September 2025: China’s New National Law on National Parks
Also: Food Safety Law amendments on liquid infant formula & bulk transport of liquid foods. New laws on responding to public health emergencies and popularizing the law. Chinese law database upgraded.
Welcome back to NPC Observer Monthly, a 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 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 a discussion of an NPC-related topic that is in some way connected to the past month.
If you’re enjoying the newsletter, I hope you’ll share it widely. —Changhao
News of the Month
On September 8–12, the 14th NPCSC met for its seventeenth session. The session reviewed 18 bills and passed the following six:
draft Atomic Energy Law [原子能法] (eff. Jan. 15, 2026);
draft revision to the Arbitration Law [仲裁法] (eff. Mar. 1, 2026);
draft Public Health Emergency Response Law [突发公共卫生事件应对法] (eff. Nov. 1, 2025);
draft National Parks Law [国家公园法] (eff. Jan. 1, 2026);
draft Law on Publicity and Education on the Rule of Law [法治宣传教育法] (eff. Nov. 1, 2025); and
draft amendment to the Food Safety Law [食品安全法] (eff. Dec. 1, 2026).
I won’t discuss the first two, but will note that the latter, in particular, has been widely analyzed by law firms and other outlets. Below, I’ll take a look at each of the other four bills.
The NPCSC also hear several oversight reports last month. We posted a translation of the State Council’s report on addressing climate change and advancing carbon peaking and carbon neutrality:
translated the NPCSC General Office’s report on NPC components’ preparatory research for the 15th Five-Year Plan (covering 2026–30), due to be approved next March. The report includes following paragraph on (some of) the legislation recommended for the next five years (I added bullet points for readability). Most proposals are already found in the 14th NPCSC’s five-year legislative plan, which covers the period 2023–28 (the few exceptions are marked by *).
(5) Strengthen legislation in key, emerging, and foreign-related fields to provide robust rule-of-law safeguards for economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The reports from the special committees and working commissions each put forward proposals to enact or amend laws in various areas.
In national security, it is recommended to enact laws such as Law of the Sea, Space Law, Telecommunications Law, and Law on Cybercrime Prevention and Control Law, and to amend the National Security Law* and the Cybersecurity Law.
In fiscal and economic affairs, accelerate legislation on the consumption tax and land value-added tax; amend the Individual Income Tax Law* and the Enterprise Income Tax Law*; and clean up existing legal and regulatory provisions that restrict consumption*.
In science, technology, and culture, accelerate the enactment of a Historical Cultural Heritage Protection Law and a Cultural Industry Promotion Law; amend the Tourism Law and the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law; and study legislation on artificial intelligence, gene technologies*, and other areas.
In environment and resources, speed up amendments to the Energy Conservation Law, the Electricity Law, the Coal Law, the Renewable Energy Law, and the Circular Economy Promotion Law*.
In urban-rural development, accelerate legislation on territorial spatial planning and study the enactment of a Collectively Owned Land Marketization Law*, Urban Renewal Law*, Urban Management Law*, and Cultivated Land Protection Law.
In social security, amend the Employment Promotion Law, the Social Insurance Law, and the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly*; and study laws on eldercare services, childcare services, medical security, long-term care insurance*, and the protection of the rights and interests of overseas Chinese.
（五）加强重点领域、新兴领域、涉外领域立法，为“十五五”时期经济社会发展提供坚强法治保障。各专门委员会、工作委员会的调研报告都提出了一些领域的立法修法建议。在国家安全方面，建议制定海洋法、航天法、电信法、网络犯罪防治法等，修改国家安全法、网络安全法；财政经济方面，加快消费税、土地增值税等立法，修改个人所得税法和企业所得税法，清理现行法律法规有关限制消费的规定；科技文化方面，加快历史文化遗产保护法、文化产业促进法立法，修改旅游法、非物质文化遗产法，研究制定人工智能、基因技术等方面法律；环境资源方面，加快修改节约能源法、电力法、煤炭法、可再生能源法、循环经济促进法等；城乡建设方面，加快国土空间规划立法，研究制定集体土地入市法、城市更新法、城市管理法、耕地保护法；社会保障方面，修改就业促进法、社会保险法、老年人权益保障法等，研究制定养老服务、托育服务、医疗保障、长期护理保险、华侨权益保护等方面法律。
From September 12 to October 11, the NPCSC sought public comment on the following bills that it also reviewed last month:
draft Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law [危险化学品安全法];
General Part, Part on Ecological Conservation, and Part on Green and Low-Carbon Development of the draft Ecological and Environmental Code [生态环境法典];
draft Law on National Development Plans [国家发展规划法];
draft revision to the Prisons Law [监狱法];
draft amendment to the Cybersecurity Law [网络安全法];
draft Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress [民族团结进步促进法];
draft revision to the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law [企业破产法];
draft revision to the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language [国家通用语言文字法];
draft amendment to the Environmental Protection Tax Law [环境保护税法]; and
draft revision to the Foreign Trade Law [对外贸易法].
