Despite passing 16 laws last year, the NPC did a poor job of enforcement and failed to meet its members's demands, NPC Chairman Li Peng said yesterday.
Mr Li, who was delivering his annual work report to the National People's Congress, presented three drafts on the system of electing delegates to the 10th session of the NPC, which begins next March, with separate proposals for the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.
'During the past year, the progress of drafting laws and the development of the situation did not meet the demand of delegates,' he said. There was inadequate research and discussion of controversial issues so that laws could not be published and, in other cases, conditions were not ripe because the government structure was changing, he said.
'As regards enforcement, the delegates demanded stronger action and the Standing Committee did its best, but the actual result was not ideal. Follow-up supervision on the implementation of laws was far from adequate.'
There was also much work to do on administrative and local laws to ensure they were the same all over the country and that the proper procedures were followed, he said.
During the past year, the NPC's Standing Committee - which meets every two months, while the whole body convenes once a year - discussed 30 laws and passed 16, many of them to bring China's legislation in line with its membership of the World Trade Organisation, he said. These included the passage of the trust law and amending laws on trademarks, copyright, patents, Sino-foreign joint ventures and Sino-foreign co-operative companies.
More needed to be done to abolish, amend and set laws to make China's legal system WTO-compatible, he said.