Top Chinese lawmaker Wu Bangguo said in Beijing on Thursday that the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC) will further promote democracy in its legislation by soliciting more public opinions.

"We will continue to publicize law drafts to collect suggestions and hold more public hearings on bills which the public care about or dispute about the most," said Wu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, in his annual report on the legislature's work to nearly 3,000 NPC deputies.

NPC deputies are particularly keen to take note of Wu's promise at a time when legal experts are engulfed in a battle over the country's first property law still in the making.

Wu's one-hour speech on Thursday morning was the first legislative report telecast lively in the history of the NPC. An official with the NPC session press center said, "the live telecast is aimed at meeting public demand for more information about NPC lawmaking and supervision work.

"It's also part of China's ceaseless efforts to enhance transparency of NPC's work and promote political democracy," said the official.

Debates over Property Law

The draft law, which is designed to provide refined protection of private property, was originally scheduled for approval at this annual session to end on March 14. However, it was scrapped from the agenda just months ahead of the session.

Some scholars worry that the draft law may fail to protect state-owned assets by putting indiscriminate stress on private and public ownership.

"This interruption should not be seen as a waste of time, but a cost we have to bear for the matter of due democratic procedures," said Wang Liming, an NPC deputy and member of the NPC Law Committee. "By allowing more debates, we will have a better idea of what is needed in the law."

Top lawmaker Wu Bangguo also affirmed in the report that "bringing democracy to full play is a necessity for enhancing the quality of our legislation."

The holdup of property law legislation does not mean that it will be shelved. On the contrary, it is on top of the 25 bills for 2006, according to the chairman's report. Others are related to corporate bankruptcy, supervision, emergency handling, labor contract and the fight against narcotics.

The draft property law was made public last year to seek public comments and suggestions. The draft has so far attracted more than 11,500 letters.

After reviewing various proposals for modification, the legislature summed up 10 major questions for discussion, one of which involved the protection of state-owned assets reportedly raised by Gong Xiantian, a law professor with the Beijing University. He said in a letter earlier this year that such a law would "undermine the legal foundation of China's socialist economy."

"That version puts state-owned property and private property under indiscriminate protection," Gong said. "This means that people who become rich by preying on state-owned assets and taking bribes could be shielded from prosecution."

"Such a law would pose a serious violation against China's Constitution which stipulates that socialist public property is deemed sacrosanct and shall be free from encroachment," he said.

Gong's letter created an immediate uproar in the legal and economic circles. Two high-profile seminars were held in Beijing in February to counter his accusations. However, there are many who agree that more effective measures should be available in the law to protect public assets as well as private property.

In this regard, Chairman Wu said relevant organs "are making further revisions to the draft property law on the basis of various views and suggestions."

"It will be submitted to the legislature for review when the conditions are ready," he said.

Talking about overall legislative work in the past year, Chairman Wu said the legislature discussed 25 bills and adopted 18 of them. The most impressive one was the law on abolishing agriculture tax.

"The law put an official end to the so-called 'imperial tax' in place for more than 2,000 years in China," Wu said.

Another high-profile legislative event last year was the first public hearing in the history of the NPC Standing Committee on personal income tax. The threshold for the levy was lifted from a monthly income of 800 yuan to 1,600 yuan.

Composed of nearly 3,000 deputies, the NPC is the supreme power of the state. It is authorized by the Constitution to elect China's top leadership, enact laws, and supervise the operation of the organs it has elected. The NPC Standing Committee serves as its executive body when the NPC is out of its annual full session.  

Supervision Work Saves Lives

The NPC Standing Committee, has saved people's lives through its law enforcement inspections that led to closures of many deadly mines and polluting plants, according Chairman Wu.

The NPC Standing Committee inspected the implementation of six laws last year, including law on work safety.

"Work safety incidents, which always involve losses of human lives, attracted wide public attention. Therefore, in 2005, the NPC Standing Committee examined the work safety law implementation from various aspects," Wu said.

The NPC Standing Committee found a series of protruding problems in coal mine production safety area by hosting more than 60 forums and organizing lawmakers to conduct field study in more than 70 enterprises and over 30 coal mines, he said.

To resolve this problems, the legislature raised a series of suggestions to the government "to reduce the number of severe gas explosion cases in two years, improve work environment of small coal mines in three years, and expand the industrial injury insurance system in all the country's the high-risk industries by the end of 2006," said the chairman.

As a result, the government closed down 5,243 illegal coal mines and coal mines without enough work safety facilities last year. And government officials have withdrawn 562 million yuan worth of stakes from those illegal coal mines following the order from the Central Government, according to Wu's report.

Rural development, Sci-tech Progress

Building the "new countryside" and bolstering scientific and technological innovation are on top of the agenda in the country's 11th Five-Year (2006-2010) Plan for national economic and social development which is still under discussion by the Parliament.

The work of the NPC Standing Committee should be carried out " in line with the highest priority of the national policies, Wu said.

The legislature will launch inspection tours to check the implementation of laws on land contract and land management, and a variety of policies of the central authorities in the favor of agricultural work.

In a bid to help fulfill the goal of building an innovation- oriented country, the NPC Standing Committee will examine the implementation of law on patent, and discuss reports on enhancing innovation capacity and on fulfillment of compulsory education in 2006, Wu said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2006)