Last month, the NPC released the official (but non-binding) English translation of the Charity Law [慈善法] (as amended on December 29, 2023).
Food Safety Law Amendments
These amendments make two changes (for background, see this post). First, they subject liquid infant formula to the same regulatory regime as infant formula powder. That means, starting December 2025, formulas for liquid milk must be registered with the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s national food regulator, before they may be marketed (art. 81, para. 2). Applicants must submit evidence demonstrating the scientific soundness and safety of the formula (id.). Manufacturers are prohibited from purchasing finished or semi-finished products in bulk and simply repackaging them into retail containers (art. 81, para. 3). Nor may they use the same formula to produce liquid milk under different brand names (id.).
Second, the amendments establish a licensing regime for the road transport of key liquid foods in unpackaged form. According to a draft catalog released by SAMR (see art. 41, para. 5), such foods would include edible vegetable oil, liquid condiments (e.g., vinegar), alcoholic beverages, and syrups. To obtain a license, transporters must have dedicated containers, qualified personnel, and appropriate internal procedures (id. para. 2). They must clean the containers promptly and cannot use them to carry substances other than food (id. para. 3). Shippers must verify transporters’ licenses and containers, whereas receivers must verify their licenses, transport logs, and the integrity of the seals on the containers (id.). The amendments further prohibit anyone from falsifying or altering transport logs and cleaning logs or using falsified or altered records (id. para. 4).
The amendments will take effect on December 1.
Public Health Emergency Response Law (PHERL)
PHERL is yet another piece of legislation that the NPCSC enacted post-COVID to improve China’s public health laws, joining (among others) the revised Emergency Response Law [突发事件应对法] passed in November 2024 and the revised Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Infectious Disease Law) [传染病防治法] adopted in April 2025. I covered the latter two on this newsletter here and here, respectively.
PHERL defines “public health emergencies” to mean “major epidemics, mass occurrences of diseases of unknown cause, mass poisonings, and other events that seriously affect the life and health of the public that occur suddenly, cause or may cause serious harm to the life and health of the public, and require emergency response measures.” It is the primary statute that governs the response to public health emergencies, though the Infectious Disease Law takes precedence to the extent it deals specifically with “major epidemics” [重大传染病疫情]. Finally, the Emergency Response Law, as the general statute that addresses emergencies in addition to public health emergencies (such as natural disasters), fills any gaps in those laws.
PHERL’s core substantive provisions, found in Chapters III–V, address, respectively, prevention and preparedness, monitoring and early warning, and emergency response. The framework resembles that of the Infectious Diseases Law, given the closeness of their subject matter. For example, like the latter’s infectious-disease reporting requirements, PHERL requires the relevant entities to report actual or likely public health emergencies within 2 hours through the Direct Reporting System or by other means (art. 30).
Once emergency response is triggered, PHERL authorizes the following measures “within specified areas” (art. 39):
(1) organizing and carrying out medical treatment;
(2) controlling sources of risk, sealing off or sealing up contaminated public water sources and goods, and closing venues that may cause the spread of harm;
(3) evacuating, relocating, and properly accommodating persons vulnerable to the harm of the public health emergency;
(4) implementing personnel screening, health monitoring, medical observation, and preventive medication;
(5) restricting or suspending mass gatherings;
(6) suspending work, business operations, and classes;
(7) deploying public health emergency response teams and other personnel participating in emergency response efforts;
(8) activating temporary emergency response sites and mobilizing equipment, supplies, and transportation needed for the response;
(9) taking other necessary measures in accordance with law to control, mitigate, or eliminate the harm caused by the public health emergency.
The failure to abide by these measures, refusal to cooperate with epidemiological surveys conducted by centers for disease control, or intentional fabrication or dissemination of false information on public health emergencies will lead to a warning as well as an optional fine of up to RMB 20,000 for entities and up to RMB 1,000 for individuals (art. 59).
PHERL will take effect on November 1.
Law on Publicity and Education on the Rules of Law
To quote my preview of this Law when it was first introduced last December:
The Communist Party’s efforts to disseminate legal knowledge among the Chinese population are as old as its rule, but it did not turn law propaganda into “a regular, systematized, and institutionalized practice” until 1985.1 That year, the Party and the State Council issued a five-year plan to popularize “common legal knowledge” among citizens, followed by an NPCSC resolution on the same subject that kicked off the effort nationwide. Since then, “law popularization” [普法] has continued under quinquennial NPCSC resolutions and detailed five-year plans issued by central propaganda and justice authorities. The currently operative 8th five-year plan, adopted in 2021, outlines an array of law-popularization initiatives: for instance, promoting the Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law; disseminating knowledge about key legal instruments such as the Constitution and the Civil Code; increasing the readiness of citizens, especially cadres and the youth, to abide by laws through education and practice; and requiring governmental bodies to popularize the law as part of legislative, administrative, and judicial processes.
