An amendment to China's Criminal Law that toughens punishments for people responsible for industrial accidents or involved in financial irregularities, was approved on Thursday.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) approved a maximum jail term of 15 years for people who force others to work in risky conditions that result in serious accidents, doubling the previous maximum sentence of seven years.

Committee members said the previous seven-year jail term was too light in view of the severity of recent accidents, according to Yang Yingyu, chairman of the NPC Law Committee.

Reports of industrial accidents, especially in the mining and construction sectors, have increased in frequency in recent years. Lax management and poor safety facilities are often blamed for the accidents.

According to the latest official figures, there were 52 major accidents on the mainland between January 1 and June 25, killing 827 people. The death toll is 482 less than the same period last year.

The latest disaster was a gas explosion that killed 27 miners in a colliery in Fuxin in northeast China's Liaoning Province on Wednesday.

The amendment also requires harsher punishments for people responsible for financial irregularities.

For example, senior executives and officials of listed companies will face up to three years behind bars or fines ranging from 20,000 yuan (US$2,500) to 200,000 yuan (US$25,000) if they report fraudulent information to the public.

Other bills passed

The committee concluded its session with committee members approving the revised Law on Compulsory Education.

The revised law aims to give children in urban and rural areas nine years of free compulsory education but tuition fees will not be completely waived for a few years as certain clauses still have to be approved by the State Council.

But, expenses are to be jointly shouldered by the central government and local governments. Local governments are obliged to budget for compulsory education.

According to the revised law, children of migrant workers have equal rights to education as children in the cities. The law also highlights that the education rights of children with disabilities should be also secured.

In cities, education resources, such as teachers, school facilities, programs designs and investment, should be equally allocated among schools. There will no longer be a division of schools into key schools and common ones.

In a bid to improve education quality in rural schools, the law also requires teachers in urban schools to work in rural schools for a certain time to make up for the inadequate rural education resources.

The Compulsory Education Law was promulgated in 1986 and the revised Compulsory Education Law will come into effect on September 1, 2006.

Committee members also ratified an international convention known as the 1996 Protocol to the Convention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, to ensure the protection of China's marine environment and promote the sustainable use and conservation of marine resources.

The objective of the protocol is to protect and preserve the marine environment from all sources of pollution.

China will further amend its marine dumping regulations including the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Control over Dumping of Waste in the Ocean as soon as the protocol takes effect. China will also improve its technical standards of marine dumping management, said Sun Zhihui, director of China's State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

Dumping waste into the ocean is an issue that has attracted global concern, particularly in the latter half of the 20th century. In 1972, the Convention, generally known as the London Convention, was passed and came into force in 1975.

The 1996 Protocol was intended to replace the 1972 Convention because it is much more restrictive. It has introduced what is known as the "precautionary approach", which requires "appropriate preventative measures to be taken when there is reason to believe that waste or other matter introduced into the marine environment are likely to cause harm even when there is no conclusive evidence that they will."

It has also listed seven wastes or other matter which are not considered dumping, including dredged material, sewage sludge, fish waste, vessels and platforms, inert, organic material of natural origin and bulky items primarily comprising iron, steel, concrete and similarly harmless materials.

The NPC Standing Committee also finally agreed to abolish the article which criminalizes sex-based abortions because of big differences among committee members over the issue.

Other documents passed at the session include a convention to promote space cooperation among Asia-Pacific nations, the China-Mexico Convention on Criminal and Judicial Assistance, and the China-Spain Convention on Handling Prisoners.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2006)