NPC steps up supervisory work of law enforcement

China's top legislature has played a bigger role in supervising the enforcement of laws and how State departments work in the past few years to keep the people's congress system running and ensure the people are the masters of the country.

From November 2012 to September this year, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress inspected the enforcement of 48 laws and two legal decisions, and reviewed 157 work reports made by administrative, procuratorial, supervisory and judicial agencies.

While being given the power to supervise the enforcement of the Constitution and laws, the NPC Standing Committee is also allowed to monitor work of the State Council and its departments as well as the National Supervisory Commission, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

According to the NPC Standing Committee's research office, the NPC Standing Committee has made law enforcement inspection a top priority since 2012 and has inspected about six laws every year since 2015.

To make the inspections more scientific, the NPC Standing Committee invited third-party assessment institutes to help test to see if environment-related laws, such as those on water quality and soil degradation prevention and control, were working, the office said.

It said all irregularities in law enforcement should be exposed, and factors that made laws hard to implement must also be figured out.

Meanwhile, the NPC Standing Committee has established a routine in work report review since 2012. For example, in June each year, it deliberates on a State Council report on the final accounts of the previous year and an audit report on the central government's budget, fiscal revenue and expenditures of the previous year.

In August, it reviews a report on the implementation of the plan for national economic and social development, and also checks whether the current year's budget is being implemented properly.

In October, it deliberates on reports made by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate about some specialized industries to check procuratorial and judicial work and also promote related reforms.

Zhai Wei, deputy director of the research division of the NPC Standing Committee's general office, said the stronger the supervisory role the NPC Standing Committee plays, the better the people's congress system will be implemented.

"The better implementation of the system will contribute to promoting law enforcement and ensuring the people are the masters of the nation," he said.

Zhai told media last month that the NPC Standing Committee is planning to revise the Supervision Law and considering strengthening the management of economic work by improving related legal decisions.

The NPC Standing Committee has also intensified supervision of work in some major areas, including environmental protection, State-owned assets management and fighting corruption, increasing the frequency of reviews of related reports.

"For instance, we've begun reviewing the State Council's annual report on environmental protection since 2014, and deliberating on a report on how to correct problems found in audits since 2015," Zhai said.

The NPC Standing Committee has also focused more on poverty relief and livelihoods, reviewing a number of reports involving technology, agriculture, education, healthcare, the maritime economy and cultural development to promote the country's high-quality growth.