In the recaps, we supplemented the coverage here with discussions of additional topics, including NPC special committees’ reports on 2024 delegate bills; China’s new laws on infectious diseases, national parks, and neighborhood committees; and the recent decline in delegate bills. The special issues featured our commentary in the Made in China Journal on the 2024 retirement-age legislation; a discussion of proposed changes to the State Council’s regulation-making procedures; and translations of the State Council’s reports to the NPCSC on “new quality productive forces” and China’s climate actions, respectively. If those sound interesting to you, consider subscribing to the newsletter today.

In 2025, we began covering the NPCSC’s oversight work more seriously, beyond R&R. We published a report on its 2025 oversight plan (the first such post since 2017) and translated two oversight reports it heard last year for our newsletter (as mentioned above). With large language models making it much easier to produce quality translations of lengthy, jargon-heavy policy reports, we intend to continue such coverage in 2026.

Finally, we gave this website a major facelift last year. With new fonts (both Chinese and English), refined colors, and a new hyperlink style, in addition to interactive enhancements, we aim to continue making the site easier to use and more enjoyable to read. This also serves as a reminder to email subscribers that you should consider reading new posts directly on our site for the full experience.

That concludes our programming in 2025. Best wishes to everyone in 2026.

Happy New Year!

This will be the last crosspost for #NPC2025. But we’re not yet done with our coverage—I’m working with a colleague on an analysis of the Delegates Law amendment (see below), although, if all goes according to plan, it will be published somewhere else.

I’ll be back in your inbox to recap March in a few weeks. Until then, happy reading!

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[The following post was first published on NPC Observer]

The third session of China’s 14^th National People’s Congress (NPC) concluded on Tuesday, March 11. Below we have compiled a list of all official documents from this session (except for two legislative reports the NPC has so far neglected to release). We have also linked to the submitted (i.e., draft) version of the six main reports for your reference. Unless otherwise noted, the documents are available in Chinese only. The vote results for each bill and resolution are listed below in brackets, in the order of yea–nay–abstention.

Work Reports

State Council (i.e., Government Work Report)

• Approved version: zh | en

• Submitted version: zh | en

• Approval resolution [2882–1–1]

NPC Standing Committee

• Approved version: zh | en

• Submitted version: zh | en

• Approval resolution [2875–5–4]

Supreme People’s Court

• Approved version

• Submitted version

• Approval resolution [2841–31–12]

Supreme People’s Procuratorate

• Approved version

• Submitted version

• Approval resolution [2850–27–7]

Delegates Law Amendment

• Amendment [2881–3–0]

  • Full text of the Law as amended

• Explanation

• NPC Constitutional and Law Committee report on results of deliberations

• NPC Constitution and Law Committee report on suggestions for revisions

• Presidential order

National Economic and Social Development Plans

• National Development and Reform Commission report

  • Approved version: zh | en

  • Submitted version: zh | en

• NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee’s review report

• Approval resolution [2866–8–10]

Central and Local Budgets

• Ministry of Finance report

  • Approved version: zh | en

  • Submitted version: zh | en

• NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee’s review report

• Approval resolution [2857–17–10]

Other

• Secretariat report on the disposition of bills submitted by the delegates

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I’m crossposting all our coverage of the 2025 NPC session on our main site to this Substack. You can deselect “NPC Observer Crossposts” in the settings for this newsletter to opt out of the crossposts.

If you’re enjoying the newsletter, I hope you’ll share it widely. —Changhao

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[The following post was first published on NPC Observer]

China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) has released its 2025 session’s agenda and daily schedule of meetings, as well as a preliminary schedule of press events during the session. This year’s session will open on the morning of March 5 and close on the afternoon of March 11, lasting seven full days. As the NPC spokesperson announced last year, the Premier will not hold a press conference after this session (or during the remainder of this NPC’s term “absent special circumstances”).

All times below are in China Standard Time (UTC +8:00). For a primer on the NPC and its annual sessions, check out this FAQ.

The 2025 session’s agenda contains the following seven items:

1. Deliberate the Government Work Report;

2. Review a report on the implementation of the 2024 Plan for National Economic and Social Development (“Development Plan”) and on the draft 2025 Development Plan; and review the draft 2025 Development Plan;

3. Review a report on the execution of the 2024 Central and Local Budgets (“Budgets”) and on the draft 2025 Budgets; and review the draft 2025 Budgets;

4. Deliberate a draft amendment to Law on the Delegates to the National People’s Congress and Local People’s Congresses (“Delegates Law”) [全国人民代表大会和地方各级人民代表大会代表法];

5. Deliberate the work report of the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC);

6. Deliberate the work report of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC); and

7. Deliberate the work report of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP).

Key documents will be introduced and voted on according to the following schedule:

• March 5 (a.m.): Hear the Government Work Report; review the report on the Development Plans and the 2025 Development Plan; review the report on the Budgets and the 2025 Budgets; and hear an explanation of the draft Delegates Law amendment.

