May 2024: A Medium-Depth Dive into the NPC Standing Committee’s 2024 Priorities
Chinese legislature's 2024 work priorities and plans for legislative, oversight, and delegates-related work. Plus: temporary geo-blocking of the NPC's website.
Welcome back to NPC Observer Monthly, a monthly newsletter about China’s national legislature: the National People’s Congress (NPC) and its Standing Committee (NPCSC).
Each issue will start with “News of the Month,” a recap of major NPC-related events from the previous month, with links to any coverage we have published on our main site, NPC Observer. If, during that month, we have also written posts that aren’t tied to current events, I’ll then provide a round-up in “Non-News of the Month.” Finally, depending on the month and my schedule, I may end an issue with discussions of an NPC-related topic that is in some way connected to the past month.
This newsletter turned one a few days ago. 🎉 I’m grateful to everyone who’s supported this endeavor so far and I look forward to continuing this project in the coming year.
If you’re enjoying the newsletter, I hope you’ll consider sharing it widely. —Changhao
News of the Month
Because few notable events happened at the NPC last month, and because I took an extended quasi-vacation in May and just finished a move, this issue will be brief.
On May 1, the revised Law on Guarding State Secrets [保守国家秘密法] (adopted on Feb. 27, 2024) took effect on May 1. An English translation and analysis of the revised Law by my colleague Jeremy Daum are available at those links.
On May 8, the NPCSC released its 2024 work priorities as well as 2024 plans for legislative, oversight, and delegates-related work. (The NPCSC’s past annual work priorities are archived here and past work plans here.)
NPCSC’s 2024 Work Priorities
The NPCSC’s annual work priorities are essentially its master work plans for the year. While comprehensive, they typically focus on six areas: (1) constitutional enforcement; (2) lawmaking; (3) oversight; (4) work related to NPC delegates; (5) international exchanges; (5) publicity and theoretical research; and (6) self-improvement (i.e., Party-building and capacity-building for NPC bodies). As 2024 marks the NPC’s 70th anniversary (it first convened on September 15, 1954), this year’s top priority is to “carefully organize activities to celebrate” that occasion. As per customs, the authorities will hold a grand ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in early September, where Xi Jinping is expected to deliver a speech to commemorate the anniversary.
I’ll note just one thing that jumped out to me in this year’s priorities. In the paragraph on Party-building at the NPC, the document vows to—
take the implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions and written comments as the primary political task [首要政治任务]; consciously align with the spirit of the Party Central Committee; strictly implement the system of requesting instructions and submitting reports; ensure that the Party’s leadership is comprehensively, systematically, and holistically implemented in all aspects of the NPC’s work and throughout the entire process; and maintain a high degree of consistency in ideology, politics, and actions with the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core.
To my knowledge, this is the first time that the italicized language has appeared in a publicly available NPC document. Xi’s “important instructions” have already been shaping the NPCSC’s agenda in practice, especially since his second term. The explanatory documents of legislation frequently invoke Xi’s relevant instructions and some recent legislation, such as the 2021 Anti–Food Waste Law [反食品浪费法], was enacted in direct response to his instructions. But, again, formalizing the overriding importance of Xi’s instructions is a first for the NPC.
NPCSC’s 2024 Work Plans
The NPCSC further detailed key areas of its 2024 work in separate work plans, three of which1 were released last month.
Legislative work plan. I already covered the 2024 legislative work plan here. Here’s an overview:
The Plan schedules 39 projects for review in 2024: 16 that were already pending before the Plan was approved and 23 that would be reviewed for the first time. It includes a plurality of diverse projects falling within the broad category of economic legislation—all aimed at “accelerating the development of new productive forces and creating a new pattern of development.” Other prominent themes of this year’s legislation include government institutional reforms, crime and public safety, sci-tech and education, ideology and culture, as well as national security and other foreign-related issues.
Delegates-related work plan. For a primer on the NPCSC’s “delegates-related work” [代表工作] and such work’s rise in importance during the last NPC, see this post. Here, I’ll just flag the top item in this year’s plan, which is, interestingly, a legislative project:
1. Amend the Delegates Law.2 Fully implement the spirit of the Party’s 20th National Congress and the Second Plenum of the 20th Central Committee, implement the requirements of the Party Central Committee on strengthening and improving delegates-related work in the New Era, comprehensively sort out and summarize the good experience and good practices in delegates-related work, conduct in-depth research into the important issues in the Delegates Law that need to be amended and perfected, extensively solicit opinions and suggestions from all sides, and study and put forward a proposal for amendments to ensure that the proposal is submitted to an NPCSC session for deliberation as scheduled.
I expect this bill to be submitted to the NPCSC no later than October 2024 and to head to the NPC’s 2025 session for a final review and approval next spring. Those preparing for #NPC2025 should thus take note.
