Page 9 - REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE’S CONGRESS

at its core, to push for high-standard opening up in the new era. By
formulating a free trade port law which embodies Chinese characteristics,
complies with international practice, and responds to the call of the times, we

aim to establish a legal framework for this new platform, which will promote
high-standard opening up by creating a better business environment and
strengthening its leading role as a free trade port.

We intensified legislation with regard to social development and governance.

We passed Amendment XI to the Criminal Law, revised the Law on the
Protection of Minors, the Law on Preventing Juvenile Delinquency, and the
Administrative Penalty Law, and deliberated the drafts of an anti-food waste
law, an anti-organized crime law, a legal aid law, and a family education law,
along with the draft revisions to the Education Law. In step with

developments at home and abroad, these achievements conform to our
people’s aspiration for a better life, and provide legal support for a dynamic
and orderly social environment.

For example, Criminal Law Amendment XI is a revision to the Criminal
Law that has drawn the greatest public attention in recent years. The
amendment makes additions or revisions to 47 articles, and covers workplace
safety, food and drugs, order in the financial sector, the business environment,

public health, biosafety and biosecurity, environmental protection, and other
areas. It is a direct response to the new developments and issues of great
public concern, such as education- and employment-related identity theft,
assaults on bus drivers, throwing objects from a height, illegal fund raising,
and the age of criminal responsibility.

The draft anti-food waste law carries forward traditional Chinese virtues
and calls for socially conscious, healthy, rational, and eco-friendly modes of

consumer spending.

With the focus on specific areas and special issues, we conducted
legislative work in a more targeted and precise manner. This has developed a
new legislative approach and pathway, and shows that our legislative work is
becoming more specialized and issue-specific.

We continued to improve ecological and environmental protection laws.

Aiming to put into practice Xi Jinping’s thinking on promoting ecological
progress, we continued to champion integrated innovation in our ecological

and environmental protection laws. The current NPC Standing Committee
has formulated or revised 12 laws such as the Yangtze River Protection Law,
the Law on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution, and the Law on the

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