• March 8 (a.m.): Hear the NPCSC’s, SPC’s, and SPP’s work reports.

• March 11 (p.m.): Vote on various resolutions concerning the work reports, Development Plans, and Budgets; and vote on the draft Delegates Law amendment.

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A more detailed description of the session’s daily schedule follows. The “Delegates’ Corridors” and “Ministers’ Corridors” are brief Q&As that will take place immediately before and after, respectively, the plenary meetings. We will update this post with links to all plenary meetings and press events throughout the session. [Please check the original version of this post for updates.]

Wednesday, March 5

🎙 8 a.m.: Delegates’ Corridor

9 a.m. (1^st plenary meeting): Hear the Government Work Report from Li Qiang (Premier); review the report on the Development Plans and the 2025 Development Plan; review the report on the Budgets and the 2025 Budgets; and hear an explanation of the draft Delegates Law amendment by Li Hongzhong (NPCSC Vice Chairman).

🎙 a.m.: Ministers’ Corridor

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the Government Work Report as delegations.

Thursday, March 6

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate the Government Work Report in small groups.

3 p.m.: Delegates review, in small groups, the report on Development Plans and the draft 2025 Development Plan, as well as the report on the Budgets and the draft 2025 Budgets.

🎙 p.m.: Press conference on the economy

Friday, March 7

9 a.m.: Delegates review, in small groups, the report on Development Plans and the draft 2025 Development Plan, as well as the report on the Budgets and the draft 2025 Budgets.

🎙 a.m.: Press conference on foreign affairs

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the draft Delegates Law amendment in small groups.

Saturday, March 8

🎙 8 a.m.: Delegates’ Corridor

9 a.m. (2^nd plenary meeting): Hear the NPCSC’s work report from Zhao Leji (NPCSC Chairman); hear the SPC’s work report from Zhang Jun (SPC President); and hear the SPP’s work report from Ying Yong (SPP Procurator-General).

🎙 a.m.: Ministers’ Corridor

📄 12 p.m.: Deadline for submitting delegate bills

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the NPCSC’s work report in small groups.

Sunday, March 9

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate, in small groups, a revised version of the draft Delegates Law amendment as well as the SPC’s and SPP’s work reports.

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the SPC’s and SPP’s work reports in small groups.

🎙 p.m.: Press conference on “the people’s livelihood”

Monday, March 10

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate the NPCSC’s, SPC’s, and SPP’s work reports as delegations.

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate, in small groups, three draft resolutions on the Government Work Report, Development Plans, and Budgets, respectively.

Tuesday, March 11

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate, in small groups, three draft resolutions on the NPCSC’s, SPC’s, and SPP’s work reports, respectively.

🎙 2 p.m.: Delegates’ Corridor

3 p.m. (3^rd plenary meeting): Vote on all resolutions and the draft Delegates Law amendment.

🎙 p.m.: Ministers’ Corridor

In five days, the NPC will convene for its 2025 session. This year, I’ll again crosspost our coverage of the annual NPC session to this Substack, starting with the NPC Calendar for March, which functions as a preview of the session before its agenda and daily schedule are finalized on March 4. If you’d like to avoid duplicate emails, please head over to the settings for this newsletter and deselect “NPC Observer Crossposts.“

For those unfamiliar with the NPC, we have an FAQ about the institution over at our main site, as well as additional introductory materials that dive deeper into certain aspects of the NPC.

If you’re enjoying the newsletter, I hope you’ll share it widely. —Changhao

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[The following post was originally published on NPC Observer]

The revised Cultural Relics Protection Law [文物保护法] (adopted on Nov. 8, 2024) takes effect on March 1.

China’s 14^th National People’s Congress (NPC) will convene for its third session on Wednesday, March 5. The session’s tentative agenda includes the following items:

• Deliberate the Government Work Report;

• Deliberate work reports by the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate;

• Review a report on the implementation of the 2024 Plan for National Economic and Social Development and on the draft 2025 Plan for National Economic and Social Development; and review the draft 2025 Plan for National Economic and Social Development;

• Review a report on the execution of the 2024 Central and Local Budgets and on the draft 2025 Central and Local Budgets; and review the draft 2025 Central and Local Budgets; and

• Deliberate a draft amendment to the Law on the Delegates to the National People’s Congress and Local People’s Congresses [全国人民代表大会和地方各级人民代表大会代表法].

On March 4, the NPC session will convene for a preparatory meeting to select members of the Presidium (an ad hoc body of around 180 members that will preside over the session) and to finalize the session’s agenda. The Presidium will then immediately meet to decide on the session’s daily schedule and designate a spokesperson. Shortly thereafter the session is expected to hold its first press conference.

The NPC’s 2025 session will likely close on March 11, based on a recent notice from the Beijing police on controlling the use of certain low-flying aircraft during the event. All reports and bills submitted for review are expected to be approved on the last day.

Today, I’m cross-posting our year-end review for 2024. If you’d like to avoid receiving duplicative emails, head over to the settings for this newsletter and deselect “NPC Observer Crossposts.“

In 2024, this newsletter crossed the milestone of 1,000 subscribers. My sincerest gratitude to all who read along!

Happy New Year! 🎉 —Changhao

As we bid farewell to 2024, we reflect on the work of the National People’s Congress and of this publication over the past year.

The NPC in 2024

The National People’s Congress (NPC) reached an important milestone in 2024: it turned 70 on September 15. The Communist Party marked the anniversary with great fanfare, holding a grand ceremony in the Great Hall of the People where Xi Jinping delivered a lengthy—but substantively unremarkable—speech. That celebration, as it turns out, was not the most noteworthy event of the year. Earlier that month, the NPCSC suddenly adopted legislation to gradually raise China’s retirement ages for the first time since 1958; that law takes effect tomorrow. Then, in early November, with the whole world watching, the NPCSC approved an RMB 6 trillion debt-swap plan (though it was not quite the stimulus package that many had hoped for). The legislature held press conferences on both bills after they passed—a practice it has largely discontinued since 2020—underscoring their importance. Beyond the headlines, legislation continued at a steady pace, in keeping with the higher legislative output over the last five years or so, as the statistics below show.

In 2024, the 14^th NPCSC held six sessions, including two that were postponed to, respectively, September and November—months when it typically does not meet. All in all, the NPCSC was in session for 21.5 days. In March, the 14^th NPC met for its second (week-long) session, where it approved an overhaul of the State Council’s organic statute. Altogether, the NPC and its Standing Committee enacted 6 new laws, approved major changes to 13, and adopted 3 quasi-legislative decisions. An additional 14 bills are pending as of today. For details, please see the lists at the end of this section.

Besides the several events noted at the top—the NPC’s 70^th anniversary, retirement-age legislation, and debt-swap plan—here are a few additional highlights of the NPC’s work in 2024:

• Constitutional enforcement report: In February, the legislature released its first report on efforts “to strengthen and innovate constitutional enforcement.” The report details its activities to enforce the Constitution in 2023 in each of the following five categories: legislation; personal and organizational actions; constitutional review and interpretation; oversight; and propaganda and theoretical research.

  • Relatedly, the Party decided at the Third Plenum in July to “establish a system for reporting on constitutional enforcement.” This could mean that, as we speculated, “such reports would become regular (likely annual) and more formal”—that is, submitted to the NPCSC for review.

• Recording and review (R&R): R&R is the NPCSC’s process of resolving impermissible conflicts within China’s hierarchy of legal norms and serves as the procedural vehicle for constitutional review. Last week, the NPCSC heard its Legislative Affairs Commission’s eighth annual report on R&R. Among the handful of cases disclosed by the report, two received a lot of attention. In the first—which we covered here—the Commission concluded that some of the harsher collateral sanctions imposed on people with criminal convictions likely violated certain constitutionally protected social rights. In the other case, the Commission rejected a controversial provision in a Supreme People’s Court interpretation that directed lower courts to retroactively apply a new provision in the recently revised Company Law [公司法] concerning equity transfers. Two days after the Commission reported to the NPCSC, the Court issued a new interpretation walking back from its prior position.

  • Relatedly, in March, the Legislative Affairs Commission advised the Hong Kong government on the definition of “Central Authorities” [中央] in the city’s homegrown national security law. Because Hong Kong’s local legislation is subject to NPCSC review under an R&R-like process under the Hong Kong Basic Law, we speculated then that “[t]his mechanism might have prompted the Hong Kong government to proceed with an abundance of caution and seek the Legislative Affairs Commission’s view during drafting.” The Commission’s latest R&R report confirmed our theory, explaining: “The R&R system can help the special administrative regions, during the formulation of the relevant laws, deepen research and deliberation on the relevant matters involving the Central Authorities and the constitutional issues in such laws.” “When necessary, they may submit legal inquiries” to the Commission, the report continues, and then gives Hong Kong’s earlier inquiry as an example.

• Shelving bills: In June, the NPCSC took the rare step of permanently shelving two bills—a draft Compulsory Civil Enforcement Law [民事强制执行法] and a draft decision authorizing the State Council to pilot certain reforms of rural residential land—invoking the lesser-known “termination of deliberations” [终止审议] procedure under the 2000 Legislation Law [立法法]. Previously, that procedure had been used only four times. As we explained, shelving the bills was necessary because the Party has yet to clarify the direction of the relevant reforms.

• Government debt oversight: After over a year’s preparation, in September, the NPCSC heard the State Council’s first annual report on the management of government debt. This move was consistent with recent reforms to strengthen the NPCSC’s oversight by (among other things) requiring the State Council to submit additional annual reports on important subject matters. If nothing else, the report at least offers an official account of government debt at both central and local levels.

  • Relatedly, in November, the NPCSC codified the reporting requirement in the Law on Oversight by the Standing Committees of People’s Congresses [各级人民代表大会常务委员会监督法]. The amendment also applied an analogous requirement to local governments from the county level and up.

• Codifying the Party’s leadership. In all major legislation passed in 2024 (see lists below), the legislature inserted a provision (if none already existed) requiring the relevant entities or the relevant governmental efforts “to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China,” or something close to it. (The revised Anti–Money Laundering Law [反洗钱法] and the Value-Added Tax Law [增值税法] require the relevant work to “implement the Party’s . . . lines, principles, policies, decisions, and plans.”) As this Bloomberg News report shows, such practice reflects a larger trend since 2018. Laws that feature such a clause—last year’s bills, for example—generally concern state organs and their operations, national security, national defense, or other matters core to the Party’s interest (e.g., ideology).

[The following lists are omitted to limit the length of this email. Check out the original version here.]

New laws passed in 2024 . . .

Revisions & major amendments passed in 2024 . . .

Legislative bills pending by the end of 2024 . . .

Quasi-legislative decisions passed in 2024 . . .

NPC Observer in 2024

In 2024, here on our main site, we published 36 posts and received about 142,000 pageviews—a roughly 13% increase over 2023 and our best year to date—by almost 67,000 visitors from 183 jurisdictions worldwide. Readers from the United States (based on recorded IP addresses) again contributed the most traffic, followed by those from Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, India, Germany, and mainland China. As X (formerly Twitter) has become practically unusable, we (most of our tweets at least) have migrated to Bluesky and hope you will join us over there in the new year.

Our most viewed post last year (not counting email opens) was our report on the agenda and daily schedule of the 2024 NPC session, followed by our preview of the NPCSC’s November session (where it approved the debt-swap plan mentioned above). The Civil Code [民法典] page was the most viewed bill page™️ in 2024, followed by those for the Law on Guarding State Secrets [保守国家秘密法], State Council Organic Law [国务院组织法], and Company Law [公司法].

Last year was our first full year of publishing the NPC Observer Monthly newsletter on Substack. In addition to twelve monthly recaps, we published two special issues that analyzed the State Council’s updated R&R regulations and translated the finance minister’s explanation of the debt-swap plan. And our regular recaps have offered (less polished) coverage of additional issues and developments, including NPC special committees’ reports on 2023 delegate bills, NPC delegates’ 2024 legislative proposals, two batches of R&R guiding cases, and highlights of the late NPCSC Chairman Wu Bangguo’s tenure. If those sound interesting to you, consider subscribing to the newsletter today.

Finally, we implemented some important changes to our main site in 2024. Aesthetically, we adopted new fonts and adjusted the site’s line spacing, so that reading is (hopefully) a more pleasant experience. This also serves as a reminder to email subscribers that you should consider reading new posts directly on our site for the full experience. In addition, we took pains to update two of our key resource pages that collect, respectively, the NPCSC’s work priorities and work plans. We are glad to announce that each of the following NPCSC documents is now available in both text-searchable and citable versions (the latter includes the document’s original pagination and publication information), which may exist as a single file:

• annual work priorities since 2008;

• all annual legislative work plans (2008–);

• all annual oversight work plans (2007–); and

• all annual delegates-related work plans (2020–).

These include some documents that were published only in expensive NPC Yearbooks [全国人民代表大会年鉴] that are not readily available to the public, such as the NPCSC’s 2019 legislative and oversight work plans. We hope that someone somewhere will benefit from these free resources in their studies or work.

That concludes our programming in 2024. Best wishes to everyone in 2025.

Happy New Year!

This post concludes our coverage of the NPC’s 2024 session and crossposting of said coverage to this Substack. I’ll be back in your inbox to recap March in a few weeks.

Until then, happy reading! —Changhao

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[The following post was first published on NPC Observer]

The second session of China's 14^th National People's Congress (NPC) concluded on Monday, March 11. Below we have compiled a list of all official documents from this session (except for two legislative documents the NPC has so far neglected to release). We have also linked to the submitted (i.e., draft) version of six main reports for your reference. Unless otherwise noted, the documents are available in Chinese only. The vote results for each bill and resolution are listed below in brackets, in the order of yea–nay–abstention.

Work Reports

State Council (i.e., the Government Work Report)

• Approved version: zh | en

• Submitted version: zh | en

• Approval resolution [2895–2–3]

NPC Standing Committee

• Approved version: zh | en

• Submitted version: zh | en

• Approval resolution [2888–7–5]

Supreme People’s Court

• Approved version

• Submitted version

• Approval resolution [2834–44–22]

Supreme People’s Procuratorate

• Approved version

• Submitted version

• Approval resolution [2864–27–9]

State Council Organic Law Revision

• Full text of the Law as revised: zh | en [2883–8–9]

• Explanation

• NPC Constitutional and Law Committee report on results of deliberations

• NPC Constitution and Law Committee report on suggestions for revisions (pending)*

• Presidential order

* We will update this post once this document is posted online or published in the next issue of the NPCSC Gazette.

