Page 8 - REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE’S CONGRESS

with a total of 23,593 criminals being pardoned through legal procedures,
demonstrating the socialist humanitarian spirit. We organized ceremonies for
132 newly appointed officials to pledge allegiance to the Constitution, helping

increase our public employees’ sense of purpose and motivation regarding
constitutional implementation.
In promoting its implementation, we have become more keenly aware
that the Constitution embodies the collective will and common aspirations of

the Party and the people; that it is the highest form of expression of the state’s
will; and that it is foundational, overarching, stable, and enduring. The
Constitution contains provisions on the country’s major systems and matters,
and it bears overall, principled, programmatic, and guiding significance for
the nation and society. The very life of the Constitution is in its
implementation, as is its authority. We must improve and develop the

Constitution in keeping with the times, improve the institutional framework
for ensuring its full implementation, and update relevant legal systems and
mechanisms, so as to provide a legal footing for efforts to modernize China’s
system and capacity for governance and build a modern socialist country.

2. Improving the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics and
making good laws to promote development and ensure good governance
Adapting to the new requirements for our legislative work in the new era,

we closely followed the major plans for modernizing China’s system and
capacity for governance, bolstered legislation in key areas, emerging areas,
and foreign-related areas to shore up shortcomings and weaknesses in
advancing the rule of law, and made our legislative work more systematic,
holistic, coordinated, and responsive.

(1) We advanced legislative work to promote high-quality development.

We conducted seven rounds of deliberation on China’s first-ever code, the
Civil Code, and solicited public opinions on seven occasions before it was
deliberated and adopted at the Third Session of the 13th NPC. We formulated
the Foreign Investment Law and the Hainan Free Trade Port Law to support a
new round of high-standard opening up. In order to stimulate rural
revitalization and prioritize agricultural and rural development, we enacted
the Rural Revitalization Promotion Law in a timely manner; revised the Seed
Law, the Law on the Contracting of Rural Land, the Land Administration

Law, the Agricultural Products Quality and Safety Law, and the Animal
Husbandry Law; and deliberated draft laws on rural collective economic
organizations and other issues.

In an effort to establish a fairer and more equitable legal system
underpinning the market economy, we formulated the Electronic Commerce
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