Oversight work plan. As I have written elsewhere:
At the full NPCSC level, oversight primarily takes the form of hearing and examining reports. Most reports are submitted by the state organs subject to oversight, including work reports on issues chosen by the NPCSC each year and periodic reports3 on budgetary and other issues as required by law. Other reports are the results of various legislative bodies’ own investigations and research.
An annual oversight work plan therefore lists the oversight projects (and the resulting reports) scheduled for the year, indicates when a report will be heard or must be completed (for internal reference), and specifies the focus of each project (and report). The plan also notes the (two or three) special inquiries [专题询问]—China’s rough equivalent of parliamentary oversight hearings—that will be held in connection with selected reports.
Here are the details of two reports that might be of wider interest:
The State Council’s report on promoting the development of the private economy (June). The report and the NPCSC’s deliberations will focus on, among others, “the implementation of initiatives to promote the development of the private economy; the current situation of the private economy and, in particular, its development since the New Era; the new circumstances, new situations, and new challenges [China] faces; existing problems and difficulties; and plans and suggestions for next steps.”
The State Council’s inaugural annual report on the management of government debt (August). With respect to “the management of the previous year’s nationwide government debt (including the national debt and the general, special-purpose, and hidden debt of local governments”), the report and the NPCSC’s deliberations will focus on, among others, “the implementation of the Party Central Committee’s decisions and plans, the total amount of government debt, the issuance and repayment of government debt, the use of proceeds from government debt, the prevention of government debt risks, . . . existing problems and difficulties, and plans and suggestions for next steps.”
The NPCSC will hear the following non-recurring reports during the remainder of 2024:
June
State Council: report on promoting the development of the private economy
August
State Council: report on efforts to promote childcare services
State Council: report on efforts to promote the development of an eldercare system and to strengthen and improve the care of elderly people with disabilities
NPCSC Law Enforcement Inspection (LEI) Team: report on inspecting the enforcement of the Agriculture Law [农业法]
October
State Council: Special report on the management of state-owned assets of administrative organs and public institutions
State Council: report on efforts to develop world-class universities and strong disciplines with Chinese features (with special inquiry)
State Council: report on efforts to prevent and control desertification
Supreme People’s Court: report on the hearing of administrative cases by the people’s courts
Supreme People’s Procuratorate: report on the oversight of administrative litigation by the people’s procuratorates
NPCSC LEI Team: report on inspecting the enforcement of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law [非物质文化遗产法]
NPCSC LEI Team: report on inspecting the enforcement of the Social Insurance Law [社会保险法]
December
State Council: report on the allocation and use of government funds for disaster prevention and mitigation as well as emergency management
State Council: report on efforts to protect cultivated land
State Supervision Commission: report on efforts to eliminate misconduct and corruption that occur at people’s doorsteps
NPCSC LEI Team: report on inspecting the enforcement of the Law on the State-Owned Assets of Enterprises [企业国有资产法]
NPCSC LEI Team: report on inspecting the enforcement of the Yellow River Protection Law [黄河保护法] (with special inquiry)
I don’t typically cover the oversight reports heard by the NPCSC for lack of time and expertise, but they are a rich source of information that’s often overlooked, so I hope to put them on the radar of those who would find the reports relevant or useful.
(Temporary) 403 Forbidden: NPC Edition
From the evening of May 21 to May 23, the NPC’s official Chinese website, including subdomains like the National Database of Laws and Regulations, was geo-blocked outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao,4 and Taiwan for about 48 hours. For a time, it seemed that the NPC would join the Supreme People’s Court (whose Chinese website has been geo-blocked outside those regions for months) in becoming more inaccessible to the world. I even promised to discuss (imperfect) alternatives to the NPC’s Chinese website in today’s newsletter. Thankfully, that has turned out to be unnecessary. (We, of course, don’t know what happened.) So for now, I’ll just preserve a record of those worrisome 48 hours here and leave that discussion for another day—hopefully never.
That’s all for this month’s issue. Thanks for reading!
June is shaping up to be a much busier month at the NPC—here’s our preview. If you wish to get all our coverage in your inbox in real time, subscribe here!
According to the NPCSC’s 2024 work priorities, the Council of Chairpersons also approved an annual plan on international exchanges and annual priorities for press and public opinion work, but they weren’t released.
This Law’s full title is 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].
Required annual reports (all by the State Council) now include:
report on environmental conditions and the achievement of environmental-protection goals (Apr.);
report on the previous year’s final accounts (June);
report on the audit of the previous year’s central budget execution and other fiscal revenue and expenses (June);
mid-year report on the implementation of the annual development plan (Aug.);
mid-year report on the execution of the annual budget (Aug.);
report on the management of government debt (Aug.);
report on “financial work” [金融工作] (Oct.);
comprehensive report on the management of state-owned assets (Oct.); and
report on the rectification of problems identified by the annual audit (Dec.).
There are also two reports required every five years on the drafting and implementation of five-year plans for national economic and social development, respectively.
I didn’t have actual confirmation that the website was accessible in Macao during that period, but it’s reasonable to assume it was, given its accessibility in Hong Kong and Taiwan.