As expected, the Law seeks to codify the tried-and-true methods of popularizing the law that have developed over the past four decades.
Under Article 5, the main contents of “publicity and education on the rule of law” include:
(1) Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law;
(2) the provisions, principles, and spirit of the Constitution;
(3) rule-of-law principles, the legal system, and basic legal knowledge;
(4) the practice and achievements of comprehensive law-based governance;
(5) socialist rule-of-law culture and the fine traditional Chiense legal culture;
(6) Other matters that shall be included in publicity and education on the rule of law.
Chapters II through IV of the Law address “law popularization” efforts directed against the society at large (Ch. II), civil servants (Ch. III), and the youth (Ch. IV), respectively. These provisions impose general obligations on a variety of public and private entities to popularize the law in particular ways, toward particular demographics, and on particular topics, though enforcement would appear to depend on the five-year plans issued by each level of government (see art. 6). The Ministry of Justice and its local counterparts bear the primary responsibility for overseeing law-popularization efforts (art. 7). They are required to evaluate the implementation of five-year plans and publicize the results, and may urge compliance by issuing “law popularization notices” [普法提示] to derelict entities (arts. 56–57).
To give one example, the Law codifies the requirement that “whoever enforces the law should popularize the law” [谁执法谁普法] in the following provisions:
Article 17: Organs that enact laws or regulations shall strengthen publicity and interpretation throughout the entire legislative process, actively release information, introduce relevant developments, and respond to public concerns in various means; by openly soliciting opinions, holding symposiums, expert debate sessions, and hearings, and by establishing grassroots legislative outreach offices, they shall expand social participation and organically integrate legislation with publicity and education on the rule of law.
Article 18: Administrative organs shall integrate publicity and education on the rule of law into their daily management, provision of services, law enforcement, and dispute resolution processes, and carry out publicity and education on the rule of law through a combination of methods such as explaining the law and reasoning, providing guidance and responses, offering demonstrations, organizing hearings, and publishing and explaining typical cases.
Article 19: Supervision, adjudicative, and procuratorial organs shall integrate publicity and education on the rule of law into their case-handling processes; and, in accordance with their respective functions, shall carry out publicity and education on the rule of law by means such as publicly adjudicating cases, explaining the law through legal documents, and publishing and explaining typical cases.
This Law will take effect on November 1.
National Parks Law
At the 2013 Third Plenum, the Communist Party first decided to “establish a system of national parks.” Pilot programs began in early 2015, culminating in the formal establishment of China’s first five national parks in October 2021: Sanjiangyuan (in Qinghai, with a part under de facto Tibetan administration); Giant Panda (in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu); Northeast China Tiger and Leopard (in Jilin and Heilongjiang); Hainan Tropical Rainforest; and Wuyi Mountains (in Fujian and Jiangxi). In the interim, the 2018 government reorganization created the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, also known as the National Park Administration (NPA), to unify regulatory authority over China’s protected areas. Those national parks now operate under the relevant central guidance documents, NPA rules, and local regulations issued over the years. The National Parks Law is therefore essentially a codification of the general framework for establishing and running national parks that has proven workable.
The Law endows the State Council with the ultimate authority to establish national parks and outlines a three-step process (arts. 12–13). First, it directs the NPA, in conjunction with other relevant departments, to draw up a National Park Spatial Layout Plan [国家公园空间布局方案]. Such a Plan was already issued in late 2022, though it has not been made public. According to a press release, the Plan selected 49 “candidate sites” [候选区] (including the five that had been officially established): 44 terrestrial sites, 3 marine sites, and 2 hybrid sites (see map above). Next, to demonstrate that a candidate site is ready to become a national park, the relevant provincial government(s) must undertake what the statute calls “preliminary work” [前期工作]: extensive studies on the proposed park’s name, boundaries, zoning plan, baseline conditions, management structure, impacts on original residents and economy, among other matters. During this stage, the authorities must also address any development projects within the proposed park that would be incompatible with its objectives. Finally, upon the completion of the preparatory work, if the NPA finds that the site satisfies its criteria for establishing a national park, the provincial authorities must conduct another round of studies on largely the same issues and prepare a final plan for the State Council’s approval. This proves to be a lengthy process. The State Council has not approved any additional national park beyond the original five. As of November 2024, 10 sites were in the final stage, while 15 others proceeded to various points in the preparatory phase.
Once a national park is formally established, any other types of protected areas—such as nature reserves, forest parks, geological parks, and scenic areas—that fall entirely within the park’s boundaries are abolished (art. 15, para. 2). Those only partially included in the park are to be consolidated or abolished on a case-by-case basis (id.). The Giant Panda National Park, for example, has absorbed in whole or in part 73 prior protected areas.
China uses a central-local cooperative model for managing national parks. All existing parks are at least nominally under the dual leadership of the NPA and the relevant provincial government(s). In one case, Sanjiangyuan, the NPA has delegated full management authority to the Qinghai provincial government, under which the Park’s managing body functions as a “field office” [派出机构]. In addition, the relevant provincial government(s) take the lead in drafting each park’s “master plan” for the NPA’s approval (art. 21). A master plan typically sets out the park’s conservation objectives, boundaries and zones, ecological protection and monitoring schemes, scientific research, education and tourism initiatives, and community engagement strategies. Lastly, the Law expressly (and retroactively) permits the relevant provincial people’s congresses to enact local legislation on issues such as “the protection and restoration” of park ecosystems and “the management of related activities” (art. 62).
As for the management of individual parks, the Law outlines only broad, universal rules. Each park must be divided into “core protection zones” [核心保护区] and “general control zones” [一般控制区]—with the former reserved for areas “where natural ecosystems are well preserved and highly representative, where core resources are concentrated, or where ecosystems are fragile and require recovery” (art. 16).
Human activities are prohibited in core protection zones except for the following (art. 27):
(1) activities carried out for the protection of national parks, such as surveys and monitoring, ecological restoration, patrolling and management; scientific research and observation, basic surveying and mapping, cultural relics protection, disaster prevention and mitigation, emergency rescue; and activities that state organs truly must carry out in performing their law enforcement duties in accordance with law;
(2) necesary production and livelihood activities of original residents, as well as the operation and maintenance of existing major infrastructure that truly must be retained and cannot be relocated;
(3) activities that truly must be carried out for safeguarding national security, implementing major national strategies, or constructing major infrastructure;
(4) other activities prescribed by laws or administrative regulations, or approved by the State Council.
Only the following human activities are permitted in general control zones (art. 28):
(1) activities permitted within core protection zones;
(2) construction, operation, and maintenance of major infrastructure that conforms to territorial spatial plans and cannot be relocated;
(3) paleontological fossil surveys and excavations, basic geological surveys, prospective assessments of strategic mineral resources, and exploration of strategic mineral resources within designated areas;
(4) public service activities such as science popularization, ecological tourism, education, culture, and sports;
(5) other activities prescribed by laws or administrative regulations, or approved by the State Council.
Any activity permitted within national parks must still be carried out in a way that avoids or minimizes harms to the park’s ecosystem as well as its natural and cultural landscapes (art. 30, para. 2). The Law further requires that the original residents within a national park restrict economic and household activities to their existing “scale and intensity,” while allowing for “reasonable improvements to their living and production conditions” (art. 29, para. 1).2 It prescribes fines for violating all these restrictions and vests enforcement authority in a park’s managing body (arts. 55–58, 60).
The Law also includes a chapter on “participation and sharing.” It directs the managing bodies of national parks to strengthen engagement with the local governments, residents, and communities to plan and develop gateway communities and offer appropriate ecological products and services (arts. 36–37). It requires national parks to prioritize local residents in recruiting park rangers and encourages a park’s original residents to become concessioners (art. 38; art. 41, para. 2). And it encourages national parks to designate free entrance days and give discounts to certain groups, including people with disabilities, minors, the elderly, and veterans (art. 42, para. 2). Finally, the Law encourages the public to volunteer at national parks and requires the latter to provide proper training, management, and protections (art. 43).
The Law will take effect on January 1, 2026.
Non-News of the Month
In late August, the NPC rolled out major upgrades to the National Database of Laws and Regulations [国家法律法规数据库]. Last month, I introduced and reviewed the updates in this post, while looking ahead at the future of the Database. Here’s the verdict:
While this new version—or “Phase II”—has the same coverage [as the original Database], there have been significant improvements on all other fronts: it has a more modern look, upgraded core functionalities, and useful new features. In short, we believe Phase II will prove to be much more valuable for the average citizen, if not for legal professionals as well.
That’s all for this month’s issue. Thanks for reading!
The NPCSC’s next session begins today (Friday) and runs through next Tuesday, October 28. Check out my preview of the agenda items.
Jennifer Altehenger, Legal Lessons: Popularizing Laws in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1989, at 225 (2018).
The Law also contemplates that, in some cases, the original residents within a park may need to be relocated for conservation and management purposes and directs local governments to resettle properly (id. para. 2).
Hey, great read as always. A national parks law is huge; implementation must be a complex undertakin'.