The Standing Committee has remained committed to advancing reform on the basis of the rule of law and strengthening the rule of law through reform. Through our efforts in legislation and oversight, we have ensured that all of China’s major reforms have a legal basis and are carried out soundly.

1) We granted authorization to support trial reforms.For proposed reforms that come into conflict with existing laws, and for which the conditions for revising the relevant laws do not exist and trials are required first, the Standing Committee may act in accordance with the prescribed legal procedures to grant authorization for preliminary reform trials to be conducted, thereby providing the necessary legal basis and support for trial reforms in certain regions or particular sectors. Over the past year, we have issued authorization decisions on a series of initiatives, including the trial reform of the system of people’s assessors, the trials for filing public interest litigation, the pilot program of a marketing authorization holder system for drugs and relevant issues, the trials to allow the mortgaging of contracted rural land-use rights and farmers’ home property rights, and the adjustment to the applicability of certain stipulations in the Securities Law in order to implement the reform to introduce an IPO registration system. These decisions have been made with clear definition to the scope, content, and period of validity of the relevant authorizations. At the same time, we urged relevant government departments to carry out these trial reforms in accordance with the law, promptly sum up experience gained in practice, and report their progress to the Standing Committee.

2) We carried out a coordinated effort to revise similar or related stipulations across certain laws.In a continued effort to help the government streamline administration, delegate more powers, improve regulation, and provide better services, we found it imperative to act promptly to revise or rescind any laws or regulations that are no longer suited to the current conditions. The Standing Committee, on the basis of thoroughly reviewing relevant motions put forward by the State Council, and in view of different circumstances, decided to adopt a comprehensive approach to the revision of the laws in question. We approved six decisions on the revision of existing laws which involved 24 laws and one decision on legal issues, making consistent revisions to certain articles therein concerning government review and price regulation. In addition, certain revisions were made to the Law on Commercial Banks, such as the deletion of a provision stipulating that the loan-to-deposit ratio of commercial banks was not to exceed 75%. This revision enables commercial banks to increase their credit supply by an appropriate margin and better support the development of the real economy.

3) We heard and reviewed reports on the progress of reforms from the State Council, the Supreme People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.Over the last several years, the Standing Committee has made authorization decisions on a number of pilot initiatives in reform and opening up. In April 2015, the Standing Committee heard and reviewed the State Council’s work report on pilot free trade zones, giving a positive appraisal of the progress made in the development of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone and in the establishment of three more pilot free trade zones in Guangdong, Tianjin, and Fujian. The Standing Committee also proposed several improvements with regard to the active yet prudent development of pilot free trade zones. In August, during its review of the mid-term report of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on the implementation of the pilot projects of accelerated procedures for certain criminal cases, the Standing Committee emphasized the need to enhance the organization, guidance, monitoring, and inspection of the pilot projects and conduct timely reviews and assessments, so that a reliable source of reference could be provided for improving criminal litigation procedures. In December, when the authorization allowing the State Council to make provisional adjustments on a trial basis to items requiring government review as prescribed by certain laws in Guangdong Province was about to expire, the Standing Committee reviewed the State Council’s report on the implementation of this pilot practice and made a decision regarding the handling of subsequent matters following the expiration of the authorization in view of actual conditions.