China mulls granting local governments greater autonomy to make their own laws
- The National People’s Congress is considering delegating greater lawmaking power to provincial and even municipal legislatures
- Chinese provinces and cities are demanding greater autonomy as nationwide rules often fail to fit local conditions
China’s national legislature is considering granting greater autonomy to local authorities to decide local rules and regulations, the official Xinhua News Agency reported this week.
It could help the likes of Shanghai and Shenzhen to throw off the shackles of nationwide rules that are sometimes too detached from, or even unfit for, local conditions, legal experts said.
However, they cautioned that any lawmaking power delegated from Beijing to local authorities would be very limited. The country’s Legislation Law, which was amended in 2015, grants lawmaking powers to all cities that are made up of districts, but they are restricted to urban management and environmental and cultural protection. Previously, only provinces, autonomous regions, directly governed municipalities, and “relatively” large cities could make their own laws.
The plan still needs to be approved by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s legislature that rubber stamps the ruling Communist Party’s decisions into law.
Rules already vary between cities, with Beijing passing a rule banning smoking in all public places, while Shenzhen is stricter than other municipalities as it requires all car drivers and passengers to wear seat belts, and Shanghai was the first Chinese city to require garbage sorting by residents.