China's parliament is widely seen as a rubber-stamp for the nation's Communist Party rulers, but that doesn't stop delegates and advisors from raising bold and sometimes wacky proposals.
This year has seen calls to introduce the mandatory use of edible toothpicks, pleas to professional footballers to avoid sex with prostitutes and proposed laws to legalize same-sex marriages and euthanasia.
The 3,000 appointed delegates to the parliament, or National People's Congress (NPC), that wraps up its annual 10-day session today are often ridiculed as a "toothless tigers."
The accompanying 2,000-odd delegates to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body, are regarded as even more impotent.
Sounding like tape recorders, the non-elected "legislators" tend to repeat what China's top leaders say during the session.
But that doesn't mean they don't have their own ideas on how to improve the country, however bizarre.
One of the quirky, but perhaps environmentally far-sighted proposals came from a legislator who wanted people to use toothpicks made from corn instead of wood, to save trees.
One CPPCC delegate, meanwhile, came up with an unconventional solution to corruption: a law to control civil servants' weight. The idea was to prevent them squandering public money on wining and dining.
Another CPPCC delegate proposed replacing pictures of the late communist leader Mao Zedong (
The delegate proposed that Sun Yat-sen (
While not put forward as potential laws, other issues raised by China's legislators and advisors included calls for professional footballers to stop "going whoring" and a push for many more national holidays.
Unusual motions and ideas aside, many proposals this year touched on hot topics in the public spotlight.
Legislator Yu Min proposed videotaping police interrogations in death penalty cases to stop the use of torture to extract confessions.
Prompted by a growing public debate, a CPPCC member also urged euthanasia to be allowed on a trial basis.
For the third time, CPPCC member Li Yinhe called for same-sex marriages to be legalized, despite her two previous proposals on the issue being shelved because she failed to get the minimum support of 30 fellow conference members.
Other suggestions included a law to ban animal abuse as well as a wide range of proposals to protect the environment.
This year NPC members submitted 1,006 proposals, up from 991 last year, while the members of the CPPCC submitted 5,030, according to Xinhua news agency.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS