"China's impending accession to the World Trade Organization will further promote the country's process of opening up to the world and increase its interactions with other countries," said Zhu Xiangyuan, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

The draft extradition law under debate has been previously discussed by the legislative body, and is basically feasible and ready for adoption, said He Luli, vice chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee whose opinion was echoed by many others.

The promulgation of the extradition law will help China extradite exiled economic criminals for punishment and regain money illegally drawn overseas, said Wang Mingang, a deputy to the NPC present at the meeting.

Legislators also proposed further amendments to the draft law.

It is a progress to replace the principle of refusal of extradition for political reason in the previous version with " refusal of extradition because of political crimes," said Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.

However, different countries may have different views on what constitutes a political crime, so it should be changed into " refusal of extradition because of alleged political crimes," he said.

Wu Shuqing, another lawmaker, said that an addition should be made entailing that extradition request for military crimes should be refused, because this principle has been accepted by related United Nations conventions and many multi-national and bilateral treaties China has signed.

Other lawmakers proposed that the responsibilities for each judiciary and government departments should be detailed in the law to ensure smooth extradition operations.

(Xinhua 10/25/2000)