National Economic and Social Development Plans

• National Development and Reform Commission report

  • Approved version: zh | en

  • Submitted version: zh | en

• NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee’s review report

• Approval resolution [2879–10–11]

Central and Local Budgets

• Ministry of Finance report

  • Approved version: zh | en

  • Submitted version: zh | en

• NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee’s review report

• Approval resolution [2876–13–11]

Other

• Secretariat report on the disposition of bills submitted by the delegates

• Speech by Zhao Leji

For those who missed my earlier announcement, I’m crossposting all our coverage of the 2024 NPC session on our main site to this Substack. You can deselect “NPC Observer Crossposts” in the settings for this newsletter to opt out of the crossposts.

And for those who are waiting for the finalized versions of key reports presented to the NPC this year, I expect them to be released according to the following schedule over the next few days:

• Tue (3/12): Government Work Report;

• Wed (3/13): Ministry of Finance’s report on budgets and National Development and Reform Commission’s report on development plans;

• Thu (3/14): NPCSC’s work report; and

• Fri (3/15): Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s work reports.

I therefore will probably be back in your inbox on Friday with a post compiling all official documents from the 2024 NPC session, not limited to those six reports.

If you find this newsletter useful, I hope you’ll share it widely at this time of year! —Changhao

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[The following post was first published on NPC Observer]

On March 11, 2024, China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, voted 2883 to 8, with 9 abstentions, to revise the State Council Organic Law [国务院组织法]—the first update of the statute since its enactment in December 1982. As part of a Communist Party-directed effort to “improve the organic laws of state institutions,” the revision seeks to modernize the governing statute of China’s central government. It memorializes some of the core principles and practices concerning State Council operation that have developed since 1982 and harmonizes the statute with later-enacted laws. For instance, the revision specifies the State Council’s constitutional status, guiding ideologies, and relationship with other state organs; clarifies the functions of different State Council meetings; and incorporates existing policy measures to develop a “law-based government” [法治政府]. The practical significance of these changes is thus minimal. But they nonetheless hold great symbolic value (e.g., by codifying the State Council’s duty to uphold the Party’s leadership) or can serve an important signaling purpose (e.g., by writing into law the principle of “adhering to transparency in government affairs”).

That does not change the fact, however, that the Law remains minimalist. With only 20 articles (increased from 11), it is not only the shortest state-organ organic law but also one of the shortest national laws overall. More detailed rules on the State Council’s operation are (still) found in lower-level authorities like the latest State Council Work Rules [国务院工作规则]. For this reason, instead of providing an even shorter summary, we are posting a full translation of the revised Law below, with comments on selected provisions. 🆕 marks newly added articles, whereas 🔄 marks those without substantive changes. The remaining articles were all amended to some extent, though we won’t comment on every one of them. For details, please refer to this comparison chart (in Chinese).

The following translation also appears on China Law Translate.

Organic Law of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China

(Adopted at the 5th session of the Fifth National People’s Congress on December 10, 1982 and promulgated for implementation on the same day; revised at the 2nd session of the Fourteenth National People’s Congress on March 11, 2024)

Article 1: This Law is formulated on the basis of the Constitution to improve the organization and work systems of the State Council and to safeguard and regulate its exercise of functions and powers.

🆕 Article 2: The State Council of the People’s Republic of China, that is, the Central People’s Government, is the executive body of the highest organ of state power and is the highest organ of state administration.

This article incorporates the exact language of Article 95 of the Constitution.

🆕 Article 3: The State Council is to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China; follow the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; resolutely uphold the Party Central Committee’s authority and its centralized and unified leadership; resolutely implement the Party Central Committee’s decisions and plans; apply the new development philosophy; adhere to law-based government administration; and correctly perform governmental functions in all respects in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and laws.

The State Council is to commit to a people-centered approach and serve the people wholeheartedly, uphold and develop whole-process people’s democracy, always maintain close ties to the people, listen to the people’s opinions and suggestions, and work hard to build a law-based government, an innovative government, a clean government, and a service-oriented government to the satisfaction of the people.

This article, among other things, entrenches the Party’s leadership over the State Council in a basic statute and received the most attention from observers over the last week. This clause directly implements a 2019 Central Committee document requiring that “the Party’s comprehensive leadership” be written into the organic laws of state organs. It also enforces the constitutional provision, added in 2018, that the Party’s leadership is “the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Because the clause merely memorializes the existing Party-State Council relationship—specifically, the former’s dominance of the latter—its significance is more symbolic than practical.

🆕 Article 4: The State Council is responsible to and reports its work to the National People’s Congress; and when the National People’s Congress is not in session, to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

The State Council shall consciously accept oversight by the National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee.

The first paragraph of this article duplicates the language of Article 92 of the Constitution.

Article 5: The State Council consists of the premier, vice-premiers, state councilors, ministers of the various ministries, directors of the various commissions, governor of the People’s Bank of China, auditor-general, and secretary-general.

The State Council practices a system in which the premier assumes overall responsibility. The premier directs the work of the State Council.

The vice-premiers and state councilors are to assist with the premier’s work and be responsible for the work in their responsible areas according to the division of labor; and are to, when entrusted by the premier, be responsible for the work in other areas or for specific tasks; and are to, according to unified arrangements, engage in foreign affairs activities on the behalf of the State Council.

This article clarifies that the vice-premiers and state councilors are assigned to oversee specific issue areas. It also explicitly includes the governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) among the constituent members of the State Council—a provision whose constitutionality was questioned during the legislative process because the Constitution itself did not grant the PBOC governor such a status. According to a recent report, the NPCSC Legislative Affairs Commission concluded the provision was constitutional, for it would merely codify “years of constitutional practice” that had already made the PBOC governor a de facto constituent member of the State Council.

Article 6: The State Council is to exercise the functions and powers provided for in the Constitution and relevant laws.

🔄 Article 7: The State Council practices a system of plenary meetings and executive meetings of the State Council. Plenary meetings of the State Council are to consist of all members of the State Council. Executive meetings of the State Council are to consist of the premier, vice-premiers, state councilors, and secretary-general. The premier is to convene and preside over plenary meetings and executive meetings of the State Council. Major issues in the State Council’s work must be discussed and decided by an executive meeting or a plenary meeting of the State Council.

🆕 Article 8: The main tasks of plenary meetings of the State Council are discussing and deciding on major matters in the State Council’s work, such as government work reports and plans for national economic and social development, and making arrangements for the State Council’s important work.

The main tasks of executive meetings of the State Council are discussing draft laws, deliberating draft administrative regulations, as well as discussing, deciding on, and circulating important matters in the State Council’s work.

Matters discussed and decided by plenary meetings and executive meetings of the State Council shall be promptly made public, except for those that need to be kept confidential according to law.

The State Council is to convene the premier’s work meetings and special meetings of the State Council as needed.

This article clarifies the functions of the State Council’s plenary and executive meetings by incorporating language from recent iterations of the State Council Work Rules.

🔄 Article 9: The decisions, orders, and administrative regulations issued by the State Council, the bills it submits to the National People’s Congress or the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and its appointments and removals of personnel, are to be signed by the premier.

🔄 Article 10: Under the premier’s leadership, the secretary-general is responsible for handling the State Council’s day-to-day work.

The State Council is to appoint several deputy secretaries-general to assist with the secretary-general’s work.

The State Council is to establish a general office led by the secretary-general.

Article 11: The establishment, dissolution, or merger of the constituent departments of the State Council, as proposed by the premier, is to be decided by the National People’s Congress; or, when the National People’s Congress is not in session, by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. The National People’s Congress or its Standing Committee is to promulgate the constituent departments of the State Council after they have been determined or adjusted.

The last sentence of this article codifies the practice of enumerating the cabinet-level departments of the State Council not in a statute like this Law, but in an ad hoc decision of the legislature issued after each State Council reorganization.

Article 12: Each constituent department of the State Council is to have one minister (director, governor, or auditor-general) and two to four vice-ministers (deputy directors, deputy governors, or deputy auditors-general). A commission may have five to ten members.

Each constituent department of the State Council is to practice a system in which the minister (director, governor, or auditor-general) assumes overall responsibility. The minister (director, governor, or auditor-general) directs the work of his or her department; convenes and presides over executive meetings of the ministry (commission, bank, or office); discusses and decides on major issues in the department’s work; and signs important requests for instructions and reports to be submitted to the State Council as well as the orders and directives to be issued. The vice-ministers (deputy directors, deputy governors, and deputy auditors-general) are to assist with the work of the minister (director, governor, or auditor-general).

The deputy secretaries-general of the State Council, vice-ministers of the various ministries, deputy directors of the various commissions, deputy governors of the People’s Bank of China, and deputy auditors-general are to be appointed or removed by the State Council.

Article 13: The State Council may, according to the needs of its work and the principles of optimization, coordination, efficiency, and simplification, and in accordance with prescribed procedures, establish a certain number of directly subordinate bodies to take charge of various specialized work, and establish a certain number of administrative bodies to assist the premier in handling specialized matters. Each body is to have two or five persons in charge, who are to be appointed or removed by the State Council.

Articles 12 and 13 newly codify the State Council’s authority to appoint and remove the deputies of its constituent departments as well as the leadership of other agencies under it.

Article 14: The constituent departments of the State Council shall request instructions from and report to the State Council on the principles, policies, plans, and major administrative measures in their work, which are to be decided by the State Council. In accordance with laws and the State Council’s administrative regulations, decisions, and orders, the competent departments may issue orders and directives within the scope of their respective authorities.

The State Council’s constituent departments and its directly subordinate bodies with administrative management functions, as well as the bodies prescribed by law, may formulate rules within the scope of their respective authorities in accordance with laws and the State Council’s administrative regulations, decisions, and orders.

The second paragraph of this article adopts the Legislation Law’s formulation of the types of State Council agencies that are authorized to issue departmental rules.

🆕 Article 15: The State Council is to exercise unified leadership over the work of the various levels of local organs of state administration throughout the country.

This article incorporates the language in Article 89(4) of the Constitution.

🆕 Article 16: The State Council is to adhere to sound, democratic, and law-based decisionmaking, improve the institutions and systems for administrative decisionmaking, regulate the procedures for major administrative decisionmaking, strengthen the implementation and evaluation of administrative decisionmaking, and improve the quality and efficiency of decisionmaking.

🆕 Article 17: The State Council is to improve the system of administrative oversight; strengthen administrative reconsideration, recording and review, oversight of administrative law enforcement, governmental supervisory inspections, and other such work; adhere to transparency in government affairs; readily submit to oversight by all sides; and strengthen checks on and oversight over the exercise of administrative power.

🆕 Article 19: The constituent members of the State Council shall resolutely uphold the Party Central Committee’s authority and its centralized and unified leadership, obey the Constitution and laws in an exemplary manner, conscientiously discharge their responsibilities, take the lead in opposing pointless formalities and bureaucratism serve the people and stay pragmatic, strictly observe discipline, and demonstrate diligence and integrity.

Articles 16–19 incorporate the key requirements and goals of the official program to build a “law-based government” that are found in high-profile policy documents like the Implementation Outline for Building a Law-Based Government (2021–2025). While there is no specific mechanism in the revised Law to enforce those requirements or achieve those goals, codifying them in a basic statute elevates them to semi-permanent commitments of the government—at the very least on paper—and sends a corresponding signal to the public.

🆕 Article 19: The constituent departments, directly subordinate bodies, and administrative bodies of the State Council shall perform their respective functions, bear their respective responsibilities, enhance coordination, and closely cooperate with one another to ensure that the Party Central Committee’s and the State Council’s work plans are implemented in all aspects.

🆕 Article 20: This Law takes effect on the date of promulgation.

For those who missed my earlier announcement, I will crosspost all our coverage of the 2024 NPC session on our main site to this Substack. You can deselect “NPC Observer Crossposts” in the settings for this newsletter to opt out of the crossposts.

If you find this newsletter useful, I hope you’ll share it widely at this time of year! —Changhao

[The following post was first published on NPC Observer]

China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) has released its 2024 session’s agenda and daily schedule of meetings, as well as a preliminary schedule of press events during the session. This year’s session will open on the morning of March 5 and close on the afternoon of March 11, lasting seven full days, consistent with Covid-era norms. But in a break with long-standing tradition, and for the first time since 1993, the premier will not hold a press conference after this session, or during the reminder of this NPC’s term “absent special circumstances,” a spokesperson announced on March 4.

All times below are in China Standard Time (UTC +8:00). For a primer on the NPC and its annual sessions, check out this FAQ.

The 2024 session’s agenda contains the following seven items:

1. Deliberate the Government Work Report;

2. Review a report on the implementation of the 2023 Plan for National Economic and Social Development (“Development Plan”) and on the draft 2024 Development Plan; and review the draft 2024 Development Plan;

3. Review a report on the execution of the 2023 Central and Local Budgets (“Budgets”) and on the draft 2024 Budgets; and review the draft 2024 Budgets;

4. Deliberate a draft revision to the State Council Organic Law [国务院组织法];

5. Deliberate the work report of the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC);

6. Deliberate the work report of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC); and

7. Deliberate the work report of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP).

The absence of personnel matters from the agenda means that, during this year’s session, the NPC will not fill the two State Councilor vacancies or the open seat on the Central Military Commission, created by the removals of Qin Gang and Li Shangfu last year. Nor will it appoint a replacement for foreign minister Wang Yi, who is likely holding the position only temporarily.

Key documents will be introduced and voted on according to the following schedule:

• March 5 (a.m.): Hear the Government Work Report; review the report on the Development Plans and the 2024 Development Plan; review the report on the Budgets and the 2024 Budgets; and hear an explanation of the draft State Council Organic Law revision.

• March 8 (a.m.): Hear the NPCSC’s, SPC’s, and SPP’s work reports.

• March 11 (p.m.): Vote on various resolutions concerning the work reports, Development Plans, and Budgets; and vote on the draft State Council Organic Law revision.

A more detailed description of the session’s daily schedule follows. The "Delegates' Corridors" and "Ministers' Corridors" will take place immediately before and after, respectively, the relevant plenary meetings. We will update this post with links to all plenary meetings and press events throughout the session. [Please check the original version of this post for updates.]

Tuesday, March 5

🎙 a.m.: Delegates’ Corridor (brief Q&A)

9 a.m. (1^st plenary meeting): Hear the Government Work Report from Li Qiang (Premier); review the report on the Development Plans and the 2024 Development Plan; review the report on the Budgets and the 2024 Budgets; and hear an explanation of the draft State Council Organic Law revision by Li Hongzhong (NPCSC Vice Chairman).

🎙 a.m.: Ministers’ Corridor (brief Q&A)

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the Government Work Report as delegations.

Wednesday, March 6

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate the Government Work Report in small groups.

3 p.m.: Delegates review, in small groups, the report on Development Plans and the draft 2024 Development Plan, as well as the report on the Budgets and the draft 2024 Budgets.

🎙 p.m.: Press conference on the economy

Thursday, March 7

9 a.m.: Delegates review, in small groups, the report on Development Plans and the draft 2024 Development Plan, as well as the report on the Budgets and the draft 2024 Budgets.

🎙 a.m.: Press conference on foreign policy

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the draft State Council Organic Law revision in small groups.

Friday, March 8

🎙 a.m.: Delegates’ Corridor (brief Q&A)

9 a.m. (2^nd plenary meeting): Hear the NPCSC’s work report from Zhao Leji (NPCSC Chairman); hear the SPC’s work report from Zhang Jun (SPC President); and hear the SPP’s work report from Ying Yong (SPP Procurator-General).

🎙 a.m.: Ministers’ Corridor (brief Q&A)

📄 12 p.m.: Deadline for submitting delegate bills

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the NPCSC’s work report in small groups.

Saturday, March 9

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate, in small groups, a revised version of the draft State Council Organic Law revision as well as the SPC’s and SPP’s work reports.

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate the SPC’s and SPP’s work reports in small groups.

🎙 p.m.: Press conference on “the people’s livelihood”

Sunday, March 10

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate the NPCSC’s, SPC’s, and SPP’s work reports as delegations.

3 p.m.: Delegates deliberate, in small groups, three draft resolutions on the Government Work Report, Development Plans, and Budgets, respectively.

Monday, March 11

9 a.m.: Delegates deliberate, in small groups, three draft resolutions on the NPCSC’s, SPC’s, and SPP’s work reports, respectively.

🎙 p.m.: Delegates’ Corridor (brief Q&A)

3 p.m. (3^rd plenary meeting): Vote on all resolutions and the draft State Council Organic Law revision.

🎙 p.m.: Ministers’ Corridor (brief Q&A)

March starts tomorrow, which means . . . the annual NPC Week™️ is fast approaching. (This Substack acknowledges the existence of only One Session, not Two.) Because the NPC will be the center of global attention starting March 5, I will crosspost all our coverage of the 2024 NPC session on our main site to this Substack. If you’ve subscribed to both and would like to avoid duplicative email notifications, you can go to the settings for this newsletter and deselect “NPC Observer Crossposts.“

For those unfamiliar with our annual NPC coverage, in addition to this routine NPC Calendar post that kicks off the month, you can expect at least one post on March 4 or 5 with the session’s finalized agenda and a daily breakdown of activities during the session; and one post a few days after the session concludes that compiles all official documents from the session.

And for those unfamiliar with the NPC, we have an FAQ about the institution over at our main site, as well as additional introductory materials that dive deeper into certain aspects of the NPC.

If you’re enjoying the newsletter, I hope you’ll consider sharing it. —Changhao

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The following post was first published on NPC Observer

The Criminal Law Amendment (XII) [刑法修正案（十二）] (adopted on Dec. 29, 2023) takes effect on March 1.

China's 14^th National People’s Congress (NPC) will convene for its second session on Tuesday, March 5. The session’s tentative agenda includes the following items:

• Deliberate the Government Work Report;

• Deliberate work reports by the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate;

• Review a report on the implementation of the 2023 Plan for National Economic and Social Development and on the draft 2024 Plan for National Economic and Social Development; and review the draft 2024 Plan for National Economic and Social Development;

• Review a report on the execution of the 2023 Central and Local Budgets and on the draft 2024 Central and Local Budgets; and review the draft 2024 Central and Local Budgets; and

• Deliberate a draft revision to the State Council Organic Law [国务院组织法].

On March 4, the NPC session will convene for a preparatory meeting to select members of the Presidium (an ad hoc body of around 170 members that will preside over the session) and to finalize the session’s agenda. The Presidium will then immediately meet to decide on the session’s daily schedule and designate a spokesperson. Shortly thereafter the session is expected to hold its first press conference.

If the NPC is going to fill the vacancies on the State Council and the Central Military Commission created by the removal of Qin Gang and Li Shangfu last year, such an agenda item is expected to be first revealed on March 4, either at the press conference or through the session's agenda and daily schedule.

The NPC’s 2024 session will likely close on March 11, based on a recent notice from the Beijing police on controlling the use of certain low-flying aircraft during the event. All reports and bills submitted for review are expected to be approved